Yesterday was an experience and adventure day.
I have not been able to get upstairs due to stroke and am based in a room downstairs.
Our home network is largely managed from a room upstairs. My own computer is up there, inaccessible to me, so I got a cheap laptop as a stand in for now, downstairs.
We get power cuts on occasion here and I installed an auxillary power source so everything computer-wise can keep going when electricity fails.
Unfortunately my auxillary power source has itself just decided to fail. This cut all power to our home network. Access to all this is upstairs and it is complex requiring my attention.
So I needed to get up the stairs for the first time since my stroke. I slowly walked up forwards with the support of a hand rail and later came down backwards in reverse. Somehow all without incident. My wife first took up the rollator I’d just received and I used it to perch and catch my breath at the top.
I solved our problem by disconnecting the auxillary power source and rewiring to exclude it. It was a 30 minute job that took 4 hours or more. Trying to do electrical work with just one left hand is problematic.
Somehow with support and at times very worried looks from my wife we got the job done. Our home network is back up and running, I got back downstairs in one piece and put myself to bed for an hour.
Then I got up to coffee and a bacon and mushroom sandwich prepared by my wife who was visibly relieved that the adventure was over.
It is worthy of note that a lot of my post-stroke progress has been against the advice of some professionals. I do take care on my ‘adventures’ and you can be sure I have no desire to prove in some way that they were right. Also I am not recommending my ‘foolhardiness’ to others.
Thanks @Loshy
I think the support I get from my wife has helped me cope with the experience of stroke. There are times we all feel like we could go under but for me she has been a wonder. She is that ‘light in my life’.
By the way, if she wasn’t so hooked on her PC I don’t think she would have let me attempt the stairs.
Morning @Bobbi. Blooming amazing . They say necessity is the mother of invention but they are forgetting the determination and bloody mindedness to get where we need to be. Pushing boundaries is required and there will always be someone questioning whether we should, but we take our own considered decisions, being mindful of what could go wrong. Onwards and literally upwards Julia x
@JuliaH I’ve looked at that staircase many times, always thinking, ‘maybe one day’. I wouldn’t admit it at the time, but attempting it was a leap of faith.
I’m truly glad I gave it a go, but I’m still wary of seeing it as mission accomplished. More careful practice is needed, in the same way my walk could definitely improve. I suppose that is going to be the way forward, small steps and then rest and repeat. A la Nigella Lawson.
Its just occurred to me also - the first four months after stroke is supposed to be when most recovery occurs. My recovery on that time scale has been depressingly slow, I was privately panickiing about how little advance I had made after four months. I was housebound, chairbound and very limited on activity, this laptop was about the only way I could take part in the world.
Now at six months, suddenly I am walking, climbing stairs and beginning to believe I can get out of the house. I must be a late developer ! !
I won’t be giving up.
Keep on keeping on
Well done indeed. Yes, sometimes we have to push ourselves despite the advice we’re given. I was lucky because before I cam home I was taken on a home visit to see what adjustments needed making. Age Uk put in a hand grip at the bottom of the stairs, another hand rail and a handgrip at the top,ball provided for free. I had six weeks physio at home and was taught to go up and then come down backwards. After a year I decided to come down forwards holding the bannister and stair rail with each hand. I niw come down using one hand.
The human mind is such that we find ways of coping. I’ve found a way of getting up most stairs but, obviously, with great care. I wouldn’t be able to stand on a box or stepladder, but am thankful of all the little steps forward I’ve made over the last six years. Great that you did it.
@John_Jeff_Maynard I think there will always be advances, small changes and so on, still to be made.
It looks like stroke is an ongoing occupation, always room for improvement, never finally completed, but I can live with that.
Thanks for your comment. Take care.
@Bobbi that’s amazing. It took me ages to master the stairs. Partly because my leg is heavy & I can’t lift it. I can do stairs now though. You must be very chuffed with your progress. Good on you.
A word of caution (don’t want to be party pooper) watch out for bad habits creeping in as they can take longer to sort. I was elated at being able to get up and down stairs but hadn’t realised I’d developed a twist on coming downstairs. My physio told me off & it took me a while to sort it out
Well done though…nothing wrong with being ambitious. At this rate you won’t need that physio
Yes @Des_murphy the second hand rail was mentioned before I had done anything on the stairs. Again, I had to deal with what I had, but at least I knew how to ascend and how to descend by backing up. I appreciate the input Des.
@Mahoney well it wasn’t something I chose on that occasion, things needed sorting. I had thought I should persevere and improve walking on the flat first and this is probably what I will be doing now. The mountaineering can come later when I have a more secure gait.
I do appreciate the words of support though.
I’ve just got back from the Tower of London and it am amazed me how many times I had to come down steps backwards because handrails ran out, or waste bins were in the way. My physio says it helps to ensure you are lifting and bending your leg if you do stairs backwards (safely).
@MinnieB they don’t let me out past our front door yet, visiting amenities in the big wide world is a pleasure I have yet to enjoy. I can imagine how a place like the Tower of London must be an advanced course in gadding about. Maybe one day I will achieve such stuff but for now I must sit here green with envy in my wheel chair.
Take care and good on you
It has taken me a long time and a lot of hard work to get to this point and it probably wasn’t the best weather for walking, but I did it! I didn’t get to see everything I wanted to. The heat got the better of me.
Going up stairs is a start. That was all I could do at the start. Keep going Bobbi. Onwards and upwards! (literally).
@MinnieB Well done you !
That is something else I will have to improve, staying power. I have been doing so little since all this began that strength and stamina have declined. I hope with exercise they will pick back up.
. They say necessity is the mother of invention but they are forgetting the determination and bloody mindedness to get where we need to be. Pushing boundaries is required and there will always be someone questioning whether we should, but we take our own considered decisions, being mindful of what could go wrong. Onwards and literally upwards 
Julia x
