Vanity

Sometimes I dwell on my life before the stroke – July 1957 – May 16, 2006.  I truly try not to because I find it counterproductive and who wants to attend a pity party. When I do allow my thoughts to go there it is generally because I come across something I used to be able to do and can no longer such as bicycle, travel, run, and drive. What got me thinking about my pre-stroke life this time was our friends Paige and Fred Fletcher who are in Taos for a conference.  Fred sent me a text reminding me of a run we did together in Taos years ago.  It was a particularly good run because I was able to keep up with Fred and his wife, Paige and they are real distance runners. To that end, I thought I would post a pre-stroke picture.  On our way to Taos…

Running, allowed me to eat and drink what I wanted and kept me in the work game. I loved exercise and I loved looking fit.

So I enjoyed attention to my appearance. Not for vanity but more like a sport. Fashion, fun shoes, cool and outlandish outfits…I still worry about my appearance, though it’s a different worry now. I need to stand straighter, hold my drooping left shoulder higher and pull up my jeans on the left side. Now it’s about noticing the left side and fashion that works with a stroke.  My husband wishes I would apply the same energy to my physical therapy.  But looking good in spite of injury is important. It is important to my therapy. I mean, what’s the point in working out if you can’t “kick-up” some cool fashion along with it? I wish someone would invent clothes that worked for my left drooping shoulder and shoes that fit over my AFO (ankle/foot orthotic).  Currently I am limited to wearing white socks and tennis shoes every day!  I feel like the poster child for the glamour magazine’s “fashion don’t” section.

We have a mantra:  Let’s revel in the things we can do and not in what we can’t.