That CAT scan showed another ischemic stroke in the pons area, causing a wider lesion than the 1st one, but as the deterioration continued the whole following night they made also an MRI some days later, but there wasn't clearly visible whether there was yet another stroke that followed veeery closely, or was it only one, but which developed slowly & extensively... (also, it could not be surely estimated whether it was caused by a cloth or by a blood-vessel spasm – an additional color doppler check showed a veeery poor circulation through my basilar artery!) Anyway, next morning I woke up in the ICU, unable to breathe – the point when I finally got spurred! All I could see at first was the tiled squared pattern of the ceiling (lamp-nothing-nothing-air-condition outlet). I doubted heaven looked like this, I remember the hell from the day before – so, it meaned that i'd survived! Only – couldn't move nor speak and, most accute, nor breathe!!! (o-o! „houston, we have a problem“!...). so, the first days I had a single occupation: establish breathing! I hardly noticed the daily ICU routine, was fully concentrated on the ceiling pattern – following it's rythm & tryng to make my breath interfere with it! (of course, I took a breath here and then, but this was very occasional – enough to survive, not to live – there was no rhythm in it!) Finally, after some 3 days my diaphragm responded! On the involuntary level only though, and the intercostal muscles remained in bananas!... yet, this shallow breathing (which remained the same till nowadays) sufficed for me to live on! Slowly, I grew conscious of the shape I was in. I mean I was fully conscious all the time of my body's deterioration, but that was just registering facts, there was no emotional engagement on my side whatsoever! (just like in OOBE or NDE, only my body/spirit unity remained unseparated...) So, I got aware of the new decorations I was awarded - weird pipes that were pinned into my body, my new no-walkie-no-talkie image, some pleasing constantly present female faces (& bodies) dressed in blue uniforms (widely known as nurses) and of some not-so-pleasing & not-so-constantly-present male/female characters dressed in white unforms (widely known as dr.s). Worse – I could clearly hear everything around me so I was aware of the overwhelming indifference & grave negativity of the whites and the initial discredit which very quickly turned into warm friendly acceptance and support of the blues!... truth is – two dr.s excelled as bright figures (a lady dr. and her resident young dr. she was supervising – fortunately, they both were in charge of my case directly!) – we're still good friends and in frequent contact... NB - Croatia is relatively small country and the condition like mine is extremely rare here. Therefore, it is referred to by the less popular term (more specialist, denoting precisely the place that was damaged which caused the condition) – „ventral pontine syndrome“. The term „LIS“ wasn't mentioned at all! (not to mention it was not known to me) I learned it later, in the 2nd REHA, reading a german book („LIS“ by a survivor that fully recovered, K-H. Pantke) So, to put long story short my cloth doll phase lasted some 3 weeks, during which my overall health condition stabilized enough (I don't count a lying sore here!) that I could be sent to a REHA center (this time another one)! The leading star of that 1st period, in the ICU, was my wife, Lidija, who 1st realized by the way I looked at her and around me that my mind/soul is untouched, that „I'm still there“. She convinced the staff that it makes sense to fight for me! She also initiated many chapters of my communication system! (The only dr. that actually tried to communicate with me was the mentioned resident!) During 5 months in the REHA center my wife was also my main support, but she got a big, big help from my mom – they would interchangeably stay with me the whole day through (4 little kids needed to be looked after)! (Lidija was unemployed then – actually a lucky coincidence for all of us!) I got rid of the feeding tube & urinary catheter and developed the universal facial expression – smile! True, it reflects my general attitude, but it is also often triggered by feelings that call for an opposite expression – people don't smile when they are sorry or angry, eh?! As I was eventually dismissed onto the homecare, I advanced more visibly: no more urinal nor respiratory inflammations! Also I recovered my neck, which greatly improved my communication abilities, since I could steer my PC again. The rehabilitation/communication story is rather long (17th June will be precisely 9 years since my 2nd/3rd stroke), and I'm presenting it on my website http://www.rnda-drnda.org/index_en.htm (bilingual). The Croatian part has much contents already – the English part still lacks much items but I promise to do much translation in the next weeks! Yet, many details can be seen in the documentary that was shot back in 2004/05, so I put it on the same site http://www.rnda-drnda.org/blabla/pages_blabla/$_video_cardak_en.htm (english subtitles embedded)! :-} I use a normal PC with standard applications. The only disabled-oriented piece of HW/SW is the Smartnav (http://www.naturalpoint.com/smartnav/) - slightly customized by a rod bearing the reflector, due my farsightedness! ;-} )! Also, I use Canon Powershot G9 camera connected via USB to the PC... Today, my main caregiver is my mom, while my wife got finally employed and takes care for kids school-aged now)!... :-}