Post-punk Heartstrings Episode 032 - A Stroke Struck in June

 

Greetings Fellow Earth Babies and Deep Diggers! 

I know there may be some of you who either do not know me, or follow me from afar and I would like to offer this opportunity to all to hear about my recent stroke experience in my own words.

In this “very special Blossom” episode of Post-punk Heartstrings, I welcome my good friends, Mark Feldbush and Jim Anderson to “turn the tables” and interview me about the stroke I suffered in June of this year. We had what I hope will be a vulnerable and encouraging discussion about my experience and the process of my continuing recovery. I welcome all to join and listen in on our conversation!

You can find Post-punk Heartstrings wherever you get your podcasts or listen on Spotify below.

Peace and love to all!

A Typical Day in My Stroke Recovery Therapy

I thought I would share what a typical day looks like in my stroke recovery. Some of you likely aren’t aware what is involved in the ongoing therapy that is helping me get back to my “old self.”

On the days that I have speech therapy, I usually wake up around 7:30am and go for a 45 minute session. Otherwise, I usually awake between 7-8am, feeling a bit foggy and out of sorts mentally so I enjoy easing into the morning with a cup of French press dark roast coffee. I sip my coffee while I watch television for a little while and then sit outside on the deck, listening to the pond and watching the birds.

I then spend the next 30 – 60 minutes writing in a journal to help continue to improve my hand strength and cognitive processes while sharpening my mental focus on forming sentence structure and spelling.

I usually take a break for the next 30 minutes, just meditating as I allow my thoughts to wander while mindfully taking in the sights and sounds.

At this time, I eat a small snack, take medicine, and begin to drink a lot of water which will continue throughout the day.

Typically, I begin to do some yard work around 10 or 11am, working with my arms and hands to continue to rebuild my sensory re-education – stimulating sensory pathways through tactile input, such as touch, vibration, and pressure. This also contributes to the exercise I need for strength and coordination as well as helping my mood.

Next up I focus on various brain game apps on my phone such as Elevate, Luminosity, Brain HQ and NeuroNation. Each of theses steadily builds various areas of my cognitive function. I also play Wordle and Wordscapes to increase my speed recall and properly spelling words.

Around 12:30pm, I spend 20-30 minutes reading aloud to improve my articulation and fluency. I try to complete 2-3 of these 20-30 minute sessions in the afternoon, depending on my fatigue level.

I take 30-45 minutes to eat lunch and then spend the following hour working on various speech therapy worksheets.

Examples are:

·       Abstract thought: Quickly coming up with multiple words that describe various things that are cold, soft, tragic, mixed, little, crinkly, scary, sharp, etc. (Some of these really exercise the brain. Try to come up with five words that describe things that are “crinkly!”)

·       Stating the opposite: For example, Wide à Narrow. (Some of these make one pause as well. For instance, blind à sighted)

·       Rebuilding vocabulary and recall: Quickly listing various things that begin with specific letters. For example: One who earns a living driving cars for othersà Chauffeur (I have never been able to spell this word correctly. The stroke did not change that!)

·       Listing proper nouns in various categories that begin with each letter of the alphabet. (e.g., countries that begin with each letter of the alphabet.)

 Throughout these several hours, I sporadically respond to texts, emails and other messages which also continues to hone my written communication skills. I’ve come a long way from only being able to put together short text responses that take me 5-10 minutes to structure!

 This usually brings me to somewhere between 3-4pm and I find that I’m extremely fatigued and in need of a nap. I may, or may not, do some more reading of articles or a book, both silently and aloud but this will all depend on how much mental fatigue I am experiencing.

 So that pretty much describes a typical day for me these past several weeks. It may vary somewhat, especially based on my energy level and the need to combat the depression that is amplified by stroke through exercise and meditation. I’ll soon be posting to explain my experiences with each of these.

Until then, thank you for taking time to read my thoughts and as always, I wish peace and love to you all!

 

The Therapy of a Handwritten Journal - Reading & Writing & Spelling, Oh My!

As part of my therapy and to document my journey to recovery, I have been writing in a journal most days. I have always liked the idea of keeping a written journal but it never goes too far beyond that. It always begins with a fluid expression of thoughts and quickly devolves into the chaos of near illegible chicken scratches. My hand gets tired and can't keep up with my brain and I finally decide to call it.

However, I quickly realized that written communication will be an important part of regaining the full use of my right arm and hand as well as rebuilding my cognitive processes. 

The first 48-72 hours after my stroke, while I was still recovering in the hospital, I was presented with a piece of paper and a pen to see if I would be able to make any marks with my right hand. At the time, I was able to make a writing motion but wasn't able to put enough pressure down to make any marks. The next day, I was able to write my initials, "JSB" legibly, but wasn't able to cognitively form my first name, "James" and so wasn't able to write it. 

Since then, I have somewhat steadily improved, depending on my level of brain fog and fatigue. If I'm really tired or have exerted myself then I will quickly lose my thought process, sentence structure, and begin to leave words and letters out making it super difficult to stay mentally focused.

I've decided to share a short example from my written journal below, from July, 2nd. This is the beginning of an entry and there are some clear signs of scribbled and left out words, misspellings and instances of writing one letter in place of another. The following pages (not shown) continue with this increasing pattern until my concentration almost completely breaks down.

I know that there has been drastic improvement in my handwriting both in my endurance and cognition but it feels so very tedious. 

It's still difficult for me to wrap my "brain" around how I can fully receive and comprehend complex information and thoughts and yet, I struggle to communicate those thoughts back to others both in written and verbal form. All the while, I know that I'm incredibly lucky in that there are many who have suffered strokes who don't even have the understanding piece and can't even form the thoughts they are so desperate to share. 

All I can do is continue the challenging work each and every day and through that challenging work, continue to sharpen my abilities one step at a time.

Peace and Love to you my Fellow Deep Diggers!

Two Hotel Stroke Conversations: One Out of Two Ain't Bad???

I had two hotel conversations this morning:

1) A woman at breakfast saw a brewery shirt that I was wearing and asked me if I visited any breweries in the area. I had a brief but clear conversation. Success!

2)  A man in the elevator asked me if I am going somewhere on vacation. It took several tries to get the word "Fargo" out when I told him where we are headed.

I guess, one out of two morning stroke conversations ain't bad... 😔