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Hi Bob, I think I already saw you mention how exercise helps minimize your pain. My husband saw the same results and as soon as he was able to move his shoulder enough to exercise it regularly, he quit having so much pain with in. Glad to have another blogger in the community! -Karen

I'm usually in bed before Rob, and when he gets in I always have to warm up his right leg and foot. It's almost a ritual for us. It makes me feel bad for him because his leg is so cold - and I can imagine how much it hurts. I like to tell Rob that others have this same problem..... so he feels a bit better about it. Stay warm! -Karen

Are Your Social Security Benefits Taxable? IRS TAX TIP 2006-30 How much, if any, of your Social Security benefits are taxable depends on your total income and marital status. Generally, if Social Security benefits were your only income, your benefits are not taxable and you probably do not need to file a federal income tax return If you received income from other sources, your benefits will not be taxed unless your modified adjusted gross income is more than the base amount for your filing status. Your taxable benefits and modified adjusted gross income are figured in a worksheet in the Form 1040A or Form 1040 Instruction Booklet. Before you go to the instruction book, do the following quick computation to determine whether some of your benefits may be taxable:

Hi Charmin, I noticed in your post, a reference to

Mary, My husband had a left side stroke, and minimal speech loss. He is left handed. We were told that only 3% by our Therapist(s) and Dr that of the population who is left handed truely has the speech in the right side of their brain. -Karen

Sue, All I can say is WOW! Sounds like a terrific and healing event. -Karen

Love you blog entry Mary! -Karen

Here is a

Hi Sue - I think Mel posted this expression - that I quickly copied when I ran across it and now and have on my computer: Your life will always be, to a large extent, what you make it. Your life is yours, you own it and what you make it, is purely up to you. Others may support you in your aspirations, but, in the end, it's your creation. You are your one and only boss, and with that awareness comes a special responsibility. Once you accept this responsibility and stop waiting around for others to make you happy, you will become unstoppable. Your life will change, all because of you. So, turn on the green light and GO! copyright -Meditations for women. All rights reserved.

Okay - so I'll start my movie list, and unlike Jean's, it will NOT be alphabetized - there will be no rhyme or reason other than - as it pops in my brain! Apocalypse Now Finding Nemo Love Actually Pulp Fiction So I Married an Axe Murderer Thank You For Smoking The Italian Job After seeing Tina's list I had to add these: Office Space Fried Green Tomatoes

Oh Phyllis - I hope you don't mind but I think your story was really funny! I'm still laughing. -Karen

Hi Ken, I can remember the details of the phone call I received on my cell that Rob was being medivaced with stroke symtoms. It replays in my head over and over - not as often as it used to, but I still get to hear it about once a week. Everytime I hear a thump in the houes, I wonder if it is Rob falling. When he rushes in the house, and quickly walks to the sink and runs water, I come downstairs expecting to see a laceration on his affected hand. I can't help being concerned because I have been trained, that these cues, have had unpleasant outcomes in the past. I am better today, than I was five months ago, and your fiancee will likely also get better as time goes on, and she trusts that those cues, don't always bring bad news. Trust me, she likely doesn't like these feelings any better than you do.... Karen

Anne, I think it may be a man-thing - their wanting to know what you are doing. It sometimes appears to me that Rob will be judging whether my time is being used at his acceptable level. Being on the computer likely doesn't. Looks like there are lots of changes in your life. Take Care - Karen

Oh Sue - I'm sending you a big hug! You know, your posts always give my brain a jolt, because your going in to summer down there, and sometimes it just doesn't compute for me. I was reading, thinking, something is wrong with having tender new plant shoots in December...... then I get it, and it makes me smile. -Karen

My son and I finally got the yard winterized yesterday. Moved all the things out of the way of the plow, and all things we didn't want to be hidden for the next six months. The weather was pretty generous to us this year, as we could have had snow in late September. We pushed it a bit. Heard we're going to have a mild winter, another El Nino. Never know if this will bring more snow or less. Well what ever shows up, we're ready!

I love Fall too. The smell of the berries, the colors of all the trees and vegetation. There is a lot to do in the Fall. -Karen

Sherry, My husband realized no matter how hard he worked his affected side, it never gets sore. He also found out, that what happens, is, it just quits working when it has had enough. A bit frustrating. Karen

Kristen, A few years ago I asked my doctor about medication for PMS and she prescribed prozac. I take it every day, and it is amazing. My PMS was debilitating, I would get so easily angry. The medication just takes the edge off, and it has definitely changed our lives for the better. -Karen

Hi Mel, It is normal for daughters and moms to not get along - at some point the house is too small for more than one woman. My poor mom had four daughters (in five years). And every single one of us - although we may have given our mom fits when we were teenagers, we came back and had great friendships with her. The difficulties with your daughter are likely only temporary - as girls often come back to their moms. My sister has one daughter who just turned 21 and the girl calls her mom almost every day - she said as soon as her girls went to college, all of a sudden they needed their mom a lot more emotionally then they did while they lived at home. Mel - I loved your meditation piece. I'm going to keep that one. -Karen

