heathber

Sounds like a good priest. Glad to hear all clear on those results. The waiting is the worst part. No matter how much you tell yourself "it's not worth worrying, cross that bridge when you get there" it's so hard to take your own advice. Let's not be "interesting" for a while!!

Janelle Change is hard. But the one thing in life you can be sure of other than death is that things will change. So learning to accept and embrace change is a survival skill. I do hope your son finds a way to learn to work with change as a good thing.

Tempting as it is Ed, I have enough permanent brain damage I don't need to add temporary brain damage as well. I fall over enough without the extra help.

Sounds like good progress Kev. A little challenge makes it much easier to not only progress but to see the results. Keep it up. Those vegies look great. enjoy.

yep!

Doing OK today, but had my share of blah days too. I keep telling myself this will end eventually. for now one day at a time is fine.

Absolutely Sue. It is a worry, I'm just glad that mum is pretty good with the computer, although video calls are tricky, she is persevering (I hope) and doing a semi regular video chat with her great grandbaby who will turn 1 just as we are scheduled to get out of this lockdown. Fingers crossed we can have some sort of family get together for that. It's amazing how resilient and adaptable little kids are, she is used to having video chats with aunty Alanna and video bedtime story with grandma, she loves when the faces in the phone talk back. Not sure how she'll react when she sees us live and full size again.

I do hope they let him come home to you soon. Especially as it sounds like there's not much they can do for him in hospital and he is getting distressed. I suggest you call the ward and ask the nurses to let him have his phone at night, although if he's in a shared room they are probably concerned that he is disturbing others. Hugs for you both. -Heather

Oh Sue, I understand so well, just be glad you aren't down here in stage 4 lockdown with a 5km travel limit and night curfew, I'm so cross at the idiots who couldn't/wouldn't follow instructions and resulted in us being at this point. Down here your charity shop would now be closed. Keeping this thing contained is very hard on a lot of people. I worry about my blind mother who lives past the Melbourne boarder and also relies on me for occasional support. I haven't been able to go up there for nearly 8 weeks now and that's now looking like at least 6 weeks more. Thankfully she has Dad with her, but she's getting more and more frustrated at having to ask him for help. She misses her independence Hang in there Sue This too shall pass. -Heather

Habits are hard to break but step one is noticing what you are doing. I still have to remind myself to bend/lift my knee when walking. Bend and reach still gets me too its a test of your balance and proprioception. So easy to just reach that 1cm further which is enough to send you headlong into a tomato bed or onto the laundry floor(I have a front loading washer). Look after yourself and keep going

Also if he's not carriage trained you have to start again in a lot of ways. Good luck with the injury recovery. It takes ages and could easily create an ongoing weak point. One of my main problems now that my left arm doesn't work is an old muscle injury in my right arm that flares up with overuse. If you can manage it, see a physio, to make sure it heals as well as possible.

No point cooking dinner if you aren't awake to eat it 🙂

Sad news but so good she was not alone, even if the family could not gather around. Take care of yourselves, plan that memorial and know she had many happy times with you in these last few years. HUGS -Heather

bottling or passatta will be required to keep up with that lot. Hard work but worth it.

Hi Sue, another form of painting you might like to investigate is acrylic paint pouring. Results are abstract but it's a great fun way to play with colour and form. I went to a workshop on it a couple of years back and have found it to be great outlet for my creative urges. I make a huge mess as I do it without the use of my left hand, but I love the results. The lady who led the workshop I took now does workshops online (via Zoom, I think) too. Love your watercolours, so glad you have found your way out of the hole this thing often drops us in. ((HUGS)) Heather

Sounds great Kev Keep on keeping on.

That sounds great Will I do hope that leftie continues to be useful. When things work without you having to think about it that's magic that only people like us truly understand or appreciate.

Looking back on anniversaries is a great way to see how far you have really come and give yourself motivation to continue. Not surprised you hated that rig, but it did the job and you moved on. Onward and upwards my friend, keep at it you want to be ready for that trip once we are allowed to fly again.

We all get "safe in our caves" and lose the habit of going out. So you grit your teeth and you make yourself do it the first few times, but you need to keep on living. At least in rural NSW you should only be at minimal risk of infection now. There are whole areas of Melbourne I now need to avoid and knowing my family live in some of them is hard. I'm pretty sure I'm clear but I so don't want to be the one who takes this out of Melbourne. I'm going to visit Mum and Dad on the weekend and I'm sure I'll get sideways looks from the other locals.

Oh yes the "joys" of applying for government assistance. Thank goodness most of the system here is universal care and quite easy, well for citizens at least. I'm still fighting for my NDIS ( National Disability Insurance) participant status. Request for review of decision submitted, and fingers crossed. I hope you get a sensible answer from your Medicare. The garden produce sounds great. Also great to hear you are able to saddle your horse without assistance now. Keeping track of the days does get tricky in this sort of life. Stay safe. -Heather

Kev the emotional control circuits loss or reduction is one of those very common things hit by stroke. I think we all get it to some degree. Stroke tends to lead to some pretty raw emotional responses anyway but it also often damages the feedback loop we all use to remain "socially acceptable" in our physical responses to emotions. In severe cases it is called PBA or Emotional Lability, and then the emotion expressed is not always the emotion felt, or its completely over the top. So sadness can come out as laughter, and vice versa, and once you start to laugh or cry it's very hard to stop. If it's really bad you can get drugs to help control it, although for most people you can relearn the skill with time and persistence (sound familiar yet 😀) Even with the drugs I occasionally find something that is actually mildly amusing completely hysterically funny and laugh 'til I can't breathe. I still giggle a little when we use the collapsable cones at the gym. One evening I kept stepping on them and they way they moved, popping back to shape just set me off. My trainer was getting me to walk up to them and tap the top of the cone with my foot, and I would either barely touch it or I would smash it flat. So I was actually getting pretty frustrated at myself. But I ended up in hysterics and my trainer thought I was distressed and was seriously worried and I could not find the breath to tell him I was fine, just laughing really hard. I am sorry that you lost some squash to the untimely frost. It is funny how sometimes all but one plant will be hit, it's something about where and when the sun or wind hits on the frozen leaves, watering the night before a frost is supposed to help, as does watering before the sun hits the leaves as this melts the ice more gently and stops the capillaries from bursting.

Congrats on putting your pants on standing up I'm still working on that one 10 years post! I might have to start wearing a mask that way too, I've acquired some very bad food habits again with being at home all the time. It would probably also help if I didn't buy the stuff I shouldn't eat! I gave myself a food holiday for my birthday, now I need to get back to the straight and narrow. I think your roses are old fashioned tea roses, but don't trust me on that. Loving your blog, thanks for sharing, -Heather

Happy birthday Sue, I do hope your parcel from Broken Hill makes it in time. Hasn't winter started with a bang 🥶. Those cat mat's sound great I must check that our local shelter is doing this. All the best and hang in there -Heather

Great plan Janelle, I got one when I first got home from hospital and used it everyday for about 18 months, it was a great tool and very useful. It's been used a lot less often over the last few years, I should sell it, but the cat loves to sit there and watch out the window.