Family's First Public Outing

Made a trip to the shopping mall with family yesterday.  First non-medical related outing since the stroke, 8 months ago.

I wish I could say it was fun but I didn't really enjoy it.  It made my hubby happy though, being out doing something as a family again, so for that I am glad.

We had a goal to find some Velcro closure sneakers or shoes that would fit over my AFO (Ankle Foot Orthotic).  This in hopes of making it easier for me to put on my AFO and shoe without assistance, allowing me to be more independent.  This is something I've been working hard on and struggling with for the past 4 days.  Good news is I've had a few successful attempts; but it takes forever!

Almost crashed into a child at the mall.  Hubby was pushing the wheelchair and suddenly, out of the crowd of people, a boy about 5 or 6 years old walks across our path in front of the wheelchair.  He had his attention on the hand-held game system with which he was playing instead of looking where he was walking.  Luckily, hubby spotted him in time to avoid a mishap.

Using the public bathroom at the Sears store was only slightly problematic,as I require hubby's assistance in the bathroom, the first thing we had to do was wait for the women's bathroom to clear out.  Once that was done, Hubby brought me in while Son stood guard outside to warn any women about to enter that there was a man in the bathroom.  Apparently this caused a problem of some sort because just after Son told this to someone, there was a store-wide announcement of a Code-1.  That didn't affect my use of the bathroom luckily.  The only 'trouble' I had was with the grab-bars being on the wrong side of the toilet for my use.Seeing this ahead of time, Hubby quite cleverly positioned my wheelchair next to the toilet on my strong-right side;I was able to use the chair's arm rest to raise myself up.  Washing hands, I needed assistance to access the soap as it was a pump requiring two hands (which should be clear by now, I don't have).

We had a meal in the food court too.  I had been wanting the Orange Chicken from Wok USA.  I use to love this but because of my loss of tastes, it wasn't as good as I remembered it being.  I don't know if I've blogged about my food issues since the CVA or not; before the CVA, I enjoyed a wide variety of foods, but since the CVA most everything I loved no longer tastes good to me.  In a way I feel as if I have regressed to my childhood eating habbits.  As a child, I hated just about everything (except my mother's Pot de Chinois).  The one thing I do enjoy now is too expensive to have all the time... (Japanese - sashimi and a salad with the ginger salad dressing that a local Japanese restaurant makes).

All-in-all, I guess our little outing was successful.  I found some velcro sneakers into which  I can get my foot and AFO.  However,I didn't try walking with them while in the store, which on hindsight I think I should have done.  The size is so much larger than what I would wear normally so I hope that doesn't cause a problem for my strong-right side.  I'll have to give it a try today.  If it is a problem, then I guess the only solution would be to buy a second pair in the smaller size to fit my unaffected right foot.

Itchy and Twitchy, but not YET Bitchy

My body has been doing something new for the past couple of weeks. When I lay down to sleep at the end of the day, I get a series of strange itchy feelings (strange in that it feels prickly, like someone is poking me with a pin).  Sometimes it's in my left foot or toes, sometimes my thigh and other times, my abdomen but always on my stroke-affected side.  These itchies are then immediately followed by a twitching (or jerking) of my left leg.  The best I can describe this is... you know how if you are dreaming that you are falling, you may suddenly startle yourself awake with a jerking motion?  It's that sort of action but only my left leg, it pulls itself towards my upper body.  This is all very annoying and makes it difficult to get to sleep no matter how tired I may be.

My physical therapist says it's called 'tone/spasticity' and it commonly follows the flaccid stage as the 1 year mark since the stroke draws nearer..

I told hubby that I'm Itchy and Twitchy so he asks, Are you also Bitchy?  I'm not that yet but I reserve the right to enter that phase at any time.  I think he's more bitchy than I lately.  This life of recovery certainly isn't easy for  survivors but it sometimes seems to be almost as difficult for our caregivers.