Happy New Year and a Milestone

Here we go on a new year and I am excited about the possibilities, especially after my accomplishment this morning.  This is another one of those small things that is really BIG for me. Big enough that I am going to refer to it as a milestone in my stroke recovery.  My task this morning was to trim my fingernails (a seemingly simple task) which has been one of my greatest ongoing challenges post stroke.  Trimming the nails on the left hand is not difficult, but when I switch to trim the nails on the right hand the task becomes daunting.  One of the exercises I worked on in occupational therapy at English Oaks was to use a tweezers to pick up small pegs and put them into holes.  That was a frustrating task and I learned to put the tweezers in my right hand to see how to do the task "naturally" and then try to mirror that with my left hand.  Well this trimming of the nails has been the same kind of daunting task and I have had to apply the same right hand strategy over and over to figure out how to "naturally" hold the nail clippers to clip the nails on my right hand.  Over the past year I have experienced lots of failure at this task as the nail clipper slips all over in my hand and refuses to behave, but today I was able to mirror the grip of my right hand quite successfully and complete the trimming task quite efficiently.  The feeling that the trimmer might slip out of my hand was constantly present, but with slight adjustments I was able to carry on through the task successfully.  Yea!

My good friend and fellow teacher, Karen Rossi, has been such an encouragement to me.  For years she has been studying and advocating applying brain research and exercises that build pathways in the brain to education.  She got really excited about Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's story of recovery from a major stroke (an interview with Oprah).  Karen bought and devoured the book, My Stroke of Insight, and enthusiastically passed it on to me.  I have been reading it over vacation and can hardly put it down.  It gives the reader a whole new perspective on life and who we are as human beings.  It also is an incredible picture of the amazing healing ability of the brain.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone.  One of the things that kept Jill pushing forward in her recovery was focusing on what she could do rather than what she was unable to do.  So each little step along the way was an encouragement to her to keep on working toward recovery.  I have found this same thing to be true and really appreciate it when people take note of something that I am doing that I was unable to do a while back.  The progress is so slow now that it is easy to get caught up in the belief that there is no more healing taking place, but I know that is not the case.  Jill knew the same thing and says that she finally felt completely recovered from her stroke after 8 years!  That may sound discouraging to some, but to me that is so hopeful because it reminds me that this process can continue on for years to come!  Yea again!

Here are a few other things to celebrate:

Yesterday I went out to trim a couple of bushes that had grown too high and ended up spending a few hours pruning some major shrubbery.  I had lost my interest and or ability to do this kind of task well, but as of yesterday am excited and feel capable of such tasks.  Yea!

I have been doing some running with Anthony over Christmas vacation and have joined him in running up to 6 miles!  on pavement!  That is quite an accomplishment and has given me great hope>  It is still really quite awkward and takes a lot of concentration (my left heel will strike my right leg every so often if I don't concentrate on really placing that left foot well), but I am finding that the longer I run, the more my leg loosens up and seems to run in a somewhat more natural gate.  Yea!

Sleeping is getting to be more natural and turning over to reposition myself in the night is less of a problem.  Yea!

Jacob bought me a couple of video games for the Wii that are less dependent on me using the fine motor skills of my left hand.  Now I can almost keep up with those boys in Mario Kart racing.  Yea!

There is so much to celebrate and there are so many new possibilities as the new year unfolds. I hope that you have a chance to look back at exciting progress and look forward to endless possibilities as you look forward to the year(s) ahead as well.

God bless you all!