• 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.  

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  • 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
    • 2,134 views
Gizmo, Gadget Guy

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

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Kevin Rider

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

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Kevin Rider

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

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achandra's Blog

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

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Sue's Sentiments

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

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Kevin Rider

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

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nancyl's Blog

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

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Kevin Rider

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

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Ksmith's Blog

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

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achandra's Blog

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

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Kevin Rider

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

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Ksmith's Blog

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

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nancyl's Blog

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

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Kevin Rider

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

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Kevin Rider

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

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Sue's Sentiments

Colouring my world

I wonder if  I gave you a blank sheet of paper and told you to draw me a picture of your world using colour not lines what it would look like? Perhaps you could do that today? Some of you would ask for a coloured sheet because to some people that flat white sheet looks threatening, not like their life feels like at all. A friend of mine is going through a bad time and  I think her background colour would be grey. None of us want black because that can be threatening too, because even at the wors
swilkinson

swilkinson in General

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Kevin Rider

Cold but Dry

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 d
KevRider

KevRider in projects

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Ksmith's Blog

Hear me out.. I'm not ostentatious.. i swear

So hear me out... I'm not  snooty.. promise   For the past 12 years, I've been taken care of. meaning, when I had my stroke I was married and my husband ( now ex) was taking care of the monies and life was good . When we got divorced, I moved in with my parents so, again, I wasn't paying the bills. I have money in my savings but I try not to touch it unless REALLY important.  I found an "apartment' but went to an association and now a condo right down the road, literately.  merely
ksmith

ksmith in It is what it is

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Kevin Rider

new Year , New day

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
KevRider

KevRider in projects

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Sue's Sentiments

Where did that year go and what changed?

I am a very fortunate person, I love life, I have been lucky with my choice of husband, and with my three children. I have six beautiful grandchildren. That is the way I like to look at life. But of course there is much more to my life than that. And if you have read my blogs from the early part of my journey with stroke you will know of my struggles with the journey that Ray's series of strokes took us on.   My experience with the caregiver life along with the experiences I got on thi
swilkinson

swilkinson in General

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achandra's Blog

Happy New year & glad to be still here after suffering another stroke

Happy New year every one. 2020 is finally over & 2021 is here, & I realized our son is my guardian angel who saved my life multiple times.   First time when he was born he was such a big baby & way too comfortable inside, sot they had to induce me so that our prince will be born  but he started to show sign of discomfort so doctors had decided to do c-section, and he was born at 9-1/2 lb & 22 inch long baby, so I ended up in the hospital for 5 days on bed rest  & ev
HostAsha

HostAsha in my personal thoughts

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Gizmo, Gadget Guy

New year, new times, new challenges

At this time of year I like t evaluate the past year and see what worked and what didn’t. I then try t look ahead and see what we should prepare for and what I want to accomplish in the next year. So here goes.   Obviously most of us would declare 2020 was a bad year not to be repeated. Since we all look at things through our own perspectives and our personal situation, we all probably have different thoughts about the past year. To start with I try to evaluate things that were within
GeorgeLesley

GeorgeLesley in Attitude

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Kevin Rider

Christmas

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
KevRider

KevRider in projects

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