Life//Adventures

Such a celeb

Fri, 17 May 2013 10:56:07 -0400

You may or may not know that I have been working with a charity called Fixers to create a advert to raise awareness of the signs of stroke - particularly in young people. Ive been doing it since around November time and I’m so pleased it is finally coming together! Last Thursday my project was picked up as a broadcast piece for ITV Meridian which you can view here.

http://www.fixers.org.uk/news/6615-11208/strokes-striking-young-on-itv.php

I am very pleased with it and hope that I did it justice for other young survivors :) Since this went out I have had endless media requests from radio stations, news agencies and freelance journalists. Its fun but difficult to decide who the right person is to tell my story too. I was featured in the Argus, Brightons local newspaper without even really knowing about it. Luckily the article was very nicely written by a lovely lady called Siobhan.

I also spoke to the BBC Sussex Breakfast show about my experience which you can listen to here, Just skip to 1hr22

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0184c71

I love doing things like this because if just ONE person can learn the symptoms of a stroke each time I tell my story then they could potentially save somebodies life.

Act FAST.

reasonsmysoniscrying: We took him to a special meal at Chef...

Fri, 10 May 2013 12:41:14 -0400

reasonsmysoniscrying:

We took him to a special meal at Chef Mickey’s restaurant so he could meet all of his favorite Disney Characters.

This is completely not stroke related but I love this blog and more importantly, I LOVE DISNEY

So myspace but yay shoes!

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:12:56 -0400

So myspace but yay shoes!

I put my new shoes on and suddenly everything is right.

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:11:00 -0400

Lots of things to report so I will try to do some posts over the weekend.

Firstly, I have received funding from the local PCT for Functional Electronic Stimulation for my leg and arm so I had an assessment with a guy from PhysioFunction called Jon. after assessing me, he suggested that I might still need a little extra support onto of the FES but that my current NHS splint was not the right thing as its too rigid.

For some reason that day he had decided to bring his carbon fibre splints with him and suggested I tried one with the FES, It worked perfectly, holding my foot just in place but allowing the FES to still work enough for it to improve my walking even with the splint on. I loved it. Then my physio suggested I tried it without the FES to see if it would be worth me using before I get the FES equipment, I LOVED IT. I didn’t want to take it off and when he told me id be able to wear normal shoes I was ecstatic! I ordered one instantly and went shoe shopping whilst I waited for it to arrive.

I now have the splint and some lovely new nikes to go with it, its not as supportive as my old splint so I can’t walk as far yet and i’m much slower but I know i’ll get there and it will benefit me in the long run. Plus its totally worth being a bit slower to wear real shoes not those horrible velcros!!

Photo

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:02:06 -0400

So happy to see PC Stuart Brown again, 26 months after he helped...

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:47:25 -0400

So happy to see PC Stuart Brown again, 26 months after he helped save my life!

Reconstructing my stroke. Too realistic #itvfixers #stroke

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 05:46:46 -0400

Reconstructing my stroke. Too realistic #itvfixers #stroke

I saw this band about a month ago. Loving this...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 07:53:04 -0400

I saw this band about a month ago. Loving this video…opinions?

To Kill A King - Funeral.

Lots going on at the minute so havn’t posted for a little while so heres a quick...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 12:48:00 -0400

Lots going on at the minute so havn’t posted for a little while so heres a quick update…

Job is going really well as is physio. Currently appealing a DLA decision that I am no longer entitled to any mobilitly rate, doesn’t seem right considering the short distance I can walk and the painI am often in? Today I also received my atos questionnaire so that is going to be a hoot too! I also have a lovely boyfriend now and between seeing him, seeing my friends, working, physio and dealing with paperwork I feel like I barely have time to breathe. As soon as I have some spare time i’ll do a proper update :) Until next time…

Yes yes yes! @mcflymusic #memorylane

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 17:47:32 -0400

Yes yes yes! @mcflymusic #memorylane

giovannafletcher1: Blooming marvellous! Political speech at its...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 11:27:03 -0400

giovannafletcher1:

Blooming marvellous! Political speech at its best - engaging, humorous and thought-provoking. Xx

This is fab! I LOVE NEW ZEALAND

@gigbuddies training with @stayuplateuk #disability #equality!

