KevRider

Kind of a chilly week here, not as bad a s Texas though! It has kept me in a bit , but i did manage to get out to the green house aa couple of times. I managed to finish the wiring of the right side of that starts shelving i showed in the blog last week. It required a lot of up and down movement and some time down on my knees reaching under the lowest shelf. Normally that kind of motion would have triggered some major dizziness and it didn't 🙂 However it did tire me quickly. my movement is quite good these days but the stamina is still low. also I seem to recover from such tiredness quicker though. I'm generally get ting more done around the house and garden. I did have a balance issue when I tripped against a raised bed and toppled over. It was not exactly a fall as it was kind of in slow motion and i managed to to get a hand out and lower my self to the surface of the bed. That did challenge my balance enough to trigger some of the old dizziness. Any new balance requirement or challenge and the dizziness reappears. Still no big deal, just an observation. Yesterday the weather finally cracked and cold morning 8F was up to 55F by the afternoon, So we got in a nice log ride. We stayed at the walk for most of that so hopefully we wont be sore today. It was very pleasant out there and we saw a herd of deer, the first of the season. Kev

Continuing my e-entry into a more normal life, i have spent every day bar Sunday in the green house transplanting tomatoes into small individual plots. The effort has now filed 16 trays each of 18 pots. That's 288 plants in all. My stamina is still a little low and a couple of hours work in the green house has me wobbly and heading for my sofa! Still I seem to recover faster and after a little rest I'm ready to go again. My other project which is not demanding on my muscles, is improving my French and I now take my lap top into the greenhouse to play French audible books, so I can listen to the language as I re-pot the tomatoes. I had my first vaccine shot last Thursday, followed by 24 hour of flu like symptoms but then all was back to normal. Cheers Kev

Well this weeks 'big event' was our 20th anniversary. Usually we would go somewhere a bit special , like last year we took a road trip to Roswell and Carlsbad caverns but this year we had to make the best of it at home in isolation. As many here know we are vegan but we still managed to indulge in a couple of meals that were out of the usual. Deb made me a British breakfast with faux meat sausages. This was a repeat of my birthday breakfast. For dinner we indulged in cheese burger which is no big deal for normal persons but we imported a case of beyond burgers and a vegan cheddar which made for a delicious tasting meal but definitely beyond our usual low fat limit! A friend donated a vegan chocolate cake which was super rich so the day ended uo been dominated by food and a romantic comedy 'Love punch' Otherwise the weather has been limiting activity though I did get into the green house to transplant some tomatoes to bigger pots and start egg plant, peppers and cucumbers. Cheers Kev

This week was about changing focus onto stuff I can now do again or do new. I still caught myself indulging in my rehab mode, where i judge the quality of movement but less so than a year ago. So I have been creating a second , and bigger warm place to start seeds. Below your working on it. Just to the right out of view is my existing 'plant house' in which we already have stated tomatoes. These are due for transplanting to bigger pots this week. In addition to gardening we had a break in the weather and got more typical Arizona winter days, freezing at night and up in mid 50s by afternoon. Sunday was so nice we went for a long gallop. When we dismounted my legs felt a bit wobbly. Of course two days later I was paying for the ride with very sore upper inner thigh pain. Not unusual as often the first rides back to the saddle will result in stiffness. What was interesting is that neuroplasticity had learned to walk again, but it turns out i need to re-learn how to walk again with stiff muscles. I got on my treadmill which actually has helped slack those help reduce the stiffness but I only managed 10 mins before fatigue kicked in (normally I do 20 no problem) So my new attitude of working forward on reclaimed activity is going well, if a little painfully. 🙂 The top pic this week was from an indigenous friend up in Monument Valley. A sun rise and a good reminder that each new day is to grab the day ! Cheers Kev

