Marvin Beck

Anyone reading this knows what type of guy Marvin Beck is! He loves to talk and tell stories and joke around!  He is not able to do any of that at this time, due to having a devastating stroke.  Here is how it all began:


 He has had mini strokes over the years, but a couple of weeks ago he woke up and not able to feel his left arm\hand.  He went to the ER in Pierre where they admitted him and ran tests. He had a small stroke showing at that time. He was scheduled for further testing in Sioux Falls last Wednesday. After those tests were completed, it was found that he had 70% blockage in his left carotid artery and 50% blockage in his right carotid artery.  He was scheduled to have stents put in last Friday to open up at least one side, and then do the other side in a month.  On Thursday last week, at lunch time he was struggling to swallow his food and started mumbling. He was taken to the ER at the Heart Hospital in Sioux Falls, where he was scheduled to be the next day for the stents procedure. It was determined that he had a pretty bad stroke, and was admitted to the hospital. This is when his speech started being affected. He could understand everything being said, just couldn't do any more than mumble to us. We could make out a few words, but that is it.  He was still scheduled for the stent procedure on Friday, and the decision was made by the family and surgeon to still do that procedure .  The stent procedure went very well, they unblocked the left artery with success.But, it left his right arm paralyzed.  A risk we were all aware of.
On Friday, as we went through the day with him, we noticed he wasn't really responding to us, as if he was still under anesthesia. By early evening, the neurologist confirmed to us that he had a devastating stroke. It's an hour by hour situation now we were told, and it may get worse we were told. Get his last wishes in order, we were also told.
As we tried to absorb all of that information, we knew some tough decisions may like ahead.
On Saturday (yesterday), more family started rolling in to see him! By early afternoon, he was pretty alert, would hold our hand, cried when some of the family!ily arrived!!we were super excited, but also cautioned to remember every day will be different, with ups and downs.  
At this time, he is not able to talk or use most of the right side of his body. He does grunt alot, and we are sure that is his way of communicating, trying to talk! Or tell a joke, or cuss us out! We are just glad to hear the grunts and hope those turn into words!
We have done video chat and showed him alot of pictures that seem to cheer him up and he even smiled a bit yesterday!
Today is Palm Sunday, and he seems a bit less responsive. They started him yesterday on speech therapy, physical therapy and occupational therapy. We will see what today brings, but we know there will be many ups and downs.


As the days go by, one of us kids will post an update so you can all see how dad is doing!!! Keep the prayers coming!!  Tammy