A couple of weeks ago (2/13) we had a nice snow day here in Rhode Island. We had plenty of advanced notice. Weathermen said we would get anywhere from 6 to 13 inches so we were going to stay home. No plans to go shopping. No errands. No zooms scheduled anyway for me. Just a nice day to be at home.
I know I’m retired so I can have days like this, but having a snow day felt different. So I decided to have a PJ or Jammie day! This was the first day I let my self have a PJ day since the stroke.
When I had the stroke on Mothers’ day, 2019, I was starting to recuperate from the rotator cuff surgery that occurred the Friday before. I was in the middle of a planned PJ weekend. I planned to read lots of books, watch movies, have comfort food and have good pain medication. (Recovery from this type of surgery is painful and long.)
Once I had the stroke, my thoughts on having a day off (staying in my pjs and not working on my communication skills or physical recovery) felt wrong. Recovery and then living with the challenges afterward is different than having the flu, or other illness and for me different than recovery from injury or surgery. When I had been sick or recovering from a surgery before, I could stay in my pjs and not feel guilty or concerned. I knew I would just go back to normal life the day afterward. But after the stroke, I felt it was my job was to get dressed up every day. I also had to schedule every day with projects and activities which would help my speech, writing, reading, and listening improve. I think this is the same for many people I meet in our aphasia groups.
Finally almost 5 years from the stroke that left me with a language disorder (aphasia) and two speech disorders (apraxia of speech and slight dysarthria), I finally felt comfortable taking the snow day off. I'm counting this as a win!
