In 2006 I had a haemorrhagic stroke. Slowly I lost consciousness and eventually recovered in hospital. I am told I was briefly incoherent but regained speech in a day or so. Physiotherapy helped me to learn to use my right led but I have no proprioception available in my right limbs and no feeling of touch on my right side. Some things are painful but I lost a nail from my big toe without realising it. I broke a hip in 2008.
I think I’m a happy chap. I am looked after wonderfully well by my superb wife with a carer to get me up in the morning.
I am an engineer, married sixty years, DV, in February 2022. I am here to discuss strokes, the nervous system, arbitration, ADR, and any & everything. I am looking for friends of any age who would like to do the same.
Dear Geoffrey. I have just read your post. I also am an octogenarian who has had a stroke. I make the best of my days a bit like yourself. I had a stroke almost three years ago. I find this site interesting and like to read about others. How are you? I have recently celebrated our sixtieth wedding anniversary, My husband is a great support to me. Hope to hear from you soon. Regards Lilian
Hello @Geoffrey, welcome to the forum, thanks for sharing your story. Hope we can have some good discussions along the way. I had a cerebellar stroke, September 2020, I’m 45. I’m incredibly interested in the science of it all, but it doesn’t consume my life, as I’m interested in so many things. I have a proprioceptive impairment but it has to do with my vestibular system, and how I move through my environment, and the visual processing associated with that. I’m an author, still writing, albeit, a bit slower than I normally would. This is not through any lack of ideas or speed in which I can write, it has more to do with the simple activity of managing tasks throughout the day.
Dear Lilian,
Thank you for reaching out, Somehow a stroke seems to affect those who love us as much if not more than it affects us!
Congratulations on your Diamond Anniversary. And my compliments to your husband, I am watching the programme on Domiciliary care by Ed Balls! Let’s talk further.
Yours aye,
Geoffrey
Geoffrey
1m
Dear Lilian,
Thank you for reaching out, Somehow a stroke seems to affect those who love us as much if not more than it affects us!
Congratulations on your Diamond Anniversary. And my compliments to your husband, I am watching the programme on Domiciliary care by Ed Balls! Let’s talk further.
Yours aye,
Geoffrey
I haven’t mastered the system - talk later?
G
Dear Geoffrey, thank you for your reply. It was lovely to hear from you. I am still struggling with the new system and hopefully this reaches you. I was unfortunately watching the football last night with my husband and son so I missed Ed Balls. I don’t like football! Do you? My husband is Geoffrey too! Best wishes Lilian
Dear Lilian,
I don’t dislike football but Joy and I prefer Rugby. I found my stroke put a stop to my work. Even when things settled down, it wasn’t practical to travel. A pity because I was home from a hearing in Curaçao for my Summer holiday when I had the stroke in Gatwick on our way to Bermuda. I had promised Joy that I would take her to Curaçao for the next session. Worse was that ICC had paid me a deposit in respect of fees for the next session. A year later, the office in Paris telephoned Joy in my office to ask for their money back!
Have done one or two jobs since. A dispute about a generating station in the Middle East bought me a new rise-and-recline chair!
Yours aye,
Geoffrey
Dear Geoffrey. It sounds as though you had an interesting job. You seem to have traveled quite extensively. Where were you in the Middle East? My daughter lives in Dubai. I have not seen her or my grandchildren for two years because of Covid. I much prefer rugby but league rather than union. Good to talk. Lilian
Dear Lilian,
I was a Consulting Engineer and an International Arbitrator. My appointment in the Middle East was in Bahrain but it didn’t require me to get up from my day chair. Each party sent me their position statement and I had to decide between them.
My eldest daughter-in-law is in Dubai for a few days responsible for the logistics of a stand at an air show.
I played Rugby Union at school and later for our old boys’ club until I went to sea.
I was often at Mina-al-Ahmadi in Kuwait in the 1950s. I was in oil tankers,
Will you see your Dubai family soon?
Yours aye,
Geoffrey
Dear Friend,
A stroke at 45 is very young. Visual processing fascinates me. I had a trauma to one eye in childhood. Rapidly, I learned subconsciously to suppress the distorted and defocused image. I drove without accident until my stroke obliged me to surrender my licence at age seventy. After the stroke, the suppressed image seems to have returned to interfere with what I perceive.
Did you ever read, “The Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat” by Oliver Sacks? It’s a kind of case book of brain injuries and the like, Sacks died two or three years ago or maybe more. I recommend his book if you have not seen it.
By the way, when I first replied, my great-granddaughter of twelve weeks had just arrived at the door - no contest!
Yours aye,
Geoffrey
Hello @Geoffrey, yes, I have read this pioneering work before I’d even had a stroke. I’ve just finished Norman Doidge’s The Brain that Changes Itself. Another case-study book about neurological-plasticity. I’m taking a break from brain books at the moment, finishing now essays by Francis Bacon, and then two short books to follow, by Bertrand Russell and Tom Woolfe. I’ve always got something on the go. Cerebellar stroke seems to affect younger folk more, when it is ischaemic, it’s the first region usually to be targeted by errant platelets broken free from clots in the body. If it is a haemorrhage, it often is caused by trauma. I have quite debilitating oculomotor dysfunction, exacerbated by a proprioceptive impairment. In other words, I have decent physical functionality impeded by motion and sight. I’m trying to work on rehabilitating this but many exercises are redundant when it comes to my condition. I have to think outside the box. Have a joyful time with your great-granddaughter. I have four sons but no grandchildren yet.
Dear Geoffrey. I have just seen your reply. Thank you. I will only see my Dubai family next year. My daughter is a headteacher and will not have leave until then My eldest grandson is now married and working for his father in law in Dubai. The middle grandson, training to be a pilot there and the third at university also in Dubai. I am lucky to have a granddaughter who lives nearby with four great grandchildren. Good to talk Lilian
Dear Lilian,
Families are fun. We have three sons and a daughter, all married, each with two children. three nearby (two in walking distance). Our second son lives with his wife in Göteborg, Sweden. We see the latter family for Christmas, DV.
We also have a great-grandson of eight years and a great-granddaughter of twelve weeks who has been to see us a couple of times.
We are lucky to be able to communicate.
Yours aye,
Geoffrey
Dear Geoffrey . Thank you for your reply. Families are fun. We love ours especially the great grandchildren who give us lots of love and laughter. We have three year old twins, one of them is a real handful. Fortunately for their mother they are both at preschool for five half days per week. We have one, a girl who really is a perfect eleven year old. We are lucky because we see them often. Christmas is a wonderful time for children. Lilian