A Serious Wakeup Call

--This entry is dedicated Katy Dagenais, Colleen Baliga in Physical Therapy  and Debbie Peters in Cognitive Rehabilitation. Image from https://movementum.co.uk/journal/falling When I first got back after having my stroke I was never really concerned that I would fall. It had never really crossed my mind. From time to time I watched other patients at CNS go up and down the stairs and from time to time I would try the stairs.   I wanted to walk very badly.  My driver Laura could attest to this fact. CNS was very careful with my recovery.  They never pushed me to if I was not ready, but I was not concerned with falling. When I first had my stroke I wanted to walk--I wanted to walk so bad that I shoved my walker in a corner and did what Bruce and Gerald refer to as wall surfing. If there was a wall I could lean on I was glued to it.  Every time Bruce and Gerald would walk down the hallway I did not  want them to catch me leaning on a wall, so I straig...

When truth finally sinks in. For many patients there comes that time when there is a element of denial. For some think they will only be here at best three weeks. One of my my brothers, Skip told me that he lived in denial for a long time.   Being at the center was a real wake up call.   Much like Skip I had to adjust to the concept I would be working on many things, most importantly I would have to understand that my life would change, but I would get better.   It would take longer that I expected. I used to think that I would only spend about four months at the center, and I would only be here "just over the summer." The first truth bomb hit me when I was Occupational Therapy.   What I had referred to as my 79 percent side had become painfully obvious whenever I tried to write, or type of use as part of my testing.  Each time I used my right hand I tended to use my left hand to compensate--and the problem was I was right handed,  ...