CarolR

Stroke Survivor - female
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About CarolR

  • Birthday 04/21/1948

Contact Methods

  • Stroke Network Email
    Yes

Shared Information

  • Stroke Anniversary (first stroke)
    08-23-2015
  • Facebook URL
    https://www.facebook.com/carol.r.reardon
  • Interests
    Traveling, Gardening, Hiking, Kayaking, Snowshoeing, Reading, Cooking, Time with Family.
  • How did you find us?
    Google Search

Registration Information

  • First Name
    Carol
  • State
    NH

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  1. Thank you, Heather. You are always an inspiration.
  2. Some Brief Thoughts on the Second Anniversary of My Stroke Two years ago today, while going through security at SeaTac airport, I had a stroke – a brain bleed that in the majority of cases is not survivable. My left side was paralyzed and I remained in hospitals in the Seattle area for a month. I had to relearn how to walk, talk, chew, swallow, and do most of the things that make us normal. In the past two years I have worked hard, given up, cried, laughed, been angry, been grateful, learned (or learned to use) new swear words, and some days, just stayed in bed. I walk slowly and awkwardly, but I walk. My left hand doesn’t function fully, but I am figuring out new ways to do things. Overall I am grateful, but I expect the sadness and anger will never completely go away. Today we finalized a three week trip to Argentina and Chile, cruising around Cape Horn. We are not doing it the way we would have in the past, but we are going to our sixth continent! Life is good!
  3. Wow! Good for you. Congratulations!
  4. CarolR

    Happy Anniversary CarolR!

  5. CarolR

    Canada

    Hi Carol, ok maybe you can claim to be half-Canadian; but you know you'd never get away with claiming to be an Islander. The term "from away" is used here when speaking of anyone not born on the Island. If you're born here, and your family moves away permanently when you're just a few months old, you're still an Islander forever. If you were born elsewhere, but your family moved here permanently when you're still a baby, you're "from away" forever. We're a strange lot, yes? Hi Gary, if you come back to the site for a visit. Linbit, Ahh, so my gram and dad were "Islanders forever" and when I was just a kid with them I was accepted on their coattails. Now I guess I would be "from away" though I think I am related to half the island and my husband, the other (Acadian) half. A strange, but wonderful, lot, yes. And from one of my favorite places on earth. Best wishes. Carol
  6. CarolR

    2nd hand memories

    I just came across a quote I like in a book I'm currently reading: "A happy man has no past, while an unhappy man has nothing else." The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan.
  7. CarolR

    My new wrist

    What a wonderful, happy picture! You deserve a round of applause. So glad to hear of your great progress.
  8. CarolR

    Canada

    Though I am from NH, USA, my father was from Fortune, Prince Edward Island and my other grandmother was from Lower Quebec, in the townships near Sherbrooke. So perhaps I can claim to be half Canadian! Many of my childhood summers were spent on "The Island" with the many relatives there.
  9. CarolR

    I Can Read!

