I was happy and in a good place because I moved the shower bench out of the tub and just stand (and lean) now and as others have said can happen, my bladder problems subsided! Both of these things happened a bit over a week ago, and made me extremely happy and like progress was being made. Also I bought a bunch of the stroke bracelets and have given some to my therapists to give out, as well a few stroke survivors plus caregivers. This felt really good, I told the survivors + caregivers what they are going through is really hard and to wear the bracelets proudly. I'm also going to bring some to a new Stoke Support Group (which I really want to purpose helping to put together a resource list for, and I need to be careful this isn't part of spreading myself too thin...)

I started an online Patient Advocacy a bit under two weeks ago, which I love the learning, but I can already feel it is a bit much for me and I feel myself making decisions of whether to do rehab exercises (Physical and Speech) or do course reading and homework. I think even without the rehab stuff I would have somewhat of an inferiority complex. The class is through UCLA extension and I'd say the average age of my classmates is +20 my senor. I like getting A's, B's are ok, and I really rarely get C's. I'm trying to get myself more comfortable and ok with getting a C in this. It's my first class post-stroke, doing rehab exercises are as or more important, and C's are ok. Yesterday I got really frustrated and emotional over the stress of a due assignment, then I realized I needed to eat and hadn't slept enough the night before and those two things were not helping. I told my PT this and he said it sounded a typical 20-something dilemma lol I like the idea of having a typical 20-something situation, even if it is a dilemma.

Also I have an AVM still and on Monday I saw a new doctor about possible ways to precede. A bit under a year ago 2 embolizations of 4/5 were completed with the end aim to surgically remove a smaller AVM. The third one ended in a hemorrhage. The original statistics I thought that I understood was that there is a 4% chance of a burst aneurysm every year, and that seemed like it was more open to a choice of what to do. Especially when a 5% risk of surgical complication had already happened. Monday he conveyed the 4% risk compounds every year and I basically had to remove it, especially now that it's bled twice. Trying to warm up the idea of surgeries, I think the last time they were using a 2d camera and this hospital has access to a 3d one. Also this doctor has treated 1,200 AVM's. I just don't want to have to relearn everything again. I'm ready to move forward and past this. I was after the first one too.

Thanks for reading.