fking

Stroke Survivor - male
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  1. fking
    Hurricanes are not new to us and it appears they come yearly and have their own seasons of destruction's somewhere around the United States and the tropical countries and town! It seem now even earthquakes are more plentiful than years ago! Tornadoes are happening more often lately in the US and all of these mother nature functions gives all of us something more to be concerned about yearly in seasons!
     
    Our vacations must be carefully planned to ensure a completed vacation is what we get for our money! I remember the times we plan our trip call the airlines, the hotel where we want to stay and we are on our way! Well it's not like that lately we must check ahead of time to see what mother has in mind during the time we want to take that trip!
     
    At this point in time many passengers are stranded at airports around the country because so many flights are cancelled coming and going where they need to go or where they are leaving from! Packing up the auto and the kiddos is another choice we have in planning our trip however the usual rising prices of gas makes us figure the cost of a trip by car to be a good deal or a not so good of a deal during the time frame we wish to travel!!
     
    I feel for the many people now on vacation and because of hurricane Sandy some of their enjoyment will be ruined! That leaves you feeling you wasted money not getting to see all you had planned to see and do this year!
     
    The worse part yet is you left your home in good condition only to return and find it under water, no electricity and much of your refrigerated foods have ruined! That will be the case many times over and the cause of a very bad vacation!! I suppose the saying is true, sometimes we can't hide when it's our time to get hit by mother nature just like our own deaths there is nothing we can do when that time arrives at our door!!
     
    In the end we can always count on being taxed and having a bill to pay when it's our time to depart this earth!!
  2. fking
    Finder Skirts: Some of you won't understand but I bet you know someone who does! That person being anyone that was around in the 1950's as a teenager perhaps! Well now those teenager are grand parents well over the age of a teenager but no doubt talked about Fender Skirts, Curb Feelers, Steering Knobs (aka) suicide knobs or necker knobs! That was the accessories most cars had in the 50's and 60's plus the Continental kits that was a rear bumper extender and spare tire covers that made any car cool as a Lincoln Continental!!
     
    We had emergency brakes but today it's a parking brake and we had the foot feeder which today is the gas pedal, beside it is the brake pedal and clutch pedal! By now you know that was a standard shift car or truck with one rear view mirror inside only and later one outside on the drivers side of the car! Those days we call the good ole days when you paid for that car in 36 months, the tires needed replacing about the same time and just about any man could fix whatever was wrong with the car!!
     
    Oh, we had a dimmer switch too located on the floor operated with the left foot, guess I couldn't dim my lights now not having use of my left foot! I suppose the one thing that remains the same as cars of today is the turn signal which came along in the 60's! Before that you had to know the arm and hand signals for stop slow down and a left or right turn! Compare that to today most teenagers are having a hard time trying to drive the car much less operate it safely on the highways!!
     
    There were no tinted windows or rear window wipers and no self service gas you ran over a line at the service station and the attendant ran out and put in five dollars worth of regular gas and that was on your payday otherwise you just put in a dollar or two in gas at 25 cent a gallon!
     
    I have to tell my wife not to forget I started driving a car in 1954 and got my operators license that same year and that was two years after she was born! She still got the nerves to say I can't drive but does all the driving when we go on trips greater than 200 miles! It's an 8 hour trip to New Orleans, go figure!!
     
    OK, I know some of you here remember those good ole days and terms used so you know you been here awhile when today you get in a car and it takes you a few minutes to figure out how to get it started and operate all the buttons and sounds! Oh yea, did I mention seat belts?? Well there wasn't any until the late 1960's and no head rests either as the seat backs only came up to your shoulders!!
     
    I for one was never involved but I know a few kids were conceived in the back seats of the 55 Chevy's and I didn't own a Chevy until 1958 the year I enlisted in the Army! That's how I became a Tank driver, they asked to raise your hand if you had a drivers license and two of us raised our hands! For three years I drove heavy tanks in the Army!!!!!!
     
    Do you remember now the things talked about in the 50's???? The good ole days I think? Did I just tell my age??
  3. fking

    My Time To Blog Again

    By fking,

    I couldn't believe when I looked at my last time I did a blog it's been well over two weeks! My how time flies when you are going to appointments and getting medical attention! I must say I feel the slow heart beat I had saved me from getting a steroid injection hours before the announcement was made on TV that the injections were contaminated with a meningitis virus!!
     
    Again, I can say all things that happens to you or with you are not necessarily bad but we tend to think so when a condition pop up suddenly like the slow heart beat detection did me!! In this case what would have been very bad was if I had gotten the steroid shots! I have to figure now I could have been affected then again maybe not, either way I'm glad I didn't receive the injections!! Plus the slow heart beat turns out to not be a bad thing health wise!
     
    I have had the same feelings about the stroke I had nearly nine years ago that there was a reason unrelated to my health except maybe high blood pressure and cholesterol which I've had all my life. I associated it with maybe a life saving change where I could have walked out of my shop and been shot by a person wanting to rob me! We never fully know all the reasons things happens to any of us so I'm just guessing!! However it does make me think back to that time and what was happening almost daily to businesses! That same thing is happening now with businesses being robbed!!
     
    The big thing about any of us here at Stroke Net is we are of all ages and health conditions even prior to the strokes or conditions that we suffer with today and we are getting older daily and things happens health wise daily! We face a daily chance of things happening to us that could disrupt our lives at any given moment!!
     
    My desire now is to live long as possible and be an old man, great grandpa, treat everybody right, and know one day I too must pass on from this earth and life! I just can't see myself being mad at my wife and care giver who has helped me through the hardest part of my life after the stroke! Keep a smile on my face and humor in my mind that life is OK with me!
     
