One thing the stroke taught me is not to wait to do the things I want to do. I have wanted to get a dog for the longest time, so I finally did. His name is Gibson, and he’s a 6 month old Australian Cattle Dog mix. I got him from the Nevada Humane Society, and they said he was a stray. Because he is so young, it requires a lot of patience to care for him, but he is learning fast. He’s almost housebroken; I say almost because accidents do happen inside the house, but they are few and far between. There hasn’t been an accident in over 2 weeks (I hope I did not jinx it). He knows sit, stay and come for the most part, although he doesn’t really listen when there are a lot of distractions around. He does well around other dogs and I have been taking him to the dog park a lot.
I think he makes a great running partner. He has been with me a few times, and has done well considering he’s never run on a leash before. He loves people, so running with the group is right up his alley. People seem to love him too; he’s very cute, friendly and loves attention, so it’s no wonder that people love him. He did 4.5 miles on Saturday, April 2nd without problem, so I think as long as I’m careful about his buildup he will be fine. In terms of mileage, he can keep up with me.
In addition to getting Gibson, I bought a new car. It’s a 2011 Subaru Outback Sport, and it’s awesome. I’m so happy with it. It came with overinflated tires but that was really easy to resolve. In almost 3 weeks I’ve put 1200 miles on it already.
With those new acquisitions, I’m really happy. I think I am satisfied for a while now. The focus has returned to getting better.
Since my last blog post, my physical recovery has progressed a lot. I’ve determined that at the gym, my balance and coordination are no worse than anyone else’s. I am weaker, and Anthony and I are addressing that. I’ve dropped down to two sessions a week but we have stepped up the pace. He loves using all sorts of things that you would not imagine would be used in a gym; for example, I had to put my feet on a furniture dolly and walk on my hands. Good upper body work out, it really make you curse.
My speech is coming along. My clinician at UNR says I am doing really, really well. We’re working on speech rate and intonation (using pitch to stress syllables, rather than force or effort). Most people learn language when they are small, so you probably don’t remember how difficult it is to master English. Because it is more difficult than I imagined, I am doing all these drills to try and sound more like my old self.
I’ve been back to the barn a few times since my last post. When I felt ready, I tried riding a horse. McKenna suggested I ride Gazeebo, since he is much easier to ride than the horses I regularly rode, Maddy and Ignite. When I took Gazeebo around the ring, both McKenna and I realized my skill and ability were still there; it was just a matter of regaining strength and getting back in shape. So this past Sunday, she let me try riding Maddy. I like to say that anyone can sit on Maddy, but you have to know what you’re doing to really ride her. Sunday went beautifully. So beautifully in fact that even people not knowledgeable about riding can appreciate it. I ran her through all the gaits; walk, sitting trot, posting trot, canter and did basic patterns with her. Yes, it was hard, but it felt really, really good. I was really happy and look forward very much to my next lesson.
My running has improved. I am not going that much faster, but the activity itself has become a lot easier. It’s hard to describe, but I no longer find myself catching my balance as often or tiring as quickly. Since my stamina is up, I am no longer worried about my upcoming races; in fact, I have signed up for my first 10k since the stroke. I am doing the Reno Rock and River 10k on May 1st. If you’re in town, I urge you to come out for the festivities.
I also got some really good news. On April 1st, I underwent an MRI. They used contrast and took pictures of my head and neck; the intent was to see how my arteries are doing. The Neurologist called me on Monday April 11th to tell me everything has fully healed; my arteries look great inside and out, and there’s signs that my dissection has fully healed. That is amazing. Simply amazing. Not only is my recovery going well, but now I have proof that my body and brain have healed.
The next step is to see a hemotologist. He or she can look at samples of my blood from the day of the stroke, before I was put on blood thinners, to see if my blood has a natural tendency to clot when it is not supposed to. If it does, well then that kind of sucks because I’ll have to stay on Coumadin for the rest of my life. But if it doesn’t, since I am fully healed, I can come off! Fingers crossed!
Next Wednesday, April 20th at 7pm, Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor is coming to speak in Reno. She’s a Brain Scientist who had a stroke at the age of 37, and because of her background, was able to recognize everything that was happening to her. It took her 8 years to fully recover, and she wrote a book about her experience. Her book is A Stroke of Insight and next Wednesday, she will be lecturing about it. I bought tickets, and I actually got really amazing seats (1st row orchestra pit).
So March was a super busy month for me, and it spilled over into April. I’m just waiting for the weather to cooperate; it has been cold here, and I really am looking forward to the warm weather.
Oh, I almost forgot. Since I picked UCONN as one of the final four, I won my office pool. $140, but more importantly, beating all the guys I work with. Bi-winning.
About this blog: I don’t really know what else to say. Yes, I can update it periodically with my progress, but I feel I’ve made my point already. A stroke, contrary to what most believe, is something you can recover from, I am literally living proof of that. Stroke is the number three killer in this country and the number one disabler. But if you survive, you can come back to a productive life. The road is long and hard, but the key is you have to want to do the work yourself. Yes I am very fortunate in that I have the greatest family and an amazing support system: Mom, Dad, Albee, Brian, Erica, Larcker, Lydia, Nicole, Brad, Michelle, Meaghan, et al (I can’t even name everyone). But I chose to get better; where the stroke left me was unacceptable so I did something about it. I did the work myself; they merely supported me in my decisions.
So with that said, I will update periodically and let you all know how I’m doing, especially after big events. But you got the point already, and life is, well, normal for me now, and that’s what I wanted. So I declare victory.
Me: 1
Stroke: 0
