CLARK,

NOT ONLY DO I REFER TO MYSELF IN THIRD PERSON, I TALK OUTLOUD AND ANSWER MYSELF!!!!! LOL. DRIVES MY CATS CRAZY. I'M NEARLY AT THE TWO YEAR MARK TOO AND KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN. I HAVE ALL KINDS OF EMOTIONS FROM ANGER, SADNESS, DENIAL, AND AM VERY CLOSE TO ACCEPTANCE, I THINK!!!!! I MEAN SHE THINKS.

YOU ARE RIGHT. WE HAVE TO BE POSITIVE, WHICH IS RATHER DIFFICULT WHEN YOU HAVE ENOUGH OF YOUR BRAIN LEFT LIKE WE DO TO KNOW WE ARE NOT THE SAME AND PROBABLY NEVER WILL BE.

OH WELL, WE GOTTA TAKE WHAT WE HAVE LEFT AND MAKE THE BEST OF IT!!!!!!

LOVE YA

KIM

Clarke, I just went to Classic Postings and Advice and read and printed out "The letter From Your Brain"......

I also intend to take a copy of it to my doctor..

Sometimes we need to remind ourselves it is an injury...there may not be scars on the outside to show but it was an injury.

We may not have led the healthiest lives, or had to much stress but it was definately not something we "asked" for. If for some reason you had another illness or other type of injury....would you beat yourself up?

There is a story in the Reader's Digest of a 14 year old boy in a school shooting, he tackled the shooter and got shot...had a stroke....will be a long recovery for him...look at how far you have come......

Bonnie

Clark,

I think that talk you just had with yourself was a damned good talk. You've got the talk down pat. Now, you just have to learn to walk the talk---or in other words, you're half way there, guy!!! There's a lot to be said for self-fullfilling prophecies, Clark. Keep talking to yourself.

Jean

I had a friend who was carer to her husband who was a paraplegic after a car accident. When Ray had the strokes in 1999 I asked her when you started to accept the changes in your life. She said after five years you start to accept the changes, after ten years you don't regularly look back to make the comparison.

Seems like a long time to go but we all get there one day at a time.

Sue.

our therapist told us the other day that once you accept that you have had a stroke and have incurred some changes in your life and realize that you will never be the same .... you must go on withlife and try to make the best of it,... and you will realize that you just do things differently and it may take longer but you can do it as I see you seem to be doing very well and have taken a new outlook on life ..keep up the good work..... if ever one was as able as you they would be very happy... good luck and hang in there