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About this blog

Gizmo's,Gadgets and other musings

Entries in this blog

Success first time fishing!

Went fishing with a friend yesterday for the first time post stroke. W used his boat and plan to do so for the next few weeks. The canoe will come later. He was patient with me as I helped him launch the boat. He could have done it faster, but let me do it. I just bought some new boots that drain water out when you step into water. I also wore Goretex socks that keep my feet dry inside the sock. Worked wonderfully. I was able to wade out and help launch the boat and my feet stayed dry.   The

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Fire!

The news of the day is very bad indeed. We have a raging forest fire north of us. Over 55,000 acres have burnt so far, many homes, cabins. and resorts gone. We have friends that have had to evacuate and may not have a house to return to. The fire is about 20 miles from us at present. We have packed both cars for quick evacuation if needed. Last night I video'ed the entire house and contents. We had ash all over the property. Thankfully the winds died down, and the immediate threat seems to have

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

New fulltime job.

Training Tippy is my new fulltime job. When she is not sleeping, I am busy. She and Jasmine are learning to get along, hopefully pictures attached. Night time is a real challenge. She goes into the crate, protests vigorously for 10 minutes or so, then quiet. Last night I tried to put down pads with attractant scent on them in our bathroom to avoid taking her outside. She woke me up about three hours into my sleep. Into the bathroom we went. She licked my feet and laid down on the pads. Twenty mi

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Tippy is here, thoughts on rehab

As I try to type this, Tippy is laying beside me wanting some affection. She has already won our hearts. Our other dog Jasmine, a Bichon, is a bit jealous, but the two of them are starting to get along after a day together.I suspect in a few days they will be fine together. They had a great time playing outside together today.   A few thoughts on the recovery process. Some will not agree with me. What I am going to say may apply only to me. I do not know if my experiences are typical. The se

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Spring is here, puppy will be soon

Well just an update on our life. The active release continues, more tomorrow and Thursday. My range of motion for the left arm has dramatically improved. Pain is way down, but the bad news is that arm strength is not what I want it to be. I can reach up high, but don't have the strength to lift much more than a coffee cup up high. I really want to work on that, but am afraid I will hurt the shoulder again if I try too hard. So now it is a waiting game, waiting for the shoulder to strengthen with

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Pics of Lesley and Tippy

Hopefully attached are two pictures of Lesley holding Tippy at age two weeks. We made a long trip to see Tippy yesterday. It was a 250 mile trip one way, Lesley was so pumped up she drove all 500 miles of the trip in our new Honda. She is still grinning from ear to ear. She was in her glory with new puppies all around her. Tippy's mother and father were there and are beautiful, lovely dogs. Tippy comes from good stock. We are now busy "puppy proofing" the house. Hiding wires, shoes, etc. I told

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Puppy name announced today!

Just a bit more on the active release. Shoulder pain is way down. Stopped one muscle relaxer completely, cut other one by 1/3, plan to phase it out over next few weeks. Upper arm a bit tight in mornings, but stiffness goes away with a bit of exercise. Good reminder. Next treatment is Thursday. Talked to my OT in Duluth today, she is interested in learning Active Release. Don't know if a sublaxated shoulder would rule this treatment out Vi, I would ask an Active Release therapist.   We are of

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

More Active Release

The Active Release therapist just left a few minutes ago. I got an in home session and will see him again next Thursday in Canada. The therapy is really focused on the problem areas of the shoulder. The range of motion has dramatically improved with this therapy. There is discomfort during the therapy but it stops immediately after the session is over. I can tell we are really working on the exact muscles that need the work. I can feel the muscles release and lengthen during the treatment. I had

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Mind Therapy

Well, some great news from my friend "Mike" a survivor I met in rehab. Mike was an avid bike rider prior to his stroke. While in rehab I dreamed of carrying my canoe again, and "Mike" dreamed of riding his bike again. When I called yesterday, he was bursting to tell me he rode his bike. He rode it about a mile. Not as far or as fast as he wanted, but he rode it. I suspect the race he and I are planning down our driveway this summer might be tough for me to win. All in all a great week for both o

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

New dog, new challenge

We have decided to get a springer spaniel puppy. I grew up with a spaniel and would love to have one to walk with us in the woods. We found a breeder in MN we feel good about. He has two pups we are interested in. As always, Lesley prefers one and I prefer the other. We invited our neighbor lady over last night for a meal and movie. We showed her the pics and she naturally preferred the one Lesley likes. I then employed a man's favorite two words "yes dear". Either one will get us out of the hou

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Active Release Therapy

I have already started a topic on this, but this is important. Anything that helps us get better needs to be told. Today we went to Thunder Bay, Canada for my first Active Release therapy. It immediately increased my range of motion for my left arm. It is not without discomfort. The therapist told me because we had come so far (75 miles) and were paying ourselves and he noticed I am pretty pain tolerant, he would do more than usual on the first treatment. He actually gave me only two new exercis

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Life's seasons

Lesley now reports that the body parts she helped handle last night were those of an itinerant man known in the area and not seen for some time. It appears he went for a walk in the woods, probably last fall and died of unknown causes and wild animals ate his remains which were hidden by snow until recently. No signs of foul play. An amazing ER she works in. They never know what will come thru the door. Anything from fish hooks in hands to vehicle accidents, skiing accidents, baby deliveries, nu

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

How much is enough?