    Seems to me anyone can have more fun when they are happy and not hungry for anything! Otherwise we tend to go down the wrong roads of life!!!!
  4. fking
    I'm a great wanderer and was like that before the stroke but here lately I have started wondering how would I have been had I not learned to walk, started driving again or lost another wife for the fourth time?? Then when I come back to my senses I have to give thanks to my God for allowing me to heal in all the right places at a time much sooner than I had expected!
     
    After five months in the hospital I said Oh, Oh, I'm going to need help for the rest of my life, what did I do so bad to deserve this?? I wondered day after day and night after night and all the time this wife was showing me that she was with me for the rest of our lives together! Well when you have had to walk away from three wives and experiences since my return from the war you start to wonder when will this all end where I can keep one wife, get a house and retire??
     
    I wonder no more my wife is with me all the way stroke or whatever comes our way she tells me our lives together is held together by God's grace!! That's great news in my case and her son is getting married next month to a wonderful lady and she joined our church today as our newest member. I wondered if she would since he was already a member and aide to our pastor So I gain a daughter in law and my wife's daughter already lives with us and her little daughter (my little smart granddaughter) and her little puppy we got her for making the honor roll!!!!
     
    I suppose when one wonders a long time God will show us and reveal some things like when you get the woman her kids come too and it's known if you get the woman you got her kids too! So if the woman cares for her kids she will care for you too and visa verse!! I wonder but like to think that the older we get the more we settle down and the closer we get to making that all home bound trip to meet our maker in heaven!! We become a real man and give up the foolish and childish ways!
     
    Jesus often reminded His followers not to worry and not be anxious about tomorrow's needs or potential problems. Jesus stressed a daily reliance on the Father, who provides for His children day by day!! I'm trying very hard to trust the Lord for daily needs as every man should!!
     
    Now for me that gives me more time to do many other things in the day and not have to wonder any more! Maybe I can start walking during the day with the little puppy on her leash and hope to recover enough to stop using my cane??? Practice makes perfect they say?? I'm not going to wonder who they are!!!
  5. fking
    A stroke, brain attack, or a Cerebrovascular Accident (CVA), is the sudden death of brain cells caused by a lack of supply in oxygen to the brain. There are two main types of stroke:

    Ischemic strokes or cerebral infarcts (80% of strokes) result from a blockage or a reduction of blood flow in an artery that irrigates the brain. They are caused either by a blood clot (thrombus) which blocks the blood vessel or by the buildup of plaque (often due to cholesterol) within the arteries which narrows vessels resulting in a loss of blood flow
    Haemorrhagic strokes are due to the rupture of an artery within the brain triggering an intracerebral haemorrhage (15% of strokes) or to the rupture of an aneurysm (arteriovenous malformation) entailing subarachnoid haemorrhage (5% of strokes)

    I wanted to add more information to my topic but my skills to get this completed are not working as I wanted to add the number of people having either one of the strokes above before their 54th birthdays. It was an interesting read and much information for me since we have members right here that survived strokes at a very young age and many others long before their 36th birthdays.
     
    The stroke I had was Haemorrhagic which I call a Brain Bleed for lack of being able to spell and pronouncing the word correctly. I had read earlier that only 3% of people survive this kind of stroke so I considered myself very blessed at age 62 to have survived the stroke. I suppose it being only 5% of strokes the survival percentage would be much less than the other kinds of strokes!!
     
    Strokes in children has increased dramatically also however the cause has not been reported fully to where it can be understood. They did say cholesterol and obesity along with high blood pressure was the underlying causes which is the case in most strokes for all people!
     
    The next part of this review was the disabling factor a stroke has on people with strokes and very few being able to not show signs of having had a stroke whether or not therapy was obtained. I know for a fact you can usually tell any person who suffered a stroke by the way they walk or hold their arm as they walk!!
     
    The last part of that review was the lack of support groups where that person lives and few if any therapy clinics or nearby hospitals and clinics available to them. Equipment was also a big problem to obtain what helps survivors the most like arm, leg and foot braces that helps with their disabilities!
  6. fking
    I guess I'm OK according to my doctor, it took many test and five days for him to say the slow heart beat at my age and my activities was somewhat usual!! Maybe that's another way to say I couldn't find what is causing the slow heart beat but don't be too concerned right now!! My arteries were not blocked and no construction anywhere else could be seen or found and I had several kinds of test so for all that I don't feel any pains in the chest area just that the other doctor wouldn't give me the injection until that report was complete!!!
     
    So I made appointments today for next Monday to get my injections in my knees!! They don't last me the 90 days or three months they suppose to last always less time but when you are this old and got arthritis what else can I do?? My cholesterol is good, no blockages, so I will go with this until something else appears out of the question!!
     
    I missed my pain shot in my back for the same reason then I find out that injection med has been tainted with meningitis somehow so I'm glad I didn't let him inject my back either!! I was the same thing on TV about people dying who got that shot in the back for back pain!! Now I really know when some things happen it's for a good cause to miss getting what was intended for you to get!!
     
    And it was all because I had a slow heart beat that had to be cleared by a heart doctor first so that procedure may have saved my life!!
  7. fking
    Thursday I go in to see the heart doctor that ordered the heart monitor and see what he has found out about my heart condition! The thing that concerned me most was the slow beat they are ranting about!! Maybe it doesn't have to work so hard since half my brain is not working to good and many of those cells are dead or just sitting there in limbo not needing any fresh blood pumped up to them!!
     
    I got 4 days of test before he tells me the news!!!
     
