I have aphasia

I have just put in all the things I put onto JustGiving for the last week. Obviously I am asking for a bit of ‘charrity’  heh heh

Two many things all at once, so hopefully you can see what I am on about! Tell people what actually happened to me … almost...

I have aphasia. Interesting. A few shrieks after having ovarian cancer - but amazingly that was easier to deal with. This has taken me nearly 4 years just to deal with the fact that I can’t read, can’t remember things - sometimes I can’t focus at all…but I can’t read YET [if I poke my eyes almost into a book it helps a bit] etc.

So it has taken a long time to get here – but I AM here. And I now want something please - I want to raise some funds for all the people from all walks of life who have developed aphasia. I am amazed about how many people there are that have aphasia. About 367,000 people in the UK. A LOT!

Aphasia is a communication 'disability' caused by damage to the language centres of the brain. It can affect understanding of language, speech, reading and writing. I had experienced a massive ‘subarachnoid brain haemorrhage’. Then a stroke 4 days later. That’s where I said ‘interesting’.

To be fair, it isn’t very interesting – but it stops me having a ‘normal’ conversation, sometimes a lot, sometimes a little. Some days I can’t read at all – other days I read a few pages. Yelling with delight! Some people have a harder time than I do – and we REALLY want to help one another. Mainly to have a bit of a chuckle!

Aphasia does not affect one's intelligence – it just stops you from communicating ‘normally’.

To me, this little challenge [my first one - so far!] is raising funds to help in the fight against not being able to speak - or have someone to sit near you just to make you feel better. This challenge is an opportunity for me to raise awareness and significant funds to help the fight against being alone or being afraid.

Aphasia can affect anyone at all ... so your money will be well spent.

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page and to read all this.
Onward and upward!

Busy busy…

Off to the breast check this morning - and that is something I ALWAYS know I'm going. Very difficult to park - much better in the summer.

Today it's freezing. But a good thing to do once a year, that says: 'great, everything is fine'.

Plus I am dropping off my beautiful wigs down to Force.

Plus it’s International Women's Day! Bwaa! Let’s shout a bit here girls!

As usual [I know - I'm a nagger], I would be chuffed if you donated a little money (or a LOT) – a lot of women AND men have aphasia – thanks for helping me!
x

Here is my #sandhy-robinson-jones JustGiving

Interesting – as usual

Today was VERY interesting; I have started remembering things.

Places I've been to - I remember what we did there; going in the antique shops, having coffee and this time I am so much calmer [that’ll be the old brain].

We had very English coffee with HUGE sandwiches in Ashburton.

It is becoming more ‘real’, even when I can’t speak entire sentences, I can give it a good old go. After 4 years I am getting more tolerant. I’ve stopped feeling like screaming.

Life, as I know very well, goes on. And my brain MUST be getting better? I hope so.

The 5th day…

The 5th day started brilliantly! Did a design thing! Had help from Mike with the ‘Big Lottery Fund’ stuff – new .esp had to be changed back into an old version. Thanks for that dude!

And some painting in the shed on our new chairs. Good things. Except Bear ran across the entire lot. Hmm

And I have had lots of people sending donations since last night. I am so CHUFFED!

Also, people are taking the Living with Aphasia info and passing it around. Just as good as money sometimes

Good day ❤️

P.S.: The Quay? Mostly raining…

Sunday!

The snow is disappearing. We are off into the countryside. It's perfect, as one doesn't need to talk much.

The best is that I can now ask & everyone knows exactly what I'm on about. 4 years seems quick - but it's not.

Look up 'subarachnoid haemorrhage' today. Scary. VERY scary…

It was a speedy Wednesday [not!]

Well, it’s actually Thursday. How is it that everything has to be done at a fast, rushing rate? I never seem to get a ‘chilled out brain’. Ever. Nope. And I think I had the same thing before my brain got rather slow with the old brain haemorrhage! People on the earth need to slow down … but we can’t can we?

On Wednesday I was doing things for the Living with Aphasia with Barbara. She organises what we should do, then we just go off and do whatever random stuff that needs doing.

We now have a Living with Aphasia sponsorship afternoon thing come up. We will be trundling round the Quay and then we will be celebrating our One Year Anniversary of our charity. Cool! A few scrummy rugby chaps to help us open the day. All on the 1st of May.

In the meantime I need a new JustGiving so I can actually get a bit of fundraising without having a nervous breakdown…it’s coming, but it’s taking a wee while.

In the meantime I need to get lots of house stuff into the attics. We have some chaps who are coming to paint all the upstairs rooms – the ceiling, the walls, the wood work … aargh!

Stress…check out the wall paint. Lovely and blue! It should look great. Fingers crossed! At the moment it’s all stripped and seriously looks horrid.

Off to add a few more bits into the attic now! But, that's the third day that I’ve been writing. Amazing …

Already on the second page!

A second page in two days? A miracle. Really! To actually put anything sensible on paper [or stuff that looks like paper] is quite hard when you have a few interesting things going on in your ‘head’.

I am going to try to create a sort of ‘this is what happened’. That is going to be for me mostly – you can read along if you want. Hopefully my head will feel SO much better after I try to understand everything. One of the things is the Facebook pages – so many remarks spoken by the people who I knew whilst I was in hospital [or madly trying to escape…] and the FH told everyone what was going on then. He is so supportive of me. I am still not quite ME. But I will get there. The FH has an interesting life with a nutty wife! :)

Half the time I can’t work out what happened [I’ve been told MANY times] – that whole thing about ‘you were in a coma’ – shriek! What ever was I thinking of that day?  I had my Women V Cancer – Ride the Night thing coming up … it was our first one. I sort of missed it! Bugger.

And this year I should really try to do the London to Paris women v cancer – I got my £3,394.79 money sorted out to go to Vietnam but unfortunately I could not do it. But I could do it this year? Hmm. Maybe. Lot of pain jibber around at the moment. Onward and upward as usual.

Maybe as my brain trundles along, things will carry on getting better … in the meantime, I have a MRI scan next week. Such fun! They check that my head is ok. Good show! And today I am off to the Living with Aphasia this afternoon. Nice and chilled and the cake will be scrummy!

Brandon Kidwell

Getting to the end of 4 years…

This is a sort of new blog – now I can write a lot more, and I actually read more too. Amazing. But it can be very irritating as some of my spelling and words get rather confusing. But hey – you don’t have to read this you know …

Incredible to think that the brain aneurysm and stroke [grr] happened almost 4 years ago. Bah. But to be fair, I am starting to feel a bit less stressed and more ‘human’. Fingers crossed.

I shall be having a teeny party in May this year…19th of May in 2014 was when I ‘fell over and didn’t get up for a few days’ heh heh

What I am going to do is do this – maybe a daily blog? I need to try to remember things. Hard!

So – we’ll see! Hope you don't die of boredom! 

In the meantime I am doing a lot of stuff in the house!