Had to dust down my blog as I wanted to tell you all something that happened to me yestersday. A story about stroke recovery.

I go to a weekly execise class for younger strtoke suvivors. Meant to be up to age of 60. It has been running for about two years. i hav e been going fairly regularly. The numbers have slowly dwindle as people have gone back to work.so now there is a core of three or four.

When I went in yesterday there was a women whom I met two years ago.Then she was almost a year out of stroke. She was in bad way she was right side affected, she could hardly walk, her arm was in some sort of contraption and she had very very little speeech, she had difficult understanding what was being said. Actually I should correct that she understood every thing but couldnt elicite the right response...she said(nodded )no when she meant yes..( sounds familiar to some I know).

Yesterday, she could walk reasonbly well...with an AFO, could use her right arm to carry light things. She had limited use of her right hand. But she still had virtually no speech. Her only word seemed to be "ah ha" which can be used to say yes here. She does have cognitive problems as well.. not talking to fast, more than one person speaking etc.

Now I was desparatly keen to talk to her as I know what it is like to be in her situation. I was never as bad as her, but when I have a conversation I rely on the other person doing a lot of the talking, I say as little as possible. yesterday the tables turned she relied on me doing the talking and I had to think of ways to ask questions that required a yes or no answer....which now she can do well. She wanted to tell us something about chocolate biscuits....we never did find out what she meant.

I just hope she enjoyed the company and will come again.

On the positive side she had made so much progress in the three years since her stroke.It is just a pity her speech hadnt improved at the same rate. A lot of her improvement seemed to come in inyear 2 and 3, so that puts the six month rule out of the window.

Another women there is 5 years out of stroke. We were doing floor exercises and she was not able to get down on to the floor with out help and couldnt get up again until her husband lifted her up .I was suprised at that because she is mobile with a stick, tho I think she use a wheelchair at times. I thought learning how to get up again was something the physios taught you before you came home. Everyone is bound to fall. Certainly they made sure I could get up. But if her husband has always lifted her, she probably didnt see the need

Just goes to show as has been said lots of times no two strokes are the same and the rate of recovery is so different

Once again I counted my blessings

Mary :chat: