heathber

Thanks Will, the area with the fires has also been in severe drought for several years which is part of why the fires are so bad and starting this early in the season. Thankfully I'm much further south and Janelle is much further west. Sue would be the closest of the regular Aussie Strokeneters that I know of. Fingers crossed that everyone gets through today OK, the forecast is for a "catastophic" day in that area today. They don't use that fire danger rating very often, thank goodness.

yes it comes very slowly sometimes, but you got it right! like my hops. My physio is getting me to do 6 - 10 hop attempts at the end of each session with her. We count the number of successful ones (where I clear both the toe and the heel) I now get more successful than failed most times.

What Sue said. Look after yourself and do try to push some of the admin to the rest of the family. Hugs -Heather

that's great George, we do something similar for splitting wood with the hydrolic splitter. The controls are deliberately designed to need 2 hands as a safety measure. so that you have to take your hands away from the log to be split before activating it. My sister and I work it as a team. she holds the left control and I (or both or us for the really big ones) load/unload the logs and operate the right control. It works quite well once you get a rhythm going.

Glad to be of help Will. It's one of those things where helping others helps me. Thanks to all here for the support they give.

now that's a bonus! I've been a one mitten and 1 glove girl for 9 years now. given I can't use the fingers anyway it doesn't matter. the fun part is putting the glove on the good hand when the bad one can't help, this is one where I do ask for help

Oh yes the shower! thanks for the memory jog. I had a few "fights" with my OT over that one in the early days. I hate showering in the chair you just don't feel clean all over (which I know is not truth). One of my first goals in rehab hospital was to shower "properly" and wash my own hair. I hated the nurses doing it. But hospitals are so risk averse they wouldn't let me do it. I had to wait until I went home. I had the stool/chair in the shower so it was there if needed but I would stand as much as possible. I got better at very quickly, I only remember one bad fall where I tripped getting out of the shower. My sister then made me go to the doctor in case I'd given myself a concussion, but I was lucky.

life does tend to be full of ups and downs. Fingers crossed all the "bad" news is done with for now, and the new care system for Gary continues to be good. Hugs -Heather

this happens more and more I find.

yes the first couple of times you do something the connection and pathway tends to be very weak. it has to be reinforced multiple times before it "sticks" but knowing you did it once makes it easier to keep trying, and all of a sudden you can. mind you you still need to keep practicing or it goes away again.

Fingers crossed you are right Becky, that Nystagmus thing sounds scary and horrible, another one to be glad I haven't got. But it makes sense that once the brain gets control of it again it stays that way.

Alan your brain learns even with things like emotions. So yes the raw emotions can be difficult and sometimes out of hand but crazy as it sounds "choosing to be happy" is actually a thing and will get easier with practice. The studies show that the reinforcing an emotion makes it easier to feel that emotion. This is the principle behind things like the GLAD system, and 100 days of happiness. So yes the brain controls emotion but you also control the brain. When you get a case of the "why me?'s acknowledge that's what it is but choose to put it away don't dwell on it.

that does sound hopeful, looking forward to further updates.

I'm afraid he is correct Asha, the gold/diamonds are there but sometimes you have to keep sorting through muck to find them, it's worth the effort in the long run. And oh yes the annoyance of using a cane/crutch when only one hand can be relied on. worst when it's raining and you just want to use an umbrella not struggle into a coat. Fingers crossed (whenever I can spare them) that the ankle heals quickly.

