The following day in hospital was my 2nd full day in Harrogate.

I felt like I was getting to know some of the staff. They were all so friendly.

My OT came that day to see me and helped with my shower again. Today I stood up and sat down a bit. I struggled a little with holding the shower head. (I’m sure they make you use a handheld shower head to make it harder for people, but it’s a good challenge all the same). We did things like putting the shampoo and conditioner on a shelf so I could use my left hand to reach up with. They kept telling me to use my left hand as much as possible.

I could stand at the sink in my room to brush my teeth, although found it hard to unscrew the lid, and I could brush my hair (not as good with my left hand as with my right hand but I kept trying). I didn’t have a hair dryer so I just let it dry naturally.

The physio came and gave me a sheet of exercises I could do for my hand to improve the strength and movement. She assessed me walking again and said I’d be ok getting to go to the loo by myself now and could walk further when I had visitors. 😊

Today was the first time I met the Dr who was my consultant in Harrogate, however I was still under the care of the Leeds team. In total I spoke to about 4/5 doctors during my stay in Harrogate. They all did assessments and asked me to tell them my story. For some of them I’m guessing they may not have seen a stroke patient as young and I know I was the youngest on the ward at that time, so I think maybe they were intrigued.

The Dr was nice, Italian, very authoritative and direct in everything she said … I found this both amusing and a little scary.

She assessed my vision. One task was to keep looking at her nose whilst she covered one of my eyes and I had to tell her when I could see her finger moving. Covering my right eye seemed fine. Covering my left eye was harder and I kept taking my eye off her nose to look at her finger. I didn’t do it on purpose but she told me off (twice). I knew it was weak. She was happy enough with my hand/arm/leg on my left side though.

She mentioned that the team in Leeds had requested another CT scan. My second CT scan the day after my stroke had shown a little bit of tissue or something which had broken off and was still in my brain. The Leeds team wanted to check how that was before I left hospital.

All in all it seemed things were getting better. I was okay on my feet, that seemed the best thing as I still seemed to have my balance and strength. My walk was a bit stiff, I wasn’t relaxed into it. I felt like I didn’t and couldn’t move my head properly because I was worried about the stent in my neck, so I had a stiff neck.

I don’t really know how to describe the weakness in my left hand. It was weak with movement but also I think the signals from my brain were slower than before. It was doing what I wanted most of the time but I guess it was lazy. Almost like it was dragging to do things and it wasn’t aware and alert. It was difficult not to let my right hand take over. If I needed to scratch my head or something, I tried to use my left hand.

When I started doing the exercises, they suggested 10 reps of each exercise about 3 times a day.

To be honest, I found that quite a lot. It was tiring, I needed to rest because I was having to focus a lot on what I was trying to do and getting frustrated if I couldn’t. I know one of the symptoms after a traumatic brain injury can be that you tend to have to concentrate and work harder than someone who hasn’t had one. Your brain is making/trying to find new pathways to communicate – which I find incredible that it can do. So whereas before a brain injury, something might come naturally, afterwards it may not and it may take longer and more patience. I also found my right hand would do the same movements as my left hand and my legs would move with the focus on trying to do what I wanted with my left hand.

I decided from a week after my stroke which was 24th January 2020 to take some videos of the exercises I was doing and of me walking as well so I could track my progress. Sometimes you can see progress easily, but I know from being involved in fitness, sometimes you don’t necessarily see it yourself, so being able to look back is good for motivation

Below are the videos taken exactly a week post stroke. I guess shortly after the beginning of my journey through physio and rehab which I hope show some sort of starting point for me;

Walking up and down stairs they were happy with straight away. My balance naturally seemed to still be there and the physio said she could tell because when I tried I was able to talk at the same time. She explained that if your balance has gone, you have issues with it or you need to focus on it more than before, you would have to concentrate on just that one task.

