Play Date

Pamela Hsieh
Rehab Revolution

17 December 2012

I know. Where are last week’s three posts? They didn’t happen (I hope you’ll forgive me), because I was an awful time manager last week. On the plus side, I did film some videos, and I’ll do my best to edit them by Monday night into something cohesive. It will be a busy day, but I will put in an honest effort to deliver!

Tonight, Anthony told me there is something called the “Pamela Effect.” I asked him what this was, expecting him to say that it was my ability to prolong anything and everything and cause great tardiness. Well, I was sort of right -- but his actual definition was: “spontaneous dancing, personal development or entertaining video sharing, hugs, and general merriment or affection that comes with spending time with Pamela.”

Talk about putting a positive spin on a perceived flaw, right? :)

I feel a huge shift occurring in me these days. Perhaps it’s the holiday spirit, perhaps it was the Millionaire Mind Intensive (for the record, I only want to make my millions by living my truth), or perhaps it’s simply time for a lot of growth.

When I first began this blog, I thought its focus would be on therapy techniques. I knew it would be an exploration of all the facets of healing and rehabilitation, but it turns out that a lot of where this exploration goes is within, to the spirit. Ultimately, it’s not so surprising . . . it is really the spirit you must tend to to keep up your fight!

So let’s talk about the importance of making things fun. I’ve addressed this briefly before, but let’s revisit.

I’ve begun starting some of my days with some high-energy “Pamela Effect” spontaneous dancing. Or, looking myself in the mirror and pumping myself up by proclaiming everything I love about my life: “I love dancing, I love food, I love animals! I love reading, I love books, I love my bedding!” etc., etc. (Yes, I caught some of these practices on film.)

It sounds ridiculous and cheesy, but no one’s watching. Besides, who the hell cares? Even if people were watching, all the more reason to embrace this kind of joy. It really gets you going on a great note, and it makes your life more fun.

Consider this awesome initiative --


Standard YouTube License @ Rolighetsteorin

How can you make the necessary activities of life and rehab more fun so you actually do them? We don’t have to transform every set of stairs into a keyboard. But you can start by playing the music you LOVE while you dance your heart out or run on your elliptical. Play exercise video games on the Wii  or XBox (more on this to come).

Ask a friend if you can “borrow” his dog for walking a couple times during the week. Time how quickly you can clean your kitchen. The list goes on! Please share your ideas below -- how do you make boring tasks more enjoyable?

To our healing,

See the original article:

Play Date

in

Rehab Revolution

Playing 'Games' to Improve Recovery

Jeff Porter
Stroke of Faith

Friday, January 31, 2014

We've see stories before about the idea of adapting video games and other technology for stroke recovery therapy.

As the motion sensor-based technology improves, more advances seem to be coming. For example, check this blurb and video how stroke recovery might be assisted by Microsoft's Kinect, specifically upper-limb motor functioning:

Stroke patients can get direct feedback about their recovery from the Kinect, which is able to capture the skeletal movements in real-time and relay the information back to the user. Stroke Recovery with Kinect features “three game-like exercises,” each of which requires the user to test his or her dexterity. This software could serve as an affordable, accessible addition to the recovery process for future sufferers. Check out a video of the program in action at Microsoft Research.

Standard YouTube License @ Microsoft Research

See the original article:

Playing 'Games' to Improve Recovery

in

Stroke of Faith

Getting Early Recovery

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

January 28, 2014

PTs do not start gait training by asking clients to lift their hemiplegic (paralyzed) leg in the air and then move their ankle and toes.  Yet classic hand evaluations like the Fugl-Meyer Assessment tell OTs to ask stroke survivors to sit and lift their hemiplegic arm up to table top height to pick up an object resting on the table. There is a problem with evaluating early hand function this way.  When a stroke survivor struggles to lift a paralyzed arm, high muscle tone can cascade down the arm and make the hand too tight to open to grasp an object.