    I Can Read! Reading has always been a huge part of my life. I read for relaxation, entertainment, knowledge or escape. Books have taken me to faraway places or distant times or just explored ideas I would not have otherwise considered. I was the kid under the covers with a book and a flashlight. School reading lists weren’t used just to choose a book from, but were to be completed. I read product labels, medication inserts, and the fine print on travel documents. A life without reading material would be small and desolate. After my stroke, when I suddenly found reading anything at all to be a challenge, I felt lost and locked out. I grew up in a large family on a farm in rural New Hampshire. Playmates were my brothers and the kids from a neighboring farm; if we took a shortcut through the woods, their farm was only a mile away. I knew a few other kids from weekly Sunday School, but that was about the extent of my social interactions. My mother read to us every night, from books such as “Tom Sawyer” or “Robinson Crusoe.” I was the only girl at that time, and “Little Women” was the only “girls” book I remember her reading. As it turned out, I much preferred the “boys” books anyway. My mother thought that TV was a corrupting influence, so we never had one. I was pretty happy with my life here, and didn’t much look forward to spending time in this thing called school. I was terrified by the thought of a huge (to me) building crammed full of other kids, most of them bigger than me. School was also a bit intimidating because my older brother had struggled with what would now be defined as learning disabilities, and that had created tension in the family. But at age six, first grade was inevitable. The hook my mother used was that I would learn to read! Though she had been a teacher before her marriage, I guess she was too busy with all those kids and farm wife things to teach us to read. So I was somewhat eager to get started. There is a picture of me all ready to get on the bus that first day, wearing a dress with a few too many ruffles and holding a huge bouquet of flowers for the teacher. I guess the flowers were meant to help the teacher like me better, but it never seemed to work. The bigger boys on the bus made fun of me, for the flowers and because my brother was a “r****d.” But I went ahead because I was going to learn to read! I don’t remember much about the day other than waiting for the reading part to begin. It never did. I remember getting home and crying in anger that I had spent a whole day in school and hadn’t learned to read anything! Four days after my stroke, I was transferred to a rehab hospital for three weeks. The first thing I remember trying to read were some of the many messages on my smartphone. It was hard, and I usually ended up having my husband or daughter read them to me. The words wouldn’t hold still, but I could blame that on the phone moving about and on the words being small. I could read the greeting cards, at least enough to know who they were from. It was hard to read the printed instruction sheets from therapy, but I blamed that on just being tired from all the PT and OT. Not until I went home did I try to pick up a book. My next book club meeting was less than a month away; I had missed the last two and was determined to make it this time, even in my walker or wheelchair. The selection was by an author I do not care for. (I’ll omit her name in case she is your favorite author or your third cousin once removed or something.) I had started a couple of her books years earlier, but had never finished one. There are so many good books out there I no longer waste my time on those I don’t enjoy. So I plugged away at this book, which, by the way, never got better and even the woman who chose it agreed was terrible. After working hard for three days, I was all the way up to page 30! The words on the page fell into holes and I had to visually pull them out. Then there would be a blank spot without words, just indecipherable jumbles. Around the periphery, colored diagonal lines, like lightening, would bounce around. The left side of the page was worse than the right. As I labored away, my reading improved slightly and I managed to finish the damned thing before we met. I was very proud, especially when I discovered that a couple women had given up on it. After a while I started another book that someone told me I should read because it was funny and it might cheer me up. It wasn’t and it didn’t, but at least it was short. For the next months, I managed to finish the book club selections, but not much more. I could no longer claim to be a fast reader, but I was improving. Just recently I was struck by something: Our next book club meeting is a couple weeks away, and I have not only finished BOTH selections, I have finished two other books as well and working on another! I may even read fast enough to borrow library books again. I feel like shouting from the hilltop “I can read again! Did you hear that? I can READ again.”
  10. Thank you for this blog - great job! Since our strokes were about the same time, it is interesting to compare notes. (I still owe you a message - sorry.) Interesting to hear about the bicycle riding; I gave it a try but was very wobbly and for some reason my brain would not allow me to make a left turn. It was very weird and obviously limited progress. Heather and others are so right about the fatigue issues and sensory overload. If we don't pay attention, we pay the price. Sorry to hear that your headaches continue. We are also contemplating a flight to visit our daughter, but as you say the whole idea of the noisy plane, crowds, and hassle of the security lines has kept us from booking anything yet. I would love to hear how others have managed. Please keep blogging! Carol
  11. I love this post! I love the way you connect the natural world to our changed but hopeful lives. I will think of your images as I watch the swallows here swoop low over the lake in search of mayflies. Thank you for sharing.
  12. Thank you for another lovely, poetic post. You have a wonderful way of using imagery. I can almost feel my feet dancing on uncut grass and smell the earthiness outside. Please keep posting.
  13. This is a most interesting post. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge with us.
  14. CarolR

