Picnic Time at St Vital Park

Bob and I decided it was time to get out a little more. 

We have always loved visiting different parks and landmarks, and we decide we just need to get out a lot more often and check out places near us. We both have enjoyed outdoor cooking in all kinds of forms, and we even have a pretty cool picnic backpack, but it has been sitting there never used. So we decided it is the time!!

This week we visited St Vital Park. It is about 46 hectares of park space located in the city beside a river. It features BBQ areas, lots of picnic spaces, soccer fields, volleyball, and many trails. There is even a charming duck pond. Another nice feature is a rock and flower garden that would be lovely for things like wedding pictures.

We parked the car on the side of the road when we spotted a couple of lovely picnic spots toward the river. We were looking for a table located with some shade on this beautiful but still very warm day. Jasper, the dog, really is well adapted and insulated to both hot and cold temperatures because of that furry coat. Still, no need to push it, so we find places in the shade for him to lie down. 

Between the road and the picnic spot we picked, a family of geese were enjoying the shade. Once we got out of the car, the family got their kids up and headed across the road stopping traffic. There were large trees and lots of lovely wildflowers nearby.

Jasper loves picnics. He has a bag of his own that comes complete with a water bottle, doggie water dishes, a big bag of his favourite treats and the all-important poop bags.

Our dark green picnic backpack has lots of pockets and an insulated center compartment for our picnic lunch. We are starting off with simple food, but I hope to get into more exciting menus over the summer. 

Here we really enjoyed our unplanned "grab and go" lunch from our fridge at home

• a ham and cheese bagel with mayo and lettuce.
• potato chips
• fresh fruit from our fridge
• a soft drink
  

After we cleaned up, we ran our supplies back to the car and went on a little walk on the trail by the river. I am not up to walking much right now, but the lovely walking trail and fantastic views were so beautiful they encouraged me to walk a little further.

I shall soon be rested... to sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure, is the most perfect refreshment. 

~Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814

My Herbs of 2020

I keep trying to grow herbs. I have them indoors, outdoors, at the lake, in the city and even at work in the Personal Care Home. I love how beautiful and fragrant they are and, potentially, how useful as an ingredient when cooking.  I believe that many herbs have great healing properties and can be very nutritious and good for you, but that is not something I have ever studied. I do know that the act of growing and nurturing the plants is fun and also good for you.  It gives me joy just to play in the soil, handle the plants, look at the lovely flowers and leaves and smell all the different fragrances!

I really would love to have many kinds of herbs growing in the ground and coming back year after year, but I only have a couple. The light is not great or the area doggie free in most of my spaces, so I like to make good use of container planting. This year I have a couple of pots growing on my patio at home and they are so lovely and fragrant! Two of my coworkers are growing indoor herbs at work as a program with the seniors, so it is one of my big topics of the summer. I have herbs everywhere!

The pot below is my mixed one. It has some sage, sweet marjoram, and new to me,  two kinds of licorice plants.  I have seen and tasted wild licorice a few times but I have never grown any.

The next picture is a pot full of different kinds of basil. I had excellent success with basil two years ago so, this time, I thought I would get creative. This pot has Italian Large Leave Basil shown at the front. That is what I have grown before, and it was easy to grow and yummy. The one with the purple flowers is called Cinnamon Basil, and the one with the white flowers is called Spicy Globe Basil. It was flowering when we got it. It would probably do best if we trimmed off the flowers and encouraged leaf growth, but I am just loving the look of it and haven't talked myself into pruning it yet.

The most successful herb for us has been a mint patch that has been located outside our back door for over a decade. At one point, it got really huge, but with time, it has shrunk down and gotten spindly. Trees have grown much taller around it reducing the light and I am sure the soil got depleted. It has been banged around with its location beside the door and even abused a little by our dog who is very fond of sniffing it. This year we cleaned up that area by that side of the house and added sod but we still left a little square for the mint. We worked in some compost and it seems to have perked up to a reasonable size for our use, and big enough to share slips with a few friends. I warn everyone that it can spread like crazy, and you should put a collar or barrier into the ground around it in order to keep it where you want it and out of the rest of your yard.