Phyllis gave us a great insight yesterday with her comment that it takes 34 reps to learn something if we are healthy, unknown how many if we are not healthy. Lets count a days reps as once. That means a healthy person could do whatever in a bit over a month. An unhealthy person like many of us will take longer so lets say thrice as long. That works out to a little over three months. I think some providers want to make it a lifetime. There may indeed be cases where that is necessary, but I don't

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Failure is an option, not trying isn't

I want to build upon my recent entries and go into territory that some will likely not agree with, and may not be suitable for them. A some risk of being criticized on a controversial subject, here goes. One of the comments on this blog recently was not to believe everything the medical community tells me. How true! Remember, you only see a doctor a few minutes every few months. He lives with your condition for just that few minutes. You live with it all day and night every day. He (or she) know

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Where do I go from here?

Another long day to Duluth yesterday. Caused me to ponder on my future direction of treatments. We all here of things that will supposedly make us better, even promise to make us what we were again. Now that I have passed the four month timeline, I wonder. Am I starting to plateau or not. The "experts" say so. But is it a self fulfilling prophecy? We hear it from people smarter than ourselves. Also after four months it is easy for motivation to wane, so does it happen because we think it will? I

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

The rest of my life

Another entry, will probably be too long, but here goes. Thanks to all of you I am inspired to write on. Thanks so much for the kind words of encouragement. LK I never answered your question "is the Neuromove a gizmo or gadget?" It is a gizmo because it is a fairly complicated device. Gadgets are simple things, like a shoehorn, etc. Remember, my blog, my definitions. I promise, more gizmo's and gadgets coming, but first more musings. Sue, you are absolutely right, some days the goal is to surviv

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Setting goals

Been a few very busy days. Twice to Duluth for OT, checking out other possible treatments. Sent the Neuromove back. Still working with the Saeboflex. love it. It brought my hand back to some functionality. Still a work in progress, but getting better. Have been checking out Trigenics, sounds good, but hard to find a provider near me. Same with Active Release. That one sounds really good, may pursue it in the future. The main issue is still range of motion problems in the left shoulder. My OT ha

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Neuromove

I am very disappointed to report that I am sending my Neuromove back tomorrow. I have tried it out several times to improve my dorsiflexion of my ankle, without success. I even tried my hand and wrist even though I don't need stimulation there anymore, just so I could render a complete report to you. No success at all. The theory of the machine is great, and I am sure in the hands of a trained OT/PT that could find the proper trigger points for the electrodes it will work wonderfully. I moved th

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

What to worry about, what not to.

I haven't forgotten what the name of this blog is, more gizmo's. gadgets, coming as soon as I get around to taking pictures of them.   Hostmel, come up here we'll fish together!   No, I don't make most of these gadgets, not smart enough to, but silly enough to buy them all.   What to worry about, what not to, how do we decide? Many years ago I heard one of those life changing stories we all sometimes hear. I heard of a study done by a major university on what we worry about and why.

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Back again

Been a very busy few days, back to back round trips to Duluth. Finally decided I have to go where I get the best possible treatment so off we go twice a week. The OT is mainly working on the shoulder tightness now. Each session helps. Inbetween many new exercises each day of course. I can really tell the days I miss or get lazy. The next day I pay the price. PT is working on my walking gait. No longer use an AFO or cane, but gait leaves a bit to be desired. Guess what? More daily exercises to fi

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

New pics finally

Finally got up the courage and time to try and post pics here. Soooooo attached are two pics. Hostmel told me to limit it to two pics or the world would end, so only two for now as I feel my way thru this. I have written about both of these items previously, but now you can see them. More will follow hopefully.   Still trying the Neuromove, not a lot of success yet. Electrode placement seems to be difficult at best. I will call them tomorrow and see if I am doing something wrong. Will post m

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

I did it I did it!!

Those of you have followed this blog know how important it is to me to be able to carry my canoe on my shoulders. Well, we have had a mini heat wave here, over 50 last few days, the ice and snow mostly melted from around the canoe, and today I tried to lift it up. Success! Not as easy or smoothly as I used to, but I got it up without pain. I don't yet have the shoulder carrier on it, so I was unable to really try to actually walk with it, but I will soon! The OT and I set that for a goal during

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Saeboflex evaluation

We went to Duluth yesterday for my first Saeboflex evaluation. The results were very encouraging. When I was fitted three weeks ago, I could not grip let alone squeeze the grip strength meter. Those results were listed as "not tested". Yesterday I gripped the meter without difficulty and grip tested 20 lbs! The thumb/index finger pinch test went from "not tested" three weeks ago to 7 lbs. I'm not sure who smiled the most. Me, the OT, or Lesley. We then set new goals for 4, 8. and 12 weeks. Yea S

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Back to Saeboflex, more mind cleaning

Thank you one and all for the kind comments to yesterday's longwinded entry. The trip around Lake Superior is truly one all that can should make. If you do, the door is always open.   I have gone back to using the Saeboflex every day. I realized that I will build finger strength faster if I use it because of the springs on it resisting my finger movement. I have gone to a stronger spring. Alway do what your OT says, not what I say. The experiences I share with you apply only to me.  

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley

Positive thought, positive actions.

Long day yesterday going to Duluth. The results were good. The OT agreed the Saeboflex has done it first job of giving me a grip again and straightening out my fingers. She says we will be doing more with it later. I still do the daily exercise of moving balls with the left hand, but don't use the Saeboflex much. I sort of feel bad that I only needed it for such a short time, but it is results that count, not how long it takes. Without it, I would still have a claw for a hand. Thanks Saeboflex.

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley