Friday the 13th...oooooooooo

I figured i better post an update so everyone wasn't worrying about me. I'm OK, I miss my black cat Sneakers on this Friday the 13th. i miss Saki, my Siamese too.

I did go to OT and PT this week. Both therapists were impressed with my progress in the week, but I still have a long way to go. in OT, she had me sit in a chair and had me close my eyes. She took my right arm and put it in a certain position, such as straight up in the air above my head. Without looking, she asked that I match the same position with my left arm. I was able to do this, or at least come close. She would then move my right arm to a different position such as bending my elbow. then asked me to match the movement without looking on my left side. I was able to do that or at least come close. This continued on for a few different movements.

Michael was there with me and suggested to the therapist to try putting my left arm into a position and match it with my right arm. That i could NOT do.

Without being able to see my left arm, hand or fingers, I have no way of determining if I am doing the movement. I would swear that my arm would be up in the air as of to stretch or reach for the sky....and it would be on the table.

My eyes are my only communication between my brain sending signals and the left side of my body to respond somewhat correctly. I can pick something up with my left hand, but without being able to feel it, I have no way of knowing I have it in my hand, unless I'm looking at it.

I can't explain why I would be better at moving my left arm if my right arm did the movement first. But there are alot of things about recovering from a stroke that are just too difficult to explain for me, or too difficult to understand for someone not recovering from a stroke.

Sometimes I don't have a strong enough grip on something and it will fall to the floor. I have to pick it up again and tell myself by sending a message to my left hand to hold onto it tighter. So I'm amazed when I can carry something across the room without dropping it a few times because I have to think about walking at the same time, think about carrying something with a tight enough grip not to drop it. That my friends is called multitasking!

My vision is coming back little by little...at least it is much better than it was. My eyes are no longer competing with each other on which one will focus as i look across the room.

That helped my balance and my ability to walk with a little more confidence.

So I have a few more weeks of therapy ahead of me. But still a long, long road to recovery.

Strange, for the past two weeks or so I will feel and itch on the left side of my body. For example, my left shoulder just had an itch. Instinctively, I went to scratch it. Funny, the itch goes away but I felt nothing when I scratched it.

My therapist suggested that I try to use my left hand for everything one day....or at least as much as I could with little assistance from my right hand. It already takes me forever to do things with my right hand.....this should be interesting. Better go find something to do....why not, I have a few hours to kill!