As the Poppy Turns, So Too Does Another Month

I’ve come down with a bug of sorts. It could be called time blindness. Or “I Have Too Much Sh*t on My Mind.” I don’t think I was bitten by anything, but, no matter what it is, it’s the feeling of having too much rolling around in my brain that I lose track of time.

My brain is like a messy flower garden. So many pretty blossoms struggling to thrive in the weeds.

It’s been 5 weeks since I sat here at my little space in the blogosphere. WOW!

5 WEEKS!

Anyhoo…I’m back here to pop in, like a pink poppy (‘cuz…you guessed it, the photo fits!).

In 5 weeks, a lot has happened. I’m pleasantly surprised that it’s still summer outside. Yeah…it could be winter by now for all I can tell. Last year at this time, it was so hot and dry. My brain was much the same as it is now – full of worries and wondering what happened to the day, or the night, or the week, or Mr.

This year, it’s hot, but we’ve had quite a bit of rain, so it’s green when I look out the window, and I even had a chance to take a few flower photos. Once. When I took the garbage outside, I saw a spot of color across the yard. A FLOWER…I almost peed my pants, I was so excited to run and grab my camera.

My ability to capture close-up photos as easily as before has become a challenge. I can’t even get the flowers lined up correctly in the lens. Kind of like Mr.’s visual cut – he can’t see anything in the lower left quadrant without turning his head and seeing it with the right side of his vision. I have a camera handicap now. But maybe I could use this photo to have him practice looking where he can’t see?

Mr.’s stroke recovery continues to progress. We’re sad that our insurance benefits for outpatient physical therapy have ended. So there’s that…my, how that time flew by! The insurance has a hard line on quantity, not need.

He’s still taking steps with the parallel bars. He’s stood without holding on to them and even swung his right arm in the motion of walking. We’ll find a way to pay for PT so he can continue with the needed therapy.

He started outpatient OT and has made progress in feeling sensations in his arm and hand, and has even done weight bearing on that side. He has also been working on his left visual cut challenges, which have led him to word search puzzles, finding letters in columns, and also seeing the whole page when reminded to look left. The insurance-covered OT visits will end soon, too.

We made it to the neuro-ophthalmologist appointment at the end of June. Sadly, the clinic scheduled him for the wrong type of vision appointment, so we’re still in the process of getting the exam results for the neuro-ophthalmologist to evaluate his vision and make recommendations. Gotta love wasting time. NOT. He will get those tests taken on August 18th.

I don’t know if it is true or not, but it seems that doing things that you used to do without thinking helps you recover from brain injuries. Kind of like grabbing my camera and playing…that helped me feel ‘normal’ for a few moments. To help Mr. feel ‘normal’, we decided to try getting his computer (it had an unfortunate shutdown and failure to restart phase last year) working again. That entailed taking two computers apart.

A task he’s done over a 1000 times, and me, NEVER. Together, we took apart not just one, but two computers. He talked me through the steps and even held the screwdriver a few times with much success. We took out the SSD cards and swapped them back and forth to identify which SSD card died an untimely death, and then reassembled the computers. Whew is right! 😉 That whole process seems to have awakened parts of his life his body remembered, and he’s working even harder to get back to the good ol’ Mr.

Last year at this time, he could barely hold his head up on his own, or stand, or sit, or turn his head to the left. This year, he’s doing something he considers normal for him. It’s frustrating not having his left hand working, not being able to walk down the stairs to his office, so the whole setup is not completely normal to him, but progress continues to happen, and for that, we’re grateful.

And now…it’s time to head to bed to cuddle with Dessy – she’s my alarm clock and I never get to stay up late and am always early to rise. 3:30 am seems to be her sweet spot on the clock for “MEOW – it’s time to get up!”

PS – Hugs to you blogging buddies – thoughts of you are always held close to my heart and on my mind!