    Mothers Day

    What a powerful, poetic post. You have said so much, and brought out such strong emotions in a few short lines. It is lovely. Carol
  15. Yesterday I went to the mall. This is the first such trip for us since I had the stroke last summer. We live one and a half hours from the closest mall and that is a good thing until we actually need something at the mall. It was a rainy day, I wanted to avoid some less than exciting chores at home, and I needed to try to find some orthotics for a new pair of very sensible post-stroke shoes. So off we went. The first debate was the route to be taken. New Hampshire does not have good east-west roads, so though we could “get theya from heeya” there was no ideal route. I wasn’t driving, so did not win the debate. Less than a mile from home, Ed decided to try a shortcut that involves a few miles of Class VI roads. This actually worked out fine, and I later decided that I prefer these roads to the crazy busyness of the more populated part of our state. Shortly after we left home I remembered that I had left my coffee mug sitting on the kitchen counter. I did not wish to re-navigate those roads, so I started to fixate on where to find the next Dunkin Donuts. I must confess that now my suggested route just happened to go right by a DD’s. Before going to the mall, we were planning to stop at my favorite LL Bean outlet store. To me, this is vastly preferable to any mall. Ed was signaling to pull into the parking lot, when we saw - a furniture store! I checked my trusty smartphone and discovered that it had not moved but was “permanently closed.” Drat. On to the mall. The parking lots did not seem busy, a good sign. We entered on the second floor of Macy’s and since we needed to go downstairs, sought out the escalator. ESCALATOR! Not just stairs but stairs that move! I have (sort of) mastered stairs but I am accustomed to those that stay in place. After watching a few glide by, Ed says helpfully “take your time.” I am sorting out “weak foot down, good foot up” but determined that stepping down here was a job for the stronger foot. So I decided to count three stairs and step on. Right foot down and quickly I pick up the left foot as high as I can to keep it out of trouble. Success! Disembarkation was uneventful. I need a dress for a wedding this summer so we poked around in that department. Ed was incredibly patient and tried to be helpful despite his affinity for anything horribly bright and garish. He carried around the few selections to be tried on. There was a “husband chair” outside the dressing room area, and I assumed he would sit and wait there until I needed his opinion. I tried on the dress he liked best, an easy pull-on affair, and went out for his approval but he was gone. Then it came time to get the dress off with my one fully functional arm. I thought I was all set until I figured out that I had managed to get the lining over my head and the rest of the dress was wrapped tightly in a manner I could not identify. I twisted and turned but felt like Winnie the Pooh after he ate too much honey. I was stuck. Panic started to set in. What if I have another stroke and am found like this in a dressing room at Macy’s? Deep breaths. I can do this. Since I am here to tell about it, I did manage to escape. When I found Ed I announced that I was never ever again going into a dressing room again. It was time for lunch, but when we headed to the food court and our favorite sandwich place we found it had also been replaced. Ed found a place to sit and relax and told me to “just find something.” It seems that I chose the slowest sandwich-maker of all time. When I finally returned to our table I didn’t even have the energy to complain about his choice of seats next to the children’s play area and beneath a giant TV. The sandwiches were surprisingly good, and then off I toddled to finish the errands. In another shop I found a blouse I liked and got in line at the register. Three of us were waiting to pay as the lone clerk seemed to be involved in a deeply personal phone conversation. That ended and the next customer accepted her offer to apply for instant store credit. It would only “take a minute.” Right. That completed, and now with two more people in line, the personal phone call was resumed. That was it for me. I hung my blouse on the closest rack with the intent to stomp out of the store in a huff. Wrong again. I learned that the post-stroke me is not capable of either a stomp or an effective huff. Completely exhausted, we left for home, in commuter traffic of course. I told Ed that I didn’t have the energy to care what route he chose. I had a dress that I would wear only when I have an assistant available, and a comfy new orthotic in my not-so-cute shoes. And a blouse I didn’t buy because of my high and mighty principles. Ed fixed dinner, I had a sip of wine and the rest is oblivion. So cheers to an overall successful day and to an extraordinary husband.