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| Barb Polan Barb’s Recovery |
I am a gardener - gardening is one of my favorite hobbies.
I started gardening at my grandparents’ house when I was in elementary school. My loving Italian grandmother had a charming garden in the middle of her yard – with hybrid tea roses and a huge bleeding heart plant (Dicentra spectabilis). Although I don’t currently have any roses other than Knockout, I have a medium-sized bleeding heart that I keep hoping will hit giant-sized one of these years. Every time I see it, I think of her.
A common refrain in stroke rehab is that in order for a patient to relentlessly work on rehab, he/she should be working toward a goal that is significant and meaningful for him/her. A former golfer will work more diligently if she’s working on swinging a golf club, not pinning clothespins on a pegboard.
If gardening had been the significant and meaningful accomplishment to have as a rehab goal, I’d have a reasonably short distance left – from easiest to most challenging skills: (1) being able to pull the garden cart behind me, (2) being able to scramble over the rocks and granite outcroppings in our yard, (3) being able to use a spade to make a hole to plant something, instead of a trowel, which takes forever, and (4) pushing a wheelbarrow.
Instead I’ve had rowing a gig boat as my meaningful goal. To reach that, I still have to: (1) reliably open my hand, (2) pronate my arm, (3) grip an oar hard enough and have arms strong enough to keep control of the oar as I pull it through the water, and (4) be strong enough to raise and lower the oar into place.
All tasks for my upper limb. For my leg to row, I’ve already progressed enough to do what’s needed: getting into and out of the boat, and pushing my feet against the footrests as I take a stroke. And I have the endurance to row an hour.
Dilemma: When I finally can row, and my meaningful goal is accomplished, what next? Yes, I’d be happy to row every day all season, but I would still be lacking some of my former abilities. Will I then change my focus and set a new meaningful goal, or will rowing be “enough” and I'll stop rehab?
Stroke survivors often say their goal is 100% recovery. But do I really want to be able to do absolutely everything I could before? Run? A short distance would be acceptable. Tread water? Swimming the backstroke will be enough for me. Skip, play tennis or volleyball or jump rope? Nope. Hold a bowl of batter while I scrape the batter into a brownie pan? Definitely. Climb a stepladder? I perhaps could do that safely now, except for the fact Tom would kill me, which makes it too dangerous to try.
I have a long, but doable, way to go before being able to successfully row a gig boat. Once I do it, though, maybe I’ll try to improve my gardening abilities.
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