A Real-Life Experience -- Lynn Johnston

Many storylines in For Better or For Worse are snapshots of real events in Lynn's life. Several years ago, Lynn's mother-in-law, Ruth, had a stroke in her home. Ruth was standing at her stove, and was in the kitchen with her husband Tom, her son Rod, and Lynn. She turned to face them, said nothing and simply slid down to the floor. Lynn's recollection of Ruth's stroke has been told through Grandpa Jim.

Because the story about Grandpa Jim's stroke was so true to life, there was not a lot of room for fiction. It was important to research the facts. What resources are available for stroke sufferers? What is a probable diagnosis for Jim and what should be his path for maximizing his quality of life?

Read the article Lynn Johnston drawing comics For Better or For Worse for her Grandpa Jim.

Saturday Comics - January 7, 2012

For Better and For Worse  by Lynn Johnston /2006-09-26  
(This a serious topic of stroke but with a very nice cartoons. It is all about Grandpa Jim had a stroke and 88 further cartoon "strips" that happened to Grandpa Jim [1 of the series stroke of 88 -- every week])

Click Me!

 "Dad! You're scaring us!! Dad? Dad!! .... "   

Dilbert               by Scott Adams / 2011-12-27
(Pick The Best Of The Week for your good humour)

Click Me!

"Good news, Alice. I've decided to be your mentor ..."

Garfield            by Jim Davis / 2011-12-26

(Pick The Best Of The Week for your good humour)

Click Me!

"Run Liz! ..."


Pickles                 by Brian Crane / 2012-01-02
(Pick The Best Of The Week for your good humour)

Click Me!

"At least we're older but wiser, eh ..."



* I tried to get low or free price at the people http://www.UniversalUclick.com/ for the images for the cartoons.  It was too high for Stroke Survivors Tattler i.e. we are not a regular newspaper and our budget is very low.  Fortunately, you will have to do only 1-click more to see the cartoon image, it is legit and it is free using  GoComics.com and Dilbert.com.

(NEW) Comics -- Every Saturday Morning.

I used to read good Dilbert comics then I will publish on the Stroke Survivors Tattler; mostly other Dilbert is rather dull and so I'll just ignore/not publish.  After this Christmas, people told me the comics For Better and For Worse has more than 60 "strips" starting in 2006 about the topic stroke -- it will tell the story "Grandpa Jim" had has a stroke,  went to the hospital, he has physiotherapy, and what happens to him to go home, and many more details; lots emotional problems, lots of love, and lots many people help Grandpa Jim to get better.  I read the whole strips, and I am one of the stroke survivors, and I was convinced for the usefulness of comics.  Lynn Johnston is a Canada author for For Better and For Worse and she is very serious about stroke topic and specially with comics.  So, I will publish:

1. Friday, Dec/30, an article about Lynn J. wrote For Better and For Worse comics for stroke. She will tell you the details to make a "strip" for the stroke.
2.  On Saturday, Jan/7, I will publish the first "Grandpa Jim Has Had a Stroke".  Every week Saturday in the future,  I will publish the "strip" what happens to Grandpa Jim.  It will take it more than 88+ weeks but I think you will like it.
3. As well, I will publish every week:
• Dilbert - the best "strip" that week - lots of people with a, sometimes weird,  job, personality, bizarre boss, ...
• Garfield - the best "strip" that week - a cat Garfield with human thoughts, a dog Odie, some people Jon, Liz, ...
• Pickles - the best "strip" that week - senior humans, kid humans, ... 
4. If you want other comics, e.g.  I love "Peanuts",  just tell me and I will add every Saturday.  You want to look at various comics then click to GoComics.
5. I asked the people at http://www.UniversalUclick.com/ for free or low cost for the cartoons image.  Unfortunately, the price is too big for Stoke Survivors Tattler  so we stick to the regular direct blog link to GoComics.com and Dilbert.com. See The letter from Mary Suggett at amuniversal.com for details.

Cheers  / John A.

E-Mail: SSTattler. 

Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension

Friday, January 6, 2012. U.S. News & World Report's Best Diets rankings chose the DASH diet as the best diet overall, best diet for healthy eating and best diet (January 4, 2012, November 1, 2011, and June 7, 2011: "Best diet overall" and "Healthiest diet") . Studies of the DASH diet demonstrate that it can lower risk of several types of cancer, heart disease, stroke, heart failure, kidney stones, and reduced risk of developing diabetes. If you have high blood pressure and cholesterol or diabetes it helps to lower blood pressure and cholesterol and stabilize your blood sugar.

The DASH -- Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension --  was originally developed to reduce high blood pressure or hypertension. It has been proven in studies sponsored by the National Institutes of Health to lower blood pressure. The low-salt diet provides additional benefits to reduce blood pressure because it is based on an eating plan rich in fruits and vegetables, and low-fat or non-fat dairy, with whole grains. It is a high-fiber, low- to moderate-fat diet, rich in potassium, calcium and magnesium.

For more about the DASH diet: http://dashdiet.org/

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Living With Aphasia: Carrie Lewis' Story

See Getting on with the Rest of Your Life after Stroke 

and many more articles by the Canada Stoke Network

"Carrie Lewis is a remarkable woman".

This isn’t because she lives in Edmonton, Alberta, or because she’s 49 years old, or even because she has lived with aphasia in the four years since her stroke; what makes Carrie instantly likeable is her sense of humour and obvious enthusiasm for life.

“I am feeling pretty good, now,” Carrie wrote when asked to talk about herself. “I like my independence, being able to walk and drive. Make things, do things like sports, games, talk, see new things, places, people.”

Stroke in Young Women Often Misdiagnosed

By Gail Johnson, June 30, 2004

Lisa Fitterman clearly remembers the Friday night 18 years ago when she woke up on the floor and had trouble dragging herself back to bed. The journalist, who was 26 years old and covering the legislature in Victoria at the time, felt out of sorts and couldn't move the right side of her body. She figured she had some sort of weird flu. By Sunday, she realized she wouldn't be able to make it to work the next day and went to call her office--but she couldn't remember the phone number. The next day, Fitterman got in her car and attempted to drive to the hospital. She didn't have the strength to put her foot on the brake pedal; she went through a stop sign and broadsided another vehicle. When police officers showed up, they were ready to take Fitterman to the drunk tank. Nobody, especially Fitterman herself, thought she had suffered a stroke.

New Year’s Resolution to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables!

Another reason to keep that New Year’s Resolution to Eat More Fruits and Vegetables

 See also:  Total Antioxidant Capacity of Diet and Risk of Stroke                      

and: Delay of Stroke Onset by Milk Proteins in Stroke-Prone 

Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

High consumption of antioxidant rich food seems to lower stroke risk for women with no previous stroke and women who have had a hemorrhagic stroke.

In a brand new study in the journal Stroke, women with higher total antioxidant capacity had fewer strokes.  This study measured total antioxidant capacity, which considers all antioxidants and the synergistic effects between them, not just one antioxidant like Vitamin C, Vitamin A, or Lutein found in leafy green vegetables.

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Shoes and Boots: Traction Devices.

Walking on non-technical snow or ice? These little gizmos slip easily onto your footwear to reduce the odds of slipping. They stow easily in your jacket or pack pocket when not needed. I used in the alley to throw garbage in the garbage bin but the alley in winter is covered with ice.  Instead of slipping or sliding on the ice, I walk easily using the little gizmos with confidence.

• Natural rubber, wound with coils to create hundreds of biting edges to grip snow and ice.
• Removable performance straps.
• Provides traction through 360 degrees, for security when traversing gentle slopes.

Look at the devices at Mountain Equipment Co-op or Lee Valley (and many other stores have the same or similar product).

 

What is unilateral spatial neglect?

