Just venting - I think The looming Brexit situation in the UK is a nightmare and terrifying beyond belief for this stroke survivor who managed to find work, pays to support his children and found out the hard way how hard it is to try to find employment as a stroke survivor. climbing Everest naked would be easier.
IF Brexit goes ahead, the threat of future redundancy feels life destroying and I can’t get away from thinking about it. My situation is complicated - I still pay the mortgage on my former marital home and my ex wife hasn’t paid anything towards it. I lose my job and my youngest child becomes homeless.
I tell myself that this might not happen, to not assume the worst but life has never felt more challenging than it does right now.
Sometimes you just have to go one day at a time and see how things pan out. It’s a crazy, crazy situation.
Sorry for the unseasonable rant but Stroke was tough and life after Stroke seems tougher sometimes...
One of the many issues I have is that my emotions, anxiety, confidence and ability to think straight have all gone to pot. You have done very well to find employment. No way can I do that.
And perhaps we dont think too clearly and become obsessed with things. I certainly do.
The media are winding us up over Brexit. The very wealthy dont want Brexit. They make millions by employing cheap labour and/or reaping profits from the rapidly rising population. When the no deal Brexit arrives the worst outcome could be the riots when our government find a way to wriggle out of the deadline (?29th March?). When we eventually get our independence then I respectfully suggest that wages will rise. We will still need all the services provided by the poorest part of society. And the huge pool of foreign labour will dry up.
We import more than we export. So if the EU try to punish us (I dont think they will, but if) then we will become richer as we will stop buying EU goods. There will be shortages. Spanish foodstuffs spring to mind. But not having the endless choices of foodstuffs will not be anything more than inconvenient.
A lot of employment opportunities will arise because we will need admin in place in lieu of in Brussels. That will reduce the countries wealth but increase white collar salaries. And the huge sums we pay on to the EU will fade away and be spent in GB.
My son is a manic remainer and fears his job will go. But now his colleagues have actually worked through their situation they realize that their jobs are not vulnerable at all. Some factories will go back to Europe. But their goods will be created elsewhere in the UK, and their profits will be reincbvested here, not abroad.
So stop the panic Damian. Coping with Brexit is trivial compared to what you have coped with since that wretched stroke bit you.
Hi Damian - you sound as though you're a real trooper meeting challenges head-on. I think many of us feel a sense of helplessness over "B" but in truth we can't do much to influence the process now. Try not to let this dominate your thinking, your brain needs rest to repair and heal itself, that's your priority, be kind to yourself. You are completely spot on when you say "just go one day at a time", as a SS it's difficult to plan anything (well that's my experience in my husband's case - sometimes we can't even plan a few hours ahead let alone any further into the future). Worrying will not help us, even though it's difficult to switch off. You have survived and you have a good outlook, take care and keep posting, many people on this site will engage with you and support you - all good wishes xx
Hello Colin, like you Brexit is low on my list of priorities since the stroke. I have to say I feel it will not be as bad as some remainers are making it out to be. I also believe it’s trivial compared with what we have to cope with day after day.
I’ve had a couple of bad days recently due mainly to the wretched tinnitus, infact today I realised I don’t hear that well when I’m in the car, especially music, maybe it’s because of the road noise competing with the music and this makes the tinnitus louder. Still haven’t had my appointment for hearing test/hearing aid, these things really shouldn’t take as long as they do. The ENT department mustn’t be subject to the standard waiting time allowed and I think they hope a lot of patients get sick of waiting and go privately for treatment.
Sorry feel like I’ve had a real moan.
Hope you are feeling well, it will soon be another year, hope it brings only good things to us all.
Yes, brexit doesnt really matter when we are trying to recover from a stroke.
I think that the sound related problems might be because our brains can not process the noises. So if it has two sets of noises you might be extra bad. Or maybe the movement of travel is occupying too much brain processing power. I really struggle with travel. On the plus side (which I am forever searching for !)I wonder if your tinnitus is totally stroke related. I hope so. Then, as your brain gets working, then the tinnitus will go away. My tinnitus type noises are easing. Ever so slowly (does stroke have a less slow mode ? I dont think so).
Until things improve, relaxation will help.
If you cant sleep due to the tinnitus, then do try rearranging your sheets, pillows and sleeping position. Or even sleeping with the light on. Anything that will divert your thoughts. I will not stay in bed if I can not sleep. I get up, make a bed on the settee and watch TV. At the very least I get some rest and generally, it gets me off to sleep. Often I will sit up as the ear noises are worse when I lie down.
As others have said, your main priority is to take each day at a time and make 'baby' steps towards your recovery. Worrying will only increase your anxiety and make progress slower. As for the dreaded 'B' word, I remember days before the EU was thought of and we all managed perfectly well. We will do trade with other countries as we used to do before. We will all get used to eating British strawberries in June which will taste much nicer than Spanish ones in December! If we can rebuild our country after a war, we can survive anything. Do you remember the doom and gloomers predicting the technology meltdown with the millenium..? Nothing happened. Just like the plagues that we are assured will hit us like bird flu, Sars, Ebola, etc etc. It's all great stuff for selling newspapers!
Hi Ann - just had a thought... I also suffer from ringing in the ears but I am half deaf and wear hearing aids so without my aids, I can't always hear it. One of the common side effects of my blood pressure tablets is ringing in the ears so I wondered if that could be the case with you? I've always had it since I went deaf but I noticed fairly early on that it got worse with my BP tablets. My husband suffers badly with tinnitus (he has brill hearing!) and he got a pair of hearing aids from the NHS to wear at night which play white noise in his ears and this is supposed to drown out the tinnitus but he couldn't wear them because they were so uncomfortable. Hope you get your appointment soon. If not, you can get a free hearing test at Specsavers.
Hi, You set me off thinking about what I take and I’ve read on line that aspirin, which I take, can cause tinnitus. So this is probably the cause of it. I’ve taken aspirin since the stroke so that would fit with how long I’ve had tinnitus. I don’t think I would change to clopidogrel because it caused side effects when I tried it earlier in the year.
Thats the good thing about this forum, there’s always someone who’ll suggest a solution to you so thanks onwardsandupwards - solution found, now I have to work out whether to risk coming off the aspirin, it’s a bit like a safety blanket. Will probably ask my GP when I see him next.
I'm also on Aspirin after being unable to tolerate Clopidogrel. I take 75mg disolvable aspirin and find I tolerate it well. There is another drug I also tried which I think was called Persatin or something similar. I found that upset my stomach but I have gallstones so that may be OK for you. I hear my ringing worse when I have my afternoon rest and the house is quiet. The number of times I used to get up thinking the phone was ringing and it wasn't. Now I switch the house phone onto silent when I have my rest so I'm not disturbed! Maybe your GP can come up with some ideas. Could probably even try a different brand of aspirin? I know different brands of Clopidogrel were vastly different when I tried that.
I take 75mgs of the enteric coated aspirin, it’s easier on the stomach than the dissolvable type. I don’t know why I didn’t connect the tinnitus to the aspirin. Thanks for making the connection.
That’s what’s great about this site someone usually knows the answer to the question you post.