    My hope is I won't have to be hospitalized at any time for this condition as I hate hospital stays anytime since I feel so much better staying in my own home with my wife and the little puppy!!! I have come to really love in caring for her and babysitting her since my grand daughter is in school all day!
     
    This job doesn't pay but she is no trouble to keep since we both sleep long as we want to daily and she will sit and watch TV with me like she knows what's happening!!
  8. fking
    I hadn't said anything because I didn't really know but at different appointments I had last week my heart beat was slow, so slow I couldn't get my injections done in my knees!! He didn't want to take any chance!! So off I go to a heart doctor referred by my PCP and my appointment came up really fast, sorta scared me not knowing what a slow heart beat really meant!!!
     
    I'm hooked up y'all and being monitored for four days then a battery of test including a final echo test then I get the news hopefully of what the problem is or was!! I wore one many years ago while I was still on active duty and this one is entirely different from the old days!!! I feel I got so many things wrong with this body in 71 years I just hope the answers can be found!!
     
    I still got one bullet somewhere near my spine and intestines, crushed disks, arthritis, high blood pressure and a host of other aliments I had all my life!! My last years on active duty my permanent profile said No running, marching, standing, stooping, jumping or standing in formations in the sun!
     
    That alone kept me from being promoted any farther so I had no choice but to retire with 22 years of service and now I'm 100% PTSD DECLARED by the VA since 2010!! I feel I was since I returned from Vietnam and three wives later!! So I have had a good military career and I'm alive so no complaints just can't do much of anything anymore for any length of time!!
     
    The basic reason I only stayed at Walmart for three years doing a good job on my scooter as a greeter! I would love to be physically able to work but this ole body has retired now so I'm not pushing myself any farther while I stay closer to my God to look after me and my wife, kids, grand kids and the great grands too!! I may even have a couple of great, great grands since my only son started at age 15 with two girls and they both had two little girls!!
     
    My last Blog was about what those daughters will tell their moms and dads too!! Those sons will say to you they don't know if it's their child when they know without a doubt they were having sex with that girl!!! Oh well that's life in the fast lanes and it's still happening today around the world!!! Generations will continue to flourish long after we are gone and it's what God wanted us to do!!!!
  9. fking
    Some moms can be fooled so easily and some moms you would think they are the grandparents how the young daughters can tell them anything and they believe them when you can't trust they cleaned up their room when they said they did!!
     
    Darla's Doctor's Visit
     
    A mother takes her 16-year-old daughter to the doctor.
     
    The doctor says, "Okay, Mrs. Jones, what's the problem?" :zoro:
     
    The mother says, "It's my daughter Darla. She keeps getting these cravings, she's putting on weight, and is sick most mornings."
     
    The doctor gives Darla a good examination, then turns to the mother and says, "Well, I don't know how to tell you this, but your Darla is pregnant - about 4 months, would be my guess."
     
    The mother says, "Pregnant?! She can't be, she has never ever been left alone with a man! Have you, Darla?"
     
    Darla says, "No mother! I've never even kissed a man!"
     
    The doctor walked over to the window and just stares out of it. :notfair:
     
    About five minutes pass and finally the mother says, "Is there something wrong out there doctor?"
     
    The doctor replies, "No, not really, it's just that the last time anything like this happened, a star appeared in the east and three wise men came over the hill. I'll be darned if I'm going to miss it this time!" :fpc:
     
    Parenting is the hardest job on earth when you got daughters and sons!!
  10. fking
    I'm nearing nine years after my stroke and I have that many years in discovering how strokes are in each person's life and the number of other people it affects! When you think you are the only one with a problem all you need to do is read some of the members blogs!! We are all in the same boat and the problems are more for some and maybe less for others but overall we are going through the same hoops dealing with recovery of a stroke and giving care to the survivors around the world!
     
    Being a survivor is a challenge being a care giver is also a bigger challenge to care for that individual since we all have different problems yet nearly the same in some cases! When you think about it the doctors have different opinions and will quickly tell you not all strokes are the same yet they will use one set of circumstances to diagnose another case leaving the care giver very confused on the kind of treatment the survivor really needs right now!!
     
    I have been on site long enough to see so many newbies asking for help in caring for a stroke survivor and not knowing where to start in their care and it can and does get confusing at times and what type of therapy will work best in each case!! We all know what works for one with the same kind of stroke may not work for another survivor with the same kind of stroke!! It really boils down to the health that person was having prior to the stroke!!
     
    In many cases high blood pressure and high cholesterol are the main culprits while others may be from smoking or over weight!! Then there are so many different strokes and conditions where some survivors have little or no paralyses for very long!! Still others can't walk, can't talk and will need months and years of recover and still not recover enough to care for themselves!!
     
    I think that's why so many therapist will tell you they can't say how long, how much or when that person will get back to be like they were prior to the stroke!! We all will wonder if another stroke will follow that first one so in our minds we are always wondering for quite some time about having another stroke!!
     
    When each member joins here I learn something new about stroke survival and recovery they are not the same but normally the survivor will have problems long after they recover from the stroke enough to care for themselves and perhaps return to being employed!! We just can't say for each person that will be the end results!! I hope all of us will continue to read around the board learning all we can about strokes and recovery because they all seem to be different no matter where we live!
  11. fking

    Time

    By fking,

    TIME is so important to us! Sometimes we don't seem to have enough of it because we want to do so many things!! HOWEVER:
     
    Take time to think, it is the source of power!!
     
    Take time to play, it is the secret of perpetual youth!!
     
    Take time to read, it is the fountain of wisdom God knows we all need that!!
     
