I'm in my fourth year of survival and I like to think that there will be no new surprises from my stroke. I say this because it took me the best part of two years to find some hidden changes to my body. I am still working hard to make improvements but at times this gets rather frustrating and at times I give up trying. This feeling doesn't last for long and usually I am quickly back to exercising my fingers, legs and voice. The voice is the most embarrasing bit because my deficiencies are obvious to anyone I talk to. Has anyone found any clever tricks to improve their way of speaking?
Keep at it Deigh. You know how much you have conquered over the past four years. So often its just plug on. At nearly three years my voice is returning. I can actually sing a bit. Nothing clever on my part, it has just returned alongside the other million things that have been going wonky. For me it was the echo that had me fooled. And now it seems that my emotionality is easing and thus the singing can start. I havent the courage to ask my fellow pilgrims what the voice sounds like, but I can feel it getting somewhere near in tune.
hi, i'm quite lucky in that most people wouldn't actually notice i had a stroke, but slurred speech was in fact more or less the only obvious symptom at the time and it still shows 18 months after. i still can't whistle, lol, i guess the only thing to do is practice and practice more, my speech therapist gave me some exercises to do which i thought were a bit silly at the time but i still do them, it all takes time, when i notice my speech going i concentrate more on the bits i have problems with, fatigue and exhaustion seems to make it worse. don't give up trying!!
That’s interesting, Django my husband’s voice is much quieter now and disappears completely when he’s tired. I have great difficulty in hearing him sometimes, (mind you, I’m a bit deaf). He twanged his very dusty guitar as I was packing for our holiday so I might encourage him,,,,maybe he might squawk out a tune, too, lol!
Thats the first time in three years of good advice, that you have given me a "bum steer". Fancy subjecting me to listening to my own voice ! What a nightmare !
I cant fathom out how to do texts on my nockia mobile phone. As for recording, no chance. I think the phone is 25 years old. I did replace the battery ! Gosh it was the bees knees when I got it. Those bees now have arthritic knees.
I did miss the xmas carols so this year will be a nice change. Our village pub organizes the carols. So we can booze, sing with the church choir backed by the sally army band. Well thats the theory. The pub does such a good job that it takes a long time to get to one of the bars. Choir etc have gone home by that time.
It is nice living in a proper village. Especially if its East Anglia.
Well said. My aphasia faded away 95% after about 18 months. Lack of sleep is a big thing. Then the SF worsens and everything else goes downhill. For me its two days, then I build up again. Sleep is so important. Thats sleepy sleep as opposed to stroke sleep. We dont get told about all this stuff, do we ?
Now you really surprise me. I'd have expected you to be the owner of the latest top-of-the-range Iphones which can tell you the time, read your blood pressure, remind you when you've forgotten your tablets, watch the stockmarket and phone your wife automatically if you are in trouble!
Exactly. Its too easy to think we can miss out on some sleep, like we did pre stroke. Now we can not. I had a disturbed night last night and reckon I am one hour light. So I am tripping over everything, cant think straight and memory has gone to pot. My adored cat wouldnt go out in the sleet and hail that was falling, so I slept on the couch until 4am. What I do for my cat is unbelievable. Before stroke we never had any pets, not even a goldfish. New me loves having the cat around.
I can identify sleepy sleep from stroke naps. I really liked the stroke naps. Deep sleep from which I would awake without the sleepy sleep grim tiredness. I am recovering so stroke naps have reduced a lot. I found an hours nap soon after getting up, to be a great help. Still do, but not every day.
One wise SS pointed out that if you go to a nights sleep with SF at say level 7, then you wake up with it at level 7. Lots of truth in this. So much to learn, so much to learn.
I was big in to the first time computers (remember a ZX80 ??) both at home and in the office. I was at the forefront of the first bookkeeping and accounts packages. When IBM and then Sage simply took over then I reacted against the computer companies running our lives.
I now cringe when I am with people who simply live their entire lives on their "device". My age group included. They have no conversation other than pathetic bits from Google and thousands of photos of what they have been doing. Especial pictures of the food they are about to eat. And the visitors who expect to use my broadband service on entry to my home is bugging me a lot.
They will now deny what they see and replace it with what their device tells them. My most recent visitor was utterly amazed that I gave him directions as to the best way home for him. He still hasnt really fathomed how a human could be better than a sat nav. What a sad world.
I dont have a smart phone, tablet nor lap top. I use a PC. And it seems to me that there is a big conspiracy to stop me. New words replace old ones Software is now apps. Why on earth should that change. 1984 and Animal Farm all rolled in together. So whats the future ? We are about to run out of the metal that goes in to the touch screens. Sooner the better.
Oooooh I do miss our lovely pub!! It's been closed for so long, but there's a glimmer of hope that someone has finally bought it, so hopefully it will be up and running sometime in 2019!! It's only about 200m along the road, so really great for a Friday evening when I really can't be bothered to put food on the table ? and such a short walk - easily achievable ? ?
Fortunately the pub has to remain as a pub, (at least until they change the planning laws). Change of use has been applied for and rejected - yippee!! If I had more energy (and £££££) I'd have a go myself ??.
Is day-time TV really real?? Rockin' the square-eyed look!! xx
I use the computer a lot, mostly for forums to chat with other stroke victims but I wouldn't call me a 'nerd'. I find I am rather isolated from the world I'd like to be involved in. Age is a factor, I'm 89 and can't dash around like I used to so the computer has to make up some shortcomings. I've a big range of interests, like photography, electronics, engineering and music.
The computer gives me an incredible range of things I can do with my pictures without the difficulties of using enlargers, chemicals and other equipment.
I am forever out of depth with my electronic experiments and use forums to solve problems and ask advice. I have no other ways of getting answers.
Music is my main reason for owning computers. I compose and arrange music for the computer to play rhythms while I play the lead with guitar. I have done some busking in the past using this process. Once apon a time I had friends with whom I could play, but this sort of activity just does not exist nowadays so one gets more and more reclusive.
Reading between the lines you will see that my brain has never stopped. It does not have the capacity for thought it did have, solving crosswords is much more difficult now and it has a very short fuse and attention span. It cannot ask the body to do tricky things with fingers like it used to!
It is pleasant conversing with you, but these messages (both yours and mine) should be on an open forum where others can read and perhaps use to their own advantage.
You make very good use of your computer. Must be a lifeline at times.
The forum floors me. I cant make out why some messages appear as purely one to one whereas others appear as discussions. I guess we have to create the discussion. Then write our message. Maybe I will try this one day.
I started to reply to a guy who was discussing "becoming disabled". But my PC crashed and when I went back to the forum (admitedly a few hours later) I could not find his posting. I am many times more capable with such things compared to how I was when I first came on the forum. I ma sad that any recently afflicted SS is unlikely to be able to get the help I got from guys like Kevin, Rachel and you. Your help was everything.
It is 7pm here and I do chuckle at the thought that you are probably getting your breakfast on a fine sunny morning