I read with considerable interest the article in the Nov newsletter about why some make better recoveries from strokes than others. I can certainly relate to the article. I have a reasonably positive self image, know what I may be able to fix and what I cannot, etc. but to the point of this blog. For long time readers you may remember my friend "Mike" I met in rehab. We had similar strokes at about the same time, and called each other every day for quite awhile after we both came home. Soon it became apparent to me that "Mike" was sucicidal, even telling me how the event was to happen. Mike lives alone, and with the deficits from his stroke, the things he loved to do had been taken from him. I made it my mission to call Mike everyday and encourage him that life was indeed still worth living (even though initially I had some doubts myself). As we both slowly recovered, Mike's attitude improved. He then had small brain bleed, and suffered some mental deficits from that. Understandably his attitude slid downhill again. Now the good news is that Mike has found a lady friend he spends most of his time with and her family. She is a widow and they both seem to be prospering from the relationship. Mike no longer talks much about his "deficits" but rather what he and his girlfriend are doing. It is now hard for me to catch him on the phone and call backs take several days, and I couldn't be happier. I think Mike's story as well as my own reinforce the point of the article in the newsletter, the point being we must first like ourselves no matter our state of affairs, and do our best to accept and be happy with where and how we are. Longtime readers of my blog will remember that I usually wrote positive things, even when what I had just tried was not effective. It wasn't always easy to do that, but I learned early on that complaining did little to help. Trust me, if complaining would have helped, I would have become the complainer in chief! Only my efforts and those around me really made a difference.

My coffee cup is empty, longtime readers know what that means.