Simon Very interesting, as are everyone’s experience. It is very different from mine, though. As it is substantially different, I’ll list my experience/view under the same headings.
Pre-stroke: I knew that I was overweight and that that was an indicator. However, I did bothing about it and I reaped the reward. I knew about the high blood pressure, but did nothing. A medic wouldn’t have had a chance.
Hyper acute: Mine was haemorrhagic, and so the idea of a thrombectomy was irrelevant. I was told by a medic who runs a lot, to keep within zone 2, which I did for six months, but first I had to find out what that means. I was with the fairies in the first day or so after the stroke itself with no idea about anything, no stress, no idea about anything really, and then gradually real life reasserted itself.
Acute: I had to learn how to move, was initially confined to a wheelchair, and then a zimmer frame. I eventually learned from therapists how to walk unaided. Then the day when I was allowed out to walk without supervision was utterly superb. This was all within the first six months when I had ‘little victories’ every day just about.
Focussed on having had a stroke with its deficits as something to overcome somehow. Hence the reading, the listening to others and their experiences, the talking to others. Teaching and being taught. The increase of humility, because I had had it wrong prior to the stroke, and because others will have had it worse than me. So in a sense I am very selfish because it is my life to affect and improve, but others exist and are no less important.
Stable new normal: Not there yet, even after two years. There are still occasional victories and improvements. One needs others to point some of these things out because how one feels isn’t always a reliable indicator of how things have developed. Even now I get the following from others: wow, you are so much better than you were three months ago.
Thriving not surviving: My version of thriving means that my aim is to get as close as I can to what the old me could do. But I keep the Stockdale Paradox in mind - so daily I merely try to improve. This means the having of multiple aims, which can be done as long as one is not emotional about failure today. It’s tantamount to a different type of multitasking, two things at once.
So while I am very comfortable in my own skin and the doing of all these exercises, the mixing with people is essential to build confidence, a balanced view of one’s progress, others’ problems (non-stroke related), and a community spirit.