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stroke survivorthoughts

Entries in this blog

married great caregiver & provider but ofcourse he is not perfect

I love my husband dearly, due to strok his great assets came into my attention. he is fabulous caregiver & provider. kido & I are lucky to have him in our life, due to stoke I learnt his valuable strengths which were hidden under nonromantism. hubby is never into showing his love through flowery words. he shows his love through his actions, by being there for us any time we may need him, & ofcourse he is the one who enabled me post stroke to reach it to my highest potential. he was

HostAsha

HostAsha

our kido is growing up fast

past weekend we celebrated our kido's 15th birthday. My baby is growing up so fast. he is turning into great young mature adult who makes his parents very proud. We were asking him what he wants for his birthday & he says I have everything I want, made me so happy & proud of him. I feel so blessed to have survived the stroke to be able to enjoy raising him well with my soulmate. can't believe in few years he will be off to college & only two of us will be left. I know how difficult l

HostAsha

HostAsha

Its that time of year again where we celebrate life, love & second chance & my stroke anniversary

at our household Febuary is month of extreme emotions. once we started celebrating my stroke anniversary as our valentine date, I look forward to my stroke anniversary & don't feel sad any more., hubby takes a day off & we enjoy our day together. I love going to NYC so this year we are going to NYC again & this year we are planning to visit 911 memorial & museum & reflection pool. For me 911 museum shows the strength and resilience of human spirit. it shows we are stronge

HostAsha

HostAsha

be creative to create lasting happiness

after my stroke I have seen darkness very closely, so I watch very closely what makes me happy & I have realised by doing few things like having routine & doing something new every day in my life it brings in lasting happiness. over the years I have learned happiness is a choice so on PMS days I work hard to choose wisely lol. Anyway for me having routine in life brings in contentment & if I am learning & trying something new also brings in lot of excitement in my life. Recently

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HostAsha

conquering my fears & stepping out of my comfort zone this year

This year has brought in some new improvements in life & has increased my confidence in myself. Here at chandra residence I have my routine set but since our chatrooms were down it opened up afternoon 1 hour for me & I started using that time to make phone calls to make doctors appointment & solvebilling issues . I used to have huge trouble doing these things with just one hand & I would procastinate & it would become hubby's responsibility along with all his other responsibi

HostAsha

HostAsha

only change is constant companion of our life

yesterday while talking with caregivers we were talking about change. I know none of us like unpleasant change in our life, but I think when something unpleasant change comes in our life, if we just wait a little & let life of river unfolds at its own pace sometimes something better will come out of it. I know I am still young but by handling stroke in my young age I feel more confident about myself of handling anything life will throw at me. I admit I am scared silly of changes, but lookin

HostAsha

HostAsha

Happy New Year every one

I want to wish every one happy, healthy & prosperous New Year ahead. As I sit here & type my new year to wish every one. I was reviewing my 2011 year through my blogs, and realised I am greatful for everything in year 2011. It was year of all emotions like every year. Yesterday to celebrate our holidays, hubby & I decided to go to NYC & check out Christmas tree like every year. This year kido didn't want to come so we decided to go alone, it turned out to be great decision we all

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HostAsha

our coping mechanism

recently I was reading posts in forums & I see how differently every one copes with difficult situation in their life. Also in real world among my friends & family I see how every one deals with troubles or situation. After discussing with hubby about it I realized all coping skills are individual based and nothing is better than others people use whatever works for them. Some people like to blame others for their situation, or misfortune even survivors, I have seen this in my life &a

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HostAsha

bozos on the bus

I am reading this great book broken open by elisabeth lesser, and one of the chapter in the book talks about how we are all bozos on the bus so we might as well sit back and enjoy the ride. It's such a profound statement, I want to write down so that I don't forget this important statement. I suffer from similar bozo syndrome where I think every other person on the bus has it all in control & has never done any mistakes in their life, and they are perfect spouse, mother & has never done

HostAsha

HostAsha

attitude of gratitude

one of the mentor in this site once told me about how keeping gratitude journal in her life helped her & how it's beneficial. Which prompted me to start my own gratitude journal & I can see how much it has helped me in my mindset. I feel emitting positive energy around you only brings more positivity in your life. So this thanksgiving I am thinking about how my family, friends & this strokenet family has helped me find joy again & I am most thankful for. hope you all are having b

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HostAsha

when you know better, you do better

I heard above line of Maya Angelou from oprah & loved it. post stroke I have tendency to look back at my life & regret mistakes I made in my life, well in my 40 plus years I have made some good & bad choices which created my destiny. So I feel solely responsible for my own life. yes I have done mistakes in my life. that's why when I heard Maya Angelou's line " when you know better, you do better". I feel that line very comforting & forgiving. I feel free of guilt & feel as lo

HostAsha

HostAsha

loving oprah's life class on her OWN channel

I love watching oprah in my retirement years & now that she has her own channel, I get to see more of her. I love her spiritual wisdom. In this new season she has introduced her lifeclass series where she talks about what she has learnt over the years while interviewing her guests. in yesterdays class she was discussing how our ego plays role in defining ourself. I know this personally since after my stroke I was more traumatized by who am I question than stroke. It took me long time to find

