Dear Mukyala Kasujja
Today early morning I called you and we had a short conversation, I could atleast answer the question you put to me and ofcourse,Lule and Cathy were on my mind, it’s what I do every weekend to call a few friends and say hello to them. Now the response I get from whoever Iam calling is that the words are becoming clearer, one may argue that it is a way to motivate me but still some friends insist on hearing the word over again which makes me repeat what I am saying and ensuring that I am heard. You asked a fundamental question,Are you now walking? My faint reply was,’not yet’
Well let me break it down, whenever we are faced with a battle in our lives, there’s is a likely possibility that one can lose and I am not about to give up on this one. Our long term objectives are to walk and talk and right now I use a walker to practice walking, you see Stroke is funny, everything is retrained to achieve the purpose which should be walking. As I have written before the body has imperfections in the knee joints and pelvis and perhaps the back. The major imperfection is the foot drop and in simple speak this is where the foot cannot wholly touch the ground and this is related to the tendons.Now this even happens in perfect health but the challenge is with a foot drop you can’t walk perfectly the feet has to touch base with the ground which is why assistive devices are needed to correct the said imperfections. One of the devices I have gotten to correct the foot drop is the Afo cast. The way it works is keeping the feet in a neutral position touching the ground otherwise we are keeping on the fight and giving up is not an option. One thing that the stroke didn’t take away is my writing (I use the right hand as the left one is paralyzed) and my intelligence.I promise to give faith a fighting chance.
Mwene 