Hi everyone, slowly getting my posts done that were deleted. I want to tell you how important it is to attend our stroke clinic at the doctors. They monitor blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol etc. These are all important if you have suffered from a stroke. Also they picked up that I was deficient in vitamin B12 and they checked my kidney function after the cocktail of tablets I now take. So it is so important to go. I'd been trying to eat healthily and they all say not to eat too much red meat so I'd been eating chicken and mince, lean ofcourse, and only having beef about once a fortnight. Not enough! So now I eat beef once a week, eat nuts and eat more eggs, not sure what else B12 is in any suggestions?

The other month I got a letter from the tax credits office, I only get child tax credit, saying I owed them money and when I got in touch I was told that it was an old debt that I'd paid. Honestly ridiculous worry for nothing and this was a debt I'd paid in Jan 2014 and this letter was sent in Sept 2015 so you can imagine I was worried! How ridiculous and what a waste of paper! PIP took from Jan 2014 to Sept 2014 and 3 phone calls before I actually got an assessment and then it was another 3 months before I got my award. I was ok as I used savings but other people might not be so fortunate. I ended up sending an email to David Davis, my MP, cos I thought he aught to know how long things took. So don't be afraid to get in touch with your MP make him earn his wages and do some work for you. I know PIP is backdated but what do you do in the meantime. 

Personal Trainer comes tomorrow, so we'll see how I get on. We are working on the strength of my legs tomorrow. One excercise she gets me to do is, she holds a ball against a door for me and I lean on it then she lets go and takes my sticks off me and I have to do squats holding the ball against the door. Good for you to do even if you're ok. Keep up with the excercises, let me know if you have any good ones for me to do. Keep going til next time.

Hi folks! Hope you're all well. Thought I'd talk a bit about tears. Whilst in hospital and since I have found that I am much more emotional than before I had a stroke. I was always a bit emotional before....cried at films. Now it's so maddenning and frustating. Whilst in hospital if I was praised I'd cry so every improvement I made from trying so hard I'd cry. People would come to see me and I'd be the same ........cry because I was touched they'd be so kind and also I was sad they'd see me in such a state when they knew what I was like before. Once I've met my friends for the first time I'm usually ok on subsequent occassions. When I do things for the first time ....like go to the bank, the gym etc I cry. I think it's cos I've done them when I was well and doing them now is a struggle but I've been determined and done it and I'm pleased cos I've done it.So I think that's why I cry. I still cry at films and now even songs used for adverts ....how annoying is that! It has got better but it needs to get a whole lot better. Yesterday I had my personal trainer and we were concentrating on my balance. She was brilliant. She had me standing in the middle of the living room without any support and then got me to raise my right leg which I did 5 times and then to raise my left leg 5 times too. Then I had to walk at least 6/7 stps to my chair with just stick. Which I did! We then repeated the leg raising and then she got me to wak to my chair withut any sticks YAHOO! The standing on one leg made me cry cos I actually did it and the walking made me do the same cos I actually did it! Hopefully next time I will do it better and not cry! You may suffer the same inconvenience but rest assured it does get better and I stop it quicker if it's ignored. Some days may be worse than others. If you feel low and keep crying about your situation etc please go and see your doctor as depression for stroke survivors is very common. I haven't cos generally I feel happy and don't dwell on whats happened and just want to do what I can to improve. Stay happy! Keep doing those excerises....it will help.