I had limited the people told about my condition, because I worried about how I was going to handle "sympathy" from people, especially close friends. Here I was, 6 foot 4 inches and 210 lbs, independent as heck, reduced (in my mind) to the status of a drooling fool in a chair (if I was lucky).
I bless my wife May and close Thai family for the way they handled me with kid-gloves those next few weeks. I did not inform my Mum and sister in the UK until late August when I was well on the way to being mended...a decision I believe was correct as my Mum is 70 years old and recently divorced from my father - her husband of 40 years. Our family had also significantly suffered the tragic loss of our adopted 11 yr old Thai sister in 1995, but maybe that is another story. My Mum is going to graduate next summer from the Open University in the at 71 years old, with a Degree M.A. in Medieval History. She is the real winner!
I spent July of 2005 learning to walk...inch by inch (yes, it is true)...to hold a spoon and speak without spitting in your face! I got my weights out and hammered out reps on my right arm and legs from morning to night, basking in the beautiful Thai weather. Leftie joined in later. No pain, no gain, huh! I hobbled to the shop for a coke...200 meters...20 mins...15 minutes...better each week. I practiced swimming with less competence than my 2 year old daughter Jenny, who serenely swam rings round her huffin', puffin', drowning (it felt!) Daddy!
I vowed never to "stroke" again. ALL smoking had to stop.
I applied for work. I received an offer to teach in beginning mid-Sept 2005 and I (literally) worked my ash off to be physically convincing in front of a class of Uni students. It worked. I blamed a "car bump" on my then, bad limp, hobbled around with humor and worked out with my students in the gym.May and Jenny flew to join me and we spent a lovely 5 months where I taught English Language whilst learning some parts of my physical life again. Acupuncture, traditional Chinese medicine, single bloody-mindedness, a refusal to quit on myself and my family got me through to Christmas, 2005.
Now I have recovered 99 percent of motor function in all left-side limbs, a result of daily hospital physiotherapy sessions. Khun Naron - you are a god for pushing me as you learnt new western curses! I learn to write with my left hand a little more each day.
I quit smoking on August 21, 2005, and yes, there were some bad days in the beginning, but I have had the means, the determination and the opportunity to choose life because of my stroke; a kind of silver-lining in a cloud, I guess!
I cannot place a value on the friendships and support this Forum has given me, but I do believe that there is magic here.
This week, on 21st March, I celebrated 7 months smoke free, as my 2 year-old daughter lay in a Chinese hospital, diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis, I said NOPE.
I will confirm now, with tears of joy dropping gently on my keyboard, that Jenny's diagnosis has been corrected today by her doctors to one of bronchial pneumonia, nasty, but temporary & treatable. She is going to recover completely. Ain't Life Grand!
Huggz & Power to All from,
Paul Webster-Hughes
