Nothing with Dad's condition has been simple, quick or easy. That's because autoimmune encephalitis (AE) takes our most important organ, the organ that regulates all of our vital systems, also the thing that makes us us, and turns our body's immune system against it. Many of the symptoms of AE are neurological in nature and range from memory loss to seizures to schitzophrenia-like behavior. For anyone curious about autoimmune encephalitis and what it's capable of doing to a normal, healthy person, watch or read "Brain on Fire." https://g.co/kgs/MxdEzb Battling autoimmune encephalitis alone would have been bad enough, but Dad has had multiple major setbacks to recovery along the way (multiple misdiagnosises, two open heart surgeries in four months, countless ER visits and then a broken hip and surgery earlier this year). If 2020 had name, it would probably be Jerry. Yet, despite all the setbacks, his autoimmune encephalitis is finally showing serious signs of improvement. One of the earliest neurological side effects of Dad's AE was that he just stopped eating. At first he wasn't hungry and then everything tasted "disgusting." After three months of refusing to eat and losing sixty pounds we made the difficult decision to have a gastric tube inserted to prevent him from starving himself to death. So for the better part of two years, Dad has been taking all of his meals through a tube and hasn't eaten anything short of the occasional, usually coerced bite or two of yogurt or fruit. But lately, something's changed! For the first time in two years, he has been willing to eat solid food again. And then, a few weeks ago, he actually said he was hungry! Since then he has been eating solid foods. ***Calling All Redlands Area Friends*** We see this as a critical point in Dad's recovery. The sooner he can get back to eating normally, the sooner he can get the gastric tube removed and return to a "normal" life. There is also a growing body of research linking the good bacteria in our guts (referred to as the microbiome) to our immune system heath. If that's the case, returning to a healthy diet could actually help Dad fight his autoimmune encephalitis. The only problem is that my mom is still working full time at the VA (to maintain their healthcare) during the day and managing Dad's care in the evening so she doesn't have the time to prepare meals during the work week. If anyone out there is willing to help out by donating a meal during the week that my mom could heat up, that would be a huge help!