Reflecting on 2024: Lessons from My Year of Change

Here we are, the end of 2024, wow, what a year it was. It’s a fitting moment for me to reflect on the closure of our year. I’m willing to finally accept my word of the year as 1/2 of the year was our Coddiwomple 2024 adventure.

Much of it is a blur:

For those who prefer to have the definition up front:

“Coddiwomple = To travel purposely toward an as-yet-unknown destination.”

(From Mr.) 10 things to do before you have a stroke (including tongue-in-cheek moments too):

1. Eat healthy (or as healthy as you think you should be). Drastically change your diet from the standard American diet and go to the opposite extreme to possibly trigger a stroke (one never really knows why or how these damn things happen though…). Diets are an odd thing. When you have a stroke, don’t count on the hospital, and nursing home food for health benefits, they will give you plenty of opportunities to experience food you shouldn’t eat. Carb-loaded fixings do give a healing brain a rush.
2. Before a stroke, keep drinking wine/alcohol, because you believe it’s healthy for you. Post-stroke, you will never drink again. In retrospect, a glass of wine or more daily isn’t good for you.
3. Take every independent moment in life for granted, you will become dependent upon others more as you recover.
4. Get frustrated when things don’t go your way; it will become the norm. Practice sharing apologies often.
5. Be comfortable with random moments that bring you to tears. Let the tears flow, they are healing, more than you’ll know.
6. Daydream about the life you left behind and the one you want to hold on to. It will keep you motivated when days are tough.
7. Bypassing naps in your pre-stroke life will seem silly, you’ll have ample opportunities to lay around waiting for the next thing you must do as you fall asleep without much notice often.
8. Practice patience and kegels. Pressing a call button (whistle) doesn’t necessarily bring an immediate response. When you’re home your caregiving person will appear as an alien in the night, sometimes kind and caring, other times with an aura of “WTF you have to pee again?” in a less than angelic voice in the middle of the night.
9. Imagine out-of-body experiences, you’ll do this a lot wondering what the hell happened to your body and where is your left side anyhow. Imagine yourself in a body you don’t recognize while missing your old self. Your new norm is foreign and takes a bit of getting used to.
10. Be incredibly grateful for the love and support of loved ones, especially your offspring who have survived their upbringing, and surprise you with their resilience, patience, encouragement, and perseverance. Plus they’re the best cheerleaders a guy could ever dream of.

NH Discharge Physician: “You won’t know how many hands were helping you here until you’re home and it’s just the two of you.”

(From Mrs.) 10 Things to Do When You Are Alone For the 1st Time in 30+ Years

1. Be BRAVE! It’s okay that noises go bump in the night. Think cats/pets first before intruders and go back to sleep – you NEED sleep.
2. Enjoy the peace, and reflect on what’s most important to you.
3. Rejoice when someone comes to your rescue when you can’t figure out how to do something.
4. It’s okay to go grocery shopping and buy stupid things.
5. It’s okay to learn to cook again.
6. It’s okay to cry, cry, cry, cry…tears are healing.
7. It’s okay to sit and not do anything. Breathe…breathe…
8. It’s okay to work through the grief.
9. Remember these quiet moments, rejoice in your ability to adapt and change.
10. Remember all the moments above, you’ll need them for strength in the future. Oh, and, most importantly, try hard to ask for help, even when you think you don’t need it. (This lesson is a work in progress!)

Sometimes help comes for free, other times, it’s okay to bite the bullet and pay for transportation services!

As the year closes, I (we) hope you all find yourself surrounded by love, family, friends, and moments filled with perseverance, reflection, and hope. All things that take you to as-yet-unknown destinations.

From our family to yours:

PS – Dearest blogging buddies, thank you for your support, your comments and cyber-hugs have truly helped us more than words can say!