I brew homemade beer. This is a multi-step process, First you boil 3 gallons of water with selected grains, malt extract and hops(wort), cool it down to 70 degrees to allow yeast to survive, add two gallons of water. The proper way to cool down the wort is to set the 5 gal. kettle in the sink with rafts of ice cubes. There is no way I can do this with a barely useable left arm/hand. So I siphon it into the fermenting bucket, filled with ice water. This of course introduces the possibility of contamination, but allows me to do this part by myself. The fermentation continues for 3-4 weeks and then is transferred to a glass carboy for final fermenting and settling of solids. Two weeks later after fermentation is done, the yeasties have eaten most of the sugar, turning it into alcohol. Siphon it to a bottling bucket, add 3/4 cup of sugar - This is to give the leftover yeasties something to chew on and carbonate the beer in the bottles. Bottles are filled and capped. I ask a friend over for this because the capper I have is a two-handed affair and it would take me forever to get it all done. The 5 gallons makes 48-50 bottles of beer. For the first 2 years I refrained from any alcohol because I thought it might slow up my recovery. Then I realized that recovery was going extremely slow anyway and I might as well enjoy a few brews during it. The current batch is raspberry and cherry stout. My coffee stout is better tasting. Oops, that experiment didn't work.

This is all about compensation rather than doing tasks to help recovery.

This article

Alcohol Consumption and Functional Outcome After Stroke in Men

at http://stroke.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/full/41/1/141

Selected lines are as follows:

A meta-analysis found that consuming less than 1 drink per day was associated with a significantly reduced risk of stroke compared to nondrinkers.

Light-to-moderate alcohol consumption has been associated with reduced risk of total and ischemic stroke. However, data on the relationship between alcohol consumption and functional outcomes from stroke are sparse.

Don't consider this an endorsement of alcohol being good for your recovery.

:beer:

Ask your doctor for guidance on this. Women you are on your own, sorry.