Hand-to-hand transfers can promote early hand use because the hemiplegic hand is held close to the body as it opens to accept an object from the sound hand.  Notice how small the shoulder angle is when objects are close to the body.  This angle is similar to the angle PTs expect from the hip when clients walk.  Finally letting the thigh take some of the weight of the bottle promotes early success.  The hemiplegic hand only has to keep the bottle still as the sound hand takes the cap off and puts it back on.  Modifying tasks so clients can succeed is a good way to change everyone's expectation of what is possible.  On the first day in rehab I walked the full length of the PT gym with the help of three people.  I did not dismiss this early attempt because it was a modified version of my end goal.  See Small Motions Make My Hand Useful for more ways to use hand-to-hand transfers.

See the original article:

Getting Early Recovery

in

Home After a Stroke

9 Things Not to Say to Someone With a #Braininjury, #Abi or #Stroke

Kate Allatt
A Rocky Stroke Recovery

February 1, 2014

A bit extra from me.

‘Judging by the response to this blog, from people who too have had the ‘bomb-explode-in-their-brain’, we all seem to feel THE SAME.

Which is why my 3rd book – I Am Still The Same (Ebook NOV 2014) will be a practical self-help God send for all stroke survivors and brain injured people.

Please also take a look at ‘Running Free’ (Amazon) for some practical advice, based on my own horrific brainstem stroke experience with locked in syndrome. It’s internationally published and also hugely inspiring for ANYONE.’

Kate Allatt voluntary CEO Fighting Strokes.

SOURCE: http://strokerevelations.com/9-things-not-to-say-to-someone-with-a-brain-i-44952

Brain injury is confusing to people who don’t have one. It’s natural to want to say something, to voice an opinion or offer advice, even when we don’t understand.

And when you care for a loved one with a brain injury, it’s easy to get burnt out and say things out of frustration.

Here are a few things you might find yourself saying that are probably not helpful:

Newfie Diet

Jackie Poff
Stroke Survivors Tattler

A Newfie was terribly overweight, so the doctor put her on a diet.

"I want you to eat regularly for 2 days, then skip a day, then eat regularly again for 2 days then skip a day. Repeat this procedure for 2 weeks. The next time I see you, you should have lost at least 5 pounds."

When the Newfie returned, she shocked the doctor by having lost nearly 60 lbs.!

"Why, that's amazing", the doctor said, "Did you follow my instructions?"

The Newfie nodded. "I'll tell you though, be jaesuz, I t'aut I were going to drop dead on dat 'tird day."

"From the hunger, you mean?" asked the doctor.

"No, from the frikin' skippin'."

Grocery Shopping!

Diane
The Pink House On The Corner

Monday, February 3, 2014

Well, this was a first for both of us. Bob's first trip to a grocery store since his stroke in October 2010. And my first experience taking him to a grocery store!

I have never attempted to do this before because it seemed like it would be a big pain in the you-know-what. I mean, how does one push a wheelchair AND a shopping cart? Not only that, there's the getting Bob ready for a trip, getting him into the wheelchair, scheduling the transportation etc. etc. and all that work just to shop at the grocery store seemed unthinkable.

Bob's first trip to the grocery store since 2010.

But two weeks ago, when The Green Machine refused to start in the parking lot of the post office when I was out on my weekly errand run, I had to get the car towed over to Bubba's. Fortunately, the grocery store was in walking distance from the post office, so I hiked over to the store, got Bob's prescriptions filled, grabbed a few items and called a taxi to take me home. That ride cost $20.00.  So talk about an expensive day, as the tow truck charged me $65.00. yikes.

Then, when Bubba told me it might take weeks or more to fix The Green Machine, I debated ways to get back to the grocery store for supplies. The taxi was way too expensive, it would cost me $40.00 to get there and back. And a bus, well, how much can one carry onto a bus? And I needed some heavy items, like cat litter... The big grocery store is too far away to walk to -- we have a smaller store in walking distance but they do not stock things like cat litter. So, I decided to do the unthinkable: take Bob with me. That way, we could ride the wheelchair transport and the cost would only be $4.00 each way.