We keep trying out different herbs at the cottage and we have real issues with rodents and birds eating them and some that we have put in the ground simple have not overwintered well.  I usually have a pot of parsley inside on the window by the kitchen sink and make good use of it and our little raised bed garden has a big patch of chives growing. I love how gorgeous the chives look with their pretty purple flowers and how they provide us with a great ingredient for cooking and salads all summer long. They also act as a good companion plant by acting as a deterrent and keep away some bugs and critters from the raised beds.

I really like telling jokes so here are a few for you.

 ..Not necessarily hilarious ones, but it is still all part of the fun!

A girl told me that she recognized me from the local vegetarian club, but I’d never met herbivore.

I’ve got a device to fetch futuristic herbs. It’s a thyme machine.

I saw a new book about cooking with herbs. It’s about Thyme.

I was going to send back my fish in a herb sauce at a restaurant the other night, but I wasn’t sure if it was the thyme or the plaice. (Hint: Plaice is a kind of flatfish)

I know someone who was habitually late until his doctor recommended sleeping in a herb garden. Sounds odd, I know, but now he wakes up on Thyme.

I used to work with a very wise herb gardener. He was well known for his sage advice.

Thought I’d purchase a tall herb plant but actually turned out to be tiny. No big dill 

I like to put coriander on my blended tomatoes. It’s "soup herb".

I went to a restaurant the other night and asked for something herby. They gave me an old Volkswagen Beetle with no driver.

😀

Take Good Care of Yourselves

This is a time in our world where so many of us are feeling lost, helpless, and unsure about what we can or should do. We, as individuals, need to find a way to meet our own basic needs before we truly are able to give our best to help heal our society.
People need to take better care of themselves. The question is, how do we do that?

" I don't have time, I am not feeling great right now, I am too busy taking care of everyone else. I don't have the right supplies, I need to work, I need to just spend all my time on my computer or phone". 

The list of reasons used to put your own real needs last is enormous. Have you heard about the procedure of putting your oxygen mask on yourself first during an emergency so that you can help others? We need to do that in our daily life so that we can keep going ourselves and be there to help others be well. I'll be the first to admit that I have in the past and still continue to struggle with taking the time and focusing on what I need at the moment and then to follow through and meet those needs. 

Through my various health struggles, I have learned that you start with ONE step at a time and build on what you learn and accomplish. I want to try concentrating on one topic or idea a week and try and incorporate it into my life. I know that it can take a long time to truly master some goals. Still, I am sure that even small efforts with thinking, learning and implementing will lead to positive changes. Maybe something that I share will inspire you!

I'm hoping others will join me in this journey so watch for "Take Good Care of Yourself Sundays." See what changes I am making to hopefully increase my ability to cope in such a challenging time and to continue trying to lead a healthy life.

Recreation therapy and other disciples break up our activities and our therapeutic goals into several categories of health that are intended to create a holistic approach to health and wellness. I sometimes use these as labels for my blog posts, and I also want to use them as ways to organize the topics and ideas I plan to investigate and work on.

Physical 

Social

Emotional/ Mental Health

Cognitive/ Intellectual Health

Spiritual Health 

Sometimes also considered are  

Environmental Health 

Occupational Health

Financial Wellness

Do you have any particular challenges you are facing? Do you have favourite ideas for self-care? 

See you this Sunday for the first 

"Take Good Care of Yourself Sunday."

How I am Doing 9 months after a Hip Replacement?

It has been 9 months since I had hip replacement surgery because of osteoarthritis.

I am glad I had the surgery, There is a huge reduction in my pain level, and my mobility has increased a lot. My leg feels much more stable when I step on it.  Basically, I feel safer. My hip had been so bad that it literally was dislocated and locking funny and I just didn't know what would happen with the next step.

How am I doing now? I am so glad I had the surgery but there is still some discomfort, and my endurance is still, really lousy, and things like getting into a van are challenging.  Maybe I should be exercising more, maybe more time with the physiotherapist or massage therapist would help. I have not been slacking off.. but have I really done enough?

I recently looked at a graph about recovery after hip replacement, and it shows that recovery continues at a pretty good rate until about month 6 and after that, it slows down but still continues at a more modest rate for the full year post surgery.
I wonder about this graph. Is it that people are almost fully recovered at six months and are fully satisfied with where they are or do they become complacent and decide to just live with it, believing this is their new normal? Or perhaps this is as good as it is going to get. Maybe the law of diminishing returns is working, and a large amount of work required for further recovery just isn't worth the energy for the degree of improvement they are seeing.