A recent snow blizzard created some extra work for me. The roof of a horse barn ah to be well ventilated but that means there is space for snow to enter when blown by strong winds. This resulted in stalls been filled with melting snow and making the horse bedding wet. So one evening we had to dig wet bedding out of two stalls and replace it. I decided to do the heavy digging work myself and let Deb drive the tractor to dump the stuff onto out compost piles. The situation made me realize two things. Firstly is how being a male the idea that i should do the heavier part of the work is hard wired. At least now I was doing that again, compared with the first year of recovery where Deb had to do it. Secondly I am at , or perhaps have passed the point of monitoring improvements. I used this blog for a while to keep track of improvements and it was useful to look back over and gauge progress. Recently, however improvements have been negligible. Perhaps I have levelled off. Not to say that I don't still maintain my exercise regimes to try and keep moving forward but little if any improvements have been identifiable over the last few weeks. Then it stuck me i'm looking in the wrong direction! Here I was taking on the heavier pert of the work, as I had prior to my stroke. The improvements in mobility which I used to track had accumulated to my doing substantial work. I need to start looking forward to what else I can now take on! Now I will admit that this new found enthusiasm tended to dissipate about half way thru the second stall when fatigue was was started to make me feel a bit wobbly and I almost swapped jobs with Deb but then I resolved to finish it and found i had a bit more energy to complete the task 🙂 so i need to look at what things I can now do as i move forward as even without measurable movement improvements there's a lot to get on with. Cheers Kev

so this week was rather windy and cold so we hid in the house and indulged in several movies. I'm ready for a bit better weather so I can get to work in the garden. I think I may be levelled off on my recovery, or at least its hard to detect any improvements. I am trying to increase my stamina and have increase my treadmill walk 1% of incline to 6%.I still get just a touch of headiness in new balancing situations. We awoke yesterday to a covering of snow about 2" or 5 cm. Any precipitation is very welcome in this dessert! The snow on the concrete base of the barn was super slippery, so it gave me another challenge to my balance. I have reduced my snacking in between meals but my weight stays steady. At least my other project; to improve my French is going well and is great fun. I'm ready for this winter to be over !!

Little noticeable progress on the recovery front. Of course i'm 99% mobile now. The weather has been freezing here like 6F when I feed the horses and staying below 0 during the day. Just maintaining my 20 min treadmill but am ready to increase gradient. I think I need to introduce some sit-ups to strengthen core muscles. I have reduced my snacking but weight is steady at 185 lb. Our height here in NE Arizona combined with clear skies makes for low temperatures but yesterday a warm font gave cloud cover. warm been relative at 27F, but resulting in some spectacular sun rises. Like this one

just love the colors 🙂

This week has been pretty cold we were at 6F yesterday (-15C) and we stayed below freezing all day. Other that wrapping up well to feed the horse at dawn & dusk we have been hiding way in the house all day. Not good for the diet as I'm working off less and tending to snack more! Still stable at 186lbs. With the weather shutting down my activity I can't say that I have noticed any particular improvement in motion, but I still do my 20mins at 3mph on a 5.5% grade and it certainly does not tire me as much as 6 months ago so it seems my stamina is building 🙂 An aspect I have not thought of so much until Deb reminded me is cognitive functions. A few days after my stroke I could not write. Well I could move my hand in a way that I thought was writing but the results looked more like ancient hieroglyphics! I had trouble talking and my reactions were such that I would not drive. When I did start driving it was with the tractor and still hit the barn a couple of times. I had some computer coding that Deb wanted me to do and resisted as I feared my logic might not be up for it. Deb's comments this morning showed me I have been so obsessed with physical recovery that I was taking the cognitive recovery for granted. She pointed out 18 months ago I was in speech therapy for English and today I sent an hour talking on Skype in French! So that's in for my weekly blog this week! A bien tot! 🙂

Now movement is almost back to normal and is more a matter of fatigue, in that as I get more tired i will get a little more wobbly but only slightly and an increase in concentration will often improve the motion. Still waiting on results of MRA. So a new year , and hopefully a better one than the last. Though its become apparent that this pandemic will take more effort to beat! Personally i used to avoid new year resolutions as a set up for failure. I had attempted earlier in me recovery to reduce weight I was at 191 lbs and wanted to be back to 175. When we went into isolation I found my self snacking a lot, probably form boredom. I had got to 181 but gave up the project. So I'm setting that as a new years resolution. Fortunately it turns out I haven't put on as much as I feared as I start the year at 186. A plan to be in Paris on June 12th will probably not happen a scheduled but we intend to go as soon as its deemed safe. So my other resolution is to improve my french. I have been indulging in an on-line course since November, which has been great fun but not as effective as speaking with a native speaker. We have done so much zoom in the last 9 month, so I thought hey you can zoom to France. A google search soon found a tutor in Lyon and I have my first session later today. 🙂 So I think 2 resolutions is enough Happy New Year to all.

