Two Year Post Stroke Update

Please ignore if you have no interest in this.

I have been providing post stroke update every 3 months to assist others who might be going through this. If it also serves as a heads up to those with high blood pressure or high cholesterol levels than good.

It has now been 2 years since I had a pretty nasty stroke. There is some pretty good progress. Maintaining my positive attitude, my current status is as follows. If I have someone walking next to me in case I sway to the right, I can walk about 45 minutes on my own. I need help to get up or sit down and I need help and a cane to go up or down steps, and I need my wife to shower and shave me while I sit in a chair. My balance is not very good and my right leg and arm have about 50% paralysis so I can not use my right hand to eat, drink or write. However, I am able to do light weights and machines at the gym so my right hand grip has improved, my brother-in-law helps me navigate the gym and he is my driver. My voice is maybe 75% normal. My good arm and leg are numb while my right arm and leg have constant tingling and feel very heavy. My face has regained most of its shape but the right side is numb, and unfortunately my double chin has returned.
Truthfully, I thought I would have my balance after 2 years but I do have control of my body movements and functions. The doctor says I should expect only a 70% recovery. I don't accept that and will keep working toward a full recovery.

If you would like more information PM me.

 

As always Pat, Many of us admire that Marine Courage "True Grit and determination" will always see you through

Jack

 

Thanks for posting. A stroke is not hereditary, but if a close family member has had a stroke some of the risk factors may be hereditary such as high blood pressure, diabetes or abnormally high cholesterol. In my case I hadn't smoke since the military in the sixties but the family has a history of very high cholesterol and I stopped taking medication because the cost for it here was too high, plus I went eight years without a doctor's checkup. I went through a period of high stress and bang .... My own fault.

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Great attitude and all the best in your further recovery.

 

Me too. Especially those hard to reach areas such as the balls.

Warning NSFW - but none of you guys work, so it's okay.

 

In 1993 a very close friend that I worked with and traveled with died of a massive stroke in his office while in his early 40's. Tom's philosophy at work was to always celebrate the small victories, you never know when you might have another one, and he and I celebrated some small victories and I then took his philosophy after he passed away and did a lot of celebrating, never worrying about a big victory. That philosophy has helped me in many ways including recovering from my own stroke.

 

I enjoy your updates, great attitude you have is one of the best medicines.

 

This is good advice and I follow the same. Sometimes I can get really down from an issue with work, but then something as small as an old client contacting me or someone bringing me a cup of coffee can fill me back up with energy. Look for the small wins and appreciate them.

More accurate for me is small positives than wins. I have seen a number of articles which talk about how the chance of survival for a wedding can be predicted based on a ratio of positives to negatives. I think we can apply this to many areas of life.

The small wins (positives) are all we can really count on anyways. We can grind out a good day of work, learning something new or just enjoying the day. But we are seriously constrained in how much we can plan further into the future. For example, we don't know what the stock market will do and we we don't know how long that job will last (though we can follow general patterns from historical data) We can't make big goals and expect that the fractal of variables and the resulting explosion of complexity will align with those goals. A simple, stupid test - how many of us went on to be what we wanted to be when we were 8 years old?

Here is a quote from Nietzsche

"To those human beings who are of any concern to me I wish suffering, desolation, sickness, ill-treatment, indignities - I wish that they should not remain unfamiliar with profound self-contempt, the torture of self-mistrust, the wretchedness of the vanquished: I have no pity for them, because I wish them the only thing that can prove today whether one is worth anything or not - that one endures."

Suffering is part of the human condition as much as happiness. We use suffering as a bearing for happiness and the other way around. I salute both your adversity and your recovery.

 

A philosophy anyone can live by. We can't always get what we want but sometimes we get what we need!