When I had some muscle issues shortly after the surgery I was put back on bedrest and told to be very careful, so my initial recovery plan went out the window, and I got to baby myself. Pain management was bad.  I think I got into the habit of being very gentle with myself. The phrase "No Pain - No Gain is ridiculous. Exercise should not cause pain.. discomfort yes, exhaustion probably but not outright pain! But maybe I have been scared to see where that line between pain and discomfort lays in my case, and I am a little reluctant to take chances.

I find that I am not leading as active a life as I want to.

I am back at work doing my regular shifts. When I am actually doing things at work, I get a bit of an adrenaline rush and keep going and then once I go home after work I need some painkillers and I act like a wet noodle. My most significant effort at home after the workday is deciding whether I need an icepack because my hip and but muscles are swelling again or a heating pad because my lower back muscles toward the hip are so sore and tense. My arthritic left knee is not too happy either. My gait has improved with this hip surgery, but my poor muscles are having a hard time keeping up with all these changes that I am asking of them -  even though the actual mechanics are so much better.

Girl Guiding is affected too. After the surgery, I was hoping I could handle a winter (indoor sleeping) camp with the teenagers in our group that was planned for January. There was no way I could manage slugging around in the snow let alone sleeping in a different and probably uncomfortable bed. The cold seems like a terrible idea too.

Work around the house is improving, and I am getting up and down the basement stairs better than I have in a decade, but  I am still not able to go down with my arms full of laundry. I need to hang on to the rails with both hands.

I am still going to the pool for an arthritis group class, and I always have a better and more mobile day after my class. It makes me believe there is hope for me yet!

What next? I'm really not sure at the moment but I know I must keep moving.

Back to Work Plan

I returned to my part time job this past Thursday. It was a strange feeling walking back in after having been away for almost 6 months, The people sitting on the main floor were the same as usual and the rooms looked the same. I went up the elevator and into the office and all my coworkers were in the office just finishing off their work day and they gave me a warm welcome back.

I met with my supervisor for a little while and we got me set up on the computer again and talked about a few work related things. We discussed my plan for work return.

I will be working my normal days and shifts but my 8 hour days are reduced to 6 hours. 

We talked about the variety of jobs that I could do while on restrictions. It seems there aren't established guidelines for people returning to my kind of job after a total hip replacement! (not a surprise) Really, I have been through worse so I never saw this as a career ending event in my life.

The work place has an outside agency that arbitrates things like absences, and work modifications. I have had to get 5 different doctors notes through this time and this company tells my workplace if I am or am not approved for continued absence. They also take part in administering sick benefits but unfortunately for me I do not normally work enough hours to qualify for that insurance.  

My doctor approved me for return to work for this date and I am to work shifts of 4 to 6 hours for the next month. There are some movement restrictions too. I am not to lift anything heavy, sit for over half and hour, walk for over half and hour or stand for over half an hour. This is not as big a challenge in my work as it would be in many other places just by the nature of being a recreation therapist. We go through a lot of different location, movements and tasks in the course of a program and throughout the day's work.

Next I went to visit several of the residents one to one. They were so happy to see me! I was worried that I would be forgotten but they greeted me with was real warmth and happiness to see me back and I received several hugs. Most of the residents did not know I was off for health reasons and they wanted to know where I had been so I told them that I had a new hip and I was feeling better than I had in a long time and that I was glad to be back.

I am glad to be back at my job. 

In some ways it was nice to have time home with family or just stay home and relax. Work days did not determining things like when Bob and I could go places. I actually felt very frustrated at staying home as much as I had too. Pain and healing restricted what I could do but I was still pretty bored and lonely and frustrated and watched too much reality TV.
I spent more time worrying, being aware of pain and limitations and feeling unproductive and … well just wishing someone would entertain me.  It reinforces to me how important my job really is to peoples health care and overall well being.

I missed my workplace and the people there. I am still a little worried about my movement and my safely. I am still having some pain in the hip and my back but I guess that is why a modified program is a good idea. I can continue to improve and get my strength back is a safe manner while doing my job. Its a win-win situation.

I do have to admit that after only 4 hours at work I barely made it in my front door and I went straight to my bedroom and collapsed for the rest of the evening.  My stamina has really been severely affected by this whole surgery/ recovery experience.

We will see how my 6 hour shift goes on Monday!

