Three Years at Home Post-Stroke

Today is a special day for me so this post is very personal in nature.  It was three years ago today I returned to my loft where I’d had a massive hemorrhagic stroke three months earlier. Except for 12 weeks of outpatient therapy in the Fall of 2008, I’ve had no additional therapy outside of the therapy in two hospitals. Yet, my physical condition has improved.

When I came home I still couldn’t hold anything in my left hand, now I can hold non-breakable items, switch on lights, etc. Not much for someone who used to be left-handed but I’m thrilled I’ve improved as much as I have.  I now feel right-handed.

I’ve fallen four times in the last three years — three out in public and then two weeks ago at home alone. I can’t just stand up after falling, but I knew how to push myself up onto my bed and then stand.  I just had to scoot myself on the concrete floor to get there. The second time I fell I fractured my left wrist so I’m happy with just a sprained wrist.

Tonight I will go out to dinner to the same restaurant where I’ve gone on April 30th for the last three years – Meskerem Ethiopian on South Grand. After months of hospital food I wanted something different.  Now it is an annual event for me.

Not a week goes by that I’m not reminded how fortunate I am to have survived and recovered as much as I have, for example, earlier this week singer Phoebe Snow died:

Ms. Snow died Tuesday in Edison, N.J., from complications of a brain hemorrhage she suffered in January 2010. She was 58. (Source)

There are differences between a brain hemorrhage and  hemorrhagic stroke, but they are related.  Here is Phoebe Snow performing her signature song “Poetry Man” in 1989:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OxTVxGhHFM

Thank you for allowing me to ramble on about my anniversary.

– Steve Patterson