Hi Anne need some advice. I put my step on level 2 today instead of 3 and when I stepped down using my stick my foot turned and toes curled.
When I used my grab rail on my bed only my toes curled any advice.
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Hi John, i suspect it is all about having to concentrate more and subconsciously tell your foot to stay straight etc. You’re trying something a bit new and your brain needs time to recognise it again. Keep practicing and when your foot turns in turn it out again if you can. Your brain will Cotton on eventually.
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Thanks for the advice Anne
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You know what Anne before my fall I had almost cracked going down a step on level 3 of my step . Now I have to start again so today I practised with stick at different places and found it’s better closer. I tried flattening my foot but when I tried to put my foot on the step again it went weird.
I follow analise and Nathan on YouTube.
What gets me is that there is an add on tv that shows how many people there are for people with dementia but nothing about stroke patients. Stroke is life changing too.
It’s wrong on so many levels. My physio after rehab referred me to community physio who basically said do it yourself so from last may I have with your help and Lorraine
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I think we all make the most progress once the physios let us go. They have a narrow foxua because of time constraints and we might want to focus on something different. I definitely felt happier when I was left to get on with rehab myself. It suited my personality better I think.
Advertising comes at a big cost so guess that influences what is advertised. But you’re right you don’t see stroke adverts as much.
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The botox will stop because too much can be as bad as not enough. It can bring on local muscle atrophy . . . excessive weakness and reduce effectiveness over time. So what mobility gains you may have made in your arm could be lost.
Lorraine
Ok Lorraine so what I’m thinking is correct that what I’m like when that and electrodes stop I will be like forever
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No John, you won’t be stuck that way forever once your treatments have stopped. Neither of those treatments were to be a cure anyway, merely aids, boosters in your recovery. And even the electrodes are only still in the trial stage, as far as I’m aware anyway.
But considering what you came away with after 2 mini strokes about 18 months ago, I do believe you can and will get a whole lot better than you are right now.
3 times now, I thought that I’d finally made a breakthrough with my foot drop because something had improved. And each time I thought it was just a matter of getting reused to walking normally again.
But as it turned out on each occasion, it was only one or more elements of the whole mechanism to walking that had actually improved. And, in fact, the latest element of improvement only came on 1st January this year. But it has been the most significant one to date because my walking is as near as damn it to normal now.
So you see, it could be similar for you, unfortunately it takes so damn long in getting there. That’s the most frustrating part for all of us. It requires a lot of patience, persistence, determination, perseverance and maybe a bit of a stubborn streak like mine wouldn’t go amiss 
At the same time, I also gained 2 other improvements. Speech is quicker and clearer, word finding is a lot quicker as well as sentence construction. The other improvement is my body’s stability. I’d already regained good balance a few years ago, but with the addition of stability, I can now move around quicker and catch myself before I fall. Which has been very handy for when my foot still has occasion to not quite clear the floor. Which goes to show how random the order can be forregaining our abilities.
I am now 5 years post stroke, as of 25th December 2025. I am still expecting further improvement. There will come a day my foot will always clear the floor again. The limp is almost gone, so I’m actually expecting to see further improvements in the years to come. I never give in to doubt, never think negatively about my recovery, purely because of the improvements I’ve already seen in myself over the past 5 years.
I gave up my driving licence a month after my stroke because I thought I’d never drive again. Heck I could barely think for myself and short term memory was zilch, could barely stagger around and arm and hand were useless. I got my licence back 18 months later and I was driving alone 2 years later.
Don’t give in to any doubts you may have John. You are so much younger than me so you’ve certainly got a lot more years for improvements to be made. They may be like a slow tide coming in but they will come in. And each element that breaks through, you be sure to make as much use of it as you can, to keep the momentum going, to encourage the next element of the mechanism to break through.
Gosh, I do hope I’ve not rambled on too much and bored you to tears. It’s just your post caught me at just the right moment
Lorraine
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Hi Lorraine you didn’t ramble on.
You do know that I had 2 mini strokes then a full 1 straight after while I was on the floor? At the moment my balance is perfect and I can pick anything off the floor without falling
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The other day I was practicing stepping down using the step I bought when I ended up falling over. I’d nearly cracked it up to then. I managed to get back up thanks to my chair and bad leg at the time my step was on level 3.
Since then I have had to start at level 2 and even on 2 my foot freaks. Am trying to find a way of best place for my stick so my foot doesn’t freak and keeping practicing till it feels safe.
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Yes, the reason your foot freaks is because your confidence has been shaken because of the fall. You just have to build it back up again. I never really use level 3 on the step purely because I feel it puts a little too much force on my artificial hip to get up there. Last thing I want or need is to dislocate it, so level 2 is my limit.
3 things that might help you rebuild your confidence. The first is getting down and up from the floor.
To start off with, placing your hands on the seat of a chair and kneel down on the floor, both knees if you can, then come back up to standing. Do this 3, 5 or 10 times daily and build it up as and when you feel able i.e. either the number of repetitions or the number of times you do it in the day. As your confidence and ability grow, you can start bringing your body all the way to the floor and getting yourself back up again just by reversing the whole process.
The second, I don’t know where you place your step so bear with me 
Place your facing near a wall. This is to allow you to place both hands on the wall, if you can. And just step up and down from there until your confidence grows. If you can manage to place your stroke hand on the wall this would be also be a beneficial exercise for the arm as you lean into it to step up.
Once you are feeling a bit more stable again, you can place it beside the back of a chair to hold onto as you step up and down. Or place the back of the chair in front of the step to hold onto. But, the chair back does need to high enough to hold onto without having to stoop too much.
A third confidence building exercise as well as a physical exercise for your stroke leg, could be to try stepping over the step and back again. If the step is too much just use a pillow, a book, a piece of paper, or just use an imaginary obstacle on the floor come to that. Just so long as you are raising your knee high enough to step over something
And keep me posted as to how you get on with them or if you need to tweak them a bit
Lorraine
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Had appointment today and lady changed the shape of 1 of the electrodes and said she was happy with the way things are going.
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That’s good news. Sounds like all going in the right direction.
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