MERIDEN -- Both patience and perseverance helped a Meriden man overcome a mysterious medical condition to allow him to receive one of his best presents ever.
Dan Sorensen was no doubt singing Perry Como's "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays" in recent months as a medical condition, which weakened his entire body for several years, finally lost its firm grip.
"It was just one thing after another," Sorensen said. "Doctors just did not know what was causing the problem."
And they still don't.
His physical breaking point came January 20, 2017.
"I was going out the door and I put my foot down and my leg just collapsed," he said.
He said doctors told him he was retaining massive amounts of fluid and they were not sure why.
"They were taking 12 to 14 pints of liquid every month," Sorenson said.
Several weeks after the fall, he was transferred to Masonicare of Wallingford. And, just like at the hospital, physical therapy made him weaker.
"They moved me to the fourth floor, which is where it’s long-term, which means they don’t think that you’ll be going home," said Sorensen.
But, nearly a year and a half later, this past summer, Dan suddenly, finally was feeling stronger, with physical and occupational therapy.
"When I started to get to the end of my physical therapy, they told me we have never said this to anyone else, but you have to slow down," he said, proudly.
"I asked him if he was interested in going home and he said 'oh absolutely I would love to,'" said Kerry McKinnon, a Masonicare Rehabilitation Therapist.
She put that carrot in front of Sorensen in October.
"And, I said 'I’d like to be home for Christmas,'"
Last Tuesday, two weeks to the day before Christmas, Sorensen was able to come home for the first time in 22 months.
"We really want to keep an eye as he was saying earlier how he was swelling with the fluids," said Nicole Mrowka, a nurse for Masonicare. "Nursing will really keep an eye on his vital signs."
"His goal is to get back driving, get back into the community and he’ll get there," said Lorraine Morganti, a Masonicare physical therapist, who, like Mrowka, is part of Sorensen's home care team.
Sorensen said one of the real motivations for him to get home from the holidays is his wife, of 34 years, Christine.