The Walk of Life

Stroke happens suddenly and many family members as well as the strokee himself are not prepared. When that happened to Rock, I was totally caught off-guard and went through a period of being lost and really do not know what to do. The doctors and physiotherapist at the hospital were all very helpful and they gave you good advise but you cannot remember all that they said, moreover most probably you were still in shock. On hindsight, how I wish I did spend time reading about this common, deadly, if not devastating impairment.

For the benefit of my readers and especially those who are still young, I have listed here some websites where you can go to learn about stroke, care-giving plus sites where you can purchase special rehab tools, utensils, equipment and even special clothing’s for the stroke survivor. These are not affiliate programs where I earn any commission but just sort of info base where you can go to for help, assistance etc

Information on Stroke.

American Stroke Association. ( Free Magazine).

Family Care-Giver Alliance.

Stroke Rehab Treatment and Equipment.

Saebo Flex - Arm Equipment.

Ness H200 – Arm Equipment.

Assistive Technology – Bath Equipment.

Ability Camp – Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.

Special Clothing’s & Utensils.

Life With Ease.

Professional Fit.

Adaptive Clothing

Senior Care Clothing.

Active Forever. – Utensils and Aids.

Amvans. – Vehicles for the disabled.

For our fellow Malaysians, we have our National Stroke Association (NASAM) where you can get support, care and information. They have qualified Physiotherapists and Occupational Therapist to help a stroke survivor to exercise as well as providing a support group where fellow strokees can articulate their struggles and pain. Currently they have 6 Centers spread throughout the country and I have listed here for your info.

NASAM Headquarters. No. 12 Jalan 12/2, 46050 Petaling Jaya. Tel :- 603-79564840 Email : nasampj@nasam.org.

NASAM Ampang. 9 Lorong Awan 1, 6800 Ampang, Selangor. Tel : 603-42561234 Email : nasamampang@nasam.org

NASAM Penang. Kompleks Masyarakat Penyayang, CO-12-GF Jalan Utama, 10460 Penang. Tel : 604-2298050 Email : nasampenang@nasam.org

NASAM Melaka. C5458 Jalan Melor, Off Jalan Penghulu Abbas, Bukit Baru Melaka. Tel : 606-2881641 Email : nasammalacca@nasam.org

NASAM Ipoh. 9 Lorong Pinji, Off Jalan Pasir Putih, 31650 Ipoh Perak. Tel : 605-3211089 Email : nasamperak@nasam.org

NASAM Sabah. Kompleks Badan-Badan Sukarela, Wisma Pandu Puteri, KM 4 Jalan Turan, 88801 Kota Kinabalu. Tel : 6088-261568 Email : nasamsabah@nasam.org

I am a fan of Chris Garret on New Media and he started this meme at How my career found me. As for myself, I called it my multi-colored career. I come from a poor family and right after High School, I earned my pocket money by selling oranges in our local market. My ambition was to be a medical doctor hence all my High School subjects were chosen to gear towards this goal. I never made it to study Medicine because my parents just could not afford the fees.

As a next best choice I ended up doing Electrical Engineering at a College specializing in High Tension meaning Electrical Power Generation