There were other day to day things that I found difficult or couldn’t do with my left/affected hand. Some of these (that I can remember) are below;

• Holding my phone (not that I had it much whilst in hospital)
• Holding my fork to eat.
• Turning pages of a magazine and separating the pages.
• Locking the bathroom door.
• Turning the tap on.
• Getting paper towels from the dispenser.
• Moving the dial round on an ipod to find artists or songs.

I managed to do these things in some way or another. One day I would do one of the above things and it was just easier. Some took only days but others took a few weeks. I think about 8/9 days after my stroke when I started to have my phone I realised I was okay holding it.

The OT was happy with me being able to shower, dress, brush my hair/teeth etc. The last thing they test you for is whether you can make a cup of tea.

I did this on the Thursday in the afternoon. I remember walking down the corridor. I actually bumped into a member from the gym. She said “hi”, she asked what I was doing. I explained I’d had a stroke on the Friday. It was a bit of a strange conversation, I’m usually full if energy and bubbly but I felt quite timid and spoke quietly. I explained what had happened like it hadn’t happened to me I guess. Her English isn’t great but she wished me well.

It was the first time I’d seen someone outside of the family who I knew and also the first time I’d said out loud what had happened. I later found out that she was visiting her husband. He had a stroke before Christmas.

Me and my OT continued down the corridor to the kitchen. I was a bit emotional after seeing someone I knew. Anyway, we continued to make the cup of tea. I tried to do it all with my left hand, even though the idea was just to see if I’d be okay around hot water, I guess I wanted to challenge myself. So I picked up the kettle with my left hand, held it with my left hand while I waited for it to fill. Then when it had boiled I poured it with my left arm into the cup – no spills! Yay 👏! The OT was really pleased that I’d challenged myself to do it and it was a big step. Another ✅ in the box.

I forgot to mention, I think on the first full day, I was given some cognitive tests. These were fairly fun. There were different tests. One was where there was a pattern of numbers and letters. The pattern being 1 then A then 2 then B and so on, up to about 5 E. The pattern was started and I had to complete it. Another was to name the animals pictured. Another test was that she read out a paragraph to me and I had to repeat it. Another where she gave me about 5 words and I repeated them back and then had to remember them after another test or two and she asked me right at the end as well and I could remember them. Another test was a maths test (not my strong point) but I actually did that. My hardest one, which doesn’t actually seem so hard, but was when you’re put on the spot, was to say as many words beginning with F as you could. My mind went blank. She said usually they aim for people to get 11 in whatever the time was and I got 7. She didn’t seem too concerned though. All in all, that went okay. I guess they’re looking for any struggles so they can work out if there’s any permanent damage with memory and cognitive skills.

I think the strangest thing with my hand physio is doing everything with your non-dominant hand. How good would my left hand have been at the exercises in the video before my stroke? They’re not exercises you go around doing every day lol

I learned within a couple of days not to push myself too much with the exercises. I ended up splitting them up more over a day than they’d suggested. If I found after a few reps I wasn’t doing it as best I could, I would try and leave it till next time. It can be challenging to slow yourself down, not to overdo it, to have patience with yourself and not be annoyed if you can’t do something. Something which is very difficult for me. I get upset/annoyed if I can’t do something. I’m fairly determined I guess, so it was a big learning curve for me – that it’s okay to not be able to do something well or be good at something or to give it time to improve.

I guess at this point, by Thursday (6 days post stroke), I could stand up the whole time whilst having a shower, I had attempted to put my bra on and managed, I was moving about more, walking around the ward more, I could do stairs and I could make a cup of tea so the physios and OT were really happy with me. They’d also said they didn’t think I’d be there in hospital too long but I knew I needed signing off medically, by the Physio and OT team and still needed the CT scan.

Here’s something to try … watch the exercises and do the exercises with your dominant hand and then try with your non-dominant, see how you get on.

I’d love to hear some feedback as well so please let me know in comments on my social media posts. 😄

Until next time, thank you for reading and stay safe! 🌈❣🌈❣🌈❣🌈