I'm sorry to hear you're in a bad place at the moment. Hopefully it won't last too much longer.
But I have to say that you're pretty amazing with all you have going on for yourself and you still find time for us. Thank you your words and knowledge mean a lot. Fingers crossed that things improve soon.
?????? look out web designers! I’ll rattle the spoons! ??let’s get our teeth into this ???
Dear Kay
Thank you for kind words. I guess most of us have a backwards tumble so its only fair that its my turn this week.
I was fairly fit at only a few pounds overweight when the stroke got me. We live in a bungalow with no high thresholds. I had the place overhauled in 2011, new boiler, reworked heating system, new kitchen, new bathroom. Spare bedroom second cloakroom, wood burner, very long garden, garage. Flat walk to the shops and the station and 5 buses each way per hour from our road. I have a good private pension and of course the very generous state pension. and attendance allowance. My local hospital is Colchester, whiich ihas one of the best stroke units. My GP surgery has a branch in our lovely village and a bigger set up in the next town. We have a lovely church with about a million activities a week, a very active village hall.
So I jolly well should be getting amazing results !
But best of all I was blessed with a miracle. I was so paralysed I couldnt even puff up my pillows. I was a minute from ceasing to live, in fact I started the journey out of my body. I had my right hand and that was it. On day 3 a massive rush of adrenelin surged through me and five physios descended on me. I got up and walked out the ward. No one else was blessed this way, just me. So I reckon there is a purpose to me being given a second chance. I am stll looking for it, so in the meantime writing to you guys is the least I can do.
I got up to the village this morning and have done a few bits and pieces today, so I am on the mend. And the good sleeping pattern shows signs of returning.
I got six xmas cards written. so just another 54 and I am done.
It is so nice to feel the well being trickling back to my body.
ttfn
Colin
So heartwarming. Thank you for that, Colin. Now get on with those cards! John did 10 yesterday, I did 50,,,, but then I’m not SS! I think we’ve finished for this year. Anyway, we’re away on 17th. ??
What an astounding story. I'm so happy that you had the foresight to achieve such a lot before your stroke bit.
I'm very jealous you've started writing your Christmas cards I've bought mine does that count?
My mother is in a carehome in Wales very near to where she lived. As I can't visit I have sorted her Christmas and birthday cards and presents. Her birthday is on Christmas day.
So glad the sleep patterns are improving and returning. I've bored you enough. Have a good night!
You can go off people you know! !!
So organised. Only jealous xx
Ha ha! It has been a busy day today. I needed to be organised. I was chief bridesmaid for friends 48 years ago but, sadly my friend left us fo heaven in May. We have been supporting her husband for quite a time. He has sold the house and was due to move into an apartment today. Now it might be Monday. On top of that, it is my Mam’s second anniversary today. Didn’t know how I’d handle it as I haven’t cried yet. Two months after that happened in December 2016, John had his Stroke. But you are all so positive and uplifting it has eased the heartache. Many, many thanks. ♥️♥️
What an amazing lady . You give so much to other people. Hopefully if all your organisation comes to fruition and you and John can head off on the 17th and have a fabulous time xx
Hi Colin
i am sorry that you have had a grim week. Stick in there.
the doctor told me before my stroke to change diet. My diet is good, I’m an ex chef and my wife is a food developer so food is high up on our agenda. I was a wee bit overweight but not much, I’m not now, lost loads. I did exercise and was really well in the summer. This thing snuck up behind me.
its the bp that is the issue. Stress at work, too much to do and more demands from above and stupidly I care to much.
Everyday at a time
thanks again Colin
sandy
Huge, collective sigh of relief, Colin is on the mend, the best five words we could hear!! Keep up the good work ?
Don't know about Essex, but Norfolk has really high winds, I think the leaves that have been hanging on, will lose their battle this w/end!!
Is it too late to buy C'mas cards?! I'm so behind ?
xx
Kay - I have eaten a mince pie, does that count as being organised for C'mas?! No cards bought or written yet, and as for anything else, forget it!!
From Veronica to Nic = sublime to ridiculous!! ??
So sorry you won't get to see your Mum, that's truly heartbreaking for both of you. Are you able to phone/facetime etc I'll be keeping everything crossed for you in 2019 that you and Mum will get together ?
xx
Hi Nic,
You suggested we were celestial twins in one of your earlier posts. I'm definitely in your camp. My mother has vascular dementia and doesn't always remember me. Before she became ill we would spend hours on the phone every day. I telephone the care home every other day to ask after her. I do speak to her when she wants to talk. But I don't want to upset her when I put the phone down. I recently bought a rise recline chair for her. She loves it and thinks she a queen with her new chair.
