Sunday Stroke Survival: Adaptive Gardening

It's been a while but I've been busy as you will read.

(Started this in May.) LOL
Well, it's Spring again. So begins a new garden of delicious vegetables waiting to grow. We have three standard 3x6 raised beds made from a fence panel. We still have to purchase another one to make into 8" deep raised beds for a total of six beds for taller and/or climbing plants (corn, beans, peas, cucumbers). I won't have to bend down to harvest.

We've also build some elevated beds for herbs.

I cut the handle of a mop and attached a two and a half foot and to a hoe and claw to make weeding easier. My old bones and hip replacement just doesn't take the bending as easily.

(Started this week and I'll try to do better)
I just passed my 4 year anniversary on the 27th of May. My time does fly when you are not having fun and running around like a chicken with its head cut off literally. No I haven't gotten more function in my arm and hand back, my leg still inverts both due to my post stroke spasticity. Since I've been here, I've found a new neurologist, cardiologist, and dry needling PT. I'm still waiting on a PCP. I've got an initial appointment in July. My new therapist is not as experienced or confident as my old one, so I'm not making the strides I was with my new one, but at least I'm out of pain. I've finally been able to back down to once a week, but since I'm not making positive strides it's more pain control.

I'm also scheduled for Botox with my new neurologist the second week in July. I've been lucky so far with the new doctors. They've all been on the same page as me or a page or two ahead. I haven't had to fire one because of the god complex yet. So yeah, considering all that I've heard from other stroke survivors about useless doctors, I've been lucky.

I've had to really fight with gardening this year. Between it being a new garden and the chickens, it's literally been a battle. I'm doing a combination of square foot and back to Eden gardening. I planted my seeds perfectly so that everything got enough light and water. It was going to be perfect just like my garden beds back in my other place. The planned harvest would be enough it carry Mel and I through this season with plenty of fresh goodies. Or that was the idea.

Enter the chickens...
They have been a bane to all my gardening efforts this year. They figured out they could fly over the fence this year. They ate and scattered seeds all over the place in each bed. They also have dug out large areas for dust bathing. So far I've replanted corn five times, green beans and cucumbers four times. I have no idea what's coming up or where. I harvested four pods of beans yesterday to find out which plant it was. It turned out to be red beans. I picked a huge zucchini that grew and was buried underneath a tomato plant. This sucker was twelve inches long by six inches around! I've got pumpkins growing where my yellow squash was planted. No yellow squash made it.  Sixty English pea plants are history. There's no telling what this year will bring.

Speaking of the chickens. We plan to hatch out a new laying stock next Spring. The current layers will go on to their next stage of life. These new ones and the rooster, Whitie, will go into a regulation hen house and yard. I'm tired of fighting them and next years garden will be fresh eating and six months worth of eating.

We had to fence off the compost area so there would be compost. After the chickens had a go through it, there was only carbon left in it for a lopsided compost. This is the only homestead I know of that free ranges the chickens and fences off areas to keep them out of it. Mel ended up putting a 5' fence around the garden and compost pile.

I killed one extra rooster and made another zombie rooster out of the other one. His days are numbered because I found the hatched and am sharpening it as I write. No more will future roosters age more than four months old. They are tough and muscular. I broke the neck of the second rooster but it didn't kill him. Yeah, his muscles are that tough. He just wanders around the homestead with his head tilted at a cockeyed angle. Is it any wonder we call this the Cockeyed Homestead?!

We fenced off a dog training area for Mel. She wrote a book on how to train your dog in ten weeks. Of course she had a brilliant idea of not only adding pictures but also a DVD to it. So we had to get another dog. We went to the shelter and found a German Shepherd mix. This wasn't a puppy but a three-year old, 80 lb DOG. She called him "Bennie" and I called him "Dufus" because he is dumb as a pile of rocks and is as heavy as them too. He now answers to both names.

Herbie, the 20 lb wonder dog

In choosing this video dog we went down the line of dogs at the shelter. The dog she needed had to be untrained. At each cage we commanded the dog to sit. When it complied it got petted and we went on to the next cage. When a dog didn't respond to the command, it got praised and petted. We found after comparing note, there were two options. One was a puppy and the other was Bennie Dufus. This dog had never been in a truck because we had to bodily lift him into the truck to bring him home. He'd never been inside a home before. He'd always been on a tether. We found this out when he bodily picked up Herbie and one of the cats, and shook them within an inch of their lives. He also killed one of our laying hens after climbing over the fenced training area. All within the first twenty-four hours with us. So he's back on a tether in the training area during the day and inside at night. He hasn't messed with any more of our household critters since the first day. He is put through his paces of simple commands like "come" and "sit" and he's done pretty well with those for the past two weeks. I'm just looking at the "Dufus" part of him and thinking he's not going to be a well behaved dog in ten weeks, but I could be surprised. Right now I'm doing my best not to get tripped up by him. But then again, if he throws me off balance he's big enough to steady myself with him.

