After 8 years recovering from a brain bleed stroke and living with it really test your courage but I just don't see how we could ever make it without a care giver at home! I say this now because I'm pretty much in control of the stroke but there is always something that seems to be very difficult to accomplish on your on or by yourself! The thing about that is you can leave it alone and not bother or wait for your care giver to give you a hand! My wife usually don't mind doing things to help me around the house so long as it doesn't stop her from going to work or when she just got home from work and is really tired of standing on her feet all day!

I'm home most of the time so I bought a small I-pad type TV and DVD player she didn't know about. Well I asked her to help me hook it up because I can't get on my knees to get under the computer desk to put wires and cables in the right places! I tried that once and blew out circuits on the floor! Her first comment was I didn't need it I'm just spending money. Well, I showed her why it was needed in my corner of the bedroom when she has her TV recording all sorts of shows all day long! Then she says I can just look at one TV and make do! My answer to her was why do you record shows you come home and erase or cancel after it's been recorded? Her answer was it's her TV! In there lies my reason to get my own TV besides my computer monitor which is also a TV! I can't be on the computer and watch TV at the same time without missing something on TV!

She finally agreed to help me do the hook up! I suppose if I didn't have a stroke I could have hooked it up myself. Having a handicap can be a problem when your care giver doesn't help you with the small projects around the house. I guess I have to understand she still feels like the head of household but then so do I since I'm still paying the bills when she should be doing that job! In my case that's a days work with a full page of bills! She feels better today and she took off work then I find out today is the 13th and a couple of her church ladies plan on a trip to Shreveport casino today and tomorrow the 14th! I could only say, I hope you bring back your winnings! She only plays the penny machines so we get comps(rooms and food) by her playing!

Having a stroke and living with one is not so bad if you could just do more yourself. With one side usually paralysed that's a tall order! Otherwise it's life as usual for me and I'm lucky not to get upset at her. After all she is my care giver and took great care of me when I really needed her by my side! I'm very thankful she can go when she wants to and not have to worry about me. After all I'm going on 9 years now in my recovery process and I think I'll go back for one more therapy session of 4 weeks with twice a week visits!

Fred!