April 20th, 2020

​Daily Update April 10, 2020

Note: This picture was taken at Crop Bistro last May by our friend Terri. She is an amazing photographer, bowler and friend. Her husband Michael, Donna and Phil Sillia (long-time friend and bowling expert) had a great evening in Tremont and Ohio City. She sent me this picture this week. she caught me enjoying Phil's humor!

One other Note, I added the pictures, had a hard time moving them to the paragraph where they belong, Thera balls, for hand manipulation  and a 3-4 year olds puzzle, I put together with my left  hand for therapy.  A friend's husband did this therapy a few years ago. Thank you Jane.  

Well let me start off by telling you a few things I realized over the last 4 1/2 days.
One I added a stroke to my golf game!
Two, it really doesn’t matter if you’re on a low salt low cholesterol diet, when your hungry food tastes good.
Three, the smaller things in life definitely do get taken for granted. An example yesterday I put together about a 30-piece puzzle, that a former stroke victim used. My goal is to use my left hand for the majority of the project. Being such an elementary puzzle, it was actually easy to do the puzzle and one other thing. Since I wasn’t on a timer. I know that I’ll be doing it again today or tomorrow.
Four, numbness in the hand, foot or your cheek becomes a real pain in the ass when it doesn’t go away. The good news is it will most likely. The downside is it could take months.

So, April 9 was an interesting day. It would be what I would consider a normal day going forward. Once I wrote the update, I got myself dressed and went downstairs, I actually grilled a blueberry muffin that the Monacelli’s sent over with some goodies. wine, a magazine, a motivational book- “I am a Bad Ass”, a loaf of apple cinnamon bread, some tea, a large container of mixed fresh fruit and some chocolate. Very thoughtful gift actually, a lot of work went into the gift.  Debbie supervised while I toasted the muffin. She went into the basement and made me an espresso, the first one I experienced since I’ve been home. Alan Papa brought me a Starbucks espresso on Tuesday morning at the hospital. It was well received. Thank you, Barb and John!

So, breakfast consisted of the muffin, espresso and the fresh fruit. I would consider that a pretty healthy breakfast definitely low in salt maybe a pinch or cholesterol in the muffin. Overall a good start to the day.

Debbie and I firmed up some bills and organization while I did the puzzle.

She then asked me to do a couple walks around the first floor. as opposed to half steps, I took the first day I used the walker at UH. Fran the Physical therapist graduated me to taking regular steps slower and working on keeping my left foot straight. That was a good workout and I spent about two hours sitting up straight in a chair with the drop foot brace inside my Tennis shoe (I’ll let you know that I’m probably not going to be playing much tennis in the near future, it’s not a priority).

In between the exercises, foot raises, isometrics, the friend that gave us the puzzle also gave us three different colored balls Thera balls they were intended for Re-developing muscle and motor skills for your hands after a stroke. They are amazing, I probably have at least one of them in my hand for the next six or seven hours. There are a number of exercises you can do with it. I tried most of them and invented a couple of my own. The main thing is to keep retraining those muscles to be natural like they were for the last 63 1/2 years.

Jenny from our national team asked me to follow up with one of our agents on the East Coast for some documentation we needed. This was the best call ever made to a customer with the most unusual outcome. Mike answered the phone, we took care of business within a few minutes, I told him I would send him an email of what we needed after we hung up the phone. He said he would make sure that I got the information. Which I did within about an hour and a half.
I then told him about the stroke on Sunday, being released from the hospital on Tuesday and now doing home rehab during the lockdown. He shared with me that he suffered a hemorrhage/brain stroke on January 12. He’s in much better shape than myself. His stroke left him with facial and speech impediments as well as his left side being impaired.

His stroke kept him in the hospital for 10 days and two weeks in a rehab center. He shared his recovery and his dedication to not stop moving. It was impressive. The phone call lasted about 20 or 25 minutes and were the most encouraging words to date. I am grateful for  Mike's encouragement and the time we spent today. (Small world, but I wouldn't want to paint it).

Throughout the day there were texts and emails from people I just found out about the stroke. I tried to follow up as much as possible. The good news is I don’t think that anyone would be upset if I took a bit longer getting back to them. It is just been part of my creed to respond as quickly as possible, personal and business.

I receive phone calls from four people that heard the news and I spent about 8 to 10 minutes on the phone with all of them.  I am grateful for everyone that has reached out. That’s why I feel these updates are so good, I don’t have to repeat myself as much. And it shares with everyone what is current. And people don’t have to read it if they don’t want too which is fine also.

At about 4 o’clock Debbie told me to shut off my phone. I am taking a couple walking laps around the downstairs, did my foot and leg exercises at least five times, and I was continuously doing left-handed and finger exercises.

All good intentions to take a nap, I did lay still and watched the movie Bad Boys for Life. It’s a no brainer movie with excellent action and a similar plot to the thousands of movies we’ve all seen with two great characters. Will and Martin keep you laughing, and, in the end, they kill the bad guys. Quite satisfying and relaxing I just didn’t have any popcorn!

I was a good boy I took my medication at the desired times.

Giuseppe came over early afternoon dropped off some wine and he picked up his Girl Scout cookies that he was going to share with his grandsons. It was good to see him; the weather wasn’t warm enough for us to have an espresso on the back porch. But I look forward to that day in the next couple weeks.

We enjoyed a nice dinner, I had about 1/3rd of a steak, no salt added, A baked sweet potato with no butter, Topped with sautéed kale garlic and onions. Dessert was a scoop of fresh fruit. No wine this evening but I picked out a bottle of red, for Easter. For my friends, the wine drinkers, the Hand of the Pope! A delicious red from Piedmont, Italy. No idea what’s on that menu yet.

We then took a little exercise program down the basement stairs. They are narrow and had Debbie worried going down. The banister is on my left which is by weak side. Going up was a lot easier.

We sorted through 16 new bottles of wine, picked out some bottles for Angela, Deanna👑❤🎀 and John took his earlier in the day.

When we finished, we walked up two flights of stairs, I showered and got ready for bed. We did intend to play a game of cards, but after the day’s activities we were both tired.

Day five in the books, looking forward to what Good Friday has in store for us. Mark and Patty Pieronek are delivering some fresh walleye for us to grill. That’s worth looking forward to.

I am going to begin a blog on www.johnvoso.com over the weekend. This was an idea from my friend Robert Maschke. I like it, Kate from Streamline CLE is going to help me out the blog to my website. Look forward to an announcement soon.

For a while I will post my progress. f you want to look at it you can. Please share with your friends, Bowlers, Title agents, family and other stroke victims by email, Facebook, LinkedIn etc.
I would love the feedback.

Thank you
John Voso, Jr.