It's hard to believe, but next week sees the one year anniversary of my stroke.
It will be one year on the 26th September since I collapsed at home and was flown by helicopter to hospital in Fresno. The really bad thing about that helicopter flight is that I don't remember one minute of it.
I was in hospital and rehabilitation for nearly four weeks. In the first few days I could not really eat because I could not swallow properly. Then as my swallow response came back I was only allowed pureed food for a few days. Awful stuff.
Though I never lost my speech, I did lose my ability to balance and had to learn to walk again, but luckily I soon picked up the ability to walk again. I even spent some time while in the rehabilitation ward teaching the physical therapists about blindness, how to use a cane as a mobility tool and similar things about which they had no real world knowledge.
After coming out of hospital it was another three months before I got back to work, and in the meantime I got to vote in my first Presidential Election and also began my application for a Guide Dog.
I also used the time off work to set up some new projects, an ebay account which has given me a few good sales over the year, a zazzle account where I have sold tee-shirts and greetings cards steadily all summer, even selling internationally. I also set up a used book store on amazon.com, that didn't really take off very well until in July I moved some of my stock from being shipped from my home to being shipped from amazon fulfilment centers across the U.s. at that point sales went through the roof, items which had been advertised for months sold within hours of reaching the fulfilment center. I had been on the point of giving up on the amazon project, now I am considering it as a possible full time occupation, we'll see after I get home with my Guide Dog in November.
So as this last year of a lot of deep downas and a few highs comes to an end. Things are definitely on an up trend.
It will be one year on the 26th September since I collapsed at home and was flown by helicopter to hospital in Fresno. The really bad thing about that helicopter flight is that I don't remember one minute of it.
I was in hospital and rehabilitation for nearly four weeks. In the first few days I could not really eat because I could not swallow properly. Then as my swallow response came back I was only allowed pureed food for a few days. Awful stuff.
Though I never lost my speech, I did lose my ability to balance and had to learn to walk again, but luckily I soon picked up the ability to walk again. I even spent some time while in the rehabilitation ward teaching the physical therapists about blindness, how to use a cane as a mobility tool and similar things about which they had no real world knowledge.
After coming out of hospital it was another three months before I got back to work, and in the meantime I got to vote in my first Presidential Election and also began my application for a Guide Dog.
I also used the time off work to set up some new projects, an ebay account which has given me a few good sales over the year, a zazzle account where I have sold tee-shirts and greetings cards steadily all summer, even selling internationally. I also set up a used book store on amazon.com, that didn't really take off very well until in July I moved some of my stock from being shipped from my home to being shipped from amazon fulfilment centers across the U.s. at that point sales went through the roof, items which had been advertised for months sold within hours of reaching the fulfilment center. I had been on the point of giving up on the amazon project, now I am considering it as a possible full time occupation, we'll see after I get home with my Guide Dog in November.
So as this last year of a lot of deep downas and a few highs comes to an end. Things are definitely on an up trend.
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