I still didn't know how I was going to push the wheelchair and a shopping cart at the same time! But I figured, I'd play it by ear and if nothing else, park him in a corner somewhere while I did the shopping.

When we got to the grocery store, I stopped at the Customer Service desk and asked for help. Customer Service paged an employee to "assist a customer with her shopping". So I pushed Bob and the employee pushed the cart and the wheelchair van driver helped me load and unload the groceries and it actually all worked out surprisingly well!

As Bob used to always say: Life is an adventure!

See the original article:

Grocery Shopping!

in

The Pink House On The Corner

Talking Trash

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Monday, February 3, 2014

Oh, get your minds outta da gutter!

Barb Polan and I have been emailing back and forth about garbage and composting. For us it's difficult if not impossible to get the garbage from the house to the rolling bins, and out to the road for pick up. Okay, it can be done in a thousand and one baby steps along the way. A week's worth of garbage takes a week to get it to the road.

It's one of those things most of us really don't talk about. Another adaptability failure issue but we keep trying to adapt to succeed. It's just that success in this case isn't without some major issues. I wonder how Rebecca does it? Hey Rebecca! Chime in.

I guess I could put all my noncompostable garbage in those little plastic grocery bags and carry them to my dumpster one at a time. But that still leaves rolling the dumpster to the road. I don't know about your front yard, but mine is uneven with plenty of pine tree and oak roots to trip me up with a rolling slant. It isn't a smooth paved surface like the picture. I wish!

Can Computers/Apps Really Help Children/Adults Learn - Relearn How to Speak?

Mark A. Ittleman
The Teaching of Talking

February 2 / 2014 

I am sorry to say, I just don't buy the idea that an app or computer programs can be an efficient way of doing speech therapy with someone who has a severe speaking difficulty.  As an Alternative Communication Device there are some great programs out there.  There are even great apps that are good for telling stories, cognition, or for helping children or adults with sound errors, visual scanning, and reading recognition.  Can they actually help people who have lost the ability to speak?

It is readily apparent in most social media that apps, I pads etc are the way to go when it comes to helping one talk after aphasia.  I think the general public is getting the wrong impression and thinking that an app or computer program  which really don't think, interact, or problem solve the many parameters associated with speaking can replace a speech language pathologist expert, even if the visits are running out.  Not only that, but most computers can not visually show the act of speaking phrases and sentences and have the duplication of sound like one can achieve within a real eyeball to eyeball interaction.  Advertisers would have us believe that what we need are computer program exercises for the brain, but they really lack the true meaning and richness of interaction with another person that can stimulate thought, immediate, short, and long-term memory, creativity and the ability to make decisions.  

Robert Gupta: Between Music and Medicine

Published on Oct 2, 2012

SSTattler: Excellent lecture and excellent violinist!

When Robert Gupta was caught between a career as a doctor and as a violinist, he realized his place was in the middle, with a bow in his hand and a sense of social justice in his heart. He tells a moving story of society's marginalized and the power of music therapy, which can succeed where conventional medicine fails.


 
Standard YouTube License @ TED

RMR: Rick at the Toronto International Boat Show

Published on Jan 22, 2014

Rick attends the 56th annual edition of the boat show.

Standard YouTube License @ The Rick Mercer Report

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Saturday News

Contents of This Week:

• Headline -  Cartoons "For Better or For Worse"
• Comics   - ForBetterOrForWorse, Dilbert, Peanuts, Doonesbury
• Eclectic - Many articles from other bloggers and mostly about "stroke"...
• Trailer  - Rick Mercer Report - Intelligence, humorous, politics in Canada

Def'n: Cartoons "For Better or For Worse"

SSTattler: FBorFW took 88 strips to tell about Grandpa Jim had a stroke...

