I’ve never even looked into driving again I’m epileptic so only get a 3yr license anyway but not sure my left hand could use a gearstick would have to go automatic 
seeing as my stroke was due to a car accident which I’m lucky to have survived was because of a seizure I have no intention of driving again but wasn’t aware it was so difficult?!
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Yes if nothing else it makes me happy to consider the lightweight wheelchair option to ensure I can be more involved in my life than beforehand and go more places as my wife can pop the wheelchair in the car boot ready to use when we get there,”like b&Q Morrisons and Sainsbury’s. I can plan trips to some I our favourite places and know I can keep up and an not excluded by my lack of walking capability
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Oh noo !
I’m pleased that you have got that one out of the way and so disappointed for you.
What a bummer. It seems so cruel that you had to go through all the worry and the waiting only to be knocked out of it at the very last.
It sounds like you have picked yourself up and are able to look at the options still available to you.
The little scooter I bought is what has opened up my world.
I can use it out of the car in all sorts of locations. The freedom of movement allows such a great improvement in life.
You can get around supermarkets, public amenities like parks and even lovely places like canal tow paths. I have yet to explore further but shopping malls, libraries, art galleries and so on are all possibilities for exploration.
I recently came across a hint that it is worth checking out. This site is inspiring with lots of useful ideas. It’s a must read.
And while you are at it post your own experience, suggestions and discoveries. We are in a position to share all this and we are finding things others also want to know.
Please don’t let this get you down. You are in a world full of options and possibilities. Make the most of them.
Remember don’t study the list of what you can’t do.
Explore what you can do.
List your can do’s and share.
We live in a world of possibility, with some discoveries yet to be made.
Take on the challenge, smile, be brave. 
keep on keepin on
By the way it is great fun scooting around in the supermarket, everyone smiles and is so helpful.
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Thanks Bobbi , yes it has been a journey and I wish that the driving instructor had been more honest about my inabilities in respect of keeping the car central to my side of the vroad. My right hand stroke meat spacial awareness is damaged and may never return.
My wife and I are focusing on the next phase of our travels and currently my walking is pooo so an electric wheelchair that is light and enables going places together is far more important. And if at some point point she’s unable to to drive then I can put the wheelchair in an uber or the like. Anyway what’s done is gone now and I have to keep on recovering at least I can walk short distances and am going to get physio input.
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Hi Nicola it’s a long process with many hoops to pass through, and as I’ve found my brain damage is a step too far for me so I’ve been stopped by DVLA.
I’m searching for a new way forward.
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Nicola - I find this a very refreshing post. You show great understanding of your condition and how it affects and impacts both you and other road users and are acting in a very unselfish manner.
Personally, and maybe I am being selfish here, I don’t believe the DVLA are acting in an unreasonable manner.
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I’m sure the driver of the binwagon I drove into the front of hasn’t forgotten it I don’t remember a thing because I wasn’t really there. Had 3dogs and a 6mth old in the car too. It’s not worth it if I’d known it was coming I’d not have got in the car. I normally sense it’scoming quick enough to sit but I’m assuming I didn’t or I’d have stopped and I didn’t have an aura the last one either?! Id not put my family through ot again or possibly kill myself or another. Like everythings else in this country getting pretty useless! Got my passport pretty quickly but NHS, post office etc rack and ruin! Hope you get sorted and back behind the wheel soon 
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Thanks feeling a bit sad now but in reality it’s for the best and I wasn’t goingbtonenjoybdriving with one arm and being so specially adrift in road position as to be a danger to myself and others. On the bright side side I’m getting a light weight electric wheelchair for great inclusion y my current and future adventures
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New adventures await for you. Different to what you wanted but can still be good. Enjoy them all.
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Thanks I will and as I understand it and to be confirmed by my dvla letter I can reapply the assessment up to eight weeks after this time so in five years time it would be a different story, meantime strengthening my brain spacial awareness through scooter driving and computer games
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Some intel into the cognitive function testing that I had to do and the key one I failed
Draw a clock face and put the hands at the current time.
