Thursday, December 4, 2014

Gift Ideas for Survivors

This time last year I wrote about all the stroke-related clutter I’ve collected in my house. So I recognize the irony now of writing a post advocating the acquisition of still more stuff. But a couple purchases I made recently have really improved my quality of life.

I was making multiple trips to carry all my meal items one-at-a-time from the kitchen and back. While multiple trips meant more exercise, it wasn’t quality exercise. I was focused on not spilling my coffee instead of posture and mechanics. I’d rather wheel my breakfast to the table in one fell swoop and save my energy for quality exercise at the gym.

Since buying the food trolley, I have found multiple other uses – i.e., unloading the dishwasher onto the trolley and rolling it around the kitchen to put things away – same goes for laundry once it’s folded.

Vacuuming is even harder after a stroke: moving the cord and furniture out of the way, wrapping up the cord at the finish – it is frustrating and hard on my back. Sweeping can be good therapy, but it doesn’t work on carpets and it’s exhausting. Enter my Roomba 630 – a relatively inexpensive robotic vacuum.

Last weekend, we had a dinner party. After being on my feet all morning preparing food, I was able to turn on my Roomba to clean my floors while I took a nap. I awoke to a clean house – rested and ready to greet my guests.