Deigh

"just take it easy" or "just calm down" . I know exactly what you mean by people throwing those quotations at you. Trouble is that they mean well and it is not easy to get annoyed with them. Equally upsetting is those who finish up my sentences for me. I used to get very upset at people saying "You look well", again with the best of intentions. To my surprise I found this was a common reaction by other stroke survivors. I have a friend who overcomes this by greeting me with "You look terrible!" That's what friends are for. I'm amazed by your mathematics. I was petty

Thanks for that Will, fascinating reporting by you explaining your background and your attempts to pick up again. I am fortunate that the stroke left me enough to get back to playing at all. I'm also very fortunate that my 91 year old hands do not have any rheumatism or arthritis. I can use all my electric hand tools although with the new battery driven ones I've had to modify the safety button that requires me to depress with the thumb when using the first finger to power on. This action is beyond me and it is dangerous to take the left hand away from its responsibilities of securing the job.

Brilliant reporting Allan, looking forward to next phase of your treatment! Deigh

Will, my fault entirely. I composed the mail using another program but when I did the copy/paste trick it did not come out very satisfactory. I submitted it but was unhappy about the outcome and returned, cancelled it and tried again with some extra trickery. This was better but still no way near good enough so I returned, dumped it and started again. This time the finish was good enough and I left it. You must have read one of the dumped ones!........anyhow thanks for getting back. I'm looking forward to reading your reply. My submission was extracted from a lengthy article I'd wr

I'm not sure if this article is the correct one for this column but here is an extraction from my memoirs concerning my stroke which initially wiped all strength from my right hand side six years ago........I am right handed. Getting used to the conditions that fate had sprung on me was not going to be easy. I had a painful right eye and was not helping it recover because of proprioception, this meant that if I wasn't watching my hand carefully whilst doing things my thumb would poke me in the eyeball! The bathroom was fitted with handrails everywhere and taking a shower was easy. I had to use

Wow, very exited for you and very keen to hear any news you may have on your treatment and progress. Good Luck Deigh

I've not had the numbness you experienced but can accept that it is probably due to your overdoing things. I've had a couple of meltdowns recently for the same reason. Desperately trying to complete projects and getting upset when something unexpected goes wrong. I've overcome it temporarily by moving my unfinished projects off my den table and out into the shed where they are out of sight. You would have expected that at my age I would have learned how to handle unexpected holdups, but unfortunately I hav'nt, so it is no point me trying to teach you how to take things easy. Deigh

Nice thought Kelli, disputed by most people and I don't really believe it myself! Deigh

These are tough times, you may remember that my wife broke her hip a few months ago and I didn't see her again for five weeks. Because of my age I wasnt even allowed to accompany her to hospital when the accident occurred and a son had to fill my shoes. Deigh

Janaal...Hi there, it has been over a month since we all joined in this discussion. How are things going? and did you get any good advice from us? Deigh

It is almost like the bodies we inhabit are not content unless there is a problem. Every time you solve the current one another one pops up to take its place. If you are not quick enough to do this or you are tough and ignore them then you can end up with a whole stack of unsolvable ones. I dont know whether this is any consolation to other readers or even if I've added to the conversation at all, but just felt a little bored and have no cat to throw a stone at and no dog to shout at but feel that I shouldn't waste the day doing nothing. Deigh

I joined a pommie site once. Yeah, I remember you being there, I'm still a member and visit it regularly, I agree with you comments but suprisingly for a country suffering from the 'stiff upper lip' syndrome the site is more active than this one despite the fact that there are five times the number of new stroke cases daily in the USA than the UK. Daily over there there are new people entering the discussion, but here new contributors are rare. I put it down to the fact that to join this forum you have to give your physical address and most people are wisely very shy of doin

That is very understandable, I have similar problems but not as serious as yours. Mine means that I cant get involved in any argument no matter how serious the situation is. I just give up or better still call in my wife to explain the problems. I have become a stalwart of the chat part of this forum because it means I can get my discussions in a civilised way as long as my fingers don't tire. Maybe we will see you there sometime? Deigh

Thanks for that brilliant explanation of the effect it had on you. Stroke does some weird things to ones body. I'm now a great 'chat' fan because it gives me the opportunity to have a conversation, the thing I cant do in real life, but the stroke is not going to let me get away with it that easy so my right thumb jumps into the typing scene and keeps 'accidently' hitting the space key. This means that when I'm ready to punch the enter button and check what I've written, I have to go back over it all and delete masses of unneeded spaces! Deigh

Thanks for those replies, I know the situation now and can recognise that one or two people I know have the problem. Fortunately not me! Deigh