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 08:31:30 -0400

@gigbuddies training with @stayuplateuk #disability #equality!

Got on a plane at London Heathrow...

Wed, 06 Mar 2013 16:21:27 -0500

OK I definitely didn’t but I couldn’t resist a little Busted reference and I did go on a tour around Terminal 2A which is currently being constructed… so that’s basically the same right?

Just before Christmas my incredible friend and designer of the ‘Superstar’ jewellery range Jordanne Cliffe told me that her Dad had put Different Strokes forward to be one of the charities at Hetco, the company he works for’s Christmas Raffle. DS were accepted along with a local charity for disabled children. Then, In January, Jordanne sent me a message to say that the company had raised around £2000 for the charity and that they wanted me and Jordanne to collect the cheque to give to Different Strokes. On Feb 25th we were presented with the cheque, had a tour around the construction site and watched a few planes taking off. All in all it was an interesting way to spend a monday morning and I was very greatful on behalf of DS for the money they had raised and I know that the money will mean so much to everyone involved with the charity.

The best (or worst ;) ) thing about the day was that when we were taking our safety gear off we went into a room where a boy, Simon, was sat working. When Jordannes dad came in Simon asked what was going on and he explained that we were there for the charity and that I’d had a stroke when I was 21. Simon’s reply was ‘I had a stroke when I was 17’ I was genuinely shocked, although I know a few people, I’ve never coincidently met someone my age(ish) who it had happened too. We chatted for a bit and he mentioned that he had met Sarah, ‘the girl from the undateables’ at a Connect meeting the week before which just seemed ridiculous, maybe I do know everyone who has had a stroke after all? Paha…

Anyway we swapped numbers and as it was my two year ‘celebration’ coming up Simon suggested the we got together with Sarah and Jordanne in London at the weekend, we went for dinner and drinks at Tottenham Court Rd and then to Covent Garden for a comedy show which was strange but fun, It was a very lovely way to look at the positives of what I’ve been through and think about all the great things that have come from it, especially all the new people I have met and continue to meet.

“NEW FRIENDS!”

This is the kind of stuff I get to do in Physio now, pretty...

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:12:27 -0500

This is the kind of stuff I get to do in Physio now, pretty incredible for a session two years to the day of my stroke? Personally recommend private over NHS physio, they arent scared to push you and have seen people years on from their neurological injuries making great recoveries so aren’t of the attitude that you only have a small window of time to recover… as an NHS outpatient I was never pushed to the edge of my limits & now I’m doing this!

Paaaahaha

Wed, 27 Feb 2013 06:52:46 -0500

Paaaahaha

How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 16:51:00 -0500

I’d really like to post the video to Bastille - Pompeii here so you know where I got the title from but as tumblr won’t let me i’ve had to explain it.

Today has been pretty crazy, I didnt really expect it to be so emotional. I didn’t sleep great so have been shattered and had a lot on my mind. I’ve kind of been hit by waves of feeling sad throughout the day, I’d be fine, get a bit teary, five minutes later be fine again. A thought crossed my mind that this week is ‘so shit’ and I had to put it into perspective and laugh at my self, it could be so much worse. I guess sometimes it’s hard to remember whats important in life and trivial things can take over no matter what you’ve been through.

I thought it would be nice & maybe help keep me perky tomorrow if I listed some of the things that would never have happened if I hadn’t had a stroke so here goes…

Before my stroke I had been drifting away from a couple of my uni friends who I had been really close to in first year, I’m not sure we would be as close as we are now if it hadn’t happened
I possibly wouldnt have been such a huge Jessie J fan (some of you might argue this isn’t a good thing but i’d disagree :p)
I wouldn’t have met some of the most lovely people in my life, Adam my student physio in hospital who is now a great friend and his girlfriend Marie who I am slowly stealing away from him, Sarah and Joanie Scott who I met through the stroke association, Callum who is a ‘cool dude’ that my physio put me in touch with, My physio Nikki Penny & her team and clients and many other stroke survivors who I have different levels of friendships with. This is starting to sound like an acceptance speech but basically it is contstantly opening new doors for me to meet new people
I’d probably still be pretty ignorant towards disabilities instead I have produced a dissertation challenging the representation of disabilities on television, am much more open minded and have recently applied to be a ‘gig buddy’ in a scheme to help people with learning disabilities attend gigs. (cross your fingers for me!)
I wouldn’t have met the lovely people at the stroke association or at different strokes or the incredible Nick Ede and had the opportunity to speak in front of a room of celebrities, appeared on Live with Gabby or in Look Magazine or been an ambassador for Style for Stroke
Most importantly I’ve had the perfect excuse to wear velcro trainers for TWO YEARS. Whilst it’s been fun…get me out of them asap please.

