Stroke & Stroke Recovery

To all my friends and blog followers: for anyone who doesn't know, I had a stroke 11th May. I was in work, at 9.30, when it happened and I was very lucky that my team leader immediately called the first aider, and he recognised the signs and immediately called the ambulance.

There is a new treatment which breaks up clots, but it has to be given within 3 hours of the stroke. Thanks to the quick thinking in work and the efficiency of the doctors in Morriston Hospital, they gave me the treatment after 2 hours 50 minutes. It did not save my arm and leg, but who knows what else may have been affected without it?

My speech was slurred but is well on the way to recovery, my right leg lost all movement but is coming back and I have started taking a few steps, and I lost all movement in my right arm which has not yet recovered. But it could have been so much worse. Especially, my brain function was not affected at all, for which I praise God.

In the long hours in hospital, I began to write poetry on my mobile phone. I have written poetry before, but occasionally. Now it poured out of me, 23 poems to date. Verse, doggerel, blank verse. About my stroke, my treatment, my faith, and totally random things like the rain outside my window. I plan to share some of them with you in future.

A dear friend says I should write a book, and maybe I will. I also wrote some Christian articles about suffering, which I hope may help other people. So watch this space.