Left side neglect or unilateral spatial neglect (USN) is estimated to occur in 40% of stroke patients. Health professionals say unilateral spatial neglect is  "characterized by the inability to orient or respond to stimuli appearing on the side contralateral to the brain lesion". A more understandable explanation comes from the StrokEngine website:

GRASP - Graded Repetitive Arm Supplementary Program

GRASP - Graded Repetitive Arm Supplementary Program
by Janice Eng, PhD, PT/OT and Jocelyn Harris, PhD, OT
See: GRASP

Ad-hoc Darts and Friends and Acquaintances - A Christmas Party!

Hi Ad-hoc Darts and Friends and Acquaintances,

BRIANwaves December 2011

 BRIANwaves (Remue-MÉNINGES)

See BRIANwaves December 2011 (Issue 116).

In This Issue -- December 2011:

Calgary Congress plans in gear

Provinces are using stroke report

results to drive change

iSCORE a useful tool for clinicians

Mr. Noodles wins 2011

Canadian Salt Lick Award

Life After Stroke website a valuable resource

Some therapists recommend splints and others do not.

Some therapists recommend splints and others do not.  There is conflicting evidence about  hand splints  Some therapists and research  say they reduce spasticity or contractures, but others say a splint doesn’t  do anything.  These are the links to  dueling articles—one says it works and one says it doesn’t:

Christmas at Hilltop for Ad-doc Darts !

Prepare for Christmas !
Sharpen your Darts !

Tuesday December 6th @ 7:00 pm 

at the Hilltop Pub

Darts -- "Ad-hoc Darts"

     We are celebrating Christmas at the Hilltop!  Come out and play Darts! Or just come to Talk. Wear a Christmas Hat! 

There will be Prizes for the best Dart Game of:

  - Round the Clock,

  - The most Bulls eyes in a row,

  - Shanghai.

    (Instructions will be provided)

Parking or Bus:

• Lots of parking -- absolutely free.
• Ask for a ride from a friend!
• Very efficient for the Bus #1 - it takes only 12 minutes:
• Take the LRT to Bay/Enterprise Station,
• Hop the Bus #1 going east,
• Get off at Hilltop 8220 - 106 Ave,
• Going home just take Bus #1 going west, 
• Bus #1 leaves every 20 min. to 1:30AM (we are done usually 9:30PM).

View Larger Map

Ad-hoc Darts at the Elephant & Castle

Ad-hoc Darts at the Elephant & Castle
Tuesday at 7pm on Nov 29, 2011.
Located in City Centre - downtown - 3rd floor near the Bay.
10200 102 Ave NW
Edmonton, AB T5J 4B7
(780) 424-4555
www.elephantcastle.com

We will examine the Elephant & Castle for Ad-hoc Darts group but we need to know:

• Transport by LRT or bus is excellent and very close (1 block),  but how about the car - is there is park-aide close? cost? where is it?
• You have some disability - escalator OK? elevator OK? where is it?
• Pub meals - cost? good meal? choice?
• Drinks - cost?  they have draft? they have Guinness??
• We will go - every week? every month? frequent? never?

If you have an opinion please talk to either Carrie, Randy or John on Tuesday night. Opinions are much more valuable than silence - even a little opinion has great importance!

Tips for Improving Fine Motor Skills

Excerpted from "Fine Tuning: Tips for Improving Fine Motor Skills", Stroke Connection Magazine, September/October 2003 (Science review May 2008)

        Fine motor skills are small, precise, coordinated movements, like using your fingers to pick up a coin. Fine motor skills require integrating muscular, skeletal and neurological functions. Physical and occupational therapists can work with you to practice these skills after stroke.

       “The theory is that you can create new pathways in the brain to compensate for injured areas,” says occupational therapist Rondi Blackburn. “The key is to use your affected side as much as possible and to repeat activities several times each day.

       “At Baylor Institute of Rehabilitation ....

Read the full article.

Elf -- Movie -- December 2nd at MacEwan!

Free Drop in Event at: 
         MacEwan  109 St. & 104 Ave.
Dive In Movies on Friday December 2nd:
      6:30 - Activities
      7:00 - Movie

Please come to the movie especially Stroke Survivors and friends!

