An ordinary day in the life of a stroke survivor and his caregiver

We got up this morning around 6:30 a.m..  I was scheduled for a CAT scan in San Luis Obispo at 10:30 a.m..  We’ve found it takes us about four times as long to get somewhere as it used to.  Dressing, riding the stairs chair down, and slowly making my way out to the car adds a lot of time.   We ended up here because I had a stroke last August 15th, 2O17.

HERE is Cambria, Ca..  Cambria is a quaint little community on US Highway 1, about twelve miles from the famous Hearst Castle.  My daughter, Vanessa, chose this little village as a retirement destination when she was looking for such a place when prices were down due to the economy back in 08.  As a result we have been spending the last seven or eight Thanksgivings at this great little beach town.  Although she and her husband spend most of their time in the Santa Barbara and Ventura areas because of their jobs, this has become one of our favorite spots in California.

Before that, we lived in a great mobile home park for 55+.  We had a nice life in our cute 650 square foot single wide mobile home.  In Union City right next to Hayward and Fremont in San Francisco’s  South Bay.  We chose this spot because Cathy’s mother lived in Hayward  and her sister’s family in Fremont.

Cathy has rheumatoid arthritis and I was her caregiver.  I grocery shopped, cooked the meals, did the driving, and took care of the outside, including the garden. Cathy did the laundry, kitchen, and other light housework.  Our little dog, Patches, made us laugh every day.  We were getting along well.

We now live in Cambria, California, in an Independent Living household with three other people. As there is no caregiver, it is not an Assisted Living place. We do have talented cooks that come in for all three meals every day, grocery shopping is done for  us, and the whole house is cleaned weekly, including our rooms. The outside is kept beautiful and fire safe. We even have a maintenance guy and a computer/tv wiz too.    We were lucky enough to find this place which was originally built as to be a bed and breakfast in this quaint little community.  Our daughter, Vanessa, had been looking for a place that was affordable and close to where she and her husband could look in on us. She had almost given up hope of finding a place for us.  She decided to walk to town from her house to town, the long way to clear her head. She found herself outside the vets building down town, and went to the bulletin board. On a post-it note she found what she had been looking for. My brother Pat and Linda his wife were visiting us from Arizona. It was a 4 hour hour trip from our place in the South Bay.  Pat said let’s go check it out. The owner needed an answer immediately as there were other people interested.  It had just opened up three months before and fortunately, there was an opening.  We share it with an eclectic group of people who include a man who is 94, a woman who is 95, and our newest resident who is 84, we’re the youngsters, Cathy at 68 and me at 70.

We had to get out of the house this morning for the 45-minute drive to San Luis Obispo early I was fasting in preparation of my CAT scan+angiogram and Cathy had cereal.  After the cat scan we treated ourselves to  a cup of coffee at Starbucks and two delicious homemade brownies that our Chef had baked the night before. When we got home, Cathy went up to get the dog to let her out to run and I decided to sit in the sun outside of our front door. I was enjoying the sun when AnnaMarie, our chef, said this looks like a nice spot for lunch. In a jiffy, she had a portable table set up with chairs then just like that delicious grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with fruit were in front of us.  Patches got pieces of both our sandwiches that we “accidentally” dropped. After lunch Cathy needed to rest after all that driving; it always hurts her hands, shoulders, hips. I took Patches on a walk around the neighborhood with my motorized wheelchair.  We live in the same neighborhood as a five star resort with gardens and waterfalls in a koi pond.  It’s a scenic walk for the dog and me.  On our return trip, Patches was startled by an animal which turned out to be a skunk.  Good thing she was on a leash; that would have been a stinky outcome of a walk!