It has Been a Difficult Summer

I am not totally sure why I haven't posted. I think I just got overwhelmed and rather depressed post surgery and through the recovery.

I had a set back in my recovery from the hip replacement a day or so after my last post.
It would be considered a soft tissue injury but basically I had a lot of swelling in my leg and probably tore internal stitches but I really didn't do anything to over-stretch or move in an inappropriate way. I had a huge lump form below the incision with a lot of swelling followed by massive bruising. Worst was my leg hurt a lot and really just would not work. My hamstring and my glute were both involved so it was a huge step backward with me back on bed rest and using a walker. I never did get back to the hip rehab programs but instead when to a physiotherapist for the muscle problems.

My knee is still a huge problem and I talked to the surgeon about that. I qualify for a knee replacement and could have been placed on a waiting list, but he suggested we again try all the other methods for pain control that I have done in the past, but that with the hip realigned I might have some better success and treatments might last a little longer. He suggested that the surgery and recovery are much harder for a knee replacement and it would be a good idea to not rush from one surgery on top of another and give lots of time to fully recuperate.
My back is pretty sore too. I guess I have been compensating when I walk for so long (for one reason or another)r that suddenly having the hip fixed forces everything else to change yet again.

Summer has been pretty boring for the most part. I tried to do bits of activities but did not last very long.  I did not get out to the lake until basically the last weekend in July and it turned into a pretty hard to manage weekend but I do love being at the lake.

I am supposed to be returning to work this coming week and I am not sure how I feel about it. In some ways I am delighted because I do love my job and miss the residents and my coworkers and all the fun we have. At the same time I want to be physically able to do a good job and not be in pain myself. For the next month I will be returning with shorter work days and with some movement restrictions such as not standing for more than half an hour and not lifting or pushing items over 10 pounds.

I keep thinking "What the heck happened to summer?" however I have been enjoying a beautiful early fall at the lake and doing the odd crafty thing during the past couple of weeks.  I have signed up for Arthritis water therapy classes at the public pool for the fall and Girl Guides starts up next week.

Life continues.

Physiotherapy for Hip Replacement

I went to an assessment for Physiotherapy at the Reh-Fit Center in Winnipeg last week. It was a good experience and I will be going for my first group session on Tuesday. She took a thorough history and is aware that I do have asthma,  high blood pressure issues and that I do not have equal strength on both sides. I have a bit of a wonky gait from "before" but apparently everyone with severe enough issues to need a joint replacement has gait issues, so that is something else that will automatically be addressed! Yipee😊! She checked my incision which is not fully healed and said we will continue to keep an eye on it too. She sent me home with a new and improved list of exercises.

About a year ago the government started doing an overhaul of health care services. One of the cuts was the post-hip and knee surgery outpatient aftercare. The departments were closed. The physio departments remained in the hospitals for inpatient care but staff layoffs occurred.

Since that time the health authority has continued to support the pre-hab clinic. They are giving education prior to surgery to have people as ready as possible for surgery and have the best outcomes. I will post a link at the bottom of this post for more information about the hip/ knee clinic. They have a lot of very good videos about joint replacement but I would draw your attention to a video of the exercises they recommend doing during for the time you are waiting for surgery. I think it would have benefited me to have started them years ago!

http://www.wrha.mb.ca/prog/hipknee/index.php



The physiotherapy and occupational therapists in the hospital assess if you are safe to leave for home before discharge and they review a few of the exercises that were to have been practiced before the surgery. You are to exercise at home but the set they give you is not looking at your specific needs nor does it show how to increase and changes the exercises as you grow stronger.
They give you a prescription for further private physiotherapy but then it is in your hands.

Many people do not have a insurance beyond that of our Canadian public health care system. I have very minimal work-related health insurance.  Physio for me is largely an out of pocket expense.

Many others have been in the same situations. I am youngish for a hip replacement and many seniors older than me live on limited incomes and will not have as much help as they need to get as full a recovery as possible.

The Reh-Fit center is very conveniently located about a mile from my home and is a lovely space with great resources and highly trained staff. I have known several people who have been referred there post heart attacks and they can't say enough good things about the services. It has a charitable status and a fantastic reputation but is at a higher cost than many other places around the city.

The Reh-Fit Centre is more than a fitness centre. We provide an environment to help individuals achieve and maintain health and wellness. We offer individual and group options for exercise, nutrition, and education through a team of certified health and fitness professionals. Expert guidance from professional personnel, innovative health enhancement programs, and the integration of medical, rehabilitative, and fitness services all are delivered in a clean, service-oriented environment.

