Editor
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Five-plus years post-stroke, I now have a doctor, provided through the VA, who believes I can regain at least some use on my left side, and possibly get out of the mobility scooter I use at home.
On Wednesday morning, I started a potent muscle relaxer, baclofen, that she prescribed in preparation for starting a new round of physical and occupational therapy I begin at Boundary Community Hospital next week.
It's funny ... when I raised my right hand to enlist for a four-year stint in the Army 38 years ago, I never gave thought to the future, I just enjoyed my tour and did the best I could to learn and be ready for the call that never came.
Until two years ago I never realized I even qualified for a benefit such as that provided by the VA; I thought you had to serve 20 years, or survive the wounds of combat. I was amazed and fortunate to learn it only takes an honorable discharge.
It's not 100-percent free, but I've learned that it can be a most valuable benefit.
I never imagined that a time I still look back on as the best four years of my life would make such a profound difference all these years on.
Four years post-stroke, it was a VA doctor who figured out that my strokes (I'd had two by then, and 15 "mini-strokes") were caused by chronic high blood pressure, and I was prescribed medications that brought my blood pressure down and ended the TIAs.
This summer, the VA, at the advice of a neurologist they let me see, connected me with a physiatrist -- a doctor who specializes restoring function to those with physical impairments or disabilities.
She thinks that if I work at it, if I'm diligent, I can regain the ability to walk ... maybe even (as I still dream I do) run. It's a little less likely, but not out of the realm of possibility, she said, that I might even regain the motor skill in my left hand necessary to type again with both hands!
She made no promises, but her offering the hope is a huge step, and I intend to put forth my best effort, even if the medication she said I need comes with a few side effects, such as a reduction in the attentiveness needed by an journalist and editor.
Again, I apologize ... but I hope, if you'll afford me the lenience, that I won't be too sloppy for too long, that before long, maybe, just maybe, I'll again have a bit more use of parts of me that for so long served me well.