As you say hopefully in 2019 I get to visit. xx
I have come to realise that actually there is very little we really need in life, but a lovely comfy chair/sofa is an essential, you can bet your Mum loves her chair ? xx I have friends with parents in similar circumstances, but, distance is yet another hurdle when you're not 100% yourself. Even if your Mum doesn't always remember you, it's a comfort for you to see her, so let's hope ...
Hubby still struggling with this poxy ear infection - but we have developed something of a morning routine, it goes like this: wake up, sit up, throw up! De-lightful!!
xxx
My achievements during the best stage of life (early years of retirement) were just a wish to live well away from London. The fact that it is helpful now I am disabled by stroek is just a happy coincidence.
The sun is bright today and the sky a lovely pale blue, not a cloud in sight. Better half is terrorizing the christmas events in the next town and I have just had a full hour nap.
This is all an attempt to avoid the next batch of xmas cards.
I always did get organized, it is because I am lazy and its so much easoetr to be organized. Now it is essential to be organized. I didnt take a shopping list this morning and it has caused me some distress. Better half will be on the 10.23 to London on Monday, for three sleeps. I will essentially be organized or suffer. So its defo arganized. I have my meals menu sorted. And my cat to keep me company.
Colin
Colin, it sounds so cosy, I'm very jealous!! I've been too lazy to fire up the log burner, so we're tucked up with the gas fire!! We have a huge upstairs sitting room, and there was no way I wanted to have to lug logs upstairs, and then take the ash downstairs, so we decided to go for a cleaner, easier heating system for that room. We're up at the level of the trees, and it's quite dramatic today with the high winds swaying everything around!!
To be honest, I think we all have big freezers and fridges these days, so never really short of anything, I'm sure you'll be fine for the next three sleeps, it's amazing what you can do insurvival mode! Hopefully you and Oscar will have a cosy, boys weekend, I'm sure he'll enjoy lots of sleep on a cosy chair. Take good care x
You do a lot to promote your recovery. BP should be high up your priority list.
Stress is a bit of a no no for us SS. We are who we are so stressing often comes with a caring attitude.
I am not bright at following what I am told. When you say this thing snuck up on me, do you refer to getting the mobility good and then finding the cognitive or the SF are the bits that are lagging behind ? It is so hard to kno how these two aspects relate. SF is certainly triggered by either or both of these
Keep on keeping on
Colin
This little corner of rural Essex will often escape the worst of the weather. Possibly the driest spot in the UK. We are a few hundred yards from the coast but we face south, similar to Clacton. So the wind here has only been bft 5, which is fine. Gets the washing dry. The leaves have already gone. The dry year probably means the trees are dropping sooner rather than later. My leaf bin is only partly filled. In the past it would be filled five times over.
Yes cards are still available in a shop near you. I buy mine after xmas, ready for the following year. Far too many others have caught on to this idea and they are no longer half price. But they are still a little chaeper and in any case I want them ready to use.
I also send some electronic cards but always a real one as well. The stamps are so expensive I just close my mind to that part of it. Many younger people dont do cards by post at all. A bit sad.
Thank you, yes I am mending. To go so far backwards is a bit of a shock, so grinding upwards to where I was, is surprisingly hard. How people cope with a second stroke I dont know.
More cards to be done
Colin
How wonderful. An upside down house. If you burn solid fuel for downstairs i hope it warms upstairs. My Harrow house works like that. No nice upstairs rooms, but get the coal fire burning in the dining room and the bedrooms stayed warm.
My introduction to this nice village was my Aunt and Uncle living here in the 1950s. He was a blue collar worker so hopelessly underpaid. But their little bungalow was nice and the garden grew lots of fruit and veg, Especially cherry plums. When they died and the bubgalow was sold it was converted to an upside down house. From their lounge they can see the rivers that form part of the North sea. Now that would be cool. I should have bought heir place, shouldnt I.
I've often done the Christmas card shopping in the January sale, however, by the time C'mas comes around I've forgotten where I've hidden them!! Usually I locate them at some point in the summer, and promptly lose them again! I don't know how I manage to survive really, I couldn't even take care of a baked potato ?
My leaves are still all over the lawn, they haven't found their own way to the compost heap, so guess I'll have to do it myself. We do have the luxury of a gardener, but he's busy building a couple of woodsheds, so I've let him do that instead of leaf-lugging ?
I think I'm going to take up the habit of hibernation and wake up next Spring x
That sounds really appealing!
Yes the log-burner certainly warms the whole house, but today I'm full of cold and a sore throat and I just can't motivate myself to get the logs in - such a lame excuse!