Alan Parker
Dear friends and colleagues,
January 17, 2008
All of you have been wonderfully supportive and caring of Alan and our family during his near-death crisis. Now that nearly two and a half months have passed since we returned home from Auckland, New Zealand, Alan is doing so well that it is becoming hard to believe he is the same man who nearly died - but for your prayers and healing ceremonies. With cardiac rehabilitation three times a week, today Alan is doing well physically and regaining his strength. But it is his memory and intellectual ability that continues to astound me. Despite being without oxygen for possibly 19 minutes and medical predictions of irreversible brain damage, today Alan has regained most of his memory and mental capacity. He engages with his family, friends, and colleagues with ease and appropriate discourse. Sometimes I just listen to him while he's in conversation with others and I marvel at the fact that he has the mental capacity to engage in discussions about issues that matter so dearly to him. I think to myself, "This is astounding!" Needless to say, Alan continues to demonstrate the power of love and prayer; his life is evidence of a miracle.
While Alan is doing so well, he still tires easily and needs time to rest each day. He is just beginning to return to his office on a very limited basis, but he does not tolerate well the hectic pace and multiple demands of the work world and its long hours. He still needs time to regain his stamina to be able to concentrate for longer periods of time. However, more importantly, I doubt if he will ever again want to be driven, multi-tasking executive that he has been. Now is a time for a more humane approach to life and work. So, please understand if Alan is not available for all the requests that come his way.
As Alan continues to recover, we, his family, continue to be grateful for the gift of his life and to appreciate his presence among us. We have all gone through a very challenging, stressful and terrifying experience but with the help and guidance of Spirit, we have not only coped but also sustained a focus on the loving and miraculous nature of our experience. We recognize that you, Alan's friends and colleagues, share this experience with us and that we all have been forever changed by our mutual encounter with Spirit during Alan's ordeal. So, this note comes to let you know how Alan is today, but also to thank you from the depths of my heart for your love, emotional, physical, and financial support, and for your ongoing prayers.
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October 25, 2007
Dear Friends;
We are all so appreciative of the continued support, prayers and friendship for Alan and Sharon from around the world. We are overjoyed at their return and plan to give them lots of time to themselves for continued health and continuation of his miraculous recovery.
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October 21, 2007
Dear friends,
Alan was discharged from the hospital yesterday! His health has improved wonderfully and he is tolerating the "implantable cardioverter defibrilation" (ICD) device very well.
He still has memory gaps and gets flustered with too much stimulae but you can not imagine how phenomenal it is to hear him discuss politics or recall family stories! Every day he remembers and details more and more. We who have watched him return bit by bit still are floored each time he makes another quantum leap back to us. I told you about his golf putting in the empty hospital atrium (we had to think of all sorts of things to break up the boredom and challenge his mind) --that was a week ago when he was still having trouble remembering where he was! So, I've attached the photo James shot with his camera showing Alan making a put! It was all we could do not to faint when he took up his golf stance and putted ball after ball into the plastic cup!
We go back to the hospital clinic for a check on the ICD tomorrow (today is Labor Day in NZ!) and then we'll know when we can plan to come home. I think it will be one day early next week. He'll still have a long recovery period but, hopefully, he can do that at home where the environment is familiar to him. I'm getting excited about the thought of getting Alan home!
Once again, thank you for your prayers and messages with good wishes, thanks for the love. I now give messages to him to read on his own (I think I told you that he never lost the ability to read, but he is relearning how to write). Each time he is deeply touched by the caring expressed and he often cries. All this has meant a tremendous lot in his healing process.
Appreciatively,
Sharon
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October 16, 2007
Dear friends,
Yesterday Alan had an angiogram to determine what, if any, damage his heart has sustained. Doctor says there is a blockage in the small artery on the back of his heart where the bypass graft didn't take. When that happened can not be determined; as the doctors say, it could have been shortly after the surgery or more recently. It is likely that this blockage contributed to a stress on his heart that led to its stoppage. Nevertheless, the angiogram showed that Alan's heart is still strong and relatively undamaged. So, the worry now is that his heart could go into an irregular beating pattern again at any time and, possibly, stop beating once again. So, the doctors want to insert a pacemaker/defibrilator before discharging him. That means we will be here in
Meantime, Alan has good days and not-so-good days. Today he is very tired and sleeping a lot, but on Saturday he played golf -- putting golf balls into a plastic cup on the floor of the empty atrium of the hospital. He beat James and our friend Brett! This is amazing because he still has lots of memory gaps, often forgetting where he is (much of the time he says its
Again, thank you for your prayers and good wishes. They mean soooo much over here down under!
--
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UPDATE: Thursday, October 4, 2007 at 1:22 p.m.
Subject: Aroha from NZ
Dearest friends,
I only have time for a quick note to say that Alan made tremendous progress today. He even managed to eat a bit of food that I fed him! He is working hard to come back and each day gains new neural pathways. He spoke several SENTENCES today and is trying to sit up. I must get back to the hospital (no internet there) but here's a photo from graduation.
Love,
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UPDATE: Friday, September 28, 2007 at 10:30 a.m.
Dear Friends;
He is now in an intensive care unit in an excellent facility in
The family is trying to use the phone and email only sparingly, so we will continue to wait for updates and inform his friends and supporters accordingly.
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Greetings;
Tina Kuckkahn, director
Longhouse Education and Cultural Center
www.geocities.com/fourcedars/AlanParkerFund.html?1193080143067