Stand Alone

I want to talk a bit about therapy not the kind you get in the hospital but in real life. As I said in a previous post get back to a normal life as soon as you can, just going through the motions helps your brain and body remember past movement. Don’t just sit there staring at the TV set do the things you used to enjoy like showering for one. It’s great therapy and your brain and body remember that well, use both hands to wash and scrub yourself but make sure you have installed a grab bar for support. Cooking, I enjoyed cooking up my own meals and I especially enjoyed making chicken stock for soups. Typing is good therapy too you need hand eye coordination and a repetitive motion and typing is good for you.
When I got out of the hospital my hand and brain didn’t work too well together. At first I was at loose ends because I just was focused on the skills I had lost and wondering when I’d get them back or would I even get them back. I was on an emotional roller-coaster reaching dizzying heights and down to the depths of despair. And the only relief I could get was in doing the exercises I was getting but that was now gone. So I had a lot of time to think and wonder and worry about my future and present. I was lucky enough that Lorri invited me to come stay with her awhile and time to heal without the pressure of everyday life. Little by little I got myself back into the rhythm of life again. I’d help her in the garden just carrying and emptying the buckets of weeds from the flower beds. Then I began raking the leaves in the small yard first. Then as I recovered more strength I began raking the leaves in the much larger back yard. I’d rake a small portion then sit and rest and get my strength back then rake some more then sit. Finally I got the whole backyard clear and I felt so good. Climbing the stairs was good for me too, there were two flight of stairs up from my room to the rest of the house. I had to climb those damn things four/five time a day but little by little the pain in my buttocks eased.
When I returned I started climbing the stair in my house, ten repetitions every day. Ditto when I went somewhere that had stairs until I got to the point that my leg remember climbing. No it’s not easy at first..., at firsts you feel like you are doing more harm than good but keep at it. It’s a good hurt and in the end you’ll feel more like yourself and so you’ll go on to try more things you used to do. Also don’t forget the internet, the internet is great practice for you brain connecting those memories and muscles in a new/old way. That’s what you have to do is to reconnect those pathways in your brain again. As I’ve said the stroke was like a landslide in my brain. It destroyed the familiar pathways I’d always use to get me though my life. The blockage was too big to blowup so I had to find a path around the blockage to get my life back. My arm and leg weren’t damaged they knew I could move but I wasn’t able to get the signal to them now. The muscles had atrophied in the months I was in recuperating and the only way to get them back was to use them again, remember that old saying use it or lose it? Well I had lost quite a bit and I had to start over and the first thing I had to exercise was my brain. I had to devise a plan to get my brain connected to my body again and I was kind of on my own to figure out what the next step was. Sure the therapy I received was great as far as it when but now I was on my own and that was much harder. But anything worth do is worth doing well and I kept that foremost in my mind. The other thing I kept trying to remember is to persevere that’s key to any recovery or any success. Keep trying no matter how difficult no matter how much pain it causes you. It the only way left..., never give up.