Deigh

However, the medical system works really well and the country is peaceful and law-abiding, so weather is a minor inconvenience. That sums up NZ pretty well too. Sounds as though you lived in the Durban area, I know it well. We have another great advantage over here, the people are easy-going and accepting of other races, I find they are also tolerant of people with disabilities and I find that personally a great asset. There is also no class system here and as an ex-Pom (Limey) I find that very attractive. Deigh

I practice my speaking as much as I can but avoid the phone if possible. Most adults understand me but I have some problem with youngsters. I do agree though that I'd rather resort to texting than talking over the phone especially if I have something tricky to talk about. Deigh

Here in New Zealand it is mid winter but from my kitchen window when I'm doing the washing up (just to let you know I'm a well trained house husband)! I can see no less than nine different flowers (including roses) that are still in bloom from summer. There are lemons on a new tree which are nearly ready to pick. We are finding the weather cold with a few frosts but the native trees and bushes stay green all year round and the grass still has to be mown. Only the imported deciduous trees loose their leaves. We emigrated here fifty years ago, Initially we found the winters to be a bit of a joke. Now we take them more seriously! Deigh

In the first few days of recovering from the stroke I had major problems with biting the inside of my cheek when eating. I believed it to be caused by the swelling of my cheeks and also the lazy face muscles. The biting causes more swelling and the only way to get that down is to not bite them again for a few days till things get back to normal. Giving up eating was not a consideration so I overcame it by swinging away from the table (Swivel chairs a must!) and chewed bent at the waist with my head horizontal and twisted a little left. This meant that gravity and the extra weight on my cheek pulled it away from my teeth slightly and this was enough to clear the danger area. It was a very untidy way to eat and I had to have a napkin on the floor to catch mishaps, but it did work and after a week or so I was able get back to normal civilised behaviour. In those early days I had to learn a lot of tricks to overcome the handicaps forced on me by my new disability. Recently I've had a few more cheek biting mishaps and have had to resort to the old trick to make life comfortable and thought I'd pass the idea on to anyone else suffering from the same problem. Deigh

Great to hear you are back and fighting again! Deigh

Goe, The memory loss is a fairly standard stroke problem, most of us have it, also the metallic taste. That I found soon decreased. the memory loss stays with me unfortunately. One thing we do not have in common is the headache. I got them fairly regularly before but now don't get them at all! Just a tightening around my eyes warns me that something is amiss! The dizziness is also a variable, I had it before so it is nothing new to me, I have had to learn to rise slowly from a bed or even an armchair or am liable to suffer for three days with it gradually reducing in intensity. Welcome to the club. Deigh

My classic was when after a half hour of frantic searching for my spectacles, my wife said, rather sarcastically, "Why don't you settle for the ones you are wearing?" Deigh

We have three sons and many years ago we had a cat who thought she was one of them. She slept on any one of their beds depending on who she decided was favourite that week. We asked a neighbour to look after her while we went on holiday for two weeks. When we returned she sat on the porch with her back to us and wouldn't welcome us home. We believe she couldn't understand why we would take the other boys and not her. It took a few days before she forgave us.! Valerie still has a framed photo of her on the sideboard. Deigh

I'm not trying to hi-jack the conversation but while we are waiting replies I wanted to say that I'm intensifying my attempts to improve my speech by doing mouth stretching exercises while doing my daily floor exercises. I'm also making sure that discussions between my wife and I are not allowed to drop into familiar, easygoing language and ensuring that I use good diction and articulation. My monthly voice recording will show if there is any improvement. Deigh

Eric, I am fortunate to live in a country that does not let you sue a doctor for malpractice and I consider this a good thing. I'm quite sure that no-one goes into the medical field here to make a lot of money anyway so the profession is open only to people who want to become good doctors. I'm not saying they don't make mistakes, I'm convinced that may stroke was aided by a doctor's failure, but i'm quite sure that if he knows it he will not make the same mistake again. Welcome to the club, please be sure to take advantage of the great store of knowledge available here. Deigh

Alan, Initially getting the hand moving required major exercising. Within a week I could use the hand to shake another's hand but there was no strength there, it was rather like a 'royal' handshake and I had to warn people not to squeeze! Gradually I got the fingers to move more and more and then realising that the hand would not be any good without a strong arm, moved a lot more into arm exercises. I would daily practice casting with my fly rod in the driveway. I carried a short length of 1inch Dowel rod and spent many hours just chucking it up and catching it again, every now and then adding a spin to it to challenge my co-ordination. I would also daily hammer some four inch nails into an old tree stump in the garden. Initially it took 58 blows to sink a nail but eventually I got it down to 12! To strengthen my hand to hold a plectrum I linked a dummy one to an old plastic milk bottle and would walk down to the letterbox and back carrying it just using my finger and thumb strength. Every now and then I would add more water to the milk bottle. It took over a year to get to be able to carry half a litre! I kept this exercise to my garden rather that try to explain to onlookers what I was trying to do! Deigh

Hi Blessed2behere That was an incredible description of your stroke and the time leading up to it. We have similarities as to being totally aware of everything but completely unable to communicate. Fortunately the people surrounding us in hospital had previous experience of our problem and were able to fill in the gaps, but there is nothing so good as being able to discuss problems with others who have actually suffered them. Only on a forum like this can it be achieved. Welcome. Deigh

A few months ago I got involved in illuminating my wife's collection of red glass for Mothers Day. I used LED strip lighting for it . Trouble is that I knew nothing about how to join it and had to resort to the internet to find out and purchase the bits and pieces. I kept on finding bits I thought I needed and ordered many of them. Trouble is that the source is China and a lot of the time their adverts were confusing, so often I'd order 2 products and get 20! The products are cheap and the postage is free. Occasionally I would forget that I'd ordered something and repeat the order. The products arrive in dribs and drabs at least a month after I've ordered, and now I am having totally unexpected small parcels arriving with goods I no longer need, since I finished the work a month ago. The postage back to China would be ridiculous, so I'm stuck with them! Might have to parcel them all together and advertise on E-bay! The results are excellent and I've scored lots of Brownie points. Deigh

The trouble with emotions is that although it seems you have them under control, the truth is that you mainly have just suppressed them. The bursting into tears at the drop of a hat was incredibly difficult for me as a man to handle and it was a prime objective to get this under control three years ago when my stroke hit. Although I seem to have mainly done this I have problems watching emotional stuff on TV and tomorrow being ANZAC day I will not take part in any public parades for this reason. Deigh