Sue your turn to count spoons! Make sure you have spoons for fun as well as spoons for necessities. https://butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/ and as Janelle reminded you it is OK to say NO.

a friend is good especially if he ends up living in your building. Good luck with the online dating

It is good for the ego isn't it! I do hope he calls

The limit is reached when we stop trying. So long as you are trying new things anything is possible. That "going on strike" effect of finding something new is quite common I think. My theory goes something like this. Even "simple" things are complex e.g. hopping requires that certain muscles turn on in exactly the right way and in the right sequence with perfect timing for others to turn off so those ones can turn on and as it's an explosive movement they have to turn on together and that's not even thinking about the shock absorbing and landing that has to happen afterwards. The first time you do something with that complex a sequence is partially dumb luck, repeating it requires all those things to work together again and the post stroke brain (well mine anyway) is not so good at sequencing and fast reactions so it takes repetition to setup the pathway/sequence so you can keep doing it and finding that perfect sequence a second time seems to be tricky. and by the next day the brain has forgotten how it did it, even if the muscles are strong enough. But because I know I did it once I keep trying and the sequence and signals get better/stronger and the miracle becomes normal again.

It's all relative Sue. But yes you are a Success. You keep on plugging and don't let it stop you. Being back behind the wheel and independent again is a great feeling!

Hi Will had to report this one! Today I hopped on my left leg for the first time in 9 years! Admittedly I had a good solid bar under my right hand and probably cheated a little through that but I actually had air time! We tried it as my PT noticed that today on the total gym while doing 2 left, 2 right repeat (skipping drill) I was fully clearing the plate without assistance from her for the full set. So we tried single hops in full gravity and I COULD, only 5 times before the muscles refused to do it again. but it means I can do it. So now we start building it up. Next goal flight phase for running doesn't feel so impossible right now. -Heather

Hi Will, my proper name is Heather, heathber is my login name. I don't mind which people use. I learn "new tricks" all the time. They probably mean nothing to other people though, even strokees, as most of them are ways to do things around an arm/hand that is not much use even as a dead weight. Pre stroke I was a hand sewer; quilting, cross stitch, embroidery, tapestry etc. I pretty much stopped doing it after. Although in rehab we worked on the adaptions needed to get me back to the tapestry, it fell by the wayside after I returned to work. It takes more spoons than I can spare. What used to be a relaxation has become hard work. But I've recently started work on my "big quilt" again. It is a hexagon in hexagon design of 6 inch mini quilts that will be sewn together to make a big one. blue/red/green tops with a cream backing and edging. fiddly but beautiful, I 'll need to put some photos up, but at the moment my phone is dead. I started it as a fully hand sewn piece and I had over a number of years made about 40 of the mini quilts before my stroke (there need to be about 200 to start to put it together, total will be about 500). I put it in the UFO cupboard after my stroke thinking one of the family might eventually pick it up. But then a couple of months ago I thought about it again and realised it doesn't matter if it's a mix of machine and hand sewn blocks. I've now finished all the blocks that were assembled but not sewn and assembled and sewn a couple of new ones! I'm now using sewing clips rather than pins, and I have this cute mini iron that I use to do the folds. The end results are not as uniform in size as the earlier blocks, but they are close enough that I'll be able to make it work. So that's an example of adaption rather than regaining function. I hope it's not too far away from what you were looking for

I assume you were not given those laces because the expectation was that you would get to where you are now and without an incentive to keep trying you might not have got there. My arm/hand were and are basically useless. in rehab I didn't have any feeling or sensation so there was little expectation that I would get much use back, which doesn't mean we didn't try and I do even now 9 years later go though bursts of having another go with the arm, but the practicalities of day to day living also need to be allowed for. I can now do the stairs no hands most of the time too, although I prefer to have a hand or even a finger on the rail or wall. Did a new HiMAT (https://www.physio-pedia.com/High_Level_Mobility_and_Assessment_Tool_(HiMAT)) assessment the other day and scored 17/54, this is my best score yet. There are still large sections of the test that I score 0 on, but 17 is a lot better than my original score of 11 (4 years ago.).

Congratulations! That's one I'm still looking forward to in some ways. I use a modified lacing method that makes me independent, once the laces are setup in new shoes. My sister is the wonderful one who takes the laces out and re-threads them my way when I get new shoes. One of those times where the old way doesn't work so you find a different way. elastic laces and clips have limited functionality. I now get to laugh at the PTs when they try to help me with my shoes and are completely baffled.