CAT scans and cat photos

The CAT scan done on my father during his ER assessment Friday night (at least two hours after he arrived at the ER and anywhere up to 12 hours after his fall, depending on when it took place, which we'll probably never know) indicated the presence of two "bleeds" (their term, not mine) on the back of his brain, one on either side. It also indicated evidence of an older bleed that had not shown up in CAT scans taken during his previous hospital admission three weeks earlier - suggesting that he had had a fall in the intervening time (unreported to us) that had resulted in head trauma.

A CAT scan taken yesterday did not indicate any major change in his condition - the bleeding has stopped, the bleeds have not worsened, but they have not reduced in size. My father seems to be gradually recovering his abilities to communicate and interact, though I fear that the aphasia that was a major result of his stroke ten years ago has returned. There are ways of dealing with and assessing this; ten years ago I used an instant camera to take photos of familiar things - my mother, our cat, McDonald's Golden Arches - and used them as flashcards to see what he could identify. (He got the cat right away - and then proceeded to identify every person in the photos by the cat's name.)

So what happens when these bruises on his brain begin to break up? I have no idea. For now, we will just have to continue to wait and see.