    Take time to pray, it is the greatest power on earth!!
     
    Take time to love and be loved, it is a God-given privilege and needed in this world today!!
     
    Take time to be friendly I really feel it is the road to happiness in life!! Mine for sure!
     
    Take time to laugh it is the music of the soul because a frown is just a smile turned upside down!!
     
    Take time to give, it is too short a day to be selfish and we can't take it with us!!
     
    Take time to work, it is the price of success and it beats stealing and going to prison for a long time!!
     
    This is the kinds of things you think about when you got time on your hands!!! :bbq:
  12. fking

    A New Season Is Upon Us

    By fking,

    Tomorrow 1 September we enter into a new season (Fall)!! while other parts of the world has a different season coming then of course we all will welcome winter while it will be summer in other places!
     
    Those folks up north will head south to Florida or maybe Arizona and enjoy the weather there soaking up the sun!! Meanwhile the fall will prep us for winter and putting up Christmas trees for the kids
     
    I hope all of us will continue our recovery process with our exercises and therapy because it works best when we do it year round! Our therapy sessions are very limited by our insurances or our ability to pay from our pockets but still exercising at home, the Y or where ever we can will work better than dropping workouts altogether!!
     
    It is a time for care givers to get a little break too while the kids are at school and the loved one is chilling out or watching the birds from the patio if it isn't too cool outside where you live!! Either way I sure hope all of you can find things to do, places to go other than doing a lot of cleaning in the house!! I just get out my swifter duster hit and miss a few spots so it looks clean and my wife is happy I stretched my arms working out!! I don't have to move any furniture she knows it's way too heavy for me to move!! She does expect me to make the bed however!!
     
    I do walk with the little puppy while her master is in school all day!! My grand daughter made 8 years old 17 August and her puppy makes 8 months 1 September!! The other advantage of this time of year is the electric bills will be less than in the summer time so that's a big savings for me trying to cool a two story house with 100 degree heat daily!! The puppy loves to ride with me on the scooter too but I have to keep the leash on her or she will hop off and run under the fence into a neighbors back yard!! She comes back at her own time!!
     
    That gives me something to do other than staying in the super markets tasting foods and veggies they want you to buy or in Walmart or our Sam's Club shopping and comparing prices!! This is the time of year many stores got stuff on sale they want to unload before the new things arrive for the fall season!! I end up spending the dollars I save from the lower electric bills in the stores or in gas!! I'm always looking for new dogie treats because when she see me eating she is looking for something too!
  13. fking
    If you haven't heard about this outbreak yet in Texas let me tell all of you!! It hit in Dallas real hard with many deaths reported! Today I hear the news that it has spread to the lower 48 states so that is everywhere except Hawaii and Alaska!!
     
    I hope everyone listens to the advise in your areas and stay indoors from dusk to dawn then wear long sleeves and pants when you do have to be outside!! This is serious and it will kill you if you are bitten!! In my county only one have died but other places there are many more that has died!! I'm afraid to go to the lake to fish on the pier because when you have no feeling on one side and trying to catch fish you don't feel it until to late!!
     
    This is the worse outbreak ever the news is reporting so be careful when you go outside where ever you may live!! If you have pets outside or they are free to go outside I think keeping them inside at night may be a good idea! There is no known vaccine yet for this virus so be careful everybody!!!!
     
    I'm in the process of training the little puppy to go outside for her business but we feed her at 5 or 6pm and that means taking her out after dark so she uses the paper pads inside because standing there outside waiting for her means getting bit by the mosquitoes!! If you hadn't heard about this outbreak now you know so be very careful we are facing enough now trying to recover from a stroke!!
     
    This is Labor Day and many people will be outside cooking and drinking until late evening as usual hot as it is here with temps 100 or more!! Many are at the lakes, parks and water ways with the kids so I'm hoping they decide to end their fun times early before the mosquitoes come out to feed on them!!
     
    Then there are the drunk drivers that don't think they are drunk and their friends or families let them get behind the wheel anyway!! They usually cause a wreck and deaths needlessly!!! BE CAREFUL EVERYBODY BUT ENJOY THIS HOLIDAY!!!
  14. fking
    Boy, this has been a week of newbie post and comments sounding just like I did when I first came here looking for all the help I could find! I just hope as a senior member I gave them a bit of encouragements to continue therapy and doing all they can to get their bodies working again to be more independent and not having to depend on the care giver as much as they did at first!!
     
    Strokes are the one thing many people know nothing about in how to get better and in the recovery process! Even in the hospitals and therapies they will tell you they can't say if you will get better or not and how long it takes for recovery because each person is different and probably had different kinds of strokes at different ages!! For the most part it becomes a guessing game on how and when you will recover and what you can expect down the road!!
     
    I tried to answer some of their questions from my own experiences for the last eight years of my own recovery process!! Strokes are so different and can happen in so many ways however being a stroke survivor is the goal to achieve and we know that doesn't always happen! When it does and gives us a second chance at living we need to do just that "LIVE" the best life we can with what we got left!! Normally we got our spouse, care giver or a loved one we care about so we want to live life and enjoy our loved ones, the few friends we got left and our families and children!!
     
    I learned so much about recovery in the last few years that gave me insight to try and inform other survivors of the journey to their recoveries with what they got left! In many cases we suffer paralyses on one side or the other while other may be affected on both sides or unable to walk at all! In any case we should strive to do all we can to recover and love our families like never before!! I feel the worse thing we can encounter as survivors is a separation or divorce after so many years living together through all sorts of circumstances!!
     
