1/26/25

Holy moly, it’s been a minute. I’ve missed you guys!! My site was taken down momentarily because I forgot to verify my email address… Which then inauthenticated my site and flagged it for review. I hope everyone is doing well!!

I have been working a lot, and one of my goals this year was to make a $1000 paycheck, and I did that this past pay period!! I feel like I’m beginning to make a difference in my work and like I’m gaining respect as a professional.

Therapy is going well, but my clinical trial is ending here in a couple short weeks. I have begun the process of obtaining a device of my own for keeps. My hand (left) is like spontaneously opening and unclenching randomly, all the time now. I have some control over it but not much. I can only assume the IpsiHand is what made this start happening.

Last Sunday, I met with Shamarla and Sacory, the mother and son I wrote about in my last post. I’d never met Sacory, but I knew meeting him in person after hearing so much about him would be a deeply moving experience for me. It so was. I felt so connected to this incredibly strong and patient 31 year old father of three. He was using a lot of the same assistive devices I had to use in my acute recovery, and quickly after Shamarla welcomed me in with a “Oh girl, get in here!!” and a big hug, I found myself and her exchanging therapy and recovery tricks. We were recommending places and salves to eachother to help with my hand and with Sacory’s affected limbs (all of them). I quickly learned that Shamarla and Sacory had lost their home & their car in paying for all of this. Therefore, given Sacory’s lack of mobility, they were calling the EMT’s every time he had to go to therapy. I remembered how my neighbors from the neighborhood I grew up in and moved back in to last year started a GoFundMe for me and my family when this happened to me.

I knew what I had to do. It only takes a few people to help them, not suffer so much. I’ve also started looking into used adapted vans. Immediately when I left their condo and returned to my computer at my friend Hannah’s house just up the road, I created a GoFundMe page for them.

That page is here: https://gofund.me/467b8eed Whatever you can give, I appreciate it!! It is extremely appreciated if it’s just prayers and sending love to Shamarla & Sacory!

Next, I am trying to get back into cooking. When I lived on my own, I cooked all the time.

Sidebar about the people who taught me to cook. I wasn’t much of a cook before my stroke, but I had taken a cooking class for my degree my freshman year of college with my friend Leah, taught by my now friend, then professor, Lisa. But then after my stroke, I had a team of OT’s in Phoenix, Sheida and Alice teach me so so much about cooking one handed and what adaptive devices I might use, as part of my returning to Home Independence program at CTN. I use a lot of cool stuff to cook, like this grater thing. (I’m going to try to insert a pic of both, but I still don’t know how to work this site..)I also use a cutting board with suction cups and like prongs to hold vegetables in place. Then my ex-boyfriend Daren got me really into macro nutrients and micronutrients. I didn’t stick with that very long, but I have tried a myriad of different cooking methods, spurred by him in 2022. I have cooked Keto, crockpot meals, one pan meals. Everything I make has turned out tasting good. He played a big part in my finding a love for cooking. After we split, I continued to meal prep weekly, finding new recipes on Pinterest. Then I moved back in with my parents and lost that habit, because it was easier to just eat what they made, because everything they make is delicious, to which I credit a lot of my cooking to: because I grew up eating well cooked, well seasoned food that tasted good.

So far this year, I have made 4 sweet potato casseroles (my signature dish, a family recipe that I’ve adapted a little bit), 2 veggie lasagnas, multiple pastas, and a multitude of sweet potato dishes (can you tell they’re my favorite) (They’re also a great brain food!!) There’s a whole lot more on my Pinterest board that I’d like to make, but I try to pin only a couple things at a time so I don’t overwhelm myself.

Right now, I’m prioritizing time with my family and friends who fill my cup and loving on the pets I’m so blessed to spend my time with, all while balancing work and therapy. I love this life I’ve rebuilt for myself, and in 2025, I think I’m finally happy. ☺MK