Handwriting 'Fun'

 I thought that I’d write about writing. Handwriting to be precise. Everyone has a taste of

my restricted world recently and my handwriting has not escaped restriction.

I could write an awful lot about this - at least I could on a keyboard -  but they say a picture

paints a thousand words. So here’s one of my writing directly after my haemorrhage.

 

 

That was 7 years ago. August 14th  2020 marks the 7-year anniversary of my brain haemorrhage

– and although my writing is now in far better shape than it was 7 years ago, it’s still not as it was

before.

 

 

I got used to walking with an aid pretty quickly but losing my ability to write by hand properly and

losing my ability to speak clearly – (see my post about Loss of Eloquence, below) have easily

been the worst consequences of my brain haemorrhage.

 

With handwriting, I have to remind myself that it takes children more than 7 years to master the art

and at age 30 I had to start right from the beginning!

 

But in all areas of my recovery I have been determined and I have 6 full notebooks and countless

worksheets of me practicing my handwriting following my haemorrhage.

 

I can't quantify how much I practiced for the first couple of years, because it was a lot. It has been

a huge thing.

 

To help you understand the magnitude of the work it’s taken, here is a challenge: Imagine you

woke up one day and physically couldn't write.

-Try spending an hour leading every hand action - picking up mugs, opening doors, flushing the

loo - with your 'wrong' (the one you don’t normally write with) hand –

-Try writing with your 'wrong' hand - jot down names and numbers quickly.

 

Difficult, right?

That's what it's like with both my hands but mine also have a bonus - a tiny shake. I have

something 'fun' called ataxia which makes me shake very slightly. It's not noticeable but it is

enough to ruin my writing.

In fact, to see if I could write any better I actually swapped...for a whole year to my ‘wrong hand’…

it turns out it was no better 😂 so I’ve swapped back.

At times, this has all been incredibly frustrating. 

 I have books and books of me practicing my handwriting.  I used to write the alphabet, months

of the year, days of the week and numbers over and over and over again.  

Sounds boring, right? It was boring! 

 

And… it turns out I have a real temper! I hate to think of how many pens I have broken and how

many pages I have scribbled on or torn up in frustration.

When I looked back at the books for this blog post, I almost immediately had to put them away

again, because they made me feel sad. I remember the emotional struggle; how hard it was.

 

I am so pleased that I did the hours and hours of practice. But I am very happy forgetting about

how long it has taken and how far there is still to go.