I had a Cerebellar Infarct on January 6, 2018 likely caused by AFIB. It affected my right arm and leg, my balance was off, my speech was a little off especially when tired. I went to physical therapy for 2 weeks and decided to do my rehab at home on my own. I am a pretty motivated, very goal driven and a stubborn (don't tell me I can't) kind of a guy, and seeing that they were having me do in house therapy and charging me $50 for a 10 - 15 minute visit to see how I was doing, there didn't seem to be a lot of value there. I don't recommend that for everyone, I have seen too many people try to figure out how to get around their challenges rather than work through them, you need to have some level of discipline to do it on your own.

It took a good 8 - 9 months of daily rehab to really get my body to a fairly "normal" state. It certainly is not as easy to do things as it used to be, I have to think about doing things rather than doing them without thinking, if that makes sense. I can do most of the things I was able to do in the past. I am able to work on my house (it's a comedy show sometimes, you should have seen me repair a ceiling in the spring where I had to apply joint compound!), ride my motorcycle, work on my kids cars, stuff like that. My right side really came around when I started using my push mower in late August for my 1/2 acre yard versus using the ride on mower. I noticed a lot of strength in my arm and my leg came back, I lost that heavy feeling.

It took until 2 - 3 weeks ago before I finally was able to play the guitar comfortably again. I started being able to keep a beat, I was able to find the strings better and my right shoulder stopped getting that pumped up feeling when I played (felt like I was lifting weights). I play every night for a good hour or so as part of my therapy. My motivation there is I had a neurologist tell me I will probably never play like I used to, I told him he was wrong:-) I am guessing I am 90% of the way back and I am certain I will surpass where I was prior to my stroke within the next 6 months.

From a work perspective, they were very supportive. I took 1 week off after my stroke. I worked 4 hours for 3 days the following week, then bumped it up to 4 hours for the full 5 days the next week, 6 hours each day the week following then was back to my normal schedule 5 weeks following my stroke.

For me, I found that working on a few things I have difficulty with until they become easy again is key. I then move on to the next challenge and do it over again. Every day is a little better than the day before, a lot better than 6 months ago!