For Better or For Worse

      From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Patterson family,

the center focus of For Better or For Worse

http://www.fborfw.com/

For Better or For Worse is a comic strip by Lynn Johnston that ran in its original incarnation for 29 years (1979-2008), chronicling the lives of a Canadian family, The Pattersons, and their friends. The story is set in the fictitious Toronto-area suburban town of Milborough, Ontario. Now exclusively composed of re-runs, For Better or For Worse is still seen in over 2,000 newspapers throughout Canada, the United States and about 20 other countries.

History and Background

Johnston's strip began in September 1979, and ended its original daily black-and-white run on August 30, 2008, with a postscript epilogue (as a full-colour Sunday strip) running the following day. Starting on September 1, 2008, the strip began re-telling its original story, using a mixture of straight re-runs and re-touched strips which featured altered dialogue. This new format, however, was dropped after less than two years and in July, 2010 the strip switched entirely to reruns.

Video: Cartoons "For Better or For Worse"

Lynn Johnston's FBorFW Podcast - "Episode 1, Season 2 - Tell us about the process..."

Uploaded on Oct 25, 2011

For Better or For Worse creator, Lynn Johnston, discusses her process for making her strips through the years with Scott Clark.


Standard YouTube License @ LynnJohnstonFBorFW 

Saturday Comics

For Better and For Worse
Lynn Johnston - 2014/01/26

"Listen, when you go to war, you wear a uniform!"

Dilbert
Scott Adams - 2014/01/26

"What's is the newest management jargon..."

Peanuts
Charles Schulz - 2014/01/26

"We'll have to have a station wagon, a town car, and ..." 

Doonesbury
Garry Trudeau - 2014/01/26

"All except for brutal weather, disgusting food, and ..."

  
** 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.

Note: Now SSTattler are running cartoons starting every previous Sunday and they are:

• For Better and For Worse -- as before,
• Dilbert                                   -- as before,
• Peanuts                                -- replacing Garfield,
• Doonesbury                        -- replacing Betty.

Eclectic Stuff

Definition: Eclectic(noun) a person who derives ideas, style, or taste from a broad and diverse range of sources.

Because Everyone Likes a Cartoon!

Peter G. Levine
Stronger After Stroke Blog

Friday, September 10, 2010






Standard YouTube License @ Lionhound3

See the original article:

Because Everyone Likes a Cartoon!

in

Stronger After Stroke Blog

The Cartoonist He Was

Diane
The Pink House On The Corner

Monday, April 25, 2011

The Power of Positive Sinking

This is one of Bob's cartoons, done in pen and ink then scanned on the computer to color. Enjoy.

See the original article:

The Cartoonist He Was

in

The Pink House On The Corner

How We Learn to Talk

January 12 / 2014

As a practitioner of speech language pathology and a father of four wonderful children, I've had the opportunity to experience first hand what happens when children or adults learn or relearn the act of talking.

This article may dispel some myths about learning to talk, and some of the methods that are currently being used in the United States today to deal with people who are not talking or those who have lost that ability.

Many of us have experienced first hand how to speak.  We grew up in a home where the language was spoken, and we learned quickly how to get what we wanted.  We either said words nicely, or screamed our lungs out, or gestured to get the desired object of our desire.

I remember going to kindergarten and my mother walking with us to school for the first few days.  She repeated over and over again, "look to the right, look to the left, look up, down and behind, then look again, and when it is clear to cross the street."  Why was it that those words were heard in my mind each time I approached the corner of Darrow Avenue and West 8th Street?

I learned to cuss from my friend Bruce, who lived close by, and learned to smoke from my other best friend Bill Reich.  I learned to speak with clarity at Pennington Prep from Mrs. Wolfe, who helped me win trophy after trophy in Declamation and Ronan contests.  I learned to get major roles in plays by being under the direction of Mr. Sapir at Plainfield High School.

So what's the point?  How do we learn to speak?  Do we learn from notebooks, computer programs, hand-out sheets, or fill in the blank busy-work? No.  Do we learn to talk by writing or spelling words? No.  Do we learn to talk by problem solving sheets, or matching words to pictures? No.

We learn by finding a model, hanging out with them, and learning how they do what they do.

