I have a small scooter which weighs just 20kg (40lbs)
I am right side disabled but can just manage to lift the scooter in and out of the boot of my small car with one hand..
My wife was in hospital a couple of weeks ago having also had a stroke.
Luckily each day I could visit using my scooter and car.
My car is a Corsa EV, the scooter a Minimus and my wife, Hilary, a well travelled Liverpuddlian..
Hilary, now out of hospital and back home with me, video’d this demo movie.
Both she and I have had a stroke now.
I edited the movie using Flowblade and Gimp.
It is, like me, a bit rough around the edges and could do with some audio content, like for example a commentary with intro and outro music, to round it out.
It’ll do for now though.
All of this is possible using computer software, a keyboard, a few ideas, the will to experiment, an assistant and you, the audience, of course.
It is possible, no necessary, to jail break from the bounds that stroke can impose.
I’m a human being like any other. I have my good days and bad. Sharing my experiences has been a way of dealing with things.
This forum has given me a focus when everything is chaotic confusion. It has given me friendship, with someone to share all sorts of silliness. We can be here for one another, we can care, commiserate, congratulate. Sometimes, we are human after all, we will disagree but isn’t that a part of everything too?
Those ups and downs will go on. Sometimes it will be just bland, boring and directionless.
It is, as you say, knowing that you are not alone in this that helps finding direction, focus, definition.
Somewhere in the Hitch Hikers’ Guide to the Galaxy there is an answer to the Meaning of it All.
I wonder if Artificial Intelligence has discovered it yet?
Great video, very useful to see it in action so to speak.
Can I ask if you’ve had any adaptations to your car to make it easier to drive? My better half seems to be very similar to yourself in terms of right sided changes, and I’m curious as to what’s changed for you in the driving sense?
Post stroke I had given up on the idea of ever driving again. A dealer had been calling around regularly making an offer for my car and I caved in and let it go for a pittance.
One day we had a visit from an OT to see about an banister rail addition to our staircase. She insisted that I should go for an NHS driving assessment and assured me that I would be passed fit to drive.
It all took some time but I now have a vehicle modified for my disability.
It is an electric vehicle, an automatic, with pedals modified so I can use my left foot for control. The steering wheel has a handle on it that enables me to work lights, indicators, windscreen wipers, horn, with my left hand.
With car and scooter my world is opened up I have no need to be housebound any more.
I’ve written about my experiences with mobility in a series of articles on my blog. You might be interested to pick through what is there.
Talking of Hitch Hikers’ I have just finished reading “So Long, And Thanks for All the Fish”.
It’s the first Hitch Hikers’ I’ve read and so I didn’t come across the “Meaning of it All” unless it was there and I missed it. I plan to re-read it as I did rather enjoy it!
In many ways the loss of my driving licence was the cruellest blow of all. Three weeks before my stroke I had retired at 73 form running my own small garage/MOT test station business so cars were pretty much my life, and I enjoyed them. At the time I had a Honda Civic type R and I loved that car. In the hospital stroke department my first task was to sign a form I was presented with to surrender my licence! I couldn’t, and still can’t, complain as I have no right hand peripheral vision in either eye and , in fact, no awareness that there even is a world to my right which is harder to explain!
And then there are the knock on effects. After retiring I intended to still do some holiday cover and so on doing MOT testing and electronic repairs but no driving licence effectively means no testers licence and I can’t really see well enough to be safe working on cars at all, certainly if the engine is running!
I was going to take up fishing again. But anywhere I might fish I would need to drive to.
Oh my lovely woife has said she would take me anywhere I want to go but I sought indpendence, and that has gone.
But, sorry, that turned into a self pitying rant and it shouldn’t have. I’m here, I can use all my limbs, I can walk my dog, I can go into pubs, I can read. I have a lot ot be grateful for!
It is great to see how you have over come obstacles that mean you have opened up your world again. I am sure whilst Hilary was in hospital having a mobility scooter and being able to drive were a godsend.
I too lost my driving licence (and my pilot’s licence )after my stroke so I understand your disappointment; but I think we have to face reality and accept the situation. My car at the time was the best one I had ever owned (a Honda 2.8 Executive Tourer) and whilst I was in hospital, it was “sold” (in effect, given away) by my LPA Attorney - I was not impressed! But as time passed, memories faded and I hope they do for you too.
I hope you are able to achieve mobility in some form.
Being locked down is a poor way to live.
When I was bed and chair bound the laptop keyboard was and still is a route to exploration and discovery.
There is a future and, for what they are worth, you have my best wishes.
I have only just spotted your video - WELL DONE ! It is clearly only just manageable given your RHS disability, but congratulations on succeeding so well.
Best wishes for the future to both you and your good wife.
I’ve had the car for two years, travelled 2,000 miles in that time. Not done much at all, but better than nothing at all. It’s great fun to drive.
Left arm strength has increased over that time and right hand dexterity has also increased a little. Lifting that 40lb scooter in and out has had effects.
My walk is totally crap can just about get out of house to car and around car if necessary.
You should see me attaching the car charging cable in the middle of the night and getting it back in again next morning.
Of course this also has benefits for balance & strength.
I did break my arm and a rib falling on the step at our front door one day. Arm’s a funny shape now and rib hurts some times.
It’s not all swings and roundabouts, but I actually do have a giggle, occasionally even a belly laugh, every now and again.
