Quick note. Free pen giveaway over at carpelibris reviews

Not sure I’ve talked about pens here. But I’m an avid Fountain Pen enthusiast and use one every day. I’ll probably blog again about pens, however in the meantime I’d like to point you at a Giveaway over at carp(e)libris who are offering to give away one of the fantastic handmade pens from Ryan Krusac Studios. Have a look if you’re interested.

Been a while & change of direction

Sorry for the "long time of nothing"

Hi there, It's been a while. Much longer than I expected, so apologies to those still reading looking for information. My last post was while still in Hospital care, just before being discharged. That was now nearly 3 months ago. Basically the short version of what's been happening since, is that it's been going well. Very well in fact. I'm doing part-time work back at work - part of a graduated return which so far (touch wood) has been going fine and doing a Gym session 2-3 times a week as part of my physical recovery. I'm physically and mentally in better shape than before. The cognitive fatigue issue whilst still there is hugely better than on discharge from Hospital - progress is still being made and I think I have a pretty good handle on it's effects and how to manage it. There are lots of little details, but they're not necessarily so interesting in their own right. Therefore, it's time to kick this blog back into life and change direction a little.

The future of this Blog

So It seems a little silly now to use this blog as a week by week , blow by blow account of where my recovery is. For myself I am now keeping a shorthand day by day written diary/journal, to track things. Rather than repeating myself here, in a what may simply seem a self-obsessed way, I have decided that it's time to move on. If you are interested in knowing more about how I am in a more general way, please feel free to contact me.

In the meantime this blog will revert more into a discussion of those ideas, pieces of technology, music and other items of interest, that catch my attention in a wider sense. Inevitably you can't come through this sort of experience without it affecting one's outlook on life or indeed channelling one's interests in someway, so I'm sure that there will be mention of the effects of my medical event and my ongoing recovery along the way but not as the main subject of the blog. There are other more general topics to discuss from here. I'm working on some ideas on how to give this blog some more thematic unity than previously, but as of yet I don't want to publish those ideas until they are fully formed. More to come on that. As always I love to hear that people have been reading so feedback as always is most appreciated. If you started reading because you know me personally and wanted to follow my recovery, hopefully you'll stay around a while and see where my ramblings go now. Many thanks to you all and belated wishes for the New Year.

Home for the long weekend

Hi there,

Sorry haven't been keeping the blog up todate. Been busy as you can imagine. So I'm walking now without aid. Indoors is fine, outdoors and when I'm tired, I still need a stick - more from safety reasons than anything else.

The left hand and arm is also making good progress. I can type a lot better (still slower than I'd like but getting better) now.

My Discharge day is now moved forward to next Friday, which is really great news. From there I will need some time at home to readjust to life and then start looking at doing more work related activity. I will still have outpatient appointments for physio and the like so life is going to be more about managing time and energy.

The main issue now is to do with pacing myself and managing the fatigue issue - which is a major thing to get right. There is no way to do what I previously would have done - if I felt tired, just push on through until the job was done. This does not work at all following a brain injury - just no way. If you don't notice the signs of fatigue and do the right thing (and resting is the only option) then you will end up seriously in a mess with an even bigger problem to deal with. Pushing it further lengthens the amount of rest it takes to recover properly by a factor of 2-3x the time it took to get in a bad state in the first place. So I can see that managing this will be one of the greatest challenges over the next wee while - particularly when out of the well controlled and regular environment of the hospital.

A Tuesday thought

So it's tuesday. Progress still being made. The Violin felt a bit more under control this morning, still slow and weak but the fingers had a little more stamina and were staying mostly where I put them.

My balance while walking is improving for the moment. This is good news and obviously helpful for the practicalities of getting around.

Yesterday was my "Family Meeting" which was where you see your whole therapy team with relatives in attendence also. Basically a mid way status check and a chance for everyone to report and checkout where things are at. From my point of view there were no hidden surprises. It seems that everyone is very happy with my progress, so that's good news.

In general, I feel like I have a little more stamina. Mainly I think that may be a consequence of the day to day ordinary things being easier, meaning that my brain is not struggling so much to make things happen. In general I feel pretty good about it all. Keeping positive is also very important. That's not at all too hard as my team here are all so good to work with!

Weekend Home

So I've just had a weekend home. Great again to see everyone and be comfortable. Also interesting as although it's only a few days since I came home previously, things are still easier to manage. So continuous progress is being made.