I'd like to thank my recently deceased mother, Josephine, for allowing me to spend time with her so that she could instill an understanding of speaking, proper grammar, and language.  She was home with us during the first 5 years of our lives, constantly interacting and speaking with us.

I think those are some of the ways we learn to speak.


Standard YouTube License @ The Teaching of Talking



Mark A. Ittleman, M.S., CCC/SLP is a speech language pathologist who consults with patients at Kindred Rehabilitation Hospital, Humble, Texas.  He has practiced speech language pathology with children and adults for over 40 years and had served in schools, private practice, and rehabilitation hospitals.  He is an author of The Teaching of Talking, Learn to Do Expert Speech and Language Stimulation with Children and Adults (2013) Morgan James Publishing, New York City, New York.  It is written for therapists, parents, family members, loved ones, spouses and caregivers.  The author believes that family members, loved ones, and care givers can help a child or adult learn to talk or speak again with specialized knowledge.

Please come visit us at:

    http://www.teachingoftalking.com

or  

    http://www.tacebook.com/teachingoftalking

25 Life Saving Tips – Acute #Brainstem #Lockedinsyndrome & #Stroke

Kate Allatt
A Rocky Stroke Recovery

January 25, 2014


I flew into Belfast to visit a lovely, hospitable family last year.

My arrival night was spent talking to the family about how we can try and help them INFLUENCE health professionals, to broaden their Brainstem survivors’ chances of making significant progress.

I was acting as a patient advocate.

1. Understand the NHS cost centres and issues of budget management/constraints.
2. Be familiar with the concept of ‘significant patient outcomes’ – What do medics consider ‘significant patient progress’? To grip? To drink? To smile? To talk? Ie. To do something functional?
3. Risk of Silent aspiration RISK & foot drop. I suggest asking for a dye test to minimise the chances of chest infections from silent aspiration. Splinting should also be done every day on legs and hands for 12 hours. Regardless of what the research says. Foot drop means the patient will never walk again, even if pathways are formed anyway without the use of an FES machine.

Tra-la-la-la-la: Music Therapy Solves So Many Problems

Joyce Hoffman
The Tales of a Stroke Patient

Jan 25, 2014


When I was 12, my parents bought me a transistor radio for my birthday--no headphone output and only AM. That was good enough because I didn't know any better. I listened to broadcasts of WIBG and rock 'n roll aficianado Hy Lit before school, and the same channel again in the late afternoon after I got home until bedtime. I used to joke that the transistor radio was surgically attached to my ear. My parents, who were Tommy Dorsey fans from the 40s, couldn't understand the words the maniacs (their words, not mine) were singing. But I understood all of it.

I was married at 21, but still took my transistor radio with me everywhere, like in the summer to the apartment's pool where I blasted it to the Mamas and Papas and Credence Clearwater Revival and Hall and Oates. My husband was not a music fan and called the singers maniacs, too. The next year, the transistor radio went in the crawl space along with my beloved dolls because I was all grown up. And I upgraded to the boom box.

I always loved music and that's why I loved playing the piano, by ear where I could play anything that was written. Those days are gone now because of my stroke, and with it a paralyzed arm, but I still tap my foot to the music.  In therapy, for instance, when I’ll have have my eyes closed and the therapist always comes over to me in fear that something's wrong. I'll open my eyes for a brief moment and say, "I'm not having another stroke. I'm just in the zone." You'd think the therapist would get it by now. Then I close my eyes again and groove with the music. It doesn't matter what genre--soft rock, hard rock, country. I love the musicmakers. So I wasn't surprised that music therapy has evolved to accommodate conditions like stroke, schizophrenia, heart conditions, and many more.