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HostAsha

another AHA moment in my life's journey

recently from comments on my blog another light bulb went on in my head & I realized when you do your job (could be anything mom,sweeperor engineer could be any job, when you do your duties with right reasons behind it, It will bring fruits to your labor. in this new age we are all so used to instant gratification, so when you don't see fruits of your labor right away it seems like what's the point eh.   on our walk after dinner hubby was telling me interesting facts about book he is read

HostAsha

HostAsha

school started

Things finallly settled down & back to routine at our house. we ended our summer with back to school shopping & going to beach like most of americans do cause both places were jam packed. hubby declared he will remember not to ever visit outlet stores for next few years since he was our bag carrier & driver for a day Today is first day of our school & it went pretty nicely, kido was all ready & eagar to go to school. he is turning into responsible young adult & want to

HostAsha

HostAsha

so many things to sort out

We are back from our beautiful vacation. Vacation was quite fun, saw beautiful national park & beauty of nature this country has to offer. Though our vacation started on bad note first day of our vacation learnt sad news of my 59 year old uncle passing in India, though we could give comfort to each other by praying & knowing he is better place. Though on last day of our vacation learnt very bad news, recently married cousin of ours fell to his death from 18th floor of his apartment build

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HostAsha

enough of feel good blogs now you get my why me blog

I usually like to blog only good things in my life & don't like to do why me blogs, but I don't want blogreaders to think that nothing goes wrong in my life. I guess being human none of us are spared from disappointments & inconviences in life. I guess as long as I can differentiate inconviences from disasters I should do well. now that I am writing about my yesterday's event I am realizing that thank god it wasn't disaster. yesterday while driving our son to his orthodentist's appointme

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HostAsha

harder you work luckier you get

yesterday I was talking with friend of ours and she was telling me story of their life like every immigrant how hard they worked in this country and how well they are doing now made me realize harder you work luckier you get in life. from her story & lot of my family members stories I have seen that with willing to go outside your comfort zone & not afraid to work hard to achieve your goals, one can get quite lucky in life. I feel strongly we are responsible for our own life, our choi

HostAsha

HostAsha

its good to be shielded by loving caregivers in your time of need

I know I am very lucky to be married to the great guy who has amazing inner strength to remain calm in the middle of storm. I am really glad that it was me who suffered stroke & he needed to be strong for me. just yesterday found out something new from him about my stroke survivor journey. I was telling him stories I read here where doctors won't give hope of recovery to patient or their family. I was telling him I was so lucky to have great doctors who never took away that hope from me. he

HostAsha

HostAsha

celebrating our wedding anniversary

yesterday we celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. I still remember how I felt awkward & scared on our wedding day since I had just met my hubby 2 times before saying yes to marriage. we both said yes with leap of faith based on our parents decision. for me at that time only two things were important that he has to be more educated than me & has to be self-made man & not dependent on his parents for any of his financial needs. & from things I learnt from my parents he met tho

HostAsha

HostAsha

luck happens when opportunity meets preparedness

I love watching oprah in my retirement & now that she has her own "OWN" channel I get to see her more. I find her very spiritual person. she quoted my title line " luck happens when opportunity meets preparedness". when I started inspecting this line deeper I realize how true is that statement. Yes in my life I have gotton lucky breaks but I have worked hard with help of God to convert those opportunity into lucky breaks. I realize networking has helped me land job interview but after landin

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HostAsha

I am so lucky to married best guy in whole wide world

I am so fortunate & lucky to be married to my soulmate & love of my life by sheer great luck. I know prestroke I was too blind & arrogant to realize that, but post stroke I am realizing how lucky I have got. my weak point is I never notice small things which gets done automatically without me doing anything about it like garbage done emptying, many small things around the house which does not even come under my radar. For me life runs smoothly since husband fairy does everything I mi

HostAsha

HostAsha

time to brag about our son

I know I complain abut our son, there are times when he makes me very angry, but also there are times when he makes us very happy. Just few days ago we get letter from school saying please attend award ceremony since our son has been awarded some awards during his middle school graduation. I try to find from him but ofcourse he has no idea why & what awards he is getting. So finally yesterday when we attented award ceremony with other parents. all the kids were on stage & parents in audi

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HostAsha

another AHA moment for me, slow& steadily learning how to be happy

I am slowly & ateadily learning how to be happy at all times in my life. Just yesterday had another AHA moment. I know I have had lot of unhappy moments when I have expectation from others specially from my teenage son, and ofcourse you don't get any from teenagers & that used to cause me moments of unhappiness. Though slowly I have realized if I do things for him because it brings me happiness then when he forgets to be thankful to his mom since he is busy playing with his friends, it d

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HostAsha

I found great purpose of life for me

right after my stroke I struggled for long time thinking why did I survive this seeming horrible tragedy like stroke in my life. I was trying to find what's purpose of my life. Finally I got great comforting answer for my question from Dalai lama by reading his book. he simply says & I quote I believe that very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something

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HostAsha

I wonder is this what acceptance looks like sometimes

Finally got chance to sit with my feet up after small party & I am thinking is this what acceptance feels like. I still remember right after my stroke for first few years every time when I wanted to use my left hand & I wasn't able to use it the way I always did for past 34 years, it used to frustrate me,make me depressed, sad about how I was such a useless person or not normal person since I can't use my left hand anymore. now after 7 years in my post stroke life's journey I have adapt

HostAsha

HostAsha