August - Olympics and Paralympics

w/c 6th

I was due to visit my befriendee in Cheltenham he cancelled due to an OT visit, I went over to see Dan for an hour, I have a really bad achy left foot so I did some Vibrogym work no treadmill, Dan thought it was my plantar fasciitis. I lifted 4kg weights with my right arm and tried my left arm too except it couldn’t hold 3 or 4 kg weight.

When I came home Charles called to say he maybe down earlier than expected as his Dad had had a heart attack whilst working on way back from London. Nik was driving back from Scotland so diverted back to Charles’s and picked him up and brought him down to ours, as his Dad is in the JR at Oxford, so with Val’s help we went over to see his Dad that evening, what a day!

I got into see my Doc the following day, he checked out my foot and I apparently have gout! Great, taken off one lot of medication and given another, I didn’t go to the Connect meeting as I was taking Charles to visit his Dad, he had 2 stents in and came out on the Friday with his heart not as badly damaged as first thought.

Ed is dog sitting a lovely black Labrador called Molly this week, she is lovely, very well behaved, and in season!

On the Saturday Nik and Ed did their first proper 10k race at Moreton Morrell, and they both did really well, Ed doing just over the hour 1hr 1 min and Nik did 1 hr 20 mins, Andrew came to help me in the wheelchair, and we took Molly. It was a nice day, we were able to sit out in garden and have lunch.

Sunday, we went to Batsford and had a nice lunch and a walk around the garden centre we saw Marianne and Mike with Hector the dog.

w/c 13^th

Catch up with stuff Monday, did some crm, searched jobs website.

Over to Dan with Ed, having worked on my leg/legs for a year we’re going to look at getting the arm working, and also my foot is still aching from whatever is wrong with it, so I did some Vibrogym, and the TRX rip trainer for my arm strength.

Young Stroke network meeting at a new venue, Wootton Hall Social club, good meeting, Ed came with me and I took him to the shopping centre in Gloucester to pre order FIFA13, and I drove on the motorway for the first time, there and back!

Lewis’s 12^th birthday, gave him a call and wished Happy Birthday, Hal has his results and got 3 passes.

Went back to see the Doc about my foot and he reckons it might now be Morton’s neuroma, so he injected some steroid in it between big and second toe. I was interviewed and so was Ed by Radio Gloucs for their Tuesday morning breakfast show, discussing younger stroke survivors and stroke services in Gloucs.

Saturday night Ed working Nik and I decided to go to the cinema to see ’Wedding Video’, however, my left foot was so bad that we ended up going to A&E at Cheltenham, had my foot x-rayed, got some codeine and more gout tablets, and missed the film! Great evening in Cheltenham A&E comparable to the mutants bar in Star Wars, why did the drunk choose to sit next to me and tell me about his pancreatic cancer!

w/c 20^th

An hour with Dan on Tuesday and because of my foot pain had a small go on the I had a go with the Im-AbleX computer game rehab equip for my left arm/hand, because of my aching foot.

 

My car had its first service, I can’t believe I‘ve had it almost a year now, where did that time go?!

On Thursday I went to the OCE to get some more botox, more put into my left hand and arm this time let’s hope we get some more action with it.

w/c 27^th

Bank Holiday, Ed worked lots over the weekend. Nik and I went for a picnic which was nice to do.

On my hour’s session with Dan I did some more Im Able work.

On Wednesday I went to the John Radcliffe (JR) to have my baseline assessment for the electrical stimulation research I am doing with them for 2 weeks in September, all went well, there’s going to be a good lot of work/physio on my left arm/hand, and they tried TMS on my head as pic below shows! We collected Charles from Oxford station, as he’s coming down to the Paralympics with us on Friday.

Back to my own GP again on Thursday to see what could be done about my foot, it does seem like a Morton’s neuroma, I can’t have any more steroid injection for 3 weeks.

Friday – well what can I say, I have so looked forward to this day, after seeing such fantastic sport with the Olympics. We drove down and parked up in blue badge parking in Westfield. First of all we met up with Ellie and Michael and shared a nice bottle of Laurent Perrier rose at the champagne bar, a great day to start our Paralympics day.

 

We had a good walk around the park, along the river, a trip to the megastore where we all bought T shirts, memories of our fab day.

We made our way to the Olympic stadium, the seats I had booked were quite high up and no lifts available so we were able to swap them for better seats quite easily, the whole process was very smooth and well organised, a truly amazing, inspiring and humbling day.

 

To add icing on our cake, on the way out we met Tanni Grey-Thompson and I had a great chat with her, she remembered meeting at the Cotswolds Conference Centre in Broadway 4/5 years ago, told her about my stroke , I asked if she knew if there were any stroke survivors taking part, she didn’t know but did say there were some ‘hemi’s’ taking part – hemiplegics- made my day!

A great end to my August.