Nominations are now open for the Life After Stroke Awards 2013.
Whether they are a stroke survivor, carer, volunteer or professional,
let them know how remarkable they are by nominating them for a Stroke
Association Life After Stroke Award!
Visit http://www.stroke.org.uk/LASA to nominate.
Friday, 30 November 2012
Wednesday, 31 October 2012
World Stroke Day: October 29th 2012
Stroke Solidarity String
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!
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!
Monday, 15 October 2012
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.
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.
Monday, 20 August 2012
Nine Weeks: 15th June - 17th August 2012
These last few weeks have been pretty amazing:
First of all my holiday in Canada, which saw us travel from West to East. During the holiday we settled into a routine of geting up at 7.45/8 a.m. and travelling from around 10 a.m to 5p.m. except for our last week in Winnipeg which was more relaxed.
If anyone is interested in my holiday I am writing a blog: http://canadianescape.blogspot.co.uk/
On our return I was quite poorly with a urine infection and had three consecutive courses of antibiotics before I finally got rid of it. This made me extremely tired and I had to just have some quiet relaxation. The pains began on the return plane journey from Toronto, so I know that I have been extremely lucky to have had one amazing holiday, which was a huge undertaking, without any problems.
On the 10th August, the town where I live hosts the 10 day FEVA festival. Festival of Entertainment & Visual Arts. http://www.feva.info/
I am a great supporter of this event and duly made my choices of which events I would and support. My sister came to stay for a few days and amongst the events we visited some of the art exhibitions.
It was good to have the company and also share this festival with.
Although I am reasonably independent threre still places that are inaccessible to me on my own. I don't let this perturb me too much, there is nothing to gain by worrying about the uncontrollables. I am just grateful when the opportunity presents itself to do something different.
I am now feeling physically very tired, and have been spending my time reading, but rest assured that I wouldn't have changed anything that I have done or achieved over the last few weeks.
In my eyes this is a very small price to pay for all the enjoyment.
Monday, 6 August 2012
Thought For The Day . . .
I have just been reading about a 21 year old girl who had a Stroke 9 months ago, and how her life has been turned upside down.
She has relearned to walk and although she knows that life will never be the same she simply says that "she is lucky to be alive".
I wish her well and know that the 3 P's will get her though it:
Persistance
Patience
Perseverence
She has relearned to walk and although she knows that life will never be the same she simply says that "she is lucky to be alive".
I wish her well and know that the 3 P's will get her though it:
Persistance
Patience
Perseverence
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
Post Holiday and Botox 3
This year, after discussing it for many years, we finally got to go to Canada.
Something has always got in the way, not least the Stroke which I have been unlucky enough to get.
I spent the winter and spring planning the trip, laying out maps, highlighting prospective routes and then deciding where our overnight stopovers should be. I read guide books and made lists of the necessary items to take eg: three and a half weeks of medication.
We flew from Manchester to Vancouver on June 15th and spent two nights there before transferring to Victoria, Vancouver Island for two nights, returning to Vancouver for one further night and then collected a hire car. We had the car for twelve nights and travelled 1650 miles through Whistler, Penticton, the Okanagen Valley to Kamloops and then from Jasper to Banff before returning the car at Calgary.
Our last stop was a week with a cousin in Winnipeg.
So
we have travelled through British Columbia to Alberta, flown over Saskatchewan
to Manitoba and flown over Ontario! A West to East Fest if you pardon
my enthusiasm.
Indeed, not quite a relaxing holiday, but all the preparation meant that the holiday went without any problems.
My health stood up to the rigours of the travelling, which meant getting up around 7.45/8.00 daily and being on the road by 10.00am I have to admit that since our return on July 10th I have been extremely tired and have not quite got back to what constitutes normal these days.
The day that we flew home from Toronto was by coincidence the third anniversary of my Stroke. Who would ever have thought at that time that I would be able to undertake such a holiday. Certainly not me!
A Stroke can affect a person in a number of ways, but I always tell people that it is not the end of life, but the beginning of a new way. Go for it!
I had a phone call more or less on our return inviting me to the Botox clinic again. This time after much discussion I had No. 3 injection, this time into my lower arm which will aid my fingers as they had started to "claw" again. Botox will never be a cure, but it relaxes the muscles enabling exercises to progress.
The Doctor stated how she had noticed the improved range of my wrist and arm: this in turn spurs me on to keep up with daily exercises.
All is continuing to go in the right direction and I have to be prepared to take every opportunity that is given to me.
Even on my holidays I kept up with exercises, although we did sometimes get odd looks from people as we did the exercises at bus stops, on the beach . . .
Something has always got in the way, not least the Stroke which I have been unlucky enough to get.
I spent the winter and spring planning the trip, laying out maps, highlighting prospective routes and then deciding where our overnight stopovers should be. I read guide books and made lists of the necessary items to take eg: three and a half weeks of medication.
We flew from Manchester to Vancouver on June 15th and spent two nights there before transferring to Victoria, Vancouver Island for two nights, returning to Vancouver for one further night and then collected a hire car. We had the car for twelve nights and travelled 1650 miles through Whistler, Penticton, the Okanagen Valley to Kamloops and then from Jasper to Banff before returning the car at Calgary.
Our last stop was a week with a cousin in Winnipeg.
Indeed, not quite a relaxing holiday, but all the preparation meant that the holiday went without any problems.
My health stood up to the rigours of the travelling, which meant getting up around 7.45/8.00 daily and being on the road by 10.00am I have to admit that since our return on July 10th I have been extremely tired and have not quite got back to what constitutes normal these days.
The day that we flew home from Toronto was by coincidence the third anniversary of my Stroke. Who would ever have thought at that time that I would be able to undertake such a holiday. Certainly not me!
A Stroke can affect a person in a number of ways, but I always tell people that it is not the end of life, but the beginning of a new way. Go for it!
I had a phone call more or less on our return inviting me to the Botox clinic again. This time after much discussion I had No. 3 injection, this time into my lower arm which will aid my fingers as they had started to "claw" again. Botox will never be a cure, but it relaxes the muscles enabling exercises to progress.
The Doctor stated how she had noticed the improved range of my wrist and arm: this in turn spurs me on to keep up with daily exercises.
All is continuing to go in the right direction and I have to be prepared to take every opportunity that is given to me.
Even on my holidays I kept up with exercises, although we did sometimes get odd looks from people as we did the exercises at bus stops, on the beach . . .
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