Even though it is no picnic living with a stroke, it is helpful that products have been designed to allow me to work around my disability of only having the use of my right arm.
I make the mistake of forgetting about my left arm and my three visits to the NIH brought this to light. I need to do better and focus on my left side or it will never come back. More later on what I plan to do about this.
Please allow me to share a few tools given my goal of the blog is to shortcut steps for other stroke survivors.
THE FIRST amazing tool that allowed me to maintain a passion is the Amazon Kindle It took two years after the stroke to discover the joy of reading again and it was 100% thanks to the Kindle. I now read the New York Times daily, the New Yorker magazine weekly and probably 3 -4 books a month.
You will recall I have no left-side peripheral vision; it’s called left-side neglect. While in the hospital and in my speech cognitive sessions, the therapist would draw a fat red line on the left with a magic marker to remind me to scan to the left when reading. You can imagine that drawing a red line on each page of a thick book or document is a non-starter. The Kindle reading space is 6” so I can pretty much see the whole page without turning my head. Another advantage with the Kindle is during page turning, I can use my right thumb vs. having to put the book down on my lap and turn the page. Reading is now much faster.
The two additional product categories that make living in a one-armed world tolerable are cooking products and grooming products:
Cooking essentials are:
-One-Touch can opener and One Touch jar opener (both can be purchased at Walgreens or Target)
-Immobile cutting board and electric knife
My 2010 Christmas present from Bob was candy apple red Kitchen Aide stand mixer this is a game-changer for my life in the kitchen and expanded my recipe repertoire considerably.
On the grooming side, because unfortunately, I didn’t lose my vanity from the stroke--the style of my hair is always #1 priority. When Bob is around and has the time he does an amazing job with styling. Just ask my girlfriends. When he is away, I need a brush and hair dryer but what to do with only one usable hand. We bought a tripod for the hair dryer.
I know there are other products that would enhance my life.
The last category is exercise and rehab tools for my disability but I will save this information for part 2.
My dream design product that I am waiting for is a pair of shoes or boots that I can fit over my leg brace that are not tennis shoes. Again with the vanity – sorry.
No apologies Annie, remember? You taught us that in a past blog. I love your vanity. It gives you spunk and is a strong reminder that things have changed but some parts of you have not. The vanity is a good piece of the puzzle. As always, the posts are insightful and with a strong voice. I hear you telling me the stories as I read. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAnnie - thank you for giving us this look into your life. I'll ask my step-daughter Aggie to spread the word, she majors in design at Stanford, and maybe her, or one of her peeps, will take on this challenge.
ReplyDeleteMy dad has a friend who was the victim of a terrible crime in his own home, in which he woke to a burglar and found himself in a fight for his life. He won - he lived, but he was traumatized badly...had PTSD, his marriage began to fail, he suffered from a terrible depression and became suicidal. He pulled through the experience, but it is not difficult for me to empathize with his struggles considering what had happened to him. You remind me of him sometimes - you, too were attacked in the night by an enemy that was as sudden as it was, well, murderous. You both bear scars from the battle that you put up, and won. But please know, despite the wounds to your vanity, that your beauty still shines through it all. :-)