First Post-stoke ride.


KevRider

From the album:

Scotsdale Rehab

· 9 images
  • 9 images
  • 0 comments
  • 18 image comments


Recommended Comments

But riding again Kev and that is great! My dream would be to ski down any kind of hill again one more time but with this left leg only 5 to 10% there that likely will never happen, unassisted anyway. Everything is pretty darn ok otherwise. Wishing you many satisfying hours in the saddle!

Link to comment

Will sometimes we need to find a different way to do things. These sit down ski options look amazing fun https://www.brasski.org/sit-down-skiing.html#.XduADdVxV9M

 

worth finding out about anyway.

 

Kev I'm so glad you got back in the saddle.  Keep working on the left leg, it may yet decide to be helpful.  The less bracing you can use the quicker it will be at trying to be useful. But you need to balance function with safety.  Bracing will hold the leg still and out of the way but it also prevents the muscles from working, remember the more you use a brace the more dependent on it you become.

Link to comment

This was one 5 weeks after stroke. 07/28/19 had a break thru and left leg is slowly coming back!11/25/19 as I write this I ride with no brace now.

Link to comment
19 hours ago, heathber said:

Will sometimes we need to find a different way to do things. These sit down ski options look amazing fun https://www.brasski.org/sit-down-skiing.html#.XduADdVxV9M

 

worth finding out about anyway.

 

Kev I'm so glad you got back in the saddle.  Keep working on the left leg, it may yet decide to be helpful.  The less bracing you can use the quicker it will be at trying to be useful. But you need to balance function with safety.  Bracing will hold the leg still and out of the way but it also prevents the muscles from working, remember the more you use a brace the more dependent on it you become.

Wow ! Yes thank you Heather! I know this exists even right here in my home state of Michigan. I just have never taken the next step to look into it. That link you sent breaks the ice though. Next I will have to see how bad I really, really want it. Before my stroke I thought I would easily ski into my early 70's possibly. I'm 69 until May. My doctor and I were teasing back and forth about my wanting to be skiing and his comment was "Is that something I needed to keep doing" as I was getting up in the tears now. Thanks again for the link.

Link to comment

yep I had that talk with the heart Doc about my scuba diving after the stroke.  I did go back to diving a little bit, but once we understood more about my physiological issues, I decided it was too much of a risk and let it go. but not before I'd done enough to prove to myself that I could if I wanted to.

Link to comment

Hi Kev, I was a Scuba addict. Wreck/Tech diver qualified to 55m and working on my trimix certification for 60m+, when I had the stroke. So I wasn't going to give up easily. I stroked after a bend, diving WWII wrecks in Scapa Flow (Scotland). Stroke was triggered by physical exertion not the bend. But it meant post stroke investigation was about why the bend as well as why the stroke. turned out I have a high tendency to pleuro shunt, which allows return of unfiltered venous blood to the heart and hence N2 bubbles into the brain. adding that to existing stroke brain damage is a recipe for disaster even though physically I can manage the diving.  There's a great group called Disabled Divers Association who helped me get my skills back in the pool.  Hence my suggestion to Will that he look at adaptions for skiing.

Link to comment
On 11/25/2019 at 4:40 AM, KevRider said:

This was one 5 weeks after stroke. 07/28/19 had a break thru and left leg is slowly coming back!11/25/19 as I write this I ride with no brace now.

what do you attribute the breakhrough to?

Link to comment

My physio found that my ham-string and calf muscles were contracted so she did a big & painful stretch of them. Then various exercises and the muscle strength started to regain strength. My right hamstring can pull 30lb but me left was only 7lb now its up to 23lb 🙂  My physios have been great!

Link to comment

muscle contracture is very common after stroke because that is the "safety" position of muscles with bad nerve connection.  I see my neuro physio regularly mostly so that he can release the muscles that have gone into protection mode. It's important to keep stretching so that muscles do not actually shorten. Even with the work of the neuro physio I ended up having muscle lengthening surgery to left quad and calf.

Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Add a comment...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.