Mitch04

I had most of today to myself, as Jules went tol Melbourne to spend the day browsing the fashion shops with daughter Mia. So just as I decided to cook Moroccan meatballs, architect Ian dropped by for coffee, and stayed for an hour or so. Then I managed to get into cooking after he left. It takes me an age to cook these days, as having only one effective hand means I have to be careful with everything, specially the super sharp knives. I'm not much good at finely chopped onion, for example, unless I want to include some finger....which I don't! And while measuring out spices is easy, cracking an egg is still hard...without getting some shell into the pot as well! I guess most of we survivors who enjoy cooking have to adopt different ways of doing things to people who are not in the slightest disabled. But someow we manage. The meatballs are now cooked and sitting in the 'fridge until we have them for dinner tomorrow night (with salad and cous cous), as this evening we have been invited out to a wonderful couple, Ian and Simon, who live just down the street. Ian, who is an outstanding cook, still loves simple food so we are having corned beef, mashed potatoes and greens. Anyhow, I digress. After finishing the cooking I went for my half hour fast paced walk, and really felt it in my calfs, which are obviously still feeling yesterday's stair walking! But if I dont walk, the body starts to seize up, and Moochie the dog loves it. I wish I had her boundless energy!. When I got home I jumped in the car and did a quick tour of the food shops and bakeries as Jules' best friend is training it up from Melbourne tomorrow to spend the day with her, and she is a vegetarian. So Jules wanted me to check on which were the best looking vegetarian pasties and savoury tarts. So I have had an interesting day, and Jules arrives back at the Kyneton station at 4.30, where I will pick her up.

The book I got from the library yesterday is called "Explain Pain". Authors are David Butler and Lorimer Moseley. Publisher is Noigroup Publications. ISBN is 978-0-9750910-0-5. It's a terrific book for chronic pain sufferers....IMHO, that is!

Well said/written, Jay!

As the heading says, this was the way it was. Yesterday the bloody long steep hill......today it was the 15 minute walk before spending a horrendous 15 minutes pounding up and down steps of the race course grandstand. The calf muscles felt it first, then the knees. And then it was the lungs and heart. But.....I feel better for it.....or so I like to think. And today I remembered the chest/heart monitor and the wrist gizmo. Sadly, I forgot I was wearing them until late afternoon! ;-( Tomorrow I do the brisk 30 minute walk. And then it's back to the bloody hill again. And I am doing all this torture in the named of medical research. Though I admit that I am also doing it for the betterment of my health. I also went to the library today and borrowed a book called "Pain" which initially looked like a kids cartoon type of publication.....but as they say: Never judge a book by its cover. It's damn good. Can't remember which ppl wrote it, but as it's in the study some distance away, and as it's after 11.00pm, and as it's bloody cold....you will all have to wait until tomorrow when I get myself out of bed and blog again. Then I can give you all the details. G'night zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

My fitness program would make most of you blanch....including me. I have made it so hard for myself by nominating tough roads and grandstands.....and had I realised what I was doing, I would have nominated different streets and grandstands!!!! Firstly, I have to wear a heart monitor around my chest, and this "talks" to a gizmo on my wrist....and records my heart rate, distances I have gone and time it has taken. I have, during the first month, three programs, and they all alternate daily 6 days a week (Yes, I get to rest on Sunday's!!!). 1) walking at a fast pace for 30 minutes and getting my heart rate up to 140 and not allowing it to drop below 98. 2) walking for 15 minutes and then climbing the stairs at the racecourse grandstand for 15 minutes before doing another fast paced 15 minute walk. 3) walking up Brocklebank drive (very steep and long) and back along Wedge street to Jeffrey street Kyneton, and taking 45 minutes or less. Once again, getting the heart rate up to the levels I have already mentioned. I started backwards today by doing number (3) first, and forgot to wear the bloody heart rate monitor. Hell, it was hard work. I was starting to weave a little as I entered the home stretch. The second month is more of the above, but faster.... And the third month is.....you guessed it.....more of the above but faster.

You are correct. Maybe even on day one I tried too hard.....'cepting I totally forgot to wear my heart monitor around my chest and the gizmo it talks to around my wrist! And BTW, it's great to see you in here, Heather!!!