    I really hope I may have helped someone along the way to recovery giving them a desire to live the best life they can at this time with all the joy of being with their loved ones!! It's not an easy road but more manageable when we work together! There is so much fear of having another stroke early on in our recovery until many times that is all we can focus our minds on and it interferes with our sex lives making that become a problem for many of us! Strokes are not like heart attacks where your veins become clogged and you may need a stint put in to not have another heart attack!
     
    The recovery process is a real challenge and hard work if we intend to become independent again!!! Recovery never stops but it can and will slow down if we allow it to do that so remember hard work is the only way day and night weekends too!! There will be bumps in the road but we got our meds and sometimes they have to be changed to continue helping us feel better everyday! Ask your doctors, talk with them they will advise you of the best solution for your case!! We here only know from our own experiences with stroke and recovery!!
  15. fking
    I have experienced many things in the last several weeks and months so now I just hope nothing unusual happens and the rest of the month will pass with no surprises of course we don't always get what we want! A couple of members are talking about the cool weather and we are still cooking here in Texas with 100 degree heat and better for 27 day since July!! More are predicted so between gas for the car, food on the table and AC bill money, I will be short for sure!! That's life nothing works out like we wish it would so just to awake to see another day is satisfying to me and knowing my family members are in good health!!
     
     
    I'm back in therapy close to home after a long break! Some parts of my run down body seem like it is over worked while other parts need more working out to get the strong feelings back! I think therapy is the one thing we will always need with one side of the body paralysed from head to foot!! The only thing is in my case Medicare will only pay for so many sessions and that's it!!
     
    I think I just got to slow down and not try to do so many things in a week but I always been a go getter except I know now I'm not that young any more!! I sorta hate to sit still too long I might get lazy I have cut way back on my eating habits and I lost a few pounds which was great now all my pants fit before I couldn't get some of them fasten!! I just have to keep thinking to eat less when I do less work!!
     
    With a little neighborhood help from a neighbor I managed to build me a BBQ house in the back yard complete with a ceiling fan and electrical outlets for my small propane grill/refrigerator I have had for three years and never used sitting on the patio!! The patio is screened in with siding around the bottom but it was just too little for cooking!! The house I built is the same way to let the smoke out from the big barrel grill with a smoke stack exhaust!! Being from Texas I like to BBQ and cook outdoors!!
     
    That will save my wife trying to cook in the kitchen in this high heat weather and it's not letting up!! Since I stopped doing the wounder warrior job I have more time to visit and do a little shopping and going to the Malls! She does the grocery shopping on the military base it's much cheaper there! One of the benefits of being retired military I guess!! It does stretch our dollars a little more buying there and no tax!!
     
    This is a military town both active duty and many retired folks here! The homes were pretty reasonably priced when I bought 14 years ago!! I got 5 years remaining and I'll be out of debt since I took it to 15 years in 2003 a year before the stroke which turned out to be a good move!! So I'll keep praying for the Lord to keep blessing us then my wife can sit down although she doesn't want to do that!! She loves working at the bank something she has done all her adult life!!
     
    Most of the active duty troops are back from Iraq and Afghanistan and the traffic is terrible morning noon and evening trying to get any place!! A lot of the contractors are still overseas making that long money with most of it tax free!! They are working on the roadways to widen them out to three and four lanes trying to move the traffic better but it's not working! They have signs up saying left lane for passing only nobody pays attention to them they just do 55 or 60 in the left lanes making the traffic crawl or stand still!! There are people and cars from all 50 states here and some of them can't drive at all but they got new shiny cars on the road!!
  16. fking
    I had a pretty good Saturday today starting with a breakfast with church brothers at Golden Corral here in Killeen! I did a BBQ this evening all by myself and that turned out OK even if I did sit on my scooter, my wife marinated the meat so I just had to cook it!!
     
    Then about 840pm I got a call that made me feel sick saying one of the wounded warriors that I had worked with a long, long time had expired!!!! The guy lived not far from me but got all his therapy from the military base!! He lost both feet and was using a chair to get around but could not drive!! It really hurts when one of them survived the war and lose both feet but die after nearly a year after getting back from the war in Afghanistan!!
     
    I may be wrong in my thinking but at times I feel and think some of them has lost so much of their bodies until they lose the will to live with what they got left where as stroke survivors have no choice!! We feel blessed to survive and will deal with what we got left! I suppose that's not losing parts of your body except it's paralyzed on one side usually from head to foot!!! We are left with the ability to use one side only in most cases!!
     
    I had to express this to some one like the members here who knows about surviving and what it feels like every day trying to get better little by little!! Then the care givers know all too well about caring for loved ones after surviving a stroke!! That's why it's so hard for me to agree with doctors to get my knees replaced!! I keep saying "no thanks" I'll just keep what I got and one side I can't feel anyway! Then I will have to learn to walk all over again with one side still paralysed!!!
     
    My big thoughts are what if they cut the wrong nerve???? and I end up paralysed on both sides!!! No thanks, I will stay with what I got now!!! Sorry for rambling on and on but my mind is really gone about now!!
  17. fking
    I was just sitting here staring at the TV screen/computer monitor and thinking?, knowing I can't do two things at once?? Anyway many of our members here no doubt know of the shooting at the movie theater and the shooting in Wisconsin at the Temple?? Then there is the debate about gun control in this country in every state! No one knows what or when anything will be decided in the meantime living free, doing what you want to do, going any place you desire to go is just a couple hours away by air or a drive by car and of course there are other modes of getting to any point in America!!
     
