• 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
    • 2,834 views

I feel blessed that I married such a secure & confident guy who is always enabler

like I said before recently reconnected with old friend who used to proclaim that he loved me, but was so insecure that minute I got into Engineering  due to my good grades & he did not, he stopped the teasing & chase, I guess he realized I was in different league now. So I very nicely finished my undergraduate degree in Engineering & after I finished my degree parents found guy who was more educated than me   & was here in USA pursuing his graduate degree, hubby met my brother &

PB&J

I don't do this often and forgot where this stuff is to be added sometimes. Grrrr.... PB& Jelly daggers  For our 4 hour car ride to my daughter’s,  my wife (who does all the driving)  makes PB&J sandwiches so we don’t have to stop and eat. Even bigger than that we are not big fans of restaurant food anymore anyway.  April is the throw nothing away queen so the past several sandwiches I got were made with a jelly my daughter gave us because she didn’t like it. I don’t blame her

Willis

Willis in Daggers

Why speech therapist are so important, and not just for talking

So I work for the an organization that supports individuals with both mental and physical disabilities and mostly are adults, at least I where I have been. With anyone, aging may cause other health issues like dementia, Alzheimer's.  I worked with a man, who was on a chopped diet, ( food cut no more the 1 inch and eliminating foods that could cause choking) and I would explain to him that I also had issues with swallowing too. Well, I got moved to another program in since December, he had to go

ksmith

ksmith

how doing simple things increases your self confidence & make you feel good

I am avid reader & love reading self help & inspiring books. those books make me realize accidentally or out of self preservation I have been doing right things  which normal people will think its common sense thing, but for me those were fought hard & bumped into brick wall & then learnt lessons kind of a deal which helped me immensely in rebuilding my new normal again. like I had said earlier  recently after reconnecting with my childhood friend I started paying attention to my

Rain and sunshine 🔆

I am person who is sometimes short on perception. This in my lifetime has caused some interesting discussion, like the time I prayed for rain and a furious man confronted me outside the church and said: "How dare you pray for rain when I start to harvest my crop on Monday?" So I am a little hesitant to give any kind of opinion or advice unless I know all the facts. So whoever's prayed for rain on the New South Wales coast will they p!ease stop! Elsewhere if you are still in drought go ahead no h

swilkinson

swilkinson in General

I Just Need To Let It Out (Caution: This is not a positive feel good blog but a pouring of junk...not sure how to explain that. Feel free to read but for those who want to pass I want to be real so you know)

I'm sitting here in my living room listening to the birds chirping as the sun rises (its 5:30am). This blog is me getting stuff off my chest. I have to release this "stuff" sometimes... I'm not looking for answers, reactions or sympathy BTW I just hold a lot of stuff in. Also, I don't have a lot of people I can let it all out to (for lack of the ability to get it out or maybe lack of motivation and I get on my own nerves so I can only imagine that I do the same for others and I don't want that).

HostTracy

HostTracy in Blog

Lucy

Our beautiful staffy x kelpie, Lucy, has gone to heaven.  She was 13 1/2. Last week she was playing with the puppy and cried out in pain. We took her to the vet, who felt Lucy had broken her leg.  Lucy was sedated for X-ray and bone cancer was discovered.  Because they didn't want her to wake up to the pain of a broken leg, we had to say goodbye to her while she was sedated. The kids don't remember not having Lucy. She was a sweet girl, who was always there for

GreenQueen

GreenQueen in Sad news...again

Spring awakening

Well spring is on the way, buildings going up near us. A neighbor has just finished a large out building to store his farm implements in. Also the vacant lot next to us is having a house built on it this year, construction to start soon. I hope they are prepared for the cost of building materials these days. Wow, have they gone up. Anyway life seems to be reawakening and so are Lesley and I. We both have been vaccinated now and are ready to start doing something, but hard to find a good place to

GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley in General

Balance

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 qui

KevRider

KevRider in projects

Re-pot

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 muscl

KevRider

KevRider in projects

science of well being

I have signed up for this free course on coursera for science of well being, taught by Yale professor & it is required class for Yale students.  It is great course, I wish it will be required course for all kids & human beings to learn how our brain works. I feel after my stroke when I was very unhappy with my life, slowly & steadily with trial & errors I found great books, support group  & found my happy place again, & while doing this course & my life experiences, I

HostAsha

HostAsha in my personal thoughts

A little scare

I had my annual PET scan last Friday, then on Tuesday I got a phone call from my new Melanoma specialist, could I go and get another more specific CT as there seemed to be an "anomaly" on my liver! Well panic stations for me as I contemplated what would happen if this was related to my original melanoma. So I hurried into our nearest town and had the extra CT. As usual the staff there were very kind, used to assisting people who are expecting bad news. But they are not allowed to tell you anythi

swilkinson

swilkinson in General

Anniversary

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 w

KevRider

KevRider in projects

survived surgery

I survived the surgery - I had a bit more trouble than anticipated with the anesthesia- have had  nausea even 2 weeks out. And some pain and aches as well . But it is what it is... and Dan has been nothing less then great. Family has helped as much as Ive asked and needed. I have caught up on a lot of TV all if it crap - but lol - it caters to a population. to each their own as the saying goes.... I went back to work last week on Monday ( 1 week after surgery ) just half days . By noon I was tir

nancyl

nancyl in Time Marches on

New Days

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

KevRider

KevRider in projects

Happy feet , happy heart

So after talking to my doctor about my Raynaud's and when he looked at my feet, after being in my thermal socks in a faux fur boots, my toes were already blue. So we're kinda thinking it's more stress related. Starting around July, I start wearing sock and slippers inside and warmer socks when temperatures change. We both were perplexed about my toes because , for most people and before it got worse, the pain only came when the blood returns, whether with clothing or in  warm water, and that is

ksmith

ksmith in Feet life

I feel so blessed and realizing God has been alongside me & carrying me through my life in good times & in bad times

recently I connected with my childhood friend  in India on facebook & that inadvertently brought in friend who was relentlessly teasing me & professing love for me in those teenage young years in India . I ended up just talking with the guy  at that time to make him stop that endless teasing,  luckily as soon I went into engineering school, he realized  & gave up the chase. So  I nicely finished my Engineering college with peace & married the guy my parents chose for me. Now fast

HostAsha

HostAsha in my personal thoughts

Time to change how I look at things

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 situa

KevRider

KevRider in projects

Unknown phone calls.. but with a happy twist

We all get unknown callers and thankfully our cell phones have caller ID. I haven't had a land line forever. I was paying for a land line and I understand in an emergency that is ideal to have but when I did ALL I got was spam. Back in the 90's and early 00's my family, who lived in another state(s) away, we often sent a fax .. ( remember those) for none of us, family, were into small talk. EVER. So we'll write it all down and say it in a note, If follow up was needed of course we'd call. Now, I

ksmith

ksmith in The World we all live in

Time Marches On

I haven't posted in awhile --- March 11th will be our decade anniversary of my husbands stroke that changed our lives.... We finished up our home remodel ( Dan came back home from the nursing home due to covid) the remodel made the home more accessible for him - and better for me to help him.  But -- a couple weeks ago I was helping Dan with his bath , went to swing his leg and pop something inside me popped. We thought I had prolapsed my uterus - but turned out to be my bladder. So surgery

nancyl

nancyl in Time Marches on

A Little Snow

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 precipi

KevRider

KevRider in projects

Freezing

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 w

KevRider

KevRider in projects