It doesn't sound like a lot when I list it like this, but it's been one thing after another.

Nothing is impossible.

Come find me on youtube where I'm doing cooking and other videos.

Sunday Stroke Survival: Updates and Therapy

So I'm a day late and a dollar short this week, sue me because you can't get blood out of a stone. You will understand after you read this. I've had a week from hell.

First of all, my father survived his heart attack has now been moved out of the CCU. He's still on heavy doses of Heparin to reduce the chance of another heart attack and the possibility of having a stroke. Physical therapy has been in and they are walking him short distances. Needless to say, that the blockage and the subsequent death of part of his heart muscle limits what he can do. It's a rough adjustment he'll have to make and he doesn't like it at all.

This past weekend (Friday through Sunday) felt like it was ten days worth of activity for me. In between visits to the hospital, I have been the go between for my father and his condition for the rest of the family. Although I didn't see them at Christmas, this weekend made up for it. I saw and talked with each one of my brothers and sisters, my children and everyone's children and grandchildren that are old enough to be on their own. Not to mention my aunts, uncles and cousins. That's a passel of of phone calls, text messages, and emails. My unlimited cell phone plan got a work out for sure.

My twelve spoons of daily energy took a beating also. I think I borrowed enough spoons of energy into the next two weeks. I seriously paid for it last Sunday by not being to get out of bed for almost the whole day. My Fibromyalgia decided to yell at me and make its present felt too which didn't help. It was a day of a locked door and just answering the phone. I put peanut butter, jelly, and bread in a basket by my bed, and had four quart size bottles of water by my bed. I didn't move more than I had to. It just hurt too bad to do so. I haven't had an attack like this is a very long time. Even with the round the clock care of my husband didn't set one off this bad.

I finally was able to get the mail from my mailbox. I'VE BEEN APPROVED FOR SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY AND SSI!!!! It's only taken almost 4 years and losing my spouse. Yippeeeee! I won! This was my only bright spot.

By Monday, my fibro had settled down to a dull roar. I was in physical therapy bright and early at 8AM. I desperately needed the dry needling to make the residual pain go away. Of course with the fibro flare and the stress, my spasticity worsened a bit, but all it took was a few needle sticks to straighten that out. My arm is comfortably at my side now and my wrist is back to a 30-45 degree bend. My range of motion of my shoulder steadily increases with less pain. So on a whole, I live for and get a giddy excitement on therapy days, because once again I'm making forward progress.

While my physical therapist is Bobath trained (not certified), he uses anything and everything to get results. He spends his weekends (when not with his wife and children) reading of new ways to help his patients. Now THAT IS DEDICATION! I love people like me that think outside the box. My neuro responses, since my strokes, is opposite of what they should be. The normal response of needling the tricep should be the tightening of the bicep. If my bicep is tight, he has to needle my tricep to stop it from being spastic. If he needles my bicep, it will go into spasms. I'm even more Abby Normal than I was before my strokes. Go figure. Talk about crossed signals in the brain. I really do have scrambled eggs for brains.

My dry needling with working Botox sessions have resulted in almost normal tone in my upper arm, elbow and forearm down to almost the wrist within a year. That's with a reduction by half to none of the three muscle relaxers at maximum strength per day I was taking with Botox alone. My arm no longer draws tight against my chest. At the most my arm will bend at the elbow to 45 degrees. My wrist has play in it that will allow me enough movement to stretch it almost to neutral on most days. My fingers will open to a cupping position instead of a tight fist. If it wasn't for the contractures in my wrist and fingers, I imagine I could get better extension. I can almost fully supinate my wrist all but about 15 degrees now. Again the contractures keeps it from going farther. The spasticity in my leg only needs treatment once a month to keep it in check.  I'd call this experimental treatment a huge success for my post stroke spasticity. And, as awesome as all this is there is more...I'm pain free!

Therapists that keep an open mind are few and far between. Most do the same as they were originally taught in school for their whole career. The ones who excel and win the praises of their patients /referring doctors are even fewer especially when it comes to treating problems that are neuro in origin. Most therapist shy away from neuro patients because it's frustrating. Think what it's like for the patient.

Remember doctors and therapists are your employees. You can expect even anticipate positive results or fire them because...

Nothing is impossible.

What Is It Called, Update, and Chocolate

I know my tagline is at the beginning of my blog. What is the "Nothing is impossible with determination." at the end of my blog called?

Is it a tagline also? I've been wrecking my brain for two days trying to remember what is called. Or is it a tag line also?

In other news, I'm busy knitting scarves for the family. All the shawls are done. All the caps and scarves are done for my grandkids. Now I'm working on the male adult versions. Ten sets to do and got three done all in their favorite football teams colors. Currently working on the Pittsburgh Steelers set. Go Black and Gold.

