I’m 73 and had a stroke last July. At first, I thought it was just a stubborn migraine, but my GP sent me to the hospital right away. After eight hours in A&E and a night in a chair in a side room and five uncomfortable days on the stroke ward, I was sent home—sink or swim. I chose to swim. Recovery has been slow but steady; I’ve gone from barely reaching a lamp post outside my house to walking 3,000 steps most days.
Medications were tough, especially blood thinners—I stopped taking them, though I wouldn’t recommend it for everybody! For me I figured at 73 what life I had left was too short to feel awful all the time. I now I manage with aspirin, blood pressure meds, and a strict diet (I never want to see another lentil!). I still can’t drive due to vision issues, and aphasia makes conversation difficult. Some days I’m too exhausted to do much, though they’re becoming fewer.
I miss my volunteer work at the Cathedral library, but its spiral staircase and memory challenges make it impossible. I tried returning for a day—physically fine, mentally a disaster. Seeing familiar faces was wonderful, though. Few people share my love for medieval texts—can’t imagine why!
I was never highly social, but now I miss even small interactions. Visitors struggle with my speech, often speaking for me. I appreciate their kindness but resent the platitudes. - don’t you just hate it when people speak for you or finish your sentences! ‘ And the ‘ you hardly notice’ - liar. ‘you’ve done so well’ - ‘it just takes time’ . I want to scream ‘I know!’ - but I don’t - they mean well…
My next goal: reaching the bus stop so I can visit the shops independently. Driving will wait. I still have the feeling of constantly navigating in a world not designed for me because I forget strangers don’t know I’ve had a stroke - but that’s a good thing, right? It’s not been a year yet and It takes time - and now I’m speaking platitudes!!!
@VBartoszuk hi & welcome to the community. Sorry you’ve had cause to join us but hopefully you’ll find it a useful place to be.
Choosing to swim is the right way although not the easy way. Well done on increasing your walking to 3000 steps a day. That’s a big deal. That bus stop is not far away now I am sure.
I think people are just trying to be kind when they say things like you’d never know, or you’re doing well. I guess they don’t know what else to say & it is better than them saying you look rough i suppose.
Hopefully as time moves on your deficits will continue to improve & you never know you may get back to volunteering yet.
Best wishes
Ann
Hello @VBartoszuk - Welcome to the community and thank you for sharing your stroke story. It is good to learn from others how they cope with their situation especially if they are doing unusual things.
It seems to me you have been incredibly resilient since you had your stroke last July and having chosen to swim you have made very good progress in your recovery.
Doing 3000 steps is commendable and I am not sure how many people, stroke survivor or not achieve this 
I wish you success in your new goal of reaching the bus stop so you can visit the shops. I expect it might not be too far away.
I thank you for learning me a new word. On this forum we have a thread where people post new words following on previous post and I have only just missed the opportunity to post the word you taught me today, so I will take the liberty to post it here together with a link of the other thread in case you might be interested in joining us and maybe teaching us a little about your interest in medieval texts
Platitudes - a remark or statement, especially one with a moral content, that has been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful, perhaps a little bit like my posts on this here forum 
Welcome to the community!
Namaste|
thank you for your encouragement Mrs5K , it means a lot coming from another stroke [i won’t say victim] survivor!
Thank you ManjiB - I would write more but the bus stop is calling me!! thanks to the encouragement I WILL make it
Hi @VBartoszuk and welcome to the community, and so sorry you’ve been plunged into this world of stroke recovery. 3,000 steps I had to look up, which is approximately 1.5 miles which is a pretty good distance at this stage. I tended to measure in lamp posts and landmarks in the early stage of my recovery, now 4 years on can do 6miles quite comfortably but it takes an hour or so of sitting to recover 
Your story still sounds good, I don’t know where you think you’ve gone wrong 
And don’t write off volunteer work at the Cathedral library just yet, you’ve still have plenty of room for further improvement. For instance, it too me about 18 months for cognition to come back onboard. I still have mild aphasia but not so noticeable these days.
Another thing you should consider is joining any local stroke groups or Age UK you may have in your area. I attend an Aphasia group once a month run by the Stroke Association. It’s a social group but with a great mix of speech abilities, and naturally some attend with their carers. But there’s plenty of understanding for what you have gone through there. And you can find out what groups they run in your area here Support groups in your area | Stroke Association.
Age UK is similar in that it is available to the over 50s both abled and disabled including stroke recoverers. Some branches, like mine, run fitness class, mine is called Strength & Balance and there are 2 levels of ability classes, chair based or standing. But they also have other interests which are good for socialising and practicing with your speech.
One thing you should remind yourself is most over 50’s can have have health issues invisible to the naked eye. And strangers are the best people to talk to when you have a speech impediment at least, that’s what I’ve always found. And I also try to explain why, you get more patience and tolerance from people and I don’t mind explaining.
Besides, I also like to get the word out there to make people more aware that is a lot more to it than the mere word Stroke, use it as a tool to teach and make others aware off.
Wear it, own it, be proud you survived it, that’s the motto I tend go by.
Lorraine
Thank you @emeraledyes that gives me something to aim for
I forgot to mention I’m 4yrs post stroke now. And speech was legible in short, simple sentences after a year or so.
Between the aphasia and short attention span, it did mean conversation was very short. I’m sure the talkers were happy with that as they could prattle on and on without much interruption
But another way to improve your speech is to read out loud every day. We were in lockdown when I had my stroke so isolated from a lot of social opportunities to converse. So this is what I did to improve my speech 
Lorraine