780-497-5694
sewellg2@macewan.ca
www.MacEwan.ca/Recreation

“My Life is not a Tragedy” Players

From Edmonton:

There is a play at the Glenrose

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

at 7:00pm

At the Bill Black Auditorium - inside the Glenrose.

“My Life is not a Tragedy” Players.

Cost is free!  Everyone is welcome to come.

 Glenrose Rehabilitation Centre – 10230-111 Avenue

(North across from Royal Alex Hospital)

Come in the Front Doors, ask at the desk 

for the location of the Bill Black Auditorium.

Putting the Possibility in Disability

Jackie Poff
Stroke Survivors Tattler

by Jackie Poff

Some stroke survivors remember vividly their strokes and the events leading up to and around their strokes. I personally remember very little about my stroke – thankfully! 

It has been three and one half years since my stroke, which took place on a very cold morning in January 2008. But here is what I do know about that day. On January 22nd (the day before my stroke) I was taking advantage of my lunch hour at work by taking with me my daughter, Nicole, who I had had the great pleasure of hiring onto my staff. We headed out to start apartment hunting for her. I received a phone from my mother informing me that my grandfather, Jack, who I was named after, had passed away at ninety years old. 

That evening our family gathered at grandpa’s house in Tofield to discuss his passing. We arrived back home on our acreage near Spruce Grove much later than we intended. We all crawled into bed exhausted and I, as always, slept like a log. 

I did remember to set my alarm for 6:30 in order to give Michelle, our youngest daughter, then thirteen, a ride to school for an early morning handball practice. When the alarm went off, I stumbled out of bed and went to the bathroom to run a brush through my hair. My husband Larry, a light sleeper, followed me and asked me why I was up so early. As he questioned me, suddenly my words became gibberish and I started to fall over. Larry, wondering what the heck was going on, caught me and rushed me to our bed. I was not responding. Nothing I did or said made any sense. 

Larry recognized that I must be having a stroke. He managed to call our families and yell to the kids. He threw me in the car and got me to the nearest hospital, the Sturgeon Hospital in St. Albert.

SRAE Newsletter - November 2011

Wendy Pangrass:

Not only is Wendy Pangrass an accomplished speaker, speaking at the International Womans year in Ottawa, she has also been a member of many boards such as YWCA, Habitat for Humanity, Strathcona County Family Services Advisory Committee, as well as many others. On Father’s Day, June 15, 2008, when she suddenly developed numbness of her left side and the loss of her speech, she knew instinctively that something was wrong. “My son is a Firefighter/EMT and he has always told me to call 911, and if need be, always stay on the line” says Wendy. “I did and when they answered all I could do was grunt. They were not exactly sure of my need but told me to stay on the line until the paramedics arrived. In less than 10 minutes they were there and after a quick assessment I was off to the hospital.”

Tie Shoes with One Hand !

If the stroke left you with the use of one-hand tie shoes can be a problem but you can:

• get shoes with velcro straps or slip on,
• get elastic laces,
• learn to tie shoes with one-hand.

These videos will show you a trick to tie your shoes with one-handed.

Steve Jobs.

See you later!

Release Your Potential

National Stroke Association is a proud advocacy partner of the Release Your Potential spasticity education campaign. Spasticity is a condition affecting many stroke survivors. It does not allow voluntary relaxation of muscles and makes movement, posture and balance difficult. It can affect your ability to move one or more of your limbs, or to move one side of your body. While there is no cure for spasticity, there are treatments.

    Don’t forget to mark your calendars for the November 8 Release Your Potential^®spasticity webinar!

See the full article from National Stroke Association.

The Fight to Give Voice to Stroke Patients.

If you meet Christy Campbell when she's well-rested, it's not apparent that there's anything wrong with her. But if she's tired -- and she tires easily -- her speech starts to fall apart.


Read about Christy in Canada.com.

Also see: InteRACT.

SRAE Halloween !?#@!

Also see: Stroke Recovery Association of Edmonton.