I have seen my fitness physio and my sleep guy. And I wonder what I have left myself in for. It's too late tonight to go into my new regime, but I will try to fill you all in tomorrow. But my sleep person..... 1Canesfan, he is meant to be helping with improving my sleep. I have had, in the past, a notoriously poor sleep record, often recording just between 3-5 hours a night instead of the traditional 8 hours. A lot of this has been because I have an active and creative mind (I used to sleep with a pen and pad next to my bed to write down ideas during the night); I used to go to sleep with the radio on (ear plugs in each ear); I used to read each night, often until 12.30-1.30 am; and at my age I used to take my meds before hitting the sack, wash them down with water, and then wonder why I used to wake 1-2 times each night to go to the toilet for a leak! Now, if you are anything like as smart as my wife, you would have said, "Whoa, Johnno!!! Can't you see all of these things are destroying whatever pathetic sleep pattern you have?????" And you would have been correct! But me being me, I required a sleep therapist to tell me. So..... ..Taking my meds just after tea instead of shortly before I go to bed (3 hours earlier, at least) and only a small sip of water to wash them down. ..No more radio ear plugs in the ears when I turn off the light. ..Reading just for 15 minutes before turning off the light. ..No more pen and pad next to the bed. I also have a nasty habit of nodding off to sleep in front of TV most nights, and dozing for 30-60 minutes. Now I take an afternoon nap (30 minutes, and no more); my wife has my approval to poke me in the ribs when I nod off; and if I do nod off, after being poked in the ribs I have to go for a walk around the house/room several times. All this sounds sooooo simple, doesn't it? But I could never see it until the sleep therapist explained it to me. Now my wife is laughing, and I am in a deep state of great embarrassment! The end result of all this is that my nightly sleep has risen from 3-5 hours to 5-7 hours. I hope this helps answer your question. :-)

Never write your blog when it is past 11 pm. I have just read my previous blog and found a litany of errors caused mainly by predictive text and my up attention. I'm surprised people didn't leave rude comments aimed fairly and squarely at me. I deserved it. Tomorrow I go to Melbourne to meet with my fitness physio for the first time, and to have my second meeting with my sleep therapist. I understand the fitness physio is putting me through a stress test to determine how fit - or unfit - I am and based on the results will formulate a daily fitness regime for me. It involves riding a bicycle with the instructor increasing the load factor regularly as I pedal like a demented person! This will be interesting. I am not one normally given to regimes of any kind ! But I am willing to try it. Then I see my sleep therapist to determine how my sleeping has been going. Actually it has improved a little, particularly since I stopped using my earphones radio. I have my sleep diary to show him. All this has to do with a research program being run by a couple of large universities/hospitals over here - Monash and Epworth and is aimed at seeing how exercise and sleep affect those with brain injuries. And I'm looking forward to my involvement. I'll report on the outcomes of tomorrow's two sessions...... tomorrow. We went for a walk around 9.30 this morning, and then had a mighty big breakfast of the bacon I had purchased yesterday, and eggs, fried tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms. Then we worked in the garden again, although Jules did the vast bulk of work, as I was wandering between the great outdoors and my office where I had computer work to do. Oh, and I once again fetched wood and lit the fire. Plus going to the supermarket. So all in all, it was a typical Sunday.

The National Stroke Foundation's StrokeConnect website has closed and been replaced by www.enableme.com.au .... a stupid site that cost the earth and few if any of the old contributors, me included, understand it. ElizabethC told me about this wonderful site. :-)

I'll put up some pics when I am able. Just got to figure out how to do it.

Hear, hear! I used to keep all my appointments in my head and rarely used a diary. But these days.......

Great read, Jayallen!

A fascinating blog, and a great read!

I agree about exercise. If for some reason I can't exercise for 2-3 days the body starts to close down.

Jules is continuing to get over her fainting dramas and 8 hour hospitalisation.....by working like a Trojan in the garden, and demanding that I do the same. So I did. It's now after 11 pm, so it's late to be doing my blog. But from the outset I wanted to point out that I hate predictive text and apologise for the way it might alter the meaning of this entry..... This morning we made a trip to the manure dump (yes, we live near a race course which has numerous stables nearby) and collected two large plastic bins of horse dung and returning home to empty it on the new section of garden. Then it was in the car again and I drove into the race course proper and around to a large section of fabulously good soil and loaded the plastic bins again. Then it was home to spread the soil and the manure. I drove to the men's shed for lunch and to meet with the blokes again for about 90 minutes and then returned home to help Jules dig three large holes for Tilia trees that she wanted to plant. And that took a lot out of me, I can tell you. After, I made coffee while Jules dug a series of smaller holes in which she planted 10 hydrangea plants. Then we both tidied up the gardening tools, and while Jules showered I did a quick pass by the local supermarket and purchased milk (Jules and I spoil ourselves each Saturday morning at least with a large glass of iced coffee that I make in the blender) and some bacon as a special treat for breakfast in Sunday. Finally, while I enjoyed the day, I know it makes dreary reading and former at I apologise. PS: I had a telephone call early evening from the physio in Melbourne who is giving me the stress test on Monday, so that's all fixed. I see her at 1.00 pm and my sleep specialist at 2.00 pm. Ohhh....and Sydney beat Collingwood in the Australian Rules footy match this evening.

