Being Alone


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About 85% of my time is spent alone. I do have three dogs, and even though they're great to have around, our conversations are one-sided. I'm able to use this PC, and I came upon the following website which (I think) has some decent ideas.

 

http://www.wikihow.com/Enjoy-Being-Alone

 

Susan :type:

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Thank you Susan for sharing this. Quite informational and true. I also spend a lot of time home alone as my daughter is at school, working, or hanging out with friends (to be a teen again :rolleyes: )

 

I've got 2 cats - conversation can be quite one-sided unless I'm in the kitchen using the one-handed can opener and they think it's for them lol My one cat is a siamese mix so she does "talk" in her way to me but I'm not fluent in meowese. You would think after 4 years being home with her all the time I'd have it perfected by now. She does though have Mommy wrapped around her paw.

 

I read quite a bit throughout the day and volunteering here on site passes the time as well for me. As I love country western music, my radio is always in the background during the day to a local station.

 

Just think how things would be different if we did not have the technology we do today and being stroke survivors. The computer is my "sitter" lol and to think I used to limit the time my daughter spent on the computer and television when she was little.

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Susan,

 

You know, I suppose I am sort of a loner by nature, I am married wife works every day, I was working but presently on STD. It seems I have so many things to take care of including appointments until my time is never a dull moment. For instance, yesterday was spent between the dentist and the VA. Today has been talking with the car repair shop and my insurance company, reading the paper and watching Google Earth and the fires burning.

 

Each day brings new challenges including paying my bills, now there goes some hours and I still miss one or two. I walk across the street to the mail box and there is more for me to do again. It's never ending, I don't know what it is to feel alone.

 

I think that site would be great for some members here but while I have no friends left since my stroke I find more stuff to do around my house and places to go. Now if I did not drive I would be lonely I suppose.

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hey Susan:

 

I used to feel lonely right after my stroke for first two years. now post 5 years my life is full again I make exercise as part of my job. doing 2 hours of exercises for me takes up half of my day & then I love reading & volunteering & ofcourse cooking, cleaning takes up my whole day. & if I still feel bore then I take courses in nearby community college it keeps me challeged & involved in my life.

 

Asha

 

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hi susan and thankyou for the interesting link. i too am alone most of the time. i talk to my critters too, but we need more as humans. this site looks like it has some good info. thxs for sharing it with us.

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susan,

thanks for the link.....will check it out later...looks totally interesting. i spend a lot of time alone too...even with my hubby around as he does not like to chat much.

i hope your appointment goes well on friday and you are healing well. hugs! kathy

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Hi Susan

 

As with many survivors including myself you do feel alone after a stroke shakes your life, StrokeNet was my whole life for a short period of time,I had to force myself to go visit friends etc. but now i live next door to my daughter and family which makes such a difference. The sight that you posted makes some good reading thank you for posting it.

 

Allan

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Being alone is excruciatingly lonely. My husband is in teaching, so he leaves at 6:15 am, gets home about 3:30 or 4 pm - I am alone all day. He sets up my breakfast so I can put it together and microwave it; he fixes my lunch, leaves it on the counter or in the refrigerator and opens my bottled water - before he leaves. He puts on my slipper socks, and if I get up (which I usually do), he helps me get into my selected nightgown (one of the pluses of not having to leave the house!)

 

Pre-stroke - like some of you - I worked with people. I was very outgoing, smiled all the time, loved to talk, was very creative and optimistic. My multi-tasking and organizational skills were finely honed. For many years, my profession was in sales and account management. I'm a writer by trade and talent, so most of my career was in advertising before I transitioned to education.

 

I love children. My early work was in preschool teaching; when I had the hemorrhagic stroke, I was an elementary school teaching assistant, going to college full time to get my teaching degree.

 

The bleed cut off oxygen to my brain in the right prefrontal and parietal lobe, areas that not only control left side movement, but also affect emotions, communication (not speech), cognitive skills, and creativity. For me, this meant more than not being able to type at the speed I used to - I no longer could COMPOSE the same way, creatively. My brain didn't "think" the same. I couldn't write with my eyes closed, the way I could before... I felt devastated.

 

My friends - friends? All those people I knew and loved, worked with over the years, knew from the college or my current job - some sent cards to the hospital, a few to my house. A couple "friends" came to visit those first weeks at home. Then it all stopped... it HAD to be the wheelchair.

 

I saw how all those strangers looked at me - oh, wait, that would be "not looking" - in the wheelchair. Stroke Girl with the left side kind of flopped over. They always talked to my "escort" - ya'll know who I mean. My husband, or my daughter, or my sister... whoever happens to be pushing the poor woman who must be invisible in that wheelchair!

 

Driving was one of my biggest pleasures. My father was a truck driver, and we had spent a lot of time on car trips as children. I felt so free on the road, and drove many times from Texas to Kansas, and back. I drove all the time, listening to music or singing in the car. I loved my car - a 2001 Ford Focus, manual transmission. I always drove a clutch... lol. Then - bam! Brain bleed took my keys.

 

I feel trapped many days. Literally imprisoned in the four walls of my suburban house that we've lived in for over 33 years now. Until the last six months, I hadn't even been able, brave enough, or felt safe enough, to even attempt to cross the threshold of my front door during the day when I'm home alone - and I'm referring to my power wheelchair! Finally, last October, I took my service dog, Greta, out in the front yard. Eventually, we even ventured down the street a couple houses and back before returning to the house. Two days ago, I got really brave - I took her outside in my manual wheelchair, down the ramp to the sidewalk, brushed her, and came back in by dragging myself back up by the bannister!

 

In the last year, I was blessed to get a freelance writing job once a month. I don't have much human contact, but it has helped my self-esteem. Especially when I get that extra money! :)

 

So, loneliness makes me sad. I've adjusted to being alone - and with Greta here, I'm never REALLY alone.

 

Blessings,

hera

My Assistance Dog - me and Greta!

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Hi Susan......

 

BS (before stroke) there were times I was alone, but not lonely...

 

With the stroke, I felt alone, and even when around my best friends, alone and lonely...

They couldn't understand....

 

Then I found this place....Strokenet...

 

Problem practically disappeared....Folks who understood...

 

I got off my duff, and started educating my friends...I mean, somebody had to do it...<G>....

 

In most cases...we're closer than ever before...

 

In the cases where we're not....well, that was an education for me....

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  • 3 weeks later...
About 85% of my time is spent alone. I do have three dogs, and even though they're great to have around, our conversations are one-sided. I'm able to use this PC, and I came upon the following website which (I think) has some decent ideas.

 

http://www.wikihow.com/Enjoy-Being-Alone

 

Susan :type:

tHANKS YOUso much for the site . Ihave been kooking for something like this for a long time . Ihave been at home alot sences Randy is working alot . GOD BLESS YOU

lITTLE jo

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