Hi there. Good to hear from you. You sound very similar to me. I use a rollator outside. I have noticed more and more people using them. I don’t feel such an invalid using one. Like you my husband does help me. We have just invested in a cleaner to help him. I don’t go out alone and don’t drive anymore. I am lucky to be alive. I was fortunate to be given the clot buster drug quickly. I am very thankful. I enjoy hearing from you. Best wishes Lilian
Sorry Brhodes001, I couldn’t remember the site link and have been going onto Stroke.org 
at least I’ve found you all again! Regards John
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Merry christmas and Happy new year to you all.A new year of new adventures for everyone post Stroke
I am Neil Im 48 I Have suffered 4 stroke and a heart attack starting the age of 27!!! (27 stroke ,29 stroke 31 heart attack 38 stroke 47 stroke) what an exciting life! I was a Martial arts and fitness instructor along with a door supervisor and worked in High security back in the day ( hardly the at risk person you could associate with strokes!
My last stroke was in April 2021 just 3 weeks after I received my Covid Vaccine (too much of a co incidence???) all of my test and and blood results are negative so everything has been ruled out and despite astra zeneca admitting the correlation between the Jab and strokes my consultants deny it being the cause (you decide!)
I was looking at changing my Job Post Stroke and my new employer chose me by looking at my CV and obviously having an interview he liked what he saw and the answers i gave him. However when i later to discovered i was medically unable to carry out my 7.5 tonne driving duties ( which later transpired I can due to a loop hole in the DVLA ) it seems i was potentially out of a job. Not happy was a understatement His words were “had you told me at the interview you’ve had a stroke I wouldn’t have offered you the job”! so my reply was “that would be discrimination and dont need to declare my medical history at a interview anyway” ( he still doesn’t know ive had 4 x strokes and a heart attack now!!! as he will find a way to get rid of me still
cutting a very long and painful story short; Do we mention we have had a stroke or strokes at interviews or not? in my opinion i never got any of the jobs when i did.
Neilly pooes X
Hello @hamesie73, I tend to agree with @Mahoney, if the job responsibility may involve others at potential risk from something going wrong your end, disclosure would be best, not only for them but it would protect you from any legal liability should something go wrong. So, I think it is subjective to the kind of vacancy, and the degree of risk and responsibility, whether you choose to disclose or not. Having said that, decent employers should facilitate such things on the job if they think the candidate is ideal, regardless of their medical history. I believe, everybody should be given a chance, and that chance reflects the ethos of the employer.
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Hi both, In my opinion, apart from my occasional speech and memory problems and the occasional weakness in my left side which I have suffered with for many years now and physio cant do nothing with because of it being on a irregular basis i have fully recovered. I certainly cant retire on medical grounds and there is no way I can cope with retraining to do something else, However I still a have a mortgage and bills to pay, I have done dangerous; well paid jobs in the past and the plan was to retire at 40,However, because of my life savings it stop me getting any benefits whilst i was stuck in hospital recovering I paid into a system that was supposed to help me and it wouldn’t help me , because I prepared for a early finish. I lost colleagues who were killed in service and thought at the time "their widows will be fine because government and service pensions will help her out, but I since wonder how they are coping? (I even bumped into an old colleague who lost 4 inchs on thigh bone after being shot, he ended up losing his house and being in sheltered accommodation and his kids moved into his sisters and bothers since then) where was our help? And yes I m very bitter! I have gone in many directions trying to get either mental ,medical or financial help and in every direction i have been let down or on some occasions forgotten about, so its just down to me and my long suffering family mainly my fabulous wife ( as I its not fair holding our daughter back from her life!) getting let down by a system which was supposed to help me has been the hardest parts of all my recovery’s Being constantly let down and told “sorry we cant help you or sorry we had forgotten about you”! so this is why I haven’t bothered mentioning or declaring anything to prospective employers because thinking of other people isn’t going to pay my bills and mortgage ( i have no chance of getting life insurance now as they either refuse or load the premiums)
Anyway i have gone of a tangent I have only applied for positions which I know im capable of, and I understand what you both mean about keeping other people safe whilst i am behind the wheel of a 7.5 tonne truck delivering Kitchen units around the country. I have spent the last 7 years sat behind a computer desk in Logistics sending millions of pounds worth of cars around the world and for the last 12 months I have struggled remembering things and changes which the company have implemented, hence the change of career. there is nothing else job wise for me to do, driving is all i Know and love my work history proves that and more importantly thats the only thing i know what to do as everything has gone from my memory. having read this back I sound like putting money before other peoples safety and im sorry for this.
Neillypooes X
My name is Karen, my husband had a stroke in2019 , he now suffers with aphasia. I’m coming my best with his speech, but he gets fustrated . We have had no help since last july,not sure what else I can do. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks.
No, they didn’t give me any suggestions. So I am trying to help him myself.
Hello Karen (@Land_port), I think I have posted this somewhere before but SmallTalk is a range of free apps for Aphasia rehabilitation. As long as he has a phone or tablet, he can practice different parts of speech on his own or with your help. There is also Aphasia Therapy Online which is an Australian free therapy site that can be used in front of a laptop or desktop computer. Hope some of these help, and your husband improves by the month.
Stroke recovery can be frustrating for everyone, including the survivor. Every stroke is different, and in my case, I’ve come a long way in a year but, at the same time, it’s not a lot in the scheme of things … if that makes sense. It does take time relative to the person and recovery needs.
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Thank you for your help. He is using the therapy one. It is very useful.