Small Motions Make My Hand Useful

Rebecca Dutton
Home After a Stroke

January 21, 2014

After an electrical stimulation device called NeuroMove helped me regain movement in my hemiplegic (paralyzed) hand, I learned very small movements can make a hand functional.  If you can open your hemi hand 1-2 inches, you can pick up an object with your sound hand and transfer it to your hemi hand.  While the hemi hand holds objects close to the body the sound hand can do its job.  For example, when washing the crotch, the sound hand needs to be free to wash the nooks and crannies.  So my hemiplegic hand holds the shower hose close to my body.  A little bit of hand movement means my mother and I are the only people who have washed my bottom.  Preserving my dignity and feeling clean means a lot to me.

Retraining the brain requires repetition so it's good hand-to-hand transfers allow me to do 18 ADL tasks.  Another example -  my hemi hand receives a tube of toothpaste from my sound hand which then removes the cap.  The end of the tube is propped against my stomach because this new tube is heavy.  I don't want to drop it and splatter toothpaste all over.  Using my hemiplegic hand during ADLs gives me the repetitions I need to retrain my brain.

Current hand tests begin by asking clients to pick up small objects from a table.  Adding hand-to-hand transfers to hand tests would help stroke survivors see that opening and closing their hemi hand can be useful earlier than they ever thought possible.

See the original article:

Small Motions Make My Hand Useful

in

Home After a Stroke

Julia

Amy Shissler
My Cerebellar Stroke Recovery

Jan 26, 2014

This is the letter that Julia’s husband wrote that will be sent to the CEO, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, and the Dean/Vice President for medical Affairs at RIC and it’s affiliated medical school at Northwestern.

——————————————————————————

I am writing to you as a clinical physician, a physician-administrator, and most importantly as the husband of a patient.  This letter is a formal complaint against one of your physicians, Richard Harvey, MD, who behaved in a manner that was harmful to a patient, my wife Julia, and to your reputation as the leading rehabilitation hospital in the United States. His recommendations over the phone were superficial, uncaring,  based on incomplete information, were psychologically damaging, and not at all what is expected of a medical director of Stroke Rehabilitation at a major center.  Whether intended or not, the effect of his words were to tell my wife, “You will not get better, we can’t help you, find a way to enjoy what you still have in life, which I am sure is wonderful”.

Walkable Neighborhoods: Better Health

Jeff Porter
Stroke of Faith

Thursday, January 23, 2014

It's well-established that walking is good for you. If you seen this blog before, chances are you've seen several blog postings about walking and other exercises as stroke prevention tools.

Sadly, not everyone have good access to places for walking. And that is not good for public health. More people walking means more people in better health. Here's a recent article about how walkable neighborhoods mean less obesity and diabetes:

Photo from U.S. Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention

Results from the research, which also sought to determine the best measures of "walkability" for public policy purposes, were published online January 14 in PLOS One by Richard H. Glazier, MD, from St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, Ontario, and colleagues.

"While interventions to prevent obesity and promote healthy body weight are most often aimed at individuals, there is a growing recognition of upstream environmental factors, including the urban built environment, as potential targets for intervention," the authors write."

Diabetes and obesity are two stroke risk factors. Do you live in a walkable neighborhood? Then use it!

See the original article:

Walkable Neighborhoods: Better Health

in

Stroke of Faith

Since When Is “Productive” Fun?

Peter G. Levine
Stronger After Stroke Blog

Friday, January 24, 2014
















When it comes to stroke recovery, no clinician, no matter how skilled, can "do it for them." Recovery from stroke is dependent on repetitive and demanding practice by the owner of the damaged nervous system—the survivor. If done correctly repetitive and demanding practice drives cortical plasticity ("brain rewiring") robustly enough to be evident in increased quality of movement.

But this sort of repetitive practice is boring! Repetitive practice does not necessarily involve functional activity. For example, a clinician, seeing a deficit in the last 15 or 20° of dorsiflexion, may have the patient repetitively practice dorsiflexion, irrespective of ambulation. At least in that example the end goal, whether it's stated or not, is obvious; walking. In the upper extremity repetitive practice of single joint movements may or may not relate to any particular everyday activity. Instead repetitive practice may be used just to increase active range of motion in those joints. Because it does not involve anything functional, repetitive practice can be inherently boring.  And what makes it even more boring is that stroke survivors aren't even working on anything novel; there relearning movement that they used to do perfectly well. So where's the motivation?

