I can feel the ground underneath my affected foot today.

I don’t think that you all understand how significant this is… when I had my first stroke, which was a side effect of cranial radiation treatment that I had to have back in 1997, the first thing that I noticed was that I couldn’t feel the ground under my right foot. The radiation treatment had caused brain swelling, which in turn caused a progressive stroke on my right side. First the nerves in my right foot stopped communicating properly, then my whole leg slowly turned itself off. My right hand was next, so fine motor control became a thing of the past. Drop shoulder, droopy face even… I had it all by the end of it, all slowly building up over a period of about three months.

I remember what it felt like, both physically and mentally, when I could no longer feel my right foot. It was weird, like something very obvious had gone missing. Having to learn to walk again was a really weird experience. But having to learn how to function without feeling anything below my right knee was honestly just hard.

But today! Today I can feel the ground underneath my foot! Today I can lift my toes when I take a step forward (which is actually a HUGE step forward in my recovery). Today I seem to have better balance and flow in my movements. 

Now I know that I have been actively working on trying to get my right side to start working properly again (for over 20 years now), but nothing stands out as to what might be the reason for this change today. However, if I have learned anything, it’s that I need to stop overanalyzing everything, and just accept and by thankful!

And I am VERY thankful for this improvement! I am going to take this afternoon to just MOVE and try to walk out in this gorgeous sunshine for as long as I can today. And that is my challenge for all of you today – get out there! Be active! Breathe in the fresh air! Move! And have a great Monday.