mcherrington

Stroke Survivor - male
  • Posts

    10
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Blog Entries posted by mcherrington

  1. mcherrington
    I have had the privilege of using opportunities given to me to get myself fitter asnd stronger.
    I was an announcer at swimming competition meets until the time of my stroke. Last weekend I was invited back to be an announcer since my stroke in sept of last year. I had to learn how to speak again....i.e. to learn how to shape my mouth to form words and when I get fatigued the left hand side of my mouth droops and saliva runs down the edge of my mouth. The opportunity of announcing came with a price. The timings were 7.30am -11.45am then 3.30pm-8.00pm. Now you can imagine that I had to make allowances for fatigue at this time. The first session was a learning curve when anything that could go wrong went wrong...from holding the microphone too close to getting used to being given quick instructions and complete the announcing task right away.
     
    The warm up for my mouth I learned was to exercise my jaw from side to side to get my mouth ready to pronounce the names of the swimmers. Then I had to learn how to use the tape deck so that the music for the swimming finals was ready to be played at the drop of a hat as well as taking instruction at the same time.:goodjob:, I am totally exhausted now but I DID IT I can speak clearly, and to top it off, a swimmer commented on how she enjoyed my dialogue and that I was her favourite announcer.:yukyukyuk:I am stronger for it. I even had to plan my visits to the toilet while I was announcing.