    Speaking of Free we are free to worship whom and where we please as our religions or senses guide us and Free to go, go and go where ever I hearts desire and money will take us! Many people from many other parts of the world come here for supposedly a better life than what they may be experiencing where they are presently!! America is the home of the brave and every country has an Armed Force dedicated to protecting them in times of war or disturbing incidents against that country!
     
    I have watched much of the London Olympic events in competition against so many other countries and nations then to see the news where some of the athletes will request to remain in the country brought back to mind when the same thing happened in America!!! When a country is Free people want to go there and will do just about anything to get to those countries to be Free and live a better life! That's been the case since the beginning of modern day times and probably in the olden world and biblical times as well!!
     
    All the people of that Temple were law abiding citizens serving their religion as they had been doing since 1978 and before for some and had obtain their citizenship's of America and schooled here speaking English as one of their languages!! Along comes a man who thinks and feels people like him is the only Race of people that should occupy America. I would think a little bit of common sense would tell you that is not possible in a world so diversified and modernized!!
     
    We had two men here in jail awaiting their fates for murder of fellow troops or conspiring to kill many soldiers here at the largest military base in the world!! One heard his fate this morning, Two life sentences and some more time behind bars, the other one is still waiting to hear his sentence which will probably be life or death for his killing of fellow troops and wounding so many more!
     
    I have been working with the Wounded Warriors but just last week it got to overwhelming for me to continue in that capacity so I'm thinking about becoming a writer of some kind unknown right now!! Many of you members here know I'm a wounded warrior myself just didn't loose any body parts in combat in Vietnam!! It's so hard to try comforting these men and women who defended America and our Allies when they call out to their wives/husbands/parents and kids to comfort them and ask, "Why do we disagree so often that war is the way to settle the matter"??
     
    I could not give an answer and with that like the Bible states there will be wars and rumors of war for times to come!! Looking at the war in Syria now is sickening the way people are being slaughtered in the streets because of some Regime or power!! On the other hand what can we do as people?? So here I sit trying to collect myself and thoughts but I just had to get this off my chest so to speak! I hope I didn't offend anyone, if so it's not intentional and I'm not Dr. Phil!!
     
    I'm still coming up on the rough side of the mountain and got a ways to go but I'm older now and I can handle just so much!! I'm so happy I got the wife I have now or I could not climb any higher and I've thought about that since the stroke!! God is my keeper and knows best!!!
  18. fking
    "I'm coming up on the rough side of the mountain" is a song my mom used to sing in church and around the house when she was cooking or thinking about how rough we had it since it was just her and me!!! By the grace of God we made it up and over the mountain!! Well when I survived this stroke I had another mountain to climb as best I could!!
     
    Well at this point in my climb I really feel everything will be OK with God by my side!! I just got back from a trip to New Orleans with my wife and we had a great trip seeing her family members! The 9th was her birthday and mine was on 22 July so we were both very thankful to enjoy another birthday together!! Eight years ago I didn't know if I was going to survive very long after a 5 month stay in the hospital seeing people come in there and go home while I was still there with no expected date to leave!! It did look pretty slim for a while!!
     
    So, I came up again on the rough side of the mountain and many, many bumps in the road and still are but I feel so much better about making the climb this time around!! I'm happy and so thankful for my wife who stayed by my side all the way and we trusted in God to bring us to the other side of that mountain! I feel like a happy camper now as I look back over the last eight years and are able to do what I do!!
     
    I may not do all I once did but I'm happy to do what I can do after the stroke being a true survivor! I think when we put our minds to work on being that survivor life changes to "I can, I will" be better but we all know life my not get us back to the way we once were physically but just having another chance at life really makes me feel so free!!
     
    It does help in being able to drive my car, use a scooter and walk with my cane in such a way I can do most anything myself!! That's a good feeling so I'm a happy camper now!! I was happy when my wife went back to work as I was able to care for myself some and now much more at the eight year mark!! Sure I may never get back to walking, bowling and living the life I did prior to the stroke but that's alright I'm on the other side of that mountain and I truly enjoy being able to do all I can do for myself!!
     
    Well I won't bore you all with a long Blog but just wanted to tell everybody a survivor's life is pretty good considering everything along the way when you can at least do some of the things you did before the stroke! I have an older brother that is in bed and can't move either side and the doctors can't figure out what all is wrong with his body but he can speak a little bit softly and he is 80 years old come September!!
     
    God is good all the time and at my age I will always depend on his blessings for my life I have left!!!!!!
  19. fking

    Life Goes On!

    By fking,

    Well, by now many of you members know about the deal that went down in Colorado! I'm saying we are here living with pains some of us can't walk, can't see, can't talk like we want to or get about on our own but no matter our individual conditions we have life and life goes on as it has for years!! I'm glad about life with my family because this is my fourth try at being the husband and head of household! And by golly, it's working now for fourteen years and I thank God!!
     
    As a stroke community we stick together more and we try to share the common goals and set backs survivors encounter daily or whenever things arise we need to discuss for more understanding of that situation that will help the ones in need! When the new members join they usually have big questions that some of us here may have encountered in our survivor journey!!
     
    It's very hard on us when we lose a loved one so close to us like a spouse or mate but those things happen almost daily or we have a loved one that has to go into a nursing home!! We may have people here that had close relatives or friends in Colorado like I did! Let me say now that they called us and said they were in the theater but was not harmed in any way! WOW, you all know that was a blessing when so many was shot by this crazy man!
     
    My close friend is stationed here at Fort Hood but was on assignment to the Air Force Academy and in the theater that night thinking he would catch the late showing because of his schedule the next day! The first thing he said to me was, "life goes on"!! Some of us here has lost loved ones and we don't hear from them very long or very often but I think of them often wondering how they are doing as their lives go on!!
     