Hi Rich, Ruth has a good point about the TPA and our experience was similar. When my husband had his stroke he was rushed to the hospital via airplane because the local medics knew about the tpa timeframe. He made it to the hospital easily within an hour of his first symptoms. When I got there they had done all the tests, and I asked about the TPA - we were still well within the three hour window. I remember the Dr looking at the clock, and seeming uneasy, he stated that he had seen some bad outcomes from TPA. My husband is young (47 at the time of his stroke) healthy and very fit. Had we been given the TPA option, I believe we would have allowed the administration. It took me a long time to accept that we weren't given this option. I'll explain how it helped that I got over it. While in the rehab unit of the hospital, in another room was a girl who was just over 30 who had a stroke for the same reason my husband did (PFO). She had her stroke just a few days before my husband did. She went to a smaller hospital when she had her stroke and was given TPA. My husband and she were in rehab together for several weeks, she was younger and had TPA. They both had similar strokes (opposite sides of the brain, but in same area). My husbands recovery without TPA has been much faster. It is hard not to compare, and I did notice my husbands recovery seemed to be progressing faster than hers. When we saw her four months later (both were getting their PFO's closed) she was still very dependant on her wheelchair; we had gotten rid of my husbands by then. It was impossible to tell if the TPA helped her or not. I almost think we expected the TPA to cause the stroke to present itself like a TIA. If that is the expectations, it didn't happen with the girl that got it. It seems that it might be really hard to measure acceptable expectations from TPA administation. -Karen

What about social security? Where does that factor into this? -Karen

Jean - that's perfect! I've already decided it is going to be really inconvenient for me - to try and keep my clothes away from him. But honestly it will be so worth it since his washing them can do such damage. I remember having a brand new sweater a couple years a go, that was shrunk to the size of 6X. He is just such a busy guy and doing laundry is sometimes just a part of his day..... Robyn we are actually farther north than Palmer, we're in Talkeetna - likely you stopped here on your way to Denali..... -Karen

I saw the funniest thing last night. Our son let our turtle (a red eared slider) out of his cage to run around the house (he's about six inches wide). We don't do this too often because he is small enough to get in things we can't get him out of - so we had to watch him. We've never done this around the dog, and when she saw the turtle she thought it was something for her to play with, or eat. Our son sent her back to her bed, where she stayed on alert and watched the turtle "Jaws". The turtle decided to come closer to the dog, he wasn't concerned (the turtle). My son picked up the turtle to show the dog, and they were about a foot apart, and the turtle stuck his head out of his shell, as far as he could, and tried to bite the dogs nose. It really scared the dog (she is about 2' tall and 50 lbs, so she isn't a small dog). So we didn't have to worry about her messing with the turtle after that. I wish I had somehow been able to video tape the turtle sticking its head out of its shell, stretching as far as it could, with it's mouth open as wide as it could, going after the dogs nose. Nobody expected any of that to happen.... not us or the dog. I'm glad the turtle didn't connect with the dogs nose.

I do have a separate hamper - he still pulls clothes from it. Maybe I need to get a hamper that I can actually put a lock on. He really thinks he is helping me - or he isn't thinking at all. He is just trying to get the laundry done and could care less about any associated details...... You are all helping me to really come to the conculsion I'm going to have to work really hard keeping my clothes out of his circle of influence - because I don't have any faith he will change, and I should just quit expecting it. Robyn - we're a bit North of Anchorage and are getting up to about 55 degrees in the heat of the day - it is freezing at night now. Thanks all! -Karen

Couple days ago, Rob was upstairs and yelled down to ask if I could find his long underware in the dryer and throw them upstairs for him (our house is that small, and yes it's that season). So I opened the dryer, and pulled out the first black item I found. It was my shirt, okay, similar fabric to his long underware, but a little different shaped. I searched again among the towels and such, and pulled out another black item - oh, yet another of my shirts, yes similar to the first. With great fear I continued to pull the next black item out of the dryer, and what do you know, a pair of my summer shorts (I wear these year round in the house). Yes, they too are black, and made from synthetic material. However a lot smaller than Rob's long underwear. The last black item was a pair of my underwear. So I had to tell Rob that no, there were none of his long underwear in the dryer, and by this time he had come downstairs. I began with the first shirts and showed him how the little balls from the towels he had washed them with are not clinging to my shirts. He explained that he thought they were his long underware. I can totally understand that mistake, as the fabric is similar, however the arms on my shirts really can't match the length of the legs on a six foot four mans long underwear - but I wasn't going to make a big deal out of it. However I did question how he could confuse my shorts and undewear for his........ No hissy fit, I'm done with that. He was punished for his unwillingness to examine the clothes he was washing more carefully by not having any clean long underwear to wear.