The monster has arrived.

One of the things we promised ourselves after I finished at the Aphasia centre was a new puppy to replace the great dog we lost last year.  See attached

She is of course a Jack Russell and is very demanding unless she is having one of her naps! But she is keeping me busy and is great fun.

Still haven't heard anything about my angiogram the NHS lives up to its poor reputation.

Went up to Newcastle to meet friends from the Aphasia clinic and visited Saint James' Park, there was a problem in going to see the pitch as they were preparing for the Kings of Leon concert, it was looking very spectacular.  Good to meet up with friends.

Good news is we have sold the flat but means we now have no where to stay if we go up to Newcastle.

Been taking part in the Limbs Alive research and been busy playing my circus games, this came an end last Friday and Sharon came to do final assessments etc and take away all the equipment.  

In the garden things are looking good, the potatoes have just come into flower and everything else is growing well, plenty of lettuce and radish!  Have to be careful to keep the rabbits off but we now have a secret weapon (when she gets a little bit bigger). Nell the Jack Russell

My speech hasn't been so good this week probably because I have been abit tired and missing the students bullying me!!

Moving on

During my last week I was approached by one of the tutors Rose who asked if I would go along one Thursday to a NETA (North East Trust for Aphasia) session and show some of the participants what I am able to do with my ipad.  As I had to be In Newcastle the following Friday I said I would go the next week.

I went into a group session of about 9 people and started by showing them the speech function, one of the ladies who was new to ipads was gobsmacked by what it could do.  It was very satisfying to show them what I had learnt knowing it will help fellow Aphasia sufferers, hope I will be able to do more of this in the future.

On the Friday I was at the RVI for a cerebral angiogram.  We got there for 8am at my allotted time, didn't go in theatre until 2.30pm the procedure only takes about 20 minutes but then have to spend 4 hours recovering including lying flat for an hour.  So we didn't leave the hospital until 6pm - it was a long day!!  Finally got home just after 8pm.  Great to find our neighbours had fed the sheep and put the chickens to bed!!

Liz had a list of jobs this week!  So have been busy in the garden and we actually managed to paint the wall in the hall which has been waiting for paint since it was plastered about a year ago.

Our veg plot is doing well as Liz has a good supervisor - obviously.

  

End of course

Went to the university as mentioned in my last blog to speak in front of 20+ professional speech therapists about how using my iPad has helped me with my Aphasia.  These were speech therapists who are out in the field and not familiar with what can be achieved with an iPad. It has certainly helped me and given me some independence, I have come a long way from when Liz had to read all my emails and tweets to me.  The session was led by Fiona who asked me various questions and my answers were directed to the delegates. This was things like using the speech function so I can listen to emails, news items etc and also how I use to microphone to speak to the iPad so I can reply to emails.  I told them how my iPad now recognises me and how I speak which I think is really clever.

The session seemed to go really well and hopefully they will encourage aphasia sufferers who have an iPad to use it to help them communicate.

When I went back down to the coffee room to meet Liz I was grabbed by Rose who asked if I would go into one of the iPad sessions at NETA  one Thursday and show people what the iPad can do. I agreed to this and we arranged I would go the following week.

The final week of my course consisted of Tuesday and Wednesday doing more assessments and on Friday the session with Eleanor which was a questionnaire on how I had found the course.  We finished off with a party for us all and our partners. This ended up with 3 teams having a quiz.

Then that was the end of the course!

I would like to thank all the tutors and students but especially Dominique, Emma S, Eleanor and Emily who have had to put up with me for 12 weeks, they have helped me enormously in the 12 weeks and I am now able to read from the newspaper and also read and reply to emails and contribute to twitter.  This may sound trivial but if you suddenly find you can't do it you will find it is a major thing so I am grateful to the 4 of you for helping me do this. Good luck with your exams and future placements! 

Thank you to all the tutors for giving me this second opportunity (I take it a third go is out of the question!).  The small groups and large group have been really good fun to take part in.

I would also like to thank my fellow clients,

David Fettis - who I failed to convert from a caravaner to a motor home owner.