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That’s okay @Land_port, I didn’t have acute aphasia, but I did have issues getting my words out, and through practice speaking with people, and setting up an Alexa in my study and bedroom, I was able to resuscitate my speech. Still now, if fatigued or anxious, I have trouble getting words out, and I can say that it is a disturbing sensation, as if the mind just blocks speech which would normally just flow automatically.
From experience with other survivors who have aphasia and having taught English in the past, I have found that having the survivor talk about topics they are interested in eases the difficulty in speaking. They’ve found that certain words associated with interjections and invectives (like cussing) can be spoken clearly and come to the mind at ease. I’m not a speech therapy expert or neurologist, so this is just from my experience and what I have researched.
Pictures help immensely because visual recognition should still be productive. Memory issues will get in the way of delivering speech but there should be no pressure to remember a word, in fact, an alternative is to describe the word instead, and leave it at that. Finally, practicing phonemes (vowel and consonant sounds), I imagine, would help vocal memory muscles to get back online.
In any case, improvements may not happen overnight but celebrate them verbally when they do appear. This is called auditory biofeedback, and it’s been proven to be quite successful in encouraging the brain to overcome motor neurone impairment and other symptoms. It’s all part of our artillery in moving forward with recovery.
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Hi I’m Judy,I didn’t know i had my stroke until I noticed my right side had a weakness and my balance wasn’t right. Was told 8 weeks later after a brainscan. I was incredibly lucky to have minor weakness. Looking at me nobody could know and that is my problem. I thought ok no lasting damage. Nobody told me about the effect it would have emotionally. I pushed it to one side until one day I had a meltdown at work. My family said go to the doctor who said I had depression (not uncommon for ppl who had a stroke) . The consultant gave me a leaflet and said see you in 3 months. That was it. Reading all of these stories have been marvellous for me. I recognise myself in so many. It has made me understand it so much more. Thankyou all for sharing your story.
Thanks for your swift reply Mahoney, I have had 2 weeks off with depression and am now out of the black hole. I am returning to work next week and would like some tips on manage my stress. Thanks again
Hi Judy, sorry to hear about your stroke, I hope you’re doing okay now at work and your stress isn’t too great?
For me, I use Meditation, Mindfulness and Crystals. You can always do a search online and find plenty of videos on you tube that deal with these topics, just search for ‘meditation’ and pick a video that’s about 10 mins long. I have my own crystal healing room, filled with crystals and other things that instil quiet and peacefulness, then I go into that room every night without fail and listen to a video/music/meditation. It only takes about 10-15 minutes but I find it’s relaxing and ‘resetting’ my anxieties ready for the next day. Take care, Bert.
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Hi All,
I have never posted on here, and to be honest I am not on any social media, so do find this all a little new but here goes and here is my story.
My name is Darren and are 45 years of age, I have a supportive wife with two typical active boys of 4 and 9. I was genuinely active and healthy, or at least i thought i was until the day i had my stroke coming completely out of the blue.
I was about to play golf, and suddenly felt like my arm and whole left side lock up, to cut long story short i ended up in intensive care, and in the local infirmary for a 5 week period, it was tough, as this was last May during the height of Covid, we had moved from the Midlands back up north, and our boys couldn’t visit me, but I am a very stubborn, strong willed and a positive person, so after been told i may potentially never walk again, I have worked hard and are now walking, and back to work.
I am now struggling mentally with the last 10% of recovery, finding i am getting very frustrated with myself and getting emotional often, which i didn’t do pre-stroke, apparently the area i had the bleed (left side) affects your emotions,
Any advice or sharing of a similar story would be a big help i think.
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Hello @dskewis, I had a stroke at 44 (now 45) in September 2020. Welcome to the forum, I hope we can be supportive of each other through the trials and tribulations of recovery. Emotions can be affected by stroke, in various forms. I had the opposite and developed a blunted emotional response, so sometimes feel robotic, but have enjoyed occasional tingles of emotion when watching something close to home or if I am being unnecessarily altruistic.
Despite having four boys and being raised by a single dad, I can’t really offer better advice than getting in touch with the Stroke Association’s Here For You service, and making sure you explain what kind of telephone support you require. I am also a member of a stroke survivor men’s group, we chat on WhatsApp, meet at the pub, several of the members play golf et cetera. It might something you have in your area that can provide support and unguarded conversation.
Hello everyone, I’m Michele, I had my Stroke in August 2019, What a game changer, I had to learn to talk again and writing was a challenge. For the first 18 months I hardly left home, knowing I was different, anxious that people would not understand why my speech was impaired, why I got fatigued so quickly, travelling to and from was exhausting, and communication was just as exhausting.
Now I have learned to go out at least twice a week although any form of travel is tiring, my speech has really improved, I still get the occasional stutter, or cannot find the word to describe anything. My family support me where they can but I am Fiercely Independent and so far so good. Well I would like to meet some new friends. Take care 
Thank you. I’m sure I will fit right in 
Hi Rhodesia. Welcome to the forum. You are not alone. We all have difficulties but you will find much support here. What is your mobility? At present I am learning to walk again. It is not easy but I am trying hard. Don’t give up hope Best wishes Lilian
Hi Lillian, my mobility was not affected when I had my Stroke, just speech, memory and writing.
It so nice to meet you, and remember one step at a time and one day at a time. Take care Michele
Hi I’m a stroke survivor of 10 months. It happened at work with my balance being all over the place… I’m a nurse and my manager thought I was drunk and sent me home. Got taxi home and fell down taxi driver helped me off the floor and into my house. I had many falls after that but didn’t think anything of it… 2 days later had bad fall paramedics took me to hospital had a ct scan I’d had a stroke. Shaz