For the last 4 weeks, Amanda has continued to show more signs of motivation and increasing energy and alertness. She actually acknowledged that she does feel ‘sharper’ since the diabetes medication began in early March. This is in addition to continuing to take 2 Voluntastrols capsules each day
I reminded her, when she was diagnosed how the doctor bluntly put it;
“You must be feeling like crap”.
But of course any feeling of ‘crapness’ was probably being confused with the ongoing stroke fatigue.
To keep organised, both for shopping and what to eat, I write out a basic menu for a few weeks in advance. Amanda has recently gone from asking me what’s for dinner to actually taking an interest in not only reading my scribble, but reading it aloud.
This is a significant breakthrough.
She has been able to read in her head for a long time but has struggled to verbalise the words other than to give a general impression of what something says. She can’t yet do it every time but it demonstrates that even after 2 years and with regular practice, her brain continues to rebuild connections.
Following on from this, she was self –motivated enough to try a little harder. So she picked a random novel from the bookshelf to see if she could read it. But at this stage, the words were;
“Just mush.”
A few nights ago, just before bed, I found her walking around the kitchen island in her nightdress. Since she doesn’t usually leave the bedroom for the night once she is in there, I asked her what she was doing.
She held up her wrist to show me her smart watch. She was on 2930 steps and was determined to get to 3000 before bed.
Last week, as she was browsing Facebook, she spotted her old job advertised on her former employer’s page. She sighed.
“Ah well, onwards and upwards.” She said.
“How far?” I asked.
“To the moon.” She replied
Blue Banana Blog 
Oh that picture of Amanda pacing the kitchen late at night to reach another 70 steps made me SMILE 🙂 Matt! Tell her, please?
And yes continued improvement WILL occur as long as she continues to move forwards, 1 day at a time, NOT thinking that she ‘should be at the endpoint’ of improvement already. Motivation is everything! “Baby steps” is fine. At our stroke coffee group we often discuss this; the ‘hare & tortoise’ sort of journey; shame our doctors don’t usually acknowledge or realize what we know to be true.
I’m still regaining sensation in & ON my left leg 7 YEARS after my stroke; the only explanation is neuroplasticity.
You do adapt to your ‘new normal’ though & since you’re with it day in, day out, sometimes you don’t ‘cognitize’ slow changes. So Amanda’s lucky to have you ‘outside of her body’ to observe & record those. It’ll be hugely beneficial & motivating for HER as well as you – to be able to review her progress across time, into the future.
Yesterday, I actually RAN a few metres – simply because I strongly wanted to reach this stick-sort-of-thing they place in the centre of indoor bowls lanes (‘rinks’) before my bowl got there. Due to my faulty delivery technique my bowl was going to hit it. It was an impulsive (& completely unnecessary) decision to race there. See what I mean about ‘motivation is everything’? I have not been able to coordinate my body to run before now, understandable I think given that I still have limited (even though improving) left-sided sensation. Left leg & part of torso was initially ‘dead’.
I don’t expect to be running MUCH, but a great experience & nobody laughed, so my running gait must’ve looked ‘OK’.
Also, I am now stepping DOWN steps & stairs using my left foot more and more; until now it’s been okay to walk UP using alternating feet, but dwonwards was always: step on right foot (bring up left foot);step on right foot. This was to minimize risk of falling which is realistic given the terrain where I live.
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