Assisted Waste Collection

The Edmonton City's Waste Management Branch offers an assisted waste collection service for customers who have difficulty getting their recycling or garbage to the curb or lane. Collectors will walk up pick up garbage and recycling from the outside of the front or back door of the home. There is no additional charge for this service. 

NewsLetter - September 2011 (DRAFT)

Exercise your Aging Brain

Physical exercise isn't just good for the body—it's good for the brain. For anyone who hasn’t started exercising yet, take heart: studies suggest that starting an exercise program at any age and in relatively small doses may help improve your memory and prevent dementia.

Prochazka Study

Subjects needed for study on improving 

hand function after stroke

Dr. Arthur Prochazka in the Centre of Neuroscience, University of Alberta, is presently conducting research study entitled:

FES-ASSISTED EXERCISE THERAPY FOR HEMIPLEGIC HAND FUNCTION

See:

Canadians ask questions about stroke

Every year, about 50,000 Canadians suffer a stroke that results in death or disability. In honour of Stroke Awareness Month, Dimensions invited Canadians to ask questions about stroke, which we then posed to a scientist in the field....

A Target for Stroke Therapy Drugs

New understanding of post-stroke neurons could transform patient treatment and recovery. A drug that aids neuron repair has improved recovery in mice by as much as 50 percent.

Every year, nearly 800,000 people in the U.S. suffer a stroke. It's the country's third-leading cause of death, and a primary cause of severe, long-term disability—the damage it does to the brain is largely irreparable. But a study published online yesterday in the journal Nature describes how a drug helped repair the brains of mice to a degree that was previously impossible.

There are Differences in Rehabilitation Outcomes in Different Countries

In a comparison of stroke rehabilitation in 4 European countries, Lisbet De Wit and colleagues discovered that gross motor and functional recovery were better in the German and Swiss centers compared with the UK center, but Personal self-care recovery was better in the UK compared with the German center.

Previous studies in the same centers indicated that German and Swiss patients received more therapy per day. This was not the result of more staff, but of a more efficient use of human resources. This study indicates potential for improving rehabilitation outcomes in the UK and Belgian centers, Motor and Functional Recovery After Stroke (Stroke. 2007; 38:2101-2107).

Recognizing stroke in kids key to treatment

Stroke doesn't affect just adults.

That's what the family of a 15-year-old Lethbridge boy has found out.

Matthew Onofrychuk suffered a stroke ...

Improving Self-Efficacy

Self-efficacy — which can be defined as "your beliefs in your own competence"-- is associated with better outcomes post-stroke including: quality of life or perceived health status, depression, Activities of Daily living and, to a certain extent, physical functioning.

Depression and Stroke

You have seen the ads on TV that say -- ‘Depression Hurts”.
It may hurt two ways in stroke:

Sexuality after Stroke

Survivors of stroke experience changes and difficulties in many areas of their spousal and family relationships. Within their role of husband or wife, stroke survivors described a lack of control and dramatic changes in their perception of self.

Consequences of Mild Stroke

Most people who have mild strokes are discharged home directly from emergency. 

A review of 13 research articles on mild stroke by Tellier and Rochette stressed that while mild stroke survivors may not have major impairments that affect their activities of daily living, they still should be assessed by a rehabilitation team. Mild stroke survivors  may have small deficits that can make it difficult for them to manage complex activities the same as they did pre-stroke.  Small changes in memory, ability to multi-task, or read and write can cause   stroke survivors to have difficulty coping.  Co-workers or family may  not understand why stroke survivors are making errors because they believe that they are "completely recovered". Tellier and Rochette suggest that rehabilitation can help remediate some of the problems experienced by mild stroke survivors.

 Read the full article

Resilience in Aging

Title of project:

"Resilience in Aging: Identifying Factors that Contribute to Resilience in Older Persons following Stroke".

Caregivers of Survivors of Brain Injury and Stroke

Alberta Caregiver College is a virtual college dedicated to providing courses to enhance the knowledge and skills of their family member(s).

For further information click on Upcoming Courses