• A  blog is a personal journal of your daily life as a stroke survivor or stroke caregiver.  Surprisingly, countless members have called it therapeautic to write down their thoughts and to vent their frustrations.  You can make it private, just for your eyes or public and share your personal thoughts with your friends.  Why not try it, create your blog and start writing and see if it helps you.  

Blogs

Featured Entries

  • swilkinson

    Living on angel time.

    By swilkinson

    I went to see the neurosurgeon on Tuesday. I was interviewed by a young Asian associate doctor and sent for a 3D MRI and angiogram, a brand new way of showing  the blood supply within the brain. The results were given to me by the associate and then I saw the specialist. It appears the aneurysm is larger and deeper than previously thought but at my age they are not going to operate as it would mean a full brain surgery. Coiling, one method of dealing with an aneurysm, is not an option. I think I
    • 12 comments
    • 2,422 views

Busy January

January always used to be my wind down month after the rush of Christmas. The run up to Christmas was busier than ever last year. With our minister due to retire at the end of December (which he did) more work came down to the ministry team of which I am a member. Then there were the other end of year parties etc in the  organisations I belong to. And  I spent a few days selling cakes for Lions in the shopping centre, something I love to do as I often catch up with old friends there.  

swilkinson

swilkinson in General

New year

Well a new year is here again. So, anybody have any new year resolutions? None to report here sorry to say. But a quick catch up on what Lesley and I have been doing. Last April a week with the family, our son Stefan an his two daughters and us all met in London for a week. Then in August and September Lesley and I did two weeks in Norway, Sweden and a bit of Finland. We then met up with some friends in Paris and did a week river cruise from Paris to the Normandy beaches then back to Paris. We t

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley in General

Hurrying towards the holidays.

Here it is, November already. November slips away fast every year. No sooner started than hello December and December is holidays, school holidays, workers holidays and this year Christmas. But that is still a long way off and there is much to do between now and then. Simple things like Christmas card lists and complicated things like what do I send to family members so far away?   Because I still belong to the Stroke group WAGS I still support caregivers and widows who were formerly c

swilkinson

swilkinson in General

Life is bittersweet

I've always been an optimistic person. Like my Dad before me I want to believe the best of people. Of course sometimes that backfires and someone takes advantage of my good nature. Ray and I early in our married life befriended a couple and they robbed us of a lot of money when Ray put together a kit home for them and they refused to pay him. We did look at taking them to court but the money we would have had to spend on the case was about the same as we would receive.   But the past i

swilkinson

swilkinson in General

unexamined life is not worth living

I love the above line "unexamined life worth not living", since my stroke I have done lot of that & my life has become richer due to it. I follow Jean riva mentor I met right here on this site & thanks to her wisdom & blogs it provided me courage  & strength to still give good fight & boy I am so glad I persisted. Recently in Jean's blog she quoted bernard shaw & it is spot on “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty o

HostAsha

HostAsha in my personal thoughts

Back in Colorado

Moved back to Colorado the end of July....lots of drama surrounding the move, but I made it here.   I'm living with oldest son in southeastern Colorado, about an hour from Pueblo. Don't miss the heat or the monsoon storms in Arizona.      Sarah  

SarahR

SarahR in Back in Colorado

Time goes by

This time of the year, mid winter, time seems to stand still. There is not a lot to do. A dull grey day doesn't encourage me to do much, a bit of gardening if it is sunny, a few hours in the shopping centre if it is raining. A lot of my spare time I read, get onto my computer, watch some television, often cooking programs rather than movies or dramas. I usually crochet as I watch TV so just look up occasionally to see what the dish being cooked looks like. I get out as much as I can and as much

swilkinson

swilkinson in General

I hate winter viruses

This blog is not going to be happy and bright so stop reading it whenever you like.   I have a winter virus, it is one of those miserable streaming nose viruses. I have had it for five days and it usually goes in seven or so. With a virus there is no medication so it is paracetamol, good hydration, soft foods and hot drinks. It is also vast amounts of boredom if you live alone. No going out for coffee, no browsing around the shops, seems much like lockdown in Covid times. And no I don'

swilkinson

swilkinson in General

I am enjoying this new version of me

As I am getting old & going through my own life experiences which makes me go AHA & integrating some of the techniques in my life makes me also feel so happy. after reconnecting with my childhood friend after 30 years  & finding out she recently became widow, made me realize that having different interests in life & doing certain things alone is also healthy & good & much better in big scheme of things. Following on that enlightenment I decided to start my first paint by

struggling with letting it go question

I love blogging or journal  my internal thoughts & struggles. when I write down my thoughts its weight lifted off my chest & given to universe   to take care of it for me. lately I wonder & struggle to let go of my adult son's choices & decisions in life. In my head I justify saying oh I don't want him to stumble in life or make any mistakes in life. I think that's not a good idea & that can push him away from me, and it is more selfish on my part, that I still want to feel v