                                                                                     http://www.reh-fit.com/about-us/

The Reh-Fit Centre has been offering post hip and knee replacement programming for members who are 6 months or more post surgery for a few years now. I noticed several months ago, after the withdrawal of our hospital-based rehab, that they were offering a knee replacement program for the immediate post-surgery period but not for hips. After I got home from the hospital an ad popped up in my social media feed about the new hip program so I called them up.

They launched the new program in mid-May!  They do not require membership and they enroll people between 1 and 2 weeks post surgery. I just plain old got lucky with this one! They do an initial assessment by a physiotherapist for about $70 (possibly covered by your private medical coverage) and then you can continue with weekly group sessions with a physiotherapist, a kinesiologist and possibly a volunteer. The groups can be up to 10 people, last an hour and all this for only $20 a visit.
After they feel you are no longer benefitting from this program they will encourage you toward other programs to help with your continued improvement.

We will see how this all goes tomorrow!

Gearing up for Change

I find change hard. I always have. I usually can talk myself into believing it is for the best and there are new adventures around the corner but it is not easy.
I am a bit of a "hanger on" person. I hang on to my habits, I like my routine. I still have a lot of my old childhood treasures. I keep a lot of resource materials like about 20 years of Guider Magazine and files of cooking articles, and how to do web design because I might come back to it someday. I treasure my friends too and believe I am a loyal friend.

The last time my life was totally turned upside down it was a sudden change. In a 2 day period, I was worried for my life and in a week I was thinking my life was not worth living. But it got better, I got back to much of my life from before but never again would I see my world in quite the same way. I lost friends, I lost some dreams of what I wanted to do with my life. I lost a ton of confidence in myself and what I could aspire to do and was devastated by my inability to be the wife and mother I used to be.

When it happened I was weeks away from a large Girl Guide camp where I was one of the key planning people. From my hospital bed, I was trying to use my confused and traumatized brain to think of where the plans and papers were so that it could be handed on to someone else to complete and trying to remember all that I had left undone.

Change, this time, has not been sudden. It has been insidious.  My right knee had been sore 10 years ago and was a problem when doing rehab for the brain injury but did not really mess with my everyday world. Walking with a bad gait due to a weak left side has resulted in a  lot of wear and tear on my "good" side and I have been having increasing problems with knees and back and hips. It has been a slow decline.  Two years ago I had a fall at work and hurt my lower back and hip quite badly. I healed from the fall but the arthritis in my right hip rapidly became very severe.

The past two years have been difficult. Creams, pain medications, cortisone shots and physiotherapy have helped but not been enough to control the pain or let me do all that I want and need to do.

I was placed on a waitlist for a hip replacement and I will be having surgery in a few months. There is a lot to do to get ready for this surgery. I have had several education sessions that are mandatory, I have to see a dietician, occupational therapist and a physiotherapist. I need to make some changes to our house and maybe even our vehicle. I have to have any dental work done ahead of time. I needed an EKG and blood work plus a pre-op physical with my family doctor. I have informed my work supervisor that I will need an extended sick leave.

I really need to step up my game and get exercising to make my muscles as strong as possible. Any weight I can lose will be a help so I am trying to diet. None of this is easy.

This time I am getting ready for the Change.  This time I am getting my ducks in order ahead of time. I have stepped down from most of my volunteer obligations and handed the reigns to others. Someone else is already in charge of the big, upcoming Girl Guide events and camps. It makes me sad. I have loved my time with the art group, youth program and seniors programs I have been involved with as a volunteer.

I hate letting go of my current life but I have to trust that this time Change is going to lead to a life with less pain, more mobility, better health and that there are some wonderful new adventures to come.

Pool Time for Me

I have to do all I can in the next 4 months to get myself in as good shape as possible before this hip surgery.

I have done so much over the past few years to try and keep moving and I think I did pretty well but the past year has frankly been very painful. It is hard to move and my leg does not physically move properly anymore. I have become less active and less mobile every month.

The hip and knee surgery orientation program I attended and now the surgeon stressed that exercise is essential to get the hip and leg muscles as healthy as possible. There is a list of exercises, a video of exactly what exercises they want you to do daily plus the suggestion that walking in water was very beneficial. There were also suggestions that losing weight makes a huge difference both now, during the actual surgery and for recovery.