Solve a maze with a pencil tracing you path in and out without touching the side or stopping, I failed
Put a line through all small stars on a sheet with big medium and small stars.
I failed Put the maze which pointed to my inability to position myself on the left side of the road and therefore an automatic fail. Pity the driving instructor had not made me do the same thing it could have saved me£420.
What a false person he was.
Northwest driving r recommended and a charlatan
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@mrfrederickson , it’s a shame you have to pay for their incompetence. A shame you can’t sue them.
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@mrfrederickson , scooter driving and video games are a great way to rebuild yourself mentally. I’ve played video games for many, many years. I use them to keep testing my hand and eye coordination as well as my reaction time. Driving games are great for (as you said) spacial awareness. Also, some will test your reaction times.
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@Bobbi , “beyond comical” is putting it politely. The trouble is, jokes are funny, this isn’t. As I mentioned, the big companies never say sorry for their mess-up. People such as @mrfrederickson are the ones to pick up the pieces. 
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Yes, I remember those tests.
I am right side disabled and having to use my left side to compensate means that I am not as skilled as I once was.
Drawing the clock face and following the maze wasn’t impossible but was more of a struggle than it was before stroke.
I think that with a bit of practice you could have successfully completed those tests.
Those of us who have experienced stroke are vulnerable, gullible and willing to believe any promises that suggest that we might be able to improve our lot.
Call me cynical but I don’t believe stroke is something you can buy your way out of. I take Andrew Marr as an example. I’m sure he had resources and the will to make a good recovery from his stroke. He travelled the world and tried all sorts of promised ‘cures’. He is now silent about the matter with no apparent miracle to report. That, for me, speaks loud.
After four years have elapsed I can tell of improvements that time has delivered and I am optimistic that there will be more but nothing like a complete recovery.
Mostly I have had to accept my situation and make positive use of what faculties I possess today. I do not linger in the past or agonise over the future. I have plenty to do just dealing with today.
Others on this forum are aware and supportive. There is a positive message but you need to listen to hear it.
You do have a future Mark and will make improvements. Don’t give up easily, life is worth living.
keep on keepin on
(@JohnnyBoy81 makes some very pertinent suggestions as do the others)
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@Bobbi , your right about Andrew Marr. Mr. Marr’s actions says it all. His silence spoke louder than his words. It just about proves that wealth can’t always buy you good health. 
Also, there is no known “miracle” cure for stroke or every stroke sufferer would know about it by now.
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I agree but also we can look after ourselves and one another optimising what we do have today.
There is much to learn which is why it so important that we share our experiences, the ups and the downs and simple every day life.
We build our world as we live our life and trying for something better is no bad thing.
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Yes Bobbi Andrew Maris a good example of throwing the whole weight of money behind a recovery effort and not seeing a great deal more than most of us. But you have to try these things, my seven lessons have me confidence to drive a car again despite issues something I’d rather not have done straight from my stroke holiday.
I used proportional funds to get my confidence back alas I was duped by someone who being an approved northwest driving instructor should have stopped the process at lesson two or at east put me through the cognitive process from the beginning.
Oh well at least I got one last drive and know how to prepare myself for the next time I’m crazy enough to do this thing again in say five or six years.
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Yes Johnny I’m on your page and am slowly building my skills up on my ps5 with accessibility controller , although I’m reverting to my standard controller more often now than before as at least all the buttons link to the game and I’m not customising my profile every time I get a new game
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It’s great that you aren’t giving up Mark.
Someone made a valid, or at least I think it is valid, comment about your scooter.
If you can use your scooter satisfactorily then I’m sure you must be at least part way fit to drive a car.
After all you already know how to drive safely that hasn’t left you.
I hope you will get past all this eventually somehow.
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