I’ve been home for just over 2 weeks now and I am absolutely loving it. My walking is getting better all of the time the only thing thats slacking is my arm. since I left hospital on april 8th I have only had one proper physio session. It’s been quite frustrating because I feel that I’m not progressing as quick as I could be but my physiotherapist is lovely and when she assessed my arm she said I have 75% of the possible arm movements there it’s just that they are too weak to be functional at the moment, but at least iyts a positive start. she went over the exercises I had been given and adapted them and gave me a few more that I can do by myself. Another thing I’ve found very frustrating is that food tastes really wierd, Its almost as if things have no taste, unless it’s garlic, spice or peanuts. Apparently this is quite normal post-stroke and is something that will fix itself but it’s very frustrating going through the effort of making food with one arm and eat it to find that its tasteless.
I have had a few experiences in the last 2 weeks that I see as big achievements towards my recovery but also go against the “only walk around the house rule” the occupational therapists gave me when i left hospital the first was going to the cinema to see scream4. my housemate drove us there but we couldnt fit the wheelchair in the car so she dropped me off near the door and one of my friends walked with me to get our tickets and then through to the screen, this is the furthest I have walked since the stroke & it was nice to push my legs a bit further and learn that they don’t fatigue as quickly as i had thought although my leg was a bit achy the morning after, it certainly didn’t do me any harm.
the second was going to my first po-stroke standing gig to see the band metronomy. my manager & friend from work planned this night out & I was determined to go because for one I love metronomy, secondly I missed him & the girls who were going and thirdly I needed to get some practice in for glastonbury. being in a wheelchair at a standing gig obviously gives you a very poor view mostly of peoples bums & backs so I gave standing ago. It was quite scary at first standing surrounded by so many people but with all my friends around me acting as my personal body guards I was able to stand for the majority of the set, even having a bit of a dance around before my leg fatigued. I had such a good night and was pleased that I could still go to a gig (something I did befoore on a regular basis) and feel quite comfortable.
the other thing I did was not necesarily a success physicallly but I went back to my internship at juice 107.2 to see how I got on and although I managed to take the two flights of stairs there I was more pleased about being able to get back into something that was a huge part of my routine.