I'll try and post more this week. There are some goals I'm hoping to be able to manage and I'll report on those as they happen.

Back again

So I'm back at BIRS. The trip home was great. Being back is fine too. It's a little like being here is about the work to be done, so that means going home is a bit like R&R.

I can walk around the ward now with the walker without supervision. So some independence is great. Basically the walking is coming along well. I also have a different type of foot splint, more of an ankle splint for the moment which is there to help support my foot from turning over when I walk. The dorsal lifting the foot motion has returned so my physiotherapist is happy that unless I get tired I'm walking much better without a full AFO (Ankle-foot orthosis), the previous style of splint I was using.

The arm and hand are improving too. I'm beginning to incorporate using my left hand for eating more now. I can also do a little manipulation of objects with my left hand fingers now as well. All good and positive.

Post from home

So I'm home for a visit. I can't explain how great this is. Very great to be here in familiar surroundings. Things are getting better every day, so I always feel like there is progress being made every day. I'll say more later, this is just a quick post to keep everyone up todate.

Another Saturday

Wow, so it's a week since i posted last. Sorry about that. It's been a busy week and I haven"t managed to get to a computer since last weekend. Well progress is being made, little by little. I can transfer safely into and out of a car now, This is relevant as there is a home visit organised for this coming Tuesday which will be scary and also really great all at the same time.

My Left Hand is little by little getting more involved. Actually it is helping type the odd letter here so that's definitely a lot better. It can help with socks when getting dressed also as well as holding things while my right hand does things. Also the big news is that my Doctor here suggested that I should get the Violin and start trying to work with that; which I have (it's not every day that your doctor tells you to practice your scales!) It's very slow and tiring, but I can get my left hand to start holding down some notes. It's very like an absolute beginner in that the fingers are not quite strong enough to hold in place and slide a little. Those string players amongst you will understand how that is. The other issue is that the left arm is not very strong at holding the instrument up. So little 4 finger exercises are the thing for the moment.

Walking is coming together too, although again I'm limited in how much due to tiredness issues. There are two types of tiredness involved with everything for the forseeable future.Firstly muscles that haven't seen much use can obviously get tired quicker. However as a stroke is a brain injury it's actually the brain (that is working very hard to try and make things happen) that's the main source of fatigue. Given that I've always been used to a lot of intellectual stimulation which also will tire the brain, figuring out how to "pace" my self is one of the biggest things I'm learning here.

I enjoy the therapies very much as every day I can see something little that is making a difference. Lots of little things are coming back. I'm deemed to be basically safe in the bathroom these days - meaning that I have enough left leg strength to stand on my own and enough right hand strategies to be able to shower and toilet fine. This independence is a great feeling.

Well that"s enough for now. I hope everyone reading this is fine. I'll update again hopefully soon.

Quiet Saturday

So it's quiet here. Ellen and the girls have just been visiting. It's great to see them of course. Ellen reckons that my walking is showing some real improvement which is encouraging.

Also I can do more with my left hand and arm like being able to operate the wheelchair brakes on the lefthand side, which may not sound like much but it definitely is a bit better. This thanks the physio work which is obviously having an effect. Little by little it is getting there. More later.

More progress

So I'm here making progress. I've even found a computer!

So yesterday's procedure went okay. Well so I'm told. I can't remember much about it to be honest. That"s what happens when you get given something that takes away some of your recent memory. Basically the procedure involves sticking a transducer down into your oesophagus which is behind the heart so that they can do ultrasonic imaging from closer than is possible from the front. I haven't had a full report yet about what they found, however from the short report it appears that there was no obvious source of clotting found so that is most definitely good news.

So today is back to something a little more akin to normal life (well what is currently normal). I can pretty well shower and dress myself now with minimal assistance. Which is really good. Even things like putting socks on one handed seems to be happening. (You should try it some time - it's amazing what you take for granted that can provide a real problem without one hand working properly.)

Also I'm feeling a bit better about it all. I can see progress being made, so that helps hugely. Thanks yet again to everyone who has been sending best wishes and offers of help to Ellen an I, It reallly is much appreciated.

I know I keep saying it to everybody I see, but the staff here at BIRS and also at the Acute Stroke unit in CPH are really just great I've had nothing but the best assistance from lovely smiling really great wonderful professional people. It's a real joy to be around them all!