When all else fails ... use your teeth!

Life with one hand.
Ever try and butter a bagel with out the other hand holding it?? You can almost do it with the bagel on a towel, so does'nt slide around to much, almost.
Opening things.....
Zippers, plastic storage bags, bagels in the big long plastic bags, just to name a few. Paper plates wrapped up in plastic, chips,(any kind), just to name a few more. Classy , opening thing s with one's teeth. So refined! I guess what it boils down to is I don't want to ask for help every time I turn around. So you gotta do what you have to do. WARNING!! Try it only in the privacy of your own home.
There is also the knee hold. Mayo, bottles of soda, lotion, (that can only be applied to your right arm, since the gumby trick does'nt work) you name it, my favorite thing is opening thing that have been refrigerated, when I am wearing shorts .

Your humming along,, and BAM!!!!

There I was just humming along, for the most part minding my own business, and BAM!!!!
Life changes in a second, one minute your walking and talking, the next day you can't do either. How can I explain it, how can I make you ,the reader, all three of you, see what this is like. I used to throw a ball from third base like a rocket, now I can't even move my fingers!! this is a cruel joke some one played on me. God???

Do I sound like I am complaining ? Maybe I am.... but mostly want you, the three readers, to understand how fast life can change, AND what this has done to change my life. Well first of I have a new mission in life, I want to minister to people who have had....heart attacks???? no, broken backs???? no wrong again,,,,,, strokes, yeah people who have had strokes!!!! SURPRISE ! I want to, with Gods help, reach into that lonely, broken place, and pull as many people out of that " hell" as I can. I want to be there to cheer them on, pick them up when they need it, and listen to them cry or laugh, usually at inappropriate times, and do it with them!!!! Try and show them what a LOT of hard work will do, and show them its worth it in order to get your life back. To push the limits of everything!!! Try everything!!!!
How my life has changed.....
I made dinner now twice. First time I needed help with opening the cans for tuna pasta salad, but next time I made the meatloaf all alone. I cook pancakes, sometimes with shells for added protein or roughage, and I have ventured into grilled cheese some. This has been a real personal victory, for someone who likes to cook, I want everyone to revel in it with me, dinner that I cook, all two of them are to be savored and enjoyed, I ask everyone to stare at the meal for a few minutes before we start.
I am venturing to talk on the phone now. How life has changed. I have dreaded talking on the phone!!!
I can shower alone, not Michael MINDED, not all ,but for my sake he is glad to see me graduate.
I am only on two meds. now, and it will be done to one in a couple of weeks.
I can walk in the driveway now!!! The rocks used to throw me off balance.
I am able to do the laundry now, I've been at it for a couple of months.
I am not in much pain now, only once in a while my arm hurts.
A million more things have changed since the stroke, things I now can do and things I can't do YET, the next big hurdle is driving, this has been one of the hardest things , I hate being trapped...... stay tuned that's gonna soon change.

WOW!!

WOW , who would of thought people are this way. I am shocked at how people treat me since the stroke. I have tools at my disposal to deal with it , it's hurts don't get me wrong, but eventually God can heal , and I have the power to forgive. So in the end I am free , but this has made me acutely aware of other in my shoes.
Often you are treated as a non entitey, a thing, without a opinion or a brain.
Probably the older a person is who has had such a life altering event , the more they disregard them.