Ian Hardy -  for showing us you don't have to have a stroke to have Aphasia 

Ian McCoullouch (Flint) -  the musician of the group, hope you will be strumming that guitar soon.

David Fulton - my fellow compatriot from the last course.  

Looking forward to seeing you next Friday do you think St James' knows what is coming!

Very busy times!

Life has got very busy at the moment.  Have been back at the Aphasia centre for two weeks, can't believe this is my last week starting tomorrow.  

Last Friday was the day we did our Aphasia Awareness presentation to ten speech therapists, we were allocated different parts of the presentation and then we had to do our own stories of how we had had a stroke and how it has affected us.  As everyone of us has a different experience.  It seemed to go very well after all our hard work and practising so we were very pleased. 

Now in our final week we will have to do assessments to see if we have improved over the 12 weeks.

As usual we are now all worrying what we will do next, meeting with fellow aphasia sufferers is good, in some areas there are groups for stroke sufferers but these are not always beneficial for people with aphasia especially if they have lots of quizzes or play bingo!!

Whilst I was up at the University last Wednesday  my tutor asked me if I would go up this Thursday afternoon and speak to 25 people about how my iPad has helped me cope with not being able to read and write and also about my blog.  

As I said in my last blog I have been accepted on the Limbs Alive research programme with Newcastle 

RVI so have been busy playing my computer games.  The research nurse Sharon comes once a week to make sure I am doing it right and to do a number of assessments.  I then have to wear wrist tags for 3 days to monitor the movement in my arms.  At the moment it is too early to say if it is making any difference but I am happy to try.  The readings from the tags are showing I am moving my right arm more so that is good.

On the wettest foggiest night we got our final lamb, she was born in the rain and absolutely tiny, Liz had a long night with the mother who wasn't very well and didn't want to feed the little girl so it was a couple of bottles until the mother pulled herself together.  They are both fine now and although small the lamb is full of bounce.

Time off

Even though I am not at university I still have lots of homework to do.  Each of my four students have set me some work.  I have to email a student each week to send in my homework to them.  So really there is no time off!

Today my 90 year old mother in law has been testing me on my spellings and the sentences I had to write, she is a hard task master!!

Great news I went up to the RVI hospital at Newcastle just over a week ago to see if I could be accepted on the Limbs Alive research project and fortunately I was. So I have now been given the laptop and video games to start working on my right arm. 

Whilst up in Newcastle I met with my fellow class mates so we could go through our presentation on Aphasia awareness.

To date we have got 3 new lambs a set of twins and a single, Liz is really pleased with the new arrivals (2 girls and a boy). Just waiting for the next one to lamb

On holiday

We now have four weeks off for Easter holidays to give the students a break, hope you are all working hard and revising for your exams!

On the last day I was given homework from all 4 of my students, this includes sending them emails with an update of what I have done.

I do have to go up to the university next week for 2 hours in preparation for our presentation to 10 people to make them more aware of Aphasia (Liz is not amused at having to go up there!)

We have had Senna to visit twice in the last week which is really good, also good to see John and Ceri.  Senna just makes herself at home and looks for the old toy box, any treats and rabbits!  She spotted a group of very young ones playing yesterday, her eyesight is amazing

We are now on tender hooks waiting for the arrival of our lambs which are due anytime now, last year we had deep snow, this year we have had a few foggy days but it is now warm and sunny, perfect for lambs. 

When John was here yesterday he set up our Wii which we haven't used for years but Liz thought would be good to get me using my weak arm and leg.  I had my first game of golf in over a year albeit indoors and virtual but it was great fun, need to get in some practice so I can beat John!

New research

I have been approached a few times to take part in new research since my stroke and have always agreed as I hope it will help others in the future, however, the latest idea seemed a little strange but I am willing to give it a go.

I am getting a new friend to stay, her name is Mary and she is a chimpanzee as a leading university have discovered that the communication skills including hand gestures and facial expressions of chimps can help people with Aphasia.  She arrives next week so I will have to take her to the Aphasia centre in Newcastle with me as she can't be left at home alone.

The university is looking for more people to take part in the research so let me know if you are interested.