I have been going to a Wednesday water Tai Chi program sessions for the past year and really love it. That is more stretching and balance time and not really a calorie burner. I am now committing to go to the pool at least 3 times a week but trying my best to go 4 times counting the Tai Chi class. I even paid up and got a city pass for 3 months of unlimited access to the city facilities.

I must admit I have not been at all good about the video set of exercises because it hurts a lot and I really don't care for the start-stop style of the video. Tomorrow I start!

As far as the weight goes. sighhhh. I was a heavy 10-year-old and a very heavy adult. I think I was 11 when I was put on my first diet. I have gained and lost so much weight, tried so many diets and received a lot of support but it is still a big issue. I lost a lot of weight, though not enough, when I got sick 9 years ago and thank goodness I have not gained all that weight back but I did gain back way too much.

What I am going to do for the next 4 months is try and keep my calorie count under control and try to have a lower carb diet and increase the protein. I plan to use the SPARK People online app to count calories and for support. They do a detailed report each day of the nutrition and calories you eat that day. I am surprised to see how far off I am with things like magnesium, potassium, iron and calcium.  We do eat pretty high-quality nutritious meals but it is obvious that on a low-calorie diet you sure have to be very diligent to get the macro and micronutrients to stay at a healthy level.

Who knows, by the end of the summer I might be in less pain, moving better, thinner and with a new wardrobe! 

Then we will see about my knees.

Arthritis and Me

I have had a sore knee for a long time.

When I was doing rehab after my brain injury they asked me to do exercises such as sit to stands and squats and I had a horrible time because of pain, not just neuro issues. That would be when we finally got an x-ray of my knee and I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis.

I have spent a long time walking with a bad gait and frankly it never did get quite normal. My knees and hip have taken a real beating. I tend to stand with all my weight on my "good right side".  I tend to twist a little on my hip as I walk and I kind of thud down on that right leg because I don't totally trust that my left leg will support me even though there is no good reason to think it won't now. I am a heavy person and have been since I was a child. My father had bad arthritis. The result of all these risk factors is that  I now have arthritis in both knees and my right hip as well as a bit in my lower back.

I have done a lot to keep the arthritis under control over the years but it just keeps getting worse.  I tried using a knee brace about 6 years ago and that was not all that helpful. I found it very uncomfortable and they are harder to fit properly on a heavier leg. I tended to be moving both legs kind of funny when I walked and it just was a bad treatment for me at the time.

I have been going to exercise classes and I find the water programs for people with arthritis to be especially helpful.

I do try and pace myself and sit and rest my leg when I need to be that isn't always easy. One of the issues that the arthritis help sites talk about is severe fatigue. I would say that is one of my issues continuing from the brain injury too. This makes it doubly harder for me to willingly exercise a lot or work on loosing weight - both of which would ultimately help with the same fatigue and the joint issues.

The past year or two my hip pain in particular has gotten really bad. I had a fall at work just over 2 years ago and it was like someone turned on a pain switch. My hip really didn't bother me much until that point.  I suddenly had a lot of inflammation and pulled muscles that eventually settled down with time and physiotherapy but the pain never totally went away. The arthritis in my hip has progressed rapidly over the past year and now the pain is constant and severe.

I have had cortisone injections in my knees and right hip over the past 18 months. The first hip one felt like a miracle but at about 7 months it wore off. The second one only lasted about 4 months and the last time it only took the edge off.

My family doctor, as well as the sports medicine specialist that I have been seeing, told me I needed to get on the waiting list for joint replacements. It is a long wait around here to see an orthopedic surgeon, never mind the long wait for the actual surgery.  I saw the surgeon last week and despite the fact that I am considered a higher surgical risk we are going ahead with the hip surgery.

My plan is to get myself in the best shape I possibly can before this surgery.  I am still focusing on  leading a healthy life.

Seating Problems

I feel like Goldilocks - I want to complain about seating.

I have a very sore right hip and leg right now. I can't get comfortable.  The couch is too soft, the reclining chair is too hard the other chair is too low.  I am putting a pillow under my behind on the upright recliner and I have a small rolled up toss blanket behind my back to make things tolerable.

