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The last time I posted was June 6th. The post was titled Life Can Change In An Instant and I’d been at the rehabilitation center about a week after a mild stroke. I didn’t know how long I’d be there, I had no idea what my discharge plan would be, what my prognosis was. The stroke had affected my left side and cognitively; what I was told were executive functioning skills. Just the ones I need for work and for just about everything else I like to do.
Larry Silver, M.D., writing in ADDitudeMag.com, provides some examples of executive function problems: a person with executive function problems might read a chapter, but not retain what he read; he might know the material, but be unable to write an answer or start a paper because he cannot organize his thoughts, or he might be able to calculate math equations, but make frequent careless errors.
SOURCE: https://www.psychiatry.org/news-room/apa-blogs/apa-blog/2017/01/executi…
I cannot say enough about the therapists at the rehab. They are among the most dedicated group of professionals I’ve ever met. The physical therapist, occupational therapist, and speech (cognitive) therapist. I went from walking maybe ten feet with the walker at the medical hospital to walking confidently, still with the walker and the therapist, around the beautiful grounds. I learned to climb stairs, to go up and down ramps and curbs. The rehab has a bathroom with a toilet and a shower stall and also a tub/shower set-up, so I practiced moving around in all these scenarios, so I would be safe at home. One of the therapists practiced with me getting in and out of a car — the passenger side, because I’m not allowed to drive yet.
The cognitive therapist encouraged me by sending me this link to a podcast where a sports announcer named Matt Yaloff was interviewed about his stroke, which was much more serious than mine and how he was able to eventually return to work. (The podcast is about 90 minutes long and Matt Yaloff is interviewed during the last 45 minutes. If you listen to it, skip right to about the 45-minute point.). The interview provided me with hope. If he could do it, then so can I!
I had to build my stamina because I tired easily and got short of breath. I did this just by walking a little more every day with the walker and with the physical and/or occupational therapists walking with me, ready to catch me if I started to fall. I was so tired when all my therapy sessions ended, which was about 5 PM, I’d fall asleep by 7 PM. Then the night nurse woke me up around 9 PM for vitals and meds.
It is so good to be home in my own apartment, with no roommate and sleep in my own, big bed. To eat what I want (OMG, the food was awful) when I want and to have as much coffee as I want (not the healthiest habit, I know).
I’m getting home physical therapy now twice a week and a visit from the visiting nurse once a week.
I have a series of strengthening exercises to do twice a day and the physical therapist is currently working with me so I can use the cane safely both inside my building and outside. After three weeks, I use the cane in my apartment, but he doesn’t feel it’s safe for me to walk outside by myself with just the cane. He and I went out together last week. Sidewalks are a lot harder to negotiate than carpets and when he and I finally went upstairs, after only a short walk, I was exhausted.
Here's a photo of my flower-power cane which is hanging from a shelf on my wall unit. In the apartment I grew up in during the 1960's and 70's, the wallpaper my mom chose for my bedroom was called flower power. I had a lot of pink in that room. Funny, I wasn't even thinking about that when I chose this cane. I miss my mom, especially right now.
After I can “run around the neighborhood” by myself with the cane, I’ll be discharged from the home agency and referred back to the rehab center for outpatient therapy. I’m going to advocate for cognitive therapy in addition to physical therapy because I feel like I’m losing the ground I made when I worked with the cognitive therapist at the rehab.
Back to the executive functioning skills; I was discharged from the rehabilitation center on June 20th, almost four weeks ago, and that’s how long it’s taken me to get organized enough to write this post. I wanted to, I thought about it every day, I just couldn’t get going and that’s so opposite of me.
Part of my brain is lashing out, berating me, telling me that I have all this free time and there are so many things I want to accomplish. The other half of my brain is trying to listen to everyone who is telling me that my brain just suffered a traumatic event, it needs to recover and rest, to grow new pathways, that rest is essential. They tell me to listen to my body, sleep when I need to and that I will recover. What I also hear is that the unknown is time.
The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.
—Leo Tolstoy