I could probably go on more & if any friends or family can think of anything I would love to hear them :)

Crikey

Tue, 26 Feb 2013 06:29:00 -0500

I can’t believe how fast 2013 is going, It’s february 26th already and tomorrow it will be two years since my stroke. At times it feels like it has flown by and at others it feels like it was forever ago. So much has happened between then and now. I’ve gone from not being able to sit up or smile, to going to the gym 3 times a week and having my smile back, Not that I didnt have plenty to smile about when it happened, strangely I did. I just physically couldn’t.

I went from not knowing if or when I would be able to travel or finish uni to less than two years later - graduating with a first and ‘backpacking’ (dragging a suitcase) around Thailand and FINALLY I will be starting a new job as a marketing assistant on March 4th. With a training evening tomorrow, what better way to look to the future instead of the past on my stroke anniversary?

There was a time last year that I worried if staying in Brighton was the right choice for me, I hardly knew anyone and was starting to feel lonely, re-finding my confidence has meant that over the last 6 months I have started to meet lots of new people, am constantly busy and can’t imagine leaving this city for quite some time.

Having a stroke is life changing and in many ways devastating but that isn’t to say that there isn’t a life after stroke, you might have to do things a little differently and your journey might take a different route than you had expected but you can and will get there. It’s hard work, it’s tiring and it will have its massive highs and huge lows… Just take each day at a time, embrace any new doors it may open and don’t listen to any negativity. Had I listened to my negative drs/physios/occupational therapists then I would have never walked again, been how I was at 3 months for the rest of my life, slept through the whole of glastonbury festival and never have graduated without getting an electric wheelchair. I dread to think what they would have said about my trip to Thailand! Keep on keeping on and find a team of proffessionals who will push you not hold you back…

Never take anything for granted…

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 10:52:34 -0500

Never take anything for granted…

A Simple Equation...

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 16:54:00 -0500

Disclaimer: Dearest family who may not want to know about my love life, please don’t read this blog (Granddad that means you!) I wanted to write this as I have been approached about a documentary about disability and sex and mixed with the recent series of The Undateables I wanted to post about how having a stroke has affected my dating/sex life as a 23 year old girl.

I may or may not have mentioned that I am single. Me and my friends are so single in fact that we joke about being forever alone, although i’m sure that not one of us will be (yes Rosie and Nicola, even you).

Before my stroke I had been in two ‘serious’ relationships, one from the age of 16-18 and another in my first year at university. Outside of this I never had any issues meeting boys, I was confident and constantly meeting new people, such is the life of a student. I had however been seeing my ‘first love’ on and off from when we broke up at 18 until mere weeks before I had my stroke at the age of 21. It was complicated but he was a huge part of my life. He was the last person I had slept with about 4 months before my stroke and it seems incredibly weird for me that we no longer speak, although i’m sure its for the best.

Following my stroke, whilst I felt like the same person, It was obvious to me and I’m sure to everyone around me that my confidence had been hugely knocked. I was horrendously self concious about the droop in my face with every smile being over dramatised in an attempt to force the left side of my face to mirror the right, on top of that I was trying to get used to being in a wheelchair with eyes glancing at me then looking away awkwardly or worse, I was using a walking frame, possibly the least sexy thing for a girl in her early 20s to experience. Friends and ex-flings started asking if I could have sex, something I was sure I could but had no real desire too, I didn’t feel sexy in my new body and I had my recovery to concentrate on but after a long 22 months of not experiencing it, I began feeling comfortable in my self again.