Thanks, everyone. I truly appreciate your comments and encouragement. Jules' eye is still purple-pink...but the swelling has almost gone down and the color is slowly fading. But there is often no fun in growing old!!!

Thanks, Sandy.

Tks, Asha and Elizabeth and It was scary. Luckily Jules was taken to a large regional hospital, and not to the major Melbouirne hospital, as I doubt if I would have handled the drive, traffic, parking and walking anywhere nearly as well.

As stroke survivors, some things are sent to test us. This morning at 5.55 I awoke to hear my wife vomiting in the ensuite bathroom. I called was she OK, and received a "yes". As she walked back to bed she said she felt dreadful, and before even managing to get between the sheets, she had to return to the bathroom. The next I hear is a loud crashing sound, and leapt out of as best I could, opened the bathroom door and found Jules unconscious on the floor. She had landed on her head, her left eyebrow had split, and she was bleeding. As I dragged her into a sitting position she came to, and I managed to get her to her feet and dragged her back to bed. As I checked her eyebrow, she fell forward, eyes rolling in their sockets and passed out again. As she came to for the second time, I told her I was calling an ambulance, at which she started wailing not to. But I did anyway. The long and the short of it was that we finished with three ambulances outside the front door and 7 paramedics in the house. Jules was taken by ambulance to Bendigo (about 80km) and I followed in the Subaru about 45 minutes later. The reason for the passing out? Jules had vomited so much she had become dehydrated. And she was taken to Bendigo because of the egg sized lump on her head where she had fallen, and Kyneton did not have the right Xray equipment. Jules stayed in hospital all day, but now she is home again. She has one hell of a black left eye, a bruised right rear leg and a headache....but apparently not any bad concussion. But it can come as a shock when the carer becomes the patient, and the patient becomes the carer.....specially when paramedics, hospitals, split eyebrows, and fainting is involved....not to mention blood. When we returned home, I lit the fire (another cold Kyneton night) and made soup and toasted muffins...a simple meal but sufficient after such an eventful day. But my experience just shows how a stroke survivor can become a carer if he or she bewlieves in himself or herself, and can maintain an ordered mind. It would have been easy to panic and to have gone to water. Living on a corner does not help....all of our immediate neighbours go to work very early, have small children or are geriatrics. So I knew it was up to me and no-one else. And Jules today? She looks like she has gone 10 rounds with George Foreman, as she has a wonderful "shiner"! But it hasn't stopped her from working in the garden.

The worse thing about a stroke is that it robs one of strength and endurance......and nowhere is this more so in Kyneton in winter. Especially when one has unlimited access to magnificent burnable red gum trees just waiting to be felled. But with no trailer nor a car with a tow bar, and with no strength or endurance, and having lost the use of one arm, and having no chainsaw anyway, I have to pay through my damn nose to buy wood at $150 per cubic metre. God. If I had the strength to use a chainsaw, plus had a car and a trailer, my winters would be more blissful than they are at present. And I would sure have more money in my pocket. I regularly suggest to Jules that chainsaws are cheap. And she always says I am not allowed to buy one. So we are reliant on other means to get our wood. And the reason why I complain tonight is because we are almost out of wood, and what little remains I have to make do with until Friday at the earliest. Yes. Winters in Kyneton are miserable, and they don't get better the longer one experiences them. They just get worse. But enough of my grumbling. Today was fruitful. I raked up all the debris that had blown off our giant claret ash tree; went for a 40 minute walk; dropped papers off at the doctor; helped Jules entertain Ian when he dropped by for morning tea; went to the chemist and collected my scripts; drove over to our storage shed and helped a local charity rake a sofa bed off our hands, as well as other odds and ends; helped Jules with some savage pruning, and put the rubbish bins out for collection. Oh...and plus some computer work and telephone calls. Doesn't sound much, I know. But it did me in. Last night the sleep went ok. Turned off the light at 12.30 am, woke for a leak at 3.50, got back to sleep at 4.20, and didn't wake again til 7.55. Not bad for me. Almost 7 hours sleep on my calculation!

