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Had been a heavy drinker and a smoker and thinks that this caused his stroke.
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Thinking about the cause of your stroke, what do you think was the cause of your stroke?
Well, I personally I think I was, because I used to be an awful drinker and I think drink and smoking was the main cause.
And how do you feel about that now? You know, now it's all happened?
Well, I don't drink now except maybe every 3 months, 2 or 3 months I'll maybe have a bottle of red wine. And use the whole lot that, that night, drink the bottle and finish it that night, and that's it. I'll not touch it again for about another 3 months. And the smoking, I don't smoke at all now. And yet I was smoking 60 to 80 a day before I took this stroke. |
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His brother told him that he should have phoned the doctor as soon as he felt unwell because more can be done to help in the first few hours.
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Well, I woke up about 3 o'clock in the morning to go to the toilet, which is just through the door up the stairs and I felt… dizzy, giddy and I wondered what was wrong… then I sort of, sort of looked about me and realised there was something wrong. And I went, “Right, the best thing I can do is get and lie down” so I just went back to my bed and apparently that's the worst thing you could do because you're supposed to contact the doctor within 2 hours and they've got a better chance of managing to do some more for you that way.
And when you went into the hospital, or first your brother arrived?
Yeah.
Did he know what was happening?
Well, he'd an, he'd an idea I had a stroke, because that's what I said to my brother, that was at 9 o'clock in the morning and he gave me a row because of that. He said, “You should have phoned the doctor within 2 hours”. |
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Set himself goals for walking the dog and gradually increased the distance. Having a dog has encouraged him to get better.
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You talked earlier about sort of building up the distance that you took the dog for a walk. Can you tell me about that again?
Yeah. Well, to start with, I took him, well, from here to the bottom of the brae and back would be maybe about 100 yards and I was struggling with that. Then I just gradually increased it because I took him out down to the shop, along to the next road and back up that way. And I took him that way for about a week, then I took him the other way, the opposite way, when I went to the bottom, went down to the shop, and went the opposite way and I just gradually increased the, the distance I went with him until I'm, until I was going further, even further, just kept increasing the distance all the time and then the dog got kind of worse, so he's got as bad as I was now, so I've slowed down the walks. I'm still taking him plenty walks but just shorter ones.
Do you think Hamish has been important in, in helping you recover?
Yeah. An awful lot.
What's important about having, having the dog?
The fact that I know he's got to get out and I don't let a dog out on its own because it, to me, it's not right to let a dog out on its own. If you've got a dog, you're, you're responsible for it, therefore you should care for it and that means taking it out and going out with it. Therefore, I mean, I've got to go out with him which has encouraged me to get up and go. Whereas if I didn't have him, I wouldn't go out near so much and I wouldn't go near so far. |
