I haven’t contributed to the strokeboard in a loooonnnnggggg time, but OneHandCan.com is still here. I’ve been dealing with horrific, debilitating back pain for months and am now facing major back surgery sometime before year’s end. My days usually go something like this...bed...recliner...bed...kitchen...recliner...bed... yes, KITCHEN! That’s what’s keeping me going. I love to cook and, although I have to rest numerous times in the middle of cooking a meal, using my One Hand CanDo Cutting B
For nearly 21 years I've lamented losing the use of my left hand due to a stroke. When I fell and broke my left hand 3 weeks ago, ending up first in a functionally limiting soft cast then a thermoplastic splint it didn't take long for me to realize, stroke or not, just how much I use that very same hand I've long thought useless. Who knew?
The lesson here -- keep using it even if you think you can't. You may surprise yourself.
Visit onehandcan.com and onehandcanSHOP.com, home
For as long as I can remember I've wanted to go to Australia and New Zealand. Now I can happily say, "been there, done that." Half of it anyway. I'm just back from two weeks in Australia. New Zealand? Maybe in another lifetime. What's important here? A long and potentially difficult trip came off without a hitch and I'm more than happy to have faced down my post-stroke travel fears once again.
I've traveled to numerous foreign destinations since having my stroke, but this trip was s
I am presenting another "One Hand Can Cook!" Demonstration this week. If you are in or near Reno, Nevada this Thursday, 9/24, please come. The demo is FREE and everyone is welcome. It is at St. Mary's Regional Medical Center in Reno at 5:30 PM. And then...
The next day, Friday, my partner and I leave for 2 weeks in Australia! I'm excited. This has been on my proverbial bucket list forever! In Sydney we will be meeting my email pen pal who bought one of my One Hand CanDo Cutting Board
HI EVERYBODY...
I will be presenting a free "One Hand Can Cook!" demonstration in Los Gatos, CA on Tuesday, September 8 at Good Samaritan Hospital, Mission Oaks Campus. The time is 3:00 PM. If you are in the area please join us. Come say hello following the demo. I'd love to meet you!
Check out my website, onehandcan.com
It's been three months since my grief stricken post about losing my cat, Rocky. I miss her dearly and thought long and hard about whether or not to adopt another cat. Caring for a pet can get complicated for a stroke survivor. Adding more challenges to an already challenged life is cause for pause, for sure. The prospect of, again, changing a litter box, brushing an uncooperative cat, clipping claws. Heck, even opening a can of food with only one functional hand to work with all add up to th
It's been a long time since I've visited the Strokeboard. No excuses, I just haven't, but this morning I ran across the following quote and thought it was a good place to start the weekend...to start and finish any day!
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” - Viktor Frankl
Attitude is everything. It affects everything we do, why not make it work for you ra
Last year was rather abysmal because, after I broke my heel in February, I was compelled to cancel all my one-handed cooking demonstrations. But its a new year. My heel is almost good as new and I'm eager to get moving again! I now have a dozen or so demos scheduled from now into September and my first one of 2015 is tomorrow at UC Davis Medical Center.
Being jazzed about my demos has jazzed me up about my website, onehandcan.com, too. I've decided to add a new page to my site..."One h
Anyone who has lost a pet must know the grief that has befallen me this week with the death of my beloved cat, Rocky. I had Rocky for 14 years. I won't trivialize her or her passing with all the usual platitudes. Suffice it to say, I'm struggling to take one step then another and another. Tears flow at the thought of her and still I move one foot in front of the other again and again and; I am reminded of the struggle and strength and tears it took for me to learn to take that first step afte
Beginning in 2003 I observed 3 years of my life pass me by from my recliner. Unbeknownst to me I had fractured a vertebrae, which upon fracturing shot off bone fragments that lodged in my sciatic nerve root. The pain was excruciating and for years the source of the pain was hidden from all the experts inspite of repeated MRIs, X-rays, tests, medical consultations, etc. I wouldn't wish that pain on my worst enemy, but I learned something from living with the pain. Even pain can be perceived in di
Life is a collection of choices we make or allow other people to make for us, either way, consciously or not. Following my stroke I made a VERY conscious choice to not curl up and die, not to see myself or be seen in the world as disabled. I made the choice early on to live my life RE-ABLED. I'm often challenged to continue to be true to that choice because life post stroke has thrown me some nasty curve balls that, after eleven surgeries, have left me with constant pain in my back, arms, hands,
