Sunday Stroke Survival: Recovering in Slow Motion

Recovering from a seizure, near death, a massive infection, and a baclofen pump removal surgery is no picnic. It's recovery in slow motion. Add advancing age and living post stroke into the mix makes recovery even slower.

I am now  2 1/2 weeks out of the hospital. To date, I've cooked 2 meals with assistance, been out of the house once for a shopping trip (I didn't go in, just sat in the car), I've taken two full showers, and walk one row of the garden (26'). Mind you, not in the same day or even every other day. I haven't had the strength. Even climbing four stairs is exhausting. We've had a couple of chicks born to a broody hen that I haven't been out to see. After each event, I've had to take a nap and takes a day to recover from the activity!

I'm feeling every one of my years. I no longer need a helping hand to rise from a chair although it still takes a couple of attempts.My functioning side is weakened from so long in the hospital. I wasn't allowed to get up from the bed at all until I was discharged.

So what am I doing about it?

• I've enlisted the help of my home health care PT services for strengthening. Not that I don't know the routine by now, but the refresher is good.
• I make a point of rising from my desk every hour and walking the 40 steps to the bathroom. I usually don't make it so I've back tracked into pull up again. But, this is a strengthening exercise. I'll retrain my bladder later.
• I make a point to do one little thing extra each day. It could be making myself breakfast, snacks, lunch, or dinner. Like tonight, I'm making Goulash from scratch and biscuits. That's something new so far. I may have to cook the ground beef and sit down, chop the onions with my slap chopper and sit down, drain the beef and add the onions, and sit down, and add the spices, tomatoes, macaroni and sit down while it cooks. Finally make my baking powder biscuits. I'll sit down again while they bake. I'll serve it up. Mel will carry it out to the back porch because I need my functioning hand to maneuver the steps. I'll be sweating and exhausted by then, like I've worked all day in the garden and tended the animals.
• I'm still taking a daily two-hour naps to get through the day. Between the baclofen, dantrolene, and seizure meds I stay sleepy. I haven't dared to take my valium to ease the increasing pain from the spasticity.
• I keep a 1lb hand and ankle weight on my functioning side by my computer and do 10 reps every two to three hours. While this succeeds in tiring me out further, it would be time spent watching a movie or show on Netflix anyhow.

Still I'm in slow motion. The stitches came out this week. They were starting to get itchy and getting caught in my abdominal binder. The incisions still catch me and let me know I can't move that way yet. So I know I'm healing. I've now finished all my antibiotics. If any germs lived through a month of four heavy duty antibiotics deserves to live. You'd think that I recover faster doing all of this, but I'm not. I'll keep at it. Maybe one day, I'll awaken full of energy and giddy up and go but I'm not holding my breath.

Nothing is impossible.