It's been 2-3 days since I last blogged, so better late than never. Friday Jules and I drove from home to Melbourne (1 hr 15 min and about 90km) so I could hav my first real mtg with a bloke from the Monash Epworth Research division which is doing a study into ppl with brain injury like yours truly, and it revolves around two areas: sleep and fatigue. I saw the bloke concerned with sleep, and as I have a dreadful sleep pattern (most nights I get 3-5 hours of interrupted zeds) I was a natural. We discussed the whys and my goals, and arrived at possible reasons for my poor sleep: ..Active mind. ..I go to sleep with my radio on (ear plugs). ..I have on average one wee trip. ..Maybe a lack of proper exercise. ..The unknown effect of my 3 strokes. ..My habit of generally falling asleep in front of TV most nights for 30-60 minutes, and this recharging my batteries so that I remain awake or Ng after Jules has gone to sleep. So.....can't do much about the active mind and the effect of strokes. But I can play a role in the others, so I have resolved: ..Not to use my radio ear plugs when I go to bed. ..To have my medication earlier at night, and not to drink too much water when I take them (currently I have the medication around 11 pm followed by a full glass of water). Hopefully this will prevent the toilet trips. ..To examine my exercise regime and to formulate a more effective one following my appointment with the Monash-Epworth phys ed examiner. ..To instruct Jules to poke me in the ribs each time I nod off in front of TV, and maybe try afternoon naps to see if they help stop my habit each night. It all sounds so simple. But when Adam, the researcher, drew an image/diagram showing my poor sleep habits as a central circle, with each of the 6 potential reasons as to why my sleep habits are so poor as smaller circles radiating from the central circle I wondered why it was that I had been so stupid as to not see the "WHY" myself!!!!!!! Anyhow, I am seeing Adam in about a fortnight, and between now and then I am keeping a sleep diary to track whether my sleeping is getting better, remaining the same, or getting worse. I have set several goals: ..To try to achieve 6-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep each night. ..To stop falling asleep in front of TV each night. ..To no longer use the radio and ear plugs. Now I have to also have to undergo a stress test with the phys ed researcher and try to end (well, at least lower) the degree to which fatigue affects my every day life. The physical fatigue is a whole lot worse than the mental fatigue, which doesn't affect me anywhere near as much. Apart from all the above, life continues as per usual. The Kyneton Farmers' Market was today, so Jules and I went, with Jules buying three trees and some grasses. We subsequently went to the supermarket and purchased food as Jules wants tandoori lamb cutlets for dinner. I've lit the fire as it is again cold, and our next door neighbour has been in as she returned from Bali this morning. She was lucky, as Australian operators Virgin and Jetstar cancelled their flights due to volcanic material in the atmosphere....but the operator she chose - Garuda, the Indonesian airline, flies through anything no matter the danger!!!! And last night our football team, the Adelaide Crows, won its match against higher rated Richmond....so the team is back in the top eight again.

Delightful word image!

I feel so sorry for the carers. And I also feel so proud of them. They should all get medals. Ppl who have not suffered a stroke, or been impacted by stroke, cannot fully understand what affect it has.

I agree, Jay. Since my strokes and near death experiences I have grown to appreciate the seasons more, and while I still loathe winter, I live for the days when I can feel the warmth of the sun on my back.

The freezing weather continues. It's getting Jules and I down. The summer was mild, so why inflict us with a severe winter???? Everyone is complaining about it. And I really feel it, both in my stiffness and in the way in hampers my style in being able to go outdoors and walk. I need the exercise. Without the exercise the body starts to shut down. Had a good meeting at the Men's Shed today, followed by a better than usual sausage sizzle on the BBQ. But apart from that there is again little to report. I made dinner this evening, however, and it was delicious....Moroccan meatballs in a spicey sauce....and there is enough left over for dinner tomorrow night. The only downer was going to sleep in front of TV yet again, although only for 15-20 minutes. Maybe it is because of my pathetic sleeping habits. I woke this morning at 4 am after going to sleep about 12.30 am. And I didn't get back to sleep again until about 6.00 am only to wake again about 7.30 am. That makes it a total of about 5 hours sleep - which for me is a little better than usual but still not great. I have never been a good sleeper, but since my three strokes the sleep has decreased even further. On Friday morning I have an appointment in Melbourne with a researcher from Monash, one of the big hospitals, which is undertaking a study into sleep and stroke, and exercise and stroke. I put my name down to become a "guinea pig" and was selected. Hopefully I may be able to help the study, and the study might be able to help me.