Well a happy holiday season to all! My good news is that Lesley is coming back Jan 1. The family has all settled down in New Zealand, The son and granddaughters have a place of their own again living their own life, and Lesley has come to be of the opinion that it makes no sense for her to work in New Zealand to support herself when she could be here in Minnesota retired. She has resigned from the hospital here and is now officially retired. So, the first flight she can get out is Dec 24th, then a week in California with an aunt, then HOME!

Mum has decided to stay in NZ afterall. She initially said she would come back with Lesley, but in the end just couldn't bring herself to leave her country of 87 years. Can't say as I blame her. Unfortunately this means that if she becomes incapable of self care, the only option is a government nursing home since there is nobody else to look after her. She says she understands that possibility, but that is the way she wants it.

My friend Mike was officially diagnosed as having had another stroke, a hemmoragic one. The good news is that he seems to be fully recovered, and no new deficits. Is riding his bike again, and seems to be back to his old self.

I have been trying not to put on weight since Lesley has been gone, but with all the invites by friends to come over and eat, it has been a challenge. Over Thanksgiving I was invited out Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I was about turkeyed out by Saturday. Christmas looks as though it will be equally challenging as I have three invites I will be trying to juggle. Don't know what it is, sure can't be the good looks.

I have sorted out the problems with my left (stroke side) shoulder. The doc sent me to PT, thinking it was a frozen shoulder. Turns out it was just muscle tone in the upper chest and arm itself. Three weeks of pt and it is now better that it has ever been since my stroke. The pt thinks I had just gotten too aggressive with the strengthening exercises with the Bowflex and triggered spasticity again. So I am doing EXACTLY what he says now, no more, no less. He released me yesterday from further therapy with a promise that I will continue with his slow plan to keep it getting better. Three years now post stroke, and just now figuring it out. I always said I am a slow learner. It takes time, but NEVER give up. It can keep getting better. No problem carrying the canoe this coming summer! A good thing because now that Lesley is retired she and I plan several camping trips into the wilderness with tents, canoe and such.

I think I now have a good idea what caused my stroke. It was never diagnosed at the time. All the usual things were checked and were good. But since then I have found out I get A-fibularation when I get the heart beating too fast. I wne thru a full stress test and it was diagnosed. I have since found out an effect of it can be a clot forming in one of the heart chambers and having a clear path to the brain. Well, three days before my stroke I helped a friend cut and pull a Christmas tree out of the woods. It was a huge tree and we had to pull it out thru deep snow. I had to stop every 100 feet or so to catch my breath, heart racing. I now think that I was in A-fib then but didn't know it, and likely formed a clot unknowingly, and stroked three days later. Now I am on a beta blocker to slow the heart down, and plavix of course. Now that I know about the problem, I keep the heart rate down, and have slowed my exercise biking to keep the rate below 100, instead of the 130+ I used to get it up to. I now wonder if I could go off the Plavix, since I am aware of the problem and just don't get the rate that high anymore.. My doc says NO. So I am not being bull headed about it and am still on the plavix.

Anyway, my coffee cup is empty, and longtime readers know what that means.