Finishing some homework from last week's therapy - finding words in sentences, subjects and thinking of what I did last week to share with the group.

Things still take a while (naming different types of metals) but some things are coming quickly to mind (pieces of furniture).

I need to spend a lot of time typing (speed and accuracy and spelling mistakes) but it is coming back. I'm not sure I will be as fast as I was (but who needs to be that fast at my age 😏).

Also need to work on my writing but most of my "writing" was type written but still need to practice. But a lot of things are coming back and that's a good thing for sure!

Nine months ago I had a stroke and life changed for me and my whole family. Keep in mind, that I didn't know what was really going on (in my head things were normal). Much to my surprise, I lost my right side mobility, I couldn't say anything but "hi ya" and couldn't even hold a pen, brush or anything like that.

It has been a long road, and I want to thank everyone that has supported me, but also need to say, there's a long way to go.

I can't do basic math without a calculator and figuring it out. English skills are very limited right now because it takes me some time to figure out what I want to say. Discussions with Richard and the kids are time consuming because I can't speak fast, and in this day and age, you have to speak quickly to get your point across.

I'm not comfortable to travel alone, because I can get lost in the airport not to mention I am quite slow since the stroke. I used to be a property manager for almost 20 years, so much of the job is communication and budgets and site visits, I know there is no way today I could even touch the job I used to do.

People say I am more quiet today than before, that's because I have to think about what I'm going to say and how it will come across. Richard says I seem angry sometimes but I'm not, the emotions are disconnected at times. It feels like I have no emotion but at other times the emotions are very extreme.

I used to love music, now I can't even have the radio on because it clutters my thinking. Piano - guess not - I can't formulate the notes to make sense.

There is a lot to do before I am even part way to what I used to be, and the reality is, I may never get back to 100%, so I will continue to go to therapy and do the very best that I can, and hopefully I will get there (or as close to it) as I can.

Aphasia- (uh fay' zhuh) affects the ability to use language.

May find it difficult to:

Speak
Read
Write
Understand speech

I didn't know what it meant before the stroke 😃. It looks like this will take some time to work through it and find other techniques to help me.

Well another hurdle done, I got my license back today!! At least I can get to my doctors appointments without trying to have someone who can get me there.

It has been a bit since I've written so thought I'd let you all know how I'm doing.

My status has slowed down now since my stroke. Still doing my therapy at home and will return to out patient therapy in January. It will be a long road to go to recovery. Still can't drive which makes it seem harder in the winter and I don't feel like going out now that it has gotten colder outside.

There is still some difficulty communicating but I'm persevering but I do find it hard at night as I get more tired the words don't come easy as they do early in the day. I have to be careful if we decide to go out, to go to quiet places without a lot of background noise so I can focus on what is going on around me.

Other than that, things are good. Still keeping Auntie Joy in my prayers as she is not doing so well but she still is staying faithful and when I do talk to her, well you can imagine me with language barriers and her with pain medication how weird we must sound!

After 6 weeks of therapy at home, I'm done that portion of my rehab.

I was re-evaluated and file goes back to the Glenrose to determine what to take for the out patient therapy. I can see there is lot to do but I need to remember how far I've come. From the first day of the stroke where all I could say was "hi ya" (and not another word according to Terry Makarowski) to now being able to complete sentences (with some word searching for certain words), and close to full recovery of the right had side...all is good.

I go this month to the Stroke Rehab follow up and with any luck, will find out when I can go to my driver's test.

Thanks again for all the warm wishes and support when I needed them!

After a wonderful weekend to celebrate the wedding of Sarah and Sean MacDonald.

Big shout out to Richard, Zach, Ken, Terry, Sharon and Jackson - who made my first airplane (post stroke) easy and stress free. I couldn't have made it without all of you. I would have hated to miss it.