Great Lance Armstrong quote

"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with?"

— Lance Armstrong (It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life)

Ed found this when I was in Cheltenham hospital and we had up on my room wall!

Kate Allatt and Fighting Strokes

As my boys/menfolk well know I am not a huge fan of Facebook, however, if my sister Jenny had not read about Kate via a friend of hers/ours - Anna Hudson now Gowing, we would never have got in contact with each other.
Kate had a far worse stroke than me hers involved a clot on the brain stem which is known as Locked In Syndrome. It occurred last February and she walked out of hospital on sticks in October.

Kate has been an inspiration to me, we are both bloody minded and determined to beat this thing called stroke, and we encourage each other. As an outcome of her stroke Kate is starting a new charity called Fighting Strokes the logo and pic of us below. 

Kate has been nominated fo ra number of awards, has appeared in the Daily Mirror, Woman and Reveal magazines and has a number of TV programme appearances in the future. The charity is aimed at younger stroke survivors and those who have/had LIS.

FB link http://www.facebook.com/beatinglockedinsyndrome

A nice lunch at Blockley 28th March

Just done some more walking, up to the shop with Nik, nice lunch, jacket potato with avocado and prawns, something I longed for at OCE! capuccino and a moccachino for Nik, lovely day, good walking practice.

Oh the freedom

Walk round Blockley - 27th March

Today I walked from our house up past the Manor House, through the churchyard, past the shop, across the top of the park, met Andrew and Anita walking the dog, then back down past Northwick Terrace and back home!

Not bad considering this hilly Cotswold village, dead chuffed, good to be back home.

Back to normality, Nik went out on his bike.

Mon 24th Jan

Weighed myself 91.4kg. oops too much lovely hosp food!

In Physio Jen measured range and stretch of left leg, did some more squatting. In combined OT/physio Corinna and Jen tried new hand splint a Saebo stretch, and later I did some more walking just holding Jen or Roni’s arm.

Fri 21st Jan

In OT I did some mirror box work for 15 mins and also tried some typing on the computer doing 100 words then 150 words in 2 mins 25 secs.

In Physio I did squatting against the wall many times right arm in air strengthening left leg, then I walked in the parallel bars without a stick again, no hands! Walked up and down gym with Roni and Jen beside me and no stick, it flowed reasonably well! but hard going slept all the way home for weekend leave.

Thurs 20th Jan

A peaceful nights sleep no night manouevres, up at 7.15 and showered with minimal help.

In OT Corinna and I looked at my goals, mobility, driving, active recreation, and swimming,  in Physio I did all arm/leg stretches, calf and hamstring stretches.

Did some sit to stand practice, then walked with 4 wheel rolator type thing - trusty trolley and 5 mins mirror box therapy.

Tues 18th Jan OCE

(Nice 4am wake up call from Julie - loo).

Up early, well early’ish to do OT wash and dress with Corinna which I did fine, my only concern was walking back barefoot on the room floor which is slippy when wet I put my own leg splint on and learned to tie my laces one handed (with Becky’s help).
In physio I did some good walking techniques, weight bearing onto left leg bringing right leg through – happy tears at today’s session.

Ali (Senior Physio) and Jen did a RASP, this is and assessment of the sensitivity in my left leg and foot trying, hot, cold, sharp, dull. Jen has asked the Doc’s to look at my pain medication to see if pain can be lowered.

Went to OT social group and we did some painting we got into teams of 4, Ian Ian, Anne Marie and myself we decided to do an abstract painting just splashing the different colours of paint onto the canvas just like a Jackson Pollack!

In the afternoon I had two back to back sessions with Ruth psychologist and did all my cognitive assessments, which went well, she will report back on them and a copy report to Giles my GP. I saw Dr HS and mentioned the DVT stockings, he said talk to nurses.

Weds 19th Jan

6am wake up call from Julie going to loo, this time on commode in room – with no bed pan in it!  Called night nurse who came and mopped it up then sprayed air freshener in room to get rid of smell great for asthmatics!

Great physio on WII this morning, doing 10 pin bowling and all to do with balance and bending left knee, bending down and lunging forward.

More good physio in the afternoon did stretching exercises, sat on gym ball for balance and then walked thro the parallel bars – without my stick! That felt fantastic.  Blood test taken today INR 2.2. 7mg warfarin.

Mon 17th Jan at OCE

The ward had called me at the weekend to say I might be sharing up until now I’d had a room to myself so I asked who with, they said Anne Marie, who I had made friends with and knew so didn’t have a problem with it. I arrived in Monday morning to find I am now sharing a room with Julie. (of which more later!)

Today I did an OT/physio session and Jenny measured my arm and range of passive movements and measured up to do my own arm stretches.