I’m sure my three weeks in Thailand are what triggered the return of my confidence, I guess it came kind of hand in hand with feeling relaxed, distancing myself from many stroke related things in my life and feeling comfortable drinking again…sad that alcohol was what helped me feel comfortable in myself but it gave me such an invincible feeling that on one of our first nights in Bangkok whilst Sarah was chatting up a boy, I approached a group of german boys in a bar, asked if they spoke English and if they would mind if I sat with them and that was it I made some new friends for the evening. This mind-set stuck with me for the rest of the holiday, happily chatting to boys, getting a few snogs and exchanging phone numbers. The stroke was no longer at the forefront of my mind and my ‘disabilities’ didn’t seem to bother anyone- if they even noticed them at all.

When I came back from Thailand I realised it was harder to meet people here than there and I made the decision to try online dating, I wrote about what had happened to me on my profile but I still got plenty of attention, it was weird and I wasn’t sure if it was how I wanted to meet someone but I liked the ego boost and after a few weeks I went on my first date. I was so nervous, an emotion that kicks my muscle spasticity into overdrive, making my arm and leg tense meaning its much harder to walk. The date was awkward but fun - just as I’d expected but a couple of hours into it I got a really bad headache which i’m still not sure if the guy really believed, we kept seeing each other and things moved quite quickly - at least until he told me he didnt want a relationship, that he couldn’t see us together and that he thought we would irritate each other. Although we stay in touch now I cut him out completely for a while, He was the first person I’d had a kind of relationship with since my stroke and if i’m honest I felt betrayed for putting my trust in him and was upset for a few days.

I soon snapped out of feeling sad and I went on a night out with some friends and met a friend of friends who I instantly clicked with and had a really fun night with. Although he knew i’d had a stroke it wasn’t until the next morning that he realised I was wearing a splint when I walked which I honestly thought was great as I genuinely thought it stuck out like a sore thumb. It was nice to know that it wasn’t on his radar. We have been meeting up since and I think have formed a good friendship but he’s another one who doesn’t want a relationship, although he said he liked me and I like him its bad timing I guess as we’re both at complicated stages of our lifes. I started to think that this lack of commitment was saying something about me but I now think i’m just at a strange age where people don’t necessarily want commitment and I’ve even started to realise it’s probably not the right thing for me at the moment either. My physio keeps telling me to have fun in my early twenties before I settle down as once I’ve met someone I won’t have the chance to do it again and I think she’s right.

There have been a couple of others I have met on nights out or online and every boy I have met since my stroke has helped me figure myself out again in one way or another, deciding what I do or don’t want and how I want to feel when in a relationship. For example I realised that online dating, whilst right for some people, wasn’t right for me and deleted my account after a couple of months and decided to do things I love and concentrate on making myself happy, not being made happy by somebody else. As Jessie J tweeted ”I know I can’t win. And I can’t make everyone happy but I will always be honest even if some don’t agree. Live your life in real life. Not online. Its not a fact its just my opinion. That’s all x.”

I was told my relationshipssex life would change after my stroke, I’m not sure thats the truth. Whilst of course there are physical limits, they are just as complicated and emotional as ever before. I think maybe its changed more with my age than to do with anything else. In regards to if I can have sex, if anything its pretty much the same - if not better! (sorry pre-stroke boys!) I’m not sure if that’s to do with the boys I’ve met or my new relationship with my body but either way I’m starting to feel more comfortable with myself than I ever had.

I think disability and sex/dating should be a much more open subject so please feel free to ask me anything…no filth please.

Life//Adventures

Such a celeb

reasonsmysoniscrying: We took him to a special meal at Chef...

So myspace but yay shoes!

I put my new shoes on and suddenly everything is right.

Read more about Jordanne Cliffes 'Superstar' necklace

Photo

So happy to see PC Stuart Brown again, 26 months after he helped...

Reconstructing my stroke. Too realistic #itvfixers #stroke

I saw this band about a month ago. Loving this...

Lots going on at the minute so havn’t posted for a little while so heres a quick...

Yes yes yes! @mcflymusic #memorylane

giovannafletcher1: Blooming marvellous! Political speech at its...

@gigbuddies training with @stayuplateuk #disability #equality!

Got on a plane at London Heathrow...

This is the kind of stuff I get to do in Physio now, pretty...

Paaaahaha

How am I gonna be an optimist about this?

Crikey

Never take anything for granted…

A Simple Equation...