A few years ago. when I had so many issues with my left side. I was having a different set of seating issues. How do I sit down? How do I get up? How do I keep the chair from tipping over?  The chairs needed to be very stable because I was not stable and tending to loose my balance. They needed strong arms for me to push off on. If I sat on the couch I needed to be in the right side corner so that I could  have that arm to help me up because my left arm was not strong enough to get me anywhere.  I wanted the chair  or couch to be on the left side of the TV or where ever the action was because I was seeing better out of my right eye and frankly was recognizing movement better with my right eye due to some lingering left side neglect. I found that I would go to group events and I constantly got given a seat all the way to the right of a long table. I found not only did I not see the people on my left side properly.. I found I had trouble hearing properly from that left ear too. In particular I had trouble discerning whose voice was whose. I tried to turn my head to correct and that just made me dizzy and nauseated.

I find the same thing happens with my stroke friends and other people I know. Seating is undervalued.  Individuals have their own interests and needs and it takes a little effort to accommodate them but the seating can make all the difference to a persons enjoyment and comfort and I would even say their quality of life. 

People like to be near their friends, People like to sit away from people they don't care for. Some individuals like to sit close so they can get a view or where the best lighting it and others like to sit close enough to hear the best they can.  Music systems with their amplification might seem great for people with hearing loss but their hearing aids might react badly to the louder sound range and those individuals not only want to be far away from the amps, they want to be out of the room!

What chair feels good? Is this wheel chair easy to move? Can we get a comfortable cushion for the wheel chair seat? (they are unbelievably expensive) 

How about a bed that is at the right height to get in and out of with comfort and maybe a grab bar to help the process?  Clothes they will not get caught up when you are trying to slide in and out might be helpful.

My former physiotherapist spent a few of our appointments teaching me how to drive a scooter. It was kind of embarrassing and fun all at the same time. She ran ahead of me in the hospital hallway yelling.. "Beginner driver! Get out of the way!" I was not talented at going Rabbit speed or Turtle speed which were the two options on the scooters. She said I better work on recovering fast and walking again because I was not a safe driver. Considering my vision issues at the time it was brave of her to take me out in the public!
The fact is the scooters and powered wheel chairs have a lot of different options, and for some people they can provide so much independence and freedom. Potential users do need an opportunity to learn how to use them properly and safely and the vehicles do need to be physically a good "fit".

We also can try and work on exercises to help us in recovery and in maintain  our strength so we can get out of those chairs. Yes.. that is what I have to do again- I have to work on getting my back and hip stronger according to my current physiotherapist.

I will work hard at getting stronger again  but I might just need to purchase a different comfy chair.

Creating Art

This past week we had an Art Show for the Art Group I coordinate at the Stroke Recovery Association of Manitoba.

We get together every Wednesday morning at the Stroke Recovery center. We put out lots of different art supplies and participants are able to work on anything they want to. This is certainly not an art class but an opportunity for self expression. Some enjoy the details and work on the same project for a period of weeks while others might produce several pieces in a morning.  I try to offer a new idea, technique or medium each month and encourage participants to give it a try. You never know when something new might turn out to be an activity you will love doing. The creative arts have a special role in helping us find joy and well being in our lives.

The group was originally organized by an Art Therapist and focused on a psychological therapeutic model. When she left the group continued on as a social and peer support group that enjoyed creating art. Eventually I began to help with the group. As a Recreation Therapist I try to support the social, emotional, cognitive and physical needs of the group members but always... enjoyment and fun need to be the priorities at our art mornings.

I try to encourage participants to try new things and engage in learning new skills.  We try to use weaker hands and eyes to gain improved control and strength and we try to work on any left neglect issues that might have occured with strokes.

Decision making, focusing attention, spatial processing, sequencing and planning as well as other cognitive skills can begin to improve as we work on creating art. We assist individuals in trying new tricks and adaptive methods to reach their goals. Something as simple as using painters tape can keep the art paper from sliding away and a Masonite board can increase options for supporting the paper at different, more comfortable angles, kind of like a clipboard. That painters tape can even result in an attractive border strip around a painting!

We share our friendship. We express ourselves through conversation and also with our art. We create. We share our accomplishments and we feel proud of what we achieve.

P.S. One of the ladies at the art show said I needed a picture of me at the art show. I was trying to get pictures of my artists but had not even thought of getting a picture of myself. The picture above was Vera's first attempt to take a picture with a phone and I think it is wonderful!