So Christmas has just gone by, my second since stroke. I can't claim any noticeable improvements this week but considering I'm running pretty close to normal unless fatigued , I'm not complaining. As many of you know, I eat vegan due to plaque and trying to keep my cholesterol down. So Deb out did her self this year with help of some products from Plant Based Meats | The Very Good Butchers – The Very Good Butchers US It was a very good xmas day, starting with a call from my mum in the UK followed by bacon butties, which are an old tradition in our house ( faux bacon of course). Present opening followed before sitting down to a 3 course meal; vegan caviar; roast stuffed joint ( again faux meat) Brussel sprouts, carrots from our garden and mashed potatoes, gravy and cranberry sauce. And plenty left for seconds. Then the piece de resistance, a home made vegan 'cheese cake'. (sorry cant get this pic to rotate.) Then a couple of zoom meetings with friends & family. Followed by the compulsory watching of 'Love Actually'. A really cool day 🙂 As of Xmas day we had raised over $13,000 for the Navajo toys for kids 🙂 So merry Christmas and a happy New Year

We exchanges some presents with 2 close friend yesterday. Yes no hugs! Deb set up 2 tables % chairs 15 ft apart and masks were worn as we chatted.

Little report on the recovery side this week. I had to go down to Phoenix for an MRA, an extended type of MRI. The magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) scan takes very clear, detailed pictures of the blood vessels, including arteries and veins, using a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. 3.5 hr drive down, an hour in the tube, and a 3.5 hr drive back. We needed to set off at 6:30am and got up very early with a planed hour just to kick back and not be rushed, Then Deb opened her e-mail to 250 'Toys for Navajo' responses. We have been trying to help a Navajo friend get donations for children's Christmas presents, and a video he had posted on Facebook made it to the ABC 15 news! Deb started hitting replies as fast as she could while I worked on an auto-reply to give donation info back while we were away. We've been getting help Oregon across to the UK. Lots of donations typically $25 and one for as much as $1,000 the project is powering ahead and presents are already been dispersed:) The last couple of days have been hectic dealing with enquiries to help. We even have football players from the AZ Cardinals driving up to give out presents! It suddenly feels a lot like Christmas and it has been very uplifting to be a part of the effort. Merry Christmas to all!

We had to hunt around for vegan acceptable ingredients. Roberstson's Classic mincemeat is actually butter free, it does use vegetable suet. There has been a growing market in the UK for vegetarian/vegan produce which is where we had the mincemeat imported from. All American product had something unacceptable to Deb. While Heather is right that some mincemeats are traditionally fed with Brandy this is not. But the sugar content is so high it would surprise me if it self ferments:) As far as I can tell the crust and mince have nothing that would trigger lactose intolerance. They taste as god as the ones mother used to make, but do have an after taste of coconut.

Single digit temperature have restricted project I was attempting to get to but been driven inside changed the focus to a traditional activity which has been neglected for a few years: the making of xmas mince pies! Stroke wise there's not much to tell measuring progress to date as short falls from normal. Which is itself a progress as this time last year i was still wearing an ankle brace for any extended walking and sleeping a great deal to recover from even moderate effort. Still no significant progress this week but I do seem to be sleeping less during the day. Meanwhile, mince pies! These things seem to be a British thing as my US friends don't usually understand what they are. For me they go back to childhood when mother would make then typically on Christmas Eve. Later in life I took over the habit and would make and eat them of the days approaching Christmas. For health reasons we dropped then from the diet a few years back but Deb has discovered a pastry recipe which is based of coconut oil rather than butter so we reinstated the tradition. The return of dexterity to my left hand meant I could help in cutting and mounting the pastry (top left) Baked and fresh out the oven ( top right) Dusted with powdered sugar (bottom left) Ready to eat during the days approaching Christmas ( bottom right) I think the near death experience fo a stoke has definitely made me appreciate the little things more.