    This is one of those day I sit and think how blessed I am to have survived the Vietnam war, other personal conflicts and a stroke to enjoy another birthday this past Sunday!! A member wrote a Blog that stated about putting things off until tomorrow that started me thinking about life in general!
    The point is we just don't know the day nor the hour and no one else knows either so I just want to enjoy the time I have and live for today since tomorrow is not promised!! I enjoyed reading that blog and it made me think long and hard about life and how it goes on to the point of no return!
     
    We leave tomorrow on a trip to New Orleans for a few days to visit family members, some are sick, and need to see other family members for comfort!! So I probably won't be on the site for a few days but I should be Okay! My daughter and grand daughter are staying here along with the puppy, Princess to continue her training to go outside and stop using the pad for her business!!!
     
    School will be starting here soon and I hope to have her fully trained to come get me when she is ready to go outside! She is almost there but not quite yet! I'm ready to stop buying those pad and I have a big yard front and back!! Anyway I shall be back on the board soon and by then it will be time for another Blog!! I think I have missed a couple weeks already! Let's keep thinking Life Goes On!!!
  20. fking

    No One Knows!

    By fking,

    I woke up to real bad news this morning about a lone gunman taking innocent lives in a movie theater last evening at a special midnight showing of "Batman" the movie! That tells me no one knows when, where or how their final days will be in this world! Even a three month old baby was killed by this lone gunman that just so happen to be in Colorado again!
     
    I want to think the stroke I had eight years ago may have kept me alive this long by restricting my abilities to travel as I once did yearly!! No one knows their final days but it's so hard to hear this kind of news of so many lives lost and so many others injured from the shooting! We think of a stroke as a not so good thing with the disabilities it leaves us with usually for life afterwards! When you are an outgoing person and always on the go this incident has made me think again about being out in public places!!
     
    I accept the stroke today as I did years ago and except for my paralysis on one side I'm OK with being limited in doing and in going places! It makes me more aware of my surroundings at all times and I can easily give up going to places for public outings! I won't stop going places but I will choose carefully as I have been doing for many years now!!
     
    I would hope no members here had relatives there that were injured or killed as we already have so many things in our lives to feel blessed about in dealing with strokes and care givings for our loved ones!! We have our share of soldiers killed here at Fort Hood by the fellow soldier Major Nidal Hasan who is still awaiting trial for those deaths he caused and the heartaches it left so many with to know their loved ones were killed right here on the military base while preparing to depart to the war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan!!
     
    We just never know when and no one knows!!!
  21. fking
    I have posted this idea to follow before in a way to avoid any falls! We have to remember that one side of our brain was attacked leaving us to depend on sight and feel to make our paralysed side work the way it must for us to even walk, see and do many things we wish to do slowly!
     
    Here it is: Always think to bend the knee not picking up the foot! That's when we stumble when we think pick up the foot. See thinking bend the knee is much easier to do and if we bend the knee I promise you the foot will follow! Otherwise thinking foot you will notice at times it feels like the foot is stuck to the floor or it hesitates to move! So, the real answer is think, bend the knee and you will walk much safer without falling or making a stumble which leads to falls! You got it??? It works and it's therapy approved not my idea!
     
    Then take your cane if you use one and while sitting catch it in both hands raise it over the head and down to your ankles several times! If you have normal balance you can do the same thing standing but take it to just below your knees and back over the head for about 5 to 7 times at first! You can increase to 10 times once you feel good about doing this exercise safely! Then bending the knee gets easier as time goes by!
     
    Have you notice lately that your weak arm seem to be smaller than the other arm?? It lacks the exercise to build up the muscle and that leads to a bit of pain after a while in the shoulder and fore arm!
  22. fking
    It is much harder on some than others because no two strokes or people are alike! Some are stronger than others and the strokes can affect everybody differently and their conditions are just very hard for them to manage I understand that very well! In my case I was never depressed because I had the stroke even though I lost my business, money galore, almost my home but through it all I survived! Then my wife had to quit her job to care for me once I got home from a 5 month stay in the hospital and rehab!
     
    I thought and was told by my friends I would be back on my feet in no time and I would be walking again soon! That time never came my way but I wasn't disappointed instead I was so happy to be alive! I soon learned to walk with lots more therapy enough to use a cane then came a scooter for my use and at that point I felt I was back on my feet in getting! That dreaded WC I used for a few months with my wife pushing had to go so she could get back to work!
     
    Maybe it's a state of mind when we survive a life threatening event but I can say after 8 years now I never needed any depression meds just pain meds because it felt like I hurt from head to toe 24/7! I think what made me feel better was my wife told me in the hospital she would not leave me no matter what she was in this marriage for life! After three failed that was music to my ear and I could handle what ever survival meant I knew I wouldn't be alone!
     
    The big part of stroke survival is how the stroke affected you and the condition you are left to bear so I fully understand that fact! I think now I may very well have been a depressed person had I lost my ability to talk and not knowing but thinking that alone would or can make any survivor angry when you lose the ability to communicate with your spouse!
     
    "Living with what we got left" has it limits and again each person acts differently to circumstances of life tragedies so I'm not saying there should be no depressions just survivors! Oh no it goes on farther than just surviving like trying to get the kids to school or getting them dressed for school with one side weak! There is so much one person must get done and we all don't have partner type care givers and right there is the time we could really hurt ourselves or maybe not want to live the rest of our lives in this manner! I get it! and like I said I really feel blessed this stroke didn't happen years earlier or I could have been hooked on alcohol to survive!
     