The motivation ends up being a conjuring. Some of this motivation may come from the minds of clinicians. OTs, PTs and speech therapists should try to make repetitive practice as interesting as possible. But some of this motivation comes from the survivor. The survivor needs the imagination enough to understand how this hard and boring work will help realize potential.

See the original article:

Since When Is “Productive” Fun?

in

Stronger After Stroke Blog

And I Spoke Too Soon!

Diane
The Pink House On The Corner

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Just when I thought everything was going easy-peasy with PT (see last post), the therapist in charge of "recertifications" showed up on Friday and discharged Bob! GAA! Just like that.

Of course, I was floored. And asked why. And she told me it was because the insurance did not approve his therapy and that they (the home health agency) had not been paid for any of the visits in January.

Well, this didn't seem right to me and I thought I'd gotten an approval letter in the mail. So I dug the letter up and found, oops, I didn't thoroughly read it, because it was only approval for nursing visits, not for PT. But the strange thing about the letter was the doctor's name was wrong, it was not the GI doctor's name, but the neurologist who orders PT... so I figured something is really screwed up here.

Limbo or In the Box Again

Jo Murphey
The Murphey Saga

Friday, January 24, 2014

I'm in limbo or in the box again.  According to dictionary.com Limbo -
    3. an intermediate, transitional, or         midway state or place.
    4. a place or state of imprisonment or         confinement. 

I just call it "in a box." I can't go left or right, forward or backwards, up or down. It's a pretty frustrating feeling, but I've learned not to fight it and just be. Yeah, I've been here many times before. It's never an enviable or pleasant situation. But then there is a comfort to be here too.

I can here you now...she's finally reached the edge of cliff and jumped, she's positively insane, poor thing she's lost it. None of the above.

Stopped by Police at 2 AM

Jackie Poff
Stroke Survivors Tattler

An elderly man was stopped by the police around 2 AM and was asked where he was going at that time of night.

The man replied, "I'm on my way to a lecture about alcohol abuse and the effects it has on the human body, as well as smoking, and staying out late."

The officer then asked,  "Really?  Who's giving that lecture at this time of night?"

The man replied, "That would be my wife."

Cross Country Skiing

Dean Reinke
Deans' Stroke Musing

Sunday, January 26, 2014

After 4.5 months of clearing trails I finally found time in my social calendar to actually try it today. 20 degrees and snowing, it was beautiful out.  I have to wear my very first AFO because its the only one that fits in my ski boots and I need it to prevent rolling my ankle.  I did the 3 small cleared loops, tried to get to the back loop but numerous branches across the trail prevented that. Only fell onto my knees once when trying to herringbone up a 1 foot rise. Its pathetic how slow I ski now.  2 hours worth and I don't think I raised my heart rate at all. But I did doze in my chair after coming back.  Life is good.

See the original article:

Cross Country Skiing

in

Deans' Stroke Musing

TEDxGenevaChange - Tjeerd Royaards - Comics in Crises

Published on Apr 15, 2012

Tjeerd is a Dutch editorial cartoonist living in Amsterdam. He has worked as a cartoonist for over seven years, ever since getting a master's degree in Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. His work has appeared in Dutch dailies NRC Next, De Pers and De Volkskrant, as well as German newspapers Handelsblatt and Hannoversche Allgemeine and Swiss weekly Weltwoche. In 2010, Tjeerd received a 'Citation of Excellence' in the United Nations Political Cartoon Award. Tjeerd is also Editor-in-Chief of Cartoon Movement, a global platform for high quality political cartoons and comics journalism.

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RMR: Rick and the Collingwood Collegiate Marching Band

Published on Dec 4, 2013

Rick visits Collingwood, Ontario to practice with one of the largest marching bands in the province and join them for the local Santa Claus parade.



Standard YouTube License @ The Rick Mercer Report

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