Thought for the day
I'm beginning to realise that the mind is a powerful thing. It can lead you astray with some horrible dark places and believe me, I've visited many of them. It can also lead you to do things you thought were impossible, like the healing/mending process after a stroke. I had a stroke at 46, right when life was getting interesting. It robbed me of all my extreme sports and being a full-on, hands-on, dad to three impressionable teens. Or did it? Maybe it's saved me from doing something stupid in my extreme sports, like jumping off that 12m cliff on my mountain bike or wreck diving beyond 150m, whilst scuba diving. And instead of being hands-on, like rebuilding cars and 4x4's, maybe I could take the lead by directing and teaching my kids how to perform those tasks. The way I am looking at this whole stroke thing and recovery is, it's like a colourful yellow smiley face Band-Aid over a festering cut. It looks pretty on the outside but underneath it hurts and looks like a...... but at the end of the day that festering wound will heal, what i am learning is, it's all about "time", it won't happen tomorrow or the next day but it will happen. I personally have found it hard not to compare other stroke survivors progress with mine. We must understand that each stroke is different and each journey is different. I am thankful that I've made it through a pretty catastrophic health event, a broken hip, a failed ACL and meniscus and now, facing this whole covid-19 challenge. You know what, we are all bloody heroes if you ask me.