Tag: recovery

  • well-being

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    A post for my own benefit, and for those of you who are interested in how I’m managing, health-wise. On a routine visit to my GP yesterday, she pointed out that it was the first time I’d been to see her since May. Given the regularity of my visits to her surgery over the past…

  • catching up

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    I have had a “bad” few days full of headaches and fatigue. Looking at it, I suppose it is inevitable after a weekend full of (for me) strenuous physical activity, followed by a rather grueling set of medical procedures on my return home (all is well, so no worries there). In a way, the more…

  • A Jura triathlon

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    We spent last Friday and Saturday on the wonderful island of Jura — one of our very favourite places. The island was as beautiful and warmly-welcoming as ever (though we were very sad to note the closure of the beautiful gardens at Ardfin after their recent purchase by an absentee hedge fund manager). Our pricipal…

  • b r b

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    Just popping in to say hello. I have been under the weather for the past week, and am now really rather unwell, and a bit grumpy to boot. I think I was getting used to my “normal” being a wee bit better than this . . . now, suddenly, I am back to feeling too…

  • machine

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    For one reason or another, I am currently unable to drive. I am also unable to ride a bike because, like many folk who have had a stroke, my balance is appalling. It is more than two years since my stroke, 26 months since I have gone anywhere under my own steam. . . until…

  • nutz

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    There is no getting away from the fact that I’ve had a rough few days. Please try not to have a stroke, people: the long term health implications of it are really bloody annoying. Sometimes the process of recovery itself can add further problems to the myriad medical issues that follow a brain injury, and…

  • devices and designs

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    Have any of you tried knitting stranded colourwork with these devices? Variously called knitting thimbles, strickfinghuts or yarn guides, they come in several varieties and I’ve recently been experimenting with a couple. Despite being taught to knit the ‘English’ way, I am a much speedier ‘picker’ than I am a ‘thrower’. I currently find myself…

  • last year

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    2011 was a pretty momentous year round here. My dad was diagnosed with, had surgery for, and has now fully recovered from, prostate cancer. He dealt with all of this with a steady dignity and equanimity. I continued the slow and difficult process of my own recovery from my stroke. There were many steps forward.…

  • managing

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    This is a post for my own benefit, to remind myself about how I’ve been managing this week. Last Saturday I went to a Christmas ‘party’. This is the first event of this nature I’ve attended since my stroke. Why so? Well, at a party, one must generally stand up in a space of limited…

  • fishy

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    I am sure you are about as tired of hearing about my health as I am of experiencing it, but it has not been a great few days round here. I had a seizure on Sunday which left me totally exhausted, and scuppered a long-arranged plan to pop over to Glasgow earlier in the week.…

  • on the disposal of books

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    Not the best few days I’ve ever had. I began dealing with the boxes slowly. But two of my neighbours, seeing me struggling with books up and down the tenement stair, kindly decided to help me. In just a couple of hours, we had transferred the contents of the boxes into my living room. It…

  • September

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    It is is a lovely time of year. of fruits . . . . . . seedheads . . . . . . and turning leaves. Jesus seems even more than ordinarily contemplative. . . . . . and Bruce enjoys sampling the Autumnal undergrowth. . . For academics as well as students, this is…

  • affirming

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    I have to confess that I was rather nervous about my Dublin trip beforehand. It was the first time I’ve been away on my own since my stroke and, though I feel embarrassed to admit it, this was the source of some trepidation. While I am perfectly happy pottering about alone in my locale, every…

  • a pod of one’s own

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    We live in a typical, late-Victorian, Edinburgh tenement. It has high ceilings, and the rooms are reasonably sized, but there are not many of them. Most of the other flats in our building have an extra room which has been created by the division of the kitchen into two. But we kept the large kitchen,…

  • now look what you’ve done

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    Thanks for all your comments on my Errigal experience. I occasionally hesitate about hitting the publish button on those self-analytical /recovery-related posts, but what you say is so supportive, useful and thought-provoking for me that I’m always glad I did. This time your comments were so helpful that I actually went out and made the…

  • Errigal

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    Kate Davies Designs
    in

    Errigal dominates the landscape of North-West Donegal. Everywhere you look, it is there. In the photo above, it is the fuzzy triangle at centre right, while, in the one below (taken from Horn Head), you can see its distinctive scree slopes catching the evening sun. I was reminded of the Hebrides in many parts of…