My good lady was ill (she has M.S. ) in bed when I had my stroke and the only way of telling I had had a stroke was that my speech had been affected to the point where when I took up a cup of tea for deb and when I spoke she thought I was drunk. Hmmm not good really.
There was no signposting or help that I could find but I knew that I had to do something. I was constantly crying and I didn’t know why.
Roll forward a month or so and I was taking my good lady for her annual M.S. Assessment and whilst I was in the Hospital I found on the chair next to me a Neath Port Talbot Stroke Group leaflet, only one, wow some things are just heaven sent.
I rang as soon as I was home and spoke to Paul from the stroke group who explained that the group met on Wednesday. The following Wednesday I plucked up the courage and went, now being ex army you think you can fix thing yourself but this was one battle I knew I could not do alone.
I was back home an hour later and in that time I had met Harrie and Rachel who took my details and arranged one to one counselling with Molly to whom I will be forever grateful.
So started my recovery. For the first four weeks with Molly ( ok it was 6 weeks ) I just cried (which is never a pretty sight seeing a grown man cry) and somehow she managed to fix me, to the point where I accepted that I had had a stroke and then rebuilt my confidence to the point where I have felt that I am back to somewhere near the old Pip ( I think my good lady would rather my sarcasm and weird sense of humour had not come back as much ). I have accepted that I can still do things but am just a bit slower than I used to be, and I now know I can’t drink as much that’s a real downer. I still do my stonewalling which I took up to give me a focus and challenge. We are entering a stroke survivors stonewalling team or teams (depending on numbers) to a competition in July and our first training session is in January…
So in summary…
Without Neath Port Talbot Stroke Group
Harrie and Rachel from NPT WASP
Molly for putting up with me during my counselling
All the helpers that make our stroke group run so well
And of course my good lady Debbie
I would not have recovered to somewhat of my former self
Kindest regards to all at Neath Port Talbot Stroke Group, NPT WASP and everyone who has helped in my recovery