    When I make a VA appointment while waiting for names to be called I see many veterans who talks to me wishing they had been killed or could somehow just die now instead of having to live like they are now! I can see myself in their shoes had my wife left me like many of them have been left alone! Some of them lost their wives by natural death or car wrecks in which they were driving but survived! There has to be a guilt feeling right there so they suffer depression in the highest manner I'm sure! There isn't a thing I could tell them that probably hasn't been said before!
     
    Well, I just wanted to make myself clear about this depression thing after I posted a few times then went back and read what I had said! Because they wouldn't make the meds if no one ever got depression! Even some of the wounded guys and gals get depressed from not being able to take care of their kids like they want to do! Others have lost their mates in the war and now everything is on their shoulders in the family structure! Still others lost family members to cancer while they were serving in Iraq and couldn't get to come home not even for the funeral! War is hell! Take care everyone!!
  23. fking
    I can't think of a thing to blog about this week except on this Saturday I plan on going to visit the grave of my mom to see if the headstone is still upright! The mowers knock down many of them plus that area is sandy making those heavy stones easy to shift! The 11th of June would be her 114th birthday as she was laid to rest just before her 83rd birthday! My dad was also laid to rest in the same general area of that cemetery but in 1955! I can't remember if he had a tall headstone but I think it was very small as we had no money in those days in 1955!
     
    Now you hear of so many wrong doings at cemeteries including where the fallen soldiers are laid to rest in Arlington national cemetery! Other small cemeteries have dug up the bodies and dumped them in a corner of the cemetery just to resale that plot again! Isn't that a terrible way to operate a place of final resting for your loved ones??? I thought they were controlled by a firm to oversee that type of behavior but maybe not because it's widespread these days!!
     
    We have a national cemetery here in Killeen now approved by department of Veteran Affairs as there are funerals almost daily of the fallen soldiers and the retired older soldiers like myself! Many of us choose to retire here being close to the commissary (food store) and the post exchange for shopping for everything else!
  24. fking
    I'm really involved with my fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in their struggles to make a big change in life styles with artificial limbs and brain injuries! Their families are close by their sides along with their children even the small ones! Some kids were born while they were overseas so they never saw the child before! It's so hard to see a young mother trying to hold her baby with no hands!
     
    I'm now wishing I could do more with my weak hand but I can't and wishing I could stand and walk but I can't! Having to ask my neighbor to do things outside like helping me put up my BBQ stand complete with roof! I'm trying to get ready for my wife's family members coming from New Orleans to help her celebrate her 60th birthday in July! They are a real close family and her being one of the oldest living is a big part for all!
     
    We got reservations at Fort Hood hotel for 4 rooms plus we'll have a house full sleeping on the floors everywhere like it was for hurricane Katrina 7 years ago! I'm sure I'll have some repairs to do after they are gone home carpets cleaned for sure! I can imagine my electric bill will nearly double for that week! This family get together will cost me big time! I just hope everyone will keep their cool and good senses about them without me having to call the police!
     
    I think they plan on being here around the 4th and until her birthday on the 9th! Mine is the 22nd by then they should be home bound already! I hope all goes well for this open house affair. I'll have several tables setup for domino games they all love to play! I have a slot machine that plays with tokens, no real money, so some will be entertained by that because they love to gamble!
     
    It's an 8 hour drive to get here from New Orleans but some will stop in Houston to visit their family members too! Overall I pray my health holds up and I'm able to get about as usual and I got a scooter to use in the back yard! I don't know yet if her brother is coming that has the one leg and wife just passed from heart attack!
     
    This will be my first undertaking of a mass group of family members for a party but I can say they all respect me and my wife and our wishes! I do hope it goes well as expected but sometimes they can get rather routy or unruly! So I got all of June to prepare for this affair and my 70th birthday too!
  25. fking
    As we all know this is election year state and national but I just can't understand why older citizens will not be allowed to vote without a picture ID! Many of them have never driven so no license and no kind of ID card just bills in their names! Maybe that is just another way to keep some people from voting in the elections at every level!
     
    I don't pay property tax anymore by being a 100% disable but I still need an ID to vote! This year I may not vote at all and whatever happens Oh well! You may want to sell your home to get something a bit more safer by being a stroke survivor living in a two story home but you can't give it away to buy a new one the way things are now on selling homes! Especially when you got it about paid out! There is always something to keep the water cloudy instead of clear!
     
    I have gotten ,many notices that Medicare will cost us over two hundred dollars where we now pay 94 to 96 dollars each year! I'll be watching that very closely in the coming months! Medicare checks aren't that much to begin with and taking half of it for Medical just doesn't sound too good to me! Plus now many people must wait until they reach 70 to retire! That's a long way from the age 62 to get your social security when they started holding our money!
     
    People are living longer but many are in homes or being cared for by their children at all ages in their homes! Many of these homes were bought with 30 year loan plans so where is the extra funds coming from to survive in the years ahead of us! It takes two people to pay for homes and the bills now and when one have a stroke and can't return to work it's very hard on one bread winner doing everything!
     
    As I say there are a lot of things to consider in the coming months on where this country is going! Will we be able to have a home or live in a nursing home? It takes money, lots of it we just don't have for paying the bills we owe now! Our kids and grand kids are having to pay higher tuition's for college some have doubled this year alone!
     
    If they are allowed to borrow they will be in debt after graduation for many years without a good job right away! If our homes are willed to them will they lose it or pay for it?? So much to consider!! I'm so blessed in my case and wife still working I only got 5 more years to pay for our home! These are the kinds of things crosses the mind as we get older each year! As always nothing is FREE! You work for everything you get or you already got!!