My therapy is going well. I finally hit one of six goals for the past eight week session. It was only a three inch reach by straightening my elbow more, BUT I did it! It took about three minutes of hard concentration to do it too. By practicing at home, I've gotten it down to two minutes.
Yes, I've got this cross stitch over my desk ---> where I can see it to remind myself to rejoice in the small victories.

I got my hubby up on the scales again. He has lost what he gained during his bout with pneumonia. Now working on putting the pounds back on him. For lunch today, he ate two
small steak fingers, two onion rings and a tiny salad with black beans and corn. He ate all but three bites.

While in the grocery store this week, I picked up some Fat Boys Mini ice cream sandwiches. They were part of a meal deal at my grocers and free. I'm trying a new tact of offering him something good every three hours or so. These are about two-inch square loaded with ice cream. They are surprisingly yummy!

110 calories doesn't sound like much, but every little bit helps. When your daily intake is about 600 calories a day, 110 calories is an 1/6th increase. He loves them. Granted, by feeding him milk products it does make the phlegm he has to cough up thicker. But then, so does the Ensure. He enjoys the sandwiches a lot more. Do I worry about it not being nutritionally sound? Nope. When he burns six-ten calories a minute just in breathing efforts, just getting enough calories in him to compensate for that is enough.  I'd give him a ten sandwich box a day if he's eat it. He has maxed out at two a day.

Now for a serious laugh...

I thought my chocolate addiction was bad; Six Peanut M&M's a day while writing. My husband has got it worse. He actually has a prescription for chocolate as part of his wellness plan under hospice! It reads "Take as often as needed. Refill: Unlimited." The exact brand is not given and left up to his preference. The reason this prescription was written--so I could take the cost off my income tax as a tax deduction for medical expenses. I kid you not. It actually is not a cost covered under hospice so it comes out of my pocket.

So you might wonder what is his preference in chocolate: Hershey Kisses, Hershey dark chocolate bars, Three Musketeers, Reese's Peanut butter cups, and Godiva Dark chocolate bars. He now chokes on nuts of any kind.

The Godiva bars are sold at Books-A-Million so I pick it up once a week during my knitting/spinning group meeting. At $3 a bar, Godiva isn't wallet friendly. He's limited to one bar a week, but I buy one bag of miniature versions of the rest each month for him.

Luckily it's nearly Halloween and most of these are on sale so I'm stocking up. No, this amount of chocolate each month isn't healthy on my wallet either, but I'd gladly buy him whatever he wants to eat so long as he's eating and smiling.

A shame you have to be dying to get a prescription like this, but what a way to go. I can see it now. He'll be greeted at the Pearly Gates with a tell-tale chocolate smile.

Tuesday Tumbling Terms~ Blog/Website

This week's Tuesday Tumbling Terms for the writer is Blog/Website.

blog
noun
1. a Web site containing the writer's or group of writers' own experiences, observations, opinions, etc., and often having images and links to other Web sites.
verb (used without object)
2. to maintain or add new entries to a blog.
Origin: 1995–2000;  shortening of Weblog

Web site
noun
Computers. a connected group of pages on the World Wide Web regarded as a single entity, usually maintained by one person or organization and devoted to a single topic or several closely related topics.
Origin:  1990–95 

As you can see they are basically the same, if you choose to use it this way. You can incorporate a blog into your website, if you want. 

Yes, with a website you get your name as domain name. It costs money to register the domain. It costs money to maintain the site because if you are not a programmer fluent in html forget about it. Website designers make a killer of a living because charge for each additional update so the page basically stays the same. Sure, you can DYI it, but again there is a cost for the program and domain name.

People like change as in updates and possibly a new look when they stop by. They are a fickle bunch. They get bored easily. Why stop by a website unless you are going to buy something? If you are looking for something to buy, you don't care so much about how a site looks. For example, take a look at Ebay, or Amazon. Every decade or so they will revamp their overall look, but they basically stay the same. I've visited author sites that don't change unless they publish a new book and that's an add-on. Why would I want to keep coming back to the same information to reread? Today, the speed of information on the web changes by the minute or hour.

Wait, I get that with my blog too. (jomurphey dot blogspot dot com) It is mine exclusively as is The Murphey Saga. No two blogs can have the same name. No fee for domain or updates. I can update daily or several times a day if I want. I have full design control over what my background looks like. See my books in the background? Neato, huh? I think I finally found something that screams "memememe!" I can change the format, text size, and a host of other things with a click of my mouse. Do people return to my site often? You betcha. I always have something interesting to say...er, um, maybe.

But the bottom line is exposure. No, I'm not talking about flashing or streakers. Get your mind out of the gutter. The more it changes the more readers I get. The generation of readers increases possibility of sales of my books. Yes, I'm exposing myself in a decent way. You really want to know someone or the writing style of an author you might want to read...stop by their blog.

So do you blog as an author? Send me your link.

(Just so you know spams will be deleted)

Keep writing and loving the Lord.