Family adventure

I have just come back from visiting my daughter and her husband and daughter in Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. To get there it is taking two trains to Sydney and then out to the airport then a four hour flight from one side of Australia to the other, from Sydney to Perth, over 2000 kms. Then after an hours wait taking an hours flight to Kalgoorlie, 335 kms inland from Perth. Kalgoorlie is a mining town and Kalgoorlie - Boulder is the city made by combining two small towns both built on a gold di

swilkinson

swilkinson in General

realized something important & dont want to loose this growth of thoughts

I just realized something very big & want to write down so that I never forget this lesson in my life. I have been married for 30 plus years & I still feel sometimes hubby & I we both are two very different personality, he is introvert& me extrovert, he talks less & I talk a lot, he does not like to watch TV or movies & I enjoy them, I always feel more happy if we do things together versus he can spend time alone & still be happy. So after 30 years I have started doin

Understanding good health conclusion

This will be the conclusion of my thoughts on how to achieve the best health we can. The previous entry was to give you the context of how and why I got into the subject in the first place, thus all the personal stuff. This entry will hopefully provide some ideas and at least questions you may wish to ask your doctors in the future.   As I see it there are some roadblocks we all face on the road to good health. First is that doctors are not trained much and do not practice much prevent

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley in General

Understanding good health

I don’t blog often anymore, but the topic I plan for this and the next blog is so important I plan another entry in a short time. I have been talking mostly about our travels, and as I write this Lesley is in Rome and will be home in a few days.   But now to start what I think is a very important topic we do not deal with well. That topic is our nutritional health. For the past two years I have been studying whatever I could find on eating healthy and what benefits, if any, could be ga

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley in General

great AHA moment for me

some of you who know me well through my blogs or by interacting with me in person will know I like to read nonfiction spiritual books,self help books. my hubby is my sounding board for lot of these discussion about life in general. after reading all these holy books  from different religions, I finally understood some important things about life. I strongly feel choices we make in life creates our destiny & those choices we make are based on two things, one is genetic & second is how our

lot has happened in life time to catch up

lot has been going on in my life, some good, some not so good, but we still making progress & moving forward. will start with not so good news, recently my 81 year old mom after her back surgery suffered stroke which left her paralyzed on her left side, though luckily being in rehab she got TPA & other treatment right away so her stroke was not as bad as mine, but due to her age & her existing precondition of her body her recovery was not as swift as mine which made her hugely depres

It has been awhile

Glad to see the board back online. So much has happened, where to start. Well lets see, Lesley went to Costa Rica Last July for two weeks and loved it. She also met her granddaughter Paris, in Paris France for a week. In Feb last year. We also did another river cruise on the Rhône river in France, then a week in Barcelona Spain with a overnight trip to Andorra, and then a flight to Munich Germany where we rented a car and toured the alps of Germany, Austria, Italy, and Switzerland. Then back to

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley in General

Where does my time go?

Just about to go into autumn here. I will be glad to see the end of summer, I haven't enjoyed summer this year, far too hot and humid and with the heavy waist to toe elastic stockings it's been soooo hard to combat the heat. I am glad the cooler weather is on its way but will miss daylight saving. I've enjoyed sitting on the verandah watching the light fade away in the evening in the last few weeks and the sudden silence when traffic dies down and the local commuters are all home at last. Peacef

swilkinson

swilkinson in General

Reaching Out to My First Love... It's been over 30 years since we connected

I'm publishing this today... seems I forgot to back in 2021! Hopefully, it is a full thought lol. It was over a year and a half ago!   About a month ago, I decided to find a way to reach my 1st real boyfriend. He truly is my very 1st love and has never been far from my heart no matter what stage of life I was or am in. I spent $.99 cents to look up information about his brother's. I couldn't find anything about Richard (my 1st love) but I lucked out and found a number that I hoped woul

HostTracy

HostTracy in Blog

Happy Valentine's Day... I have missed so many here.

It is nice to see the blogs back up! I have been quiet and to myself for quite a while now. I sure miss everyone so much. It has been much needed R&R for me and I just texted Dottie tonight that I am going to try and visit chat soon. Wow, it has been so very long since I have written a blog. I'm sure a lot has happened for everyone. For me, I'm just trying to truly take care of myself and to find positive ways to reduce my stress. Since May 23rd last year, I have been on a very exciting jour

HostTracy

HostTracy in Happy Valentine's 2023

Keep going, you'll get there in the end.

When I wrote this the blogs were not working. I am surprised the title posted although the content did not. I stand by this saying though. It is keeping on keeping on that gets us to our destination. That has always applied to my life.   A lot has happened since I last blogged, some good and some bad. I did have a great Christmas,  I saw all six of my grandchildren in December, the sad news was that I only saw Naomi at her other grandmother's funeral. That was on the 15th December. My

swilkinson

swilkinson in General

testing if blogs are working

good to see blogs are back, though when they were out started writing blogs on my personal computer since I always found blogging was very therapeutic for my soul.  recently we are going through big health crisis for our mom who duffered stroke too after back surgery, doctors are saying it was due to covid , though by grace of God she is out of that angry phase & working hard on her recovery, so we are hanging tight for each other & her.

HostAsha

HostAsha in my personal thoughts