World Stroke Day: October 29th 2012

Stroke Solidarity String

Join the global fight against stroke
One in every six people in the world will have a stroke. In the UK, someone has a stroke every five minutes. Stroke can happen to anyone, at any time. And it is devastating.
Saving millions of lives and preventing lifetimes of severe disability start with awareness. The Stroke Solidarity String is the new symbol of global stroke awareness.
The Stroke Solidarity String is a blue string that wraps around your wrist three times to form a bracelet. The string will make stroke visible to the general public and help to unify the stroke community. It says to people “if stroke is in your family, join ours”.
The Stroke Association is launching the Stroke Solidarity String on 29 October 2012 to mark World Stroke Day. Be the first to champion beating this killer disease that’s been ignored for too long and get your Stroke Solidarity String now.
Wear it, show it, share it.

You can get further details from: The Stroke Association web-site:  ttp://www.stroke.org.uk/


 or Facebook page.

October 22nd - October 30th

This period of time has proved to be a rather busy one for me. I have met up with friends, had appointments and also been out to the theatre.
Whilst all of this has been good for me mentally, I have begun to feel rather tired and am resting when necessary and going to bed earlier than usual.
This busy time began with a visit from an ex-work colleague, what a lot we had to catch up on and before we knew it we had chatted for three hours! I have to concede that this did leave me slightly light-headed and I needed to be quiet for a spell afterwards. After all this time, it is amazing that I cannot cope with the intensity of these situations.
The following day, an old acquaintance visited, but this time for a shorter period of time. I am a people person and I do miss opportunities to socialise but am not down-hearted about it.
I like to visit our weekly market and am now able to do light shopping without too much difficulty.
 (During December the town hosts a two day Christmas Market where local produce and crafts are on sale. The week-end ends with a firework finale.)
I have joined a local Chairobics class, which is a sit down low impact exercise class. This week was my first visit and it was customised to meet the needs of individuals. I coped very well and do not seem to have had any adverse effects.
At the weekend we met up with long standing friends at a town half way to where we both live. The day was gloriously sunny and after a pub lunch we wandered around the town's street market.
I had decided a few weeks ago that my next challenge was to do a supermarket shop on my own and I achieved this earlier in the week. I took a bus to the supermarket and managed to leisurely wander around all the store and look at what was on offer, this seemed to be a real treat for me and was the first time that I had done this alone since having my stroke. Once I had finished my husband collected me.
Yesterday I had an appointment at the Botox clinic. Once again a discussion ensued about my progress since the last injection. It is reasonable to say that over the last three or four weeks I have noticed that my arm and fingers are more relaxed than they have been at any other time: more relaxed for longer periods and as yet rather unaffected by the cold weather. So it was decided that this was not the right time for injection No. 4.
Each time Botox is administered it weakens the muscles and so it has to be given when absolutely necessary or it can cause adverse effects.
This period has been a satisfying one: I have caught up with friends, been out almost daily and achieved my first supermarket shop. I am not too sure what my next challenge or task will be . . I'm still pondering!

Summer to Autumn

The summer here in the U.K. was pretty amazing:

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee, marking 60 years of The Queen's reign, took place during the first week-end of June. Next came the Olympics, quickly followed by the Paralympics.

There was a feel good factor about the place and the Paralympians certainly raised awareness about the lives of disabled people and there seemed to be a shift in public attitude. Whilst I was shopping, just after the Paralympics had finished, I heard 2 youngsters trying to decide what my disability is. I hope that the awareness will continue.

At the current time I seem to be in an impasse, but I have learned over time not to worry about this. I continue to exercise, but have been remiss in wearing my "foot up" splint.
I have worn the splint most days since being discharged from hospital in August 2009. It is designed to keep my foot straight or better placed whilst walking. During the spring of this year, however, I decided that as my walking was vastly improved I perhaps no longer needed this aid. . . How wrong could I have been, after a few  months I began to experience pain in my right knee and began to be concerned that I would need an arthroscopy. My G.P. referred me for physiotherapy and after a few weeks wait attended my appointment. After a session of exercise, a discussion ensued where it became all too apparent that I had made the wrong judgement call regarding the splint. I began to wear it again and the pain ceased and I found that I could walk distances without any hassle. I did not connect the two actions at all.
It is not the most glamorous of "appliances" to wear, but I have learned a big lesson in all of this.

The weather has been pretty dire during the summer, being very wet and grey. My body does not seem to cope with the cold and damp and I find that my arm and neck can hurt, probably due to the effect on nerves and tendons. I now wear a scarf around my neck and to preserve body heat wear a hat. Also wearing sensible shoes and thick socks stops the cold rising up through the body.These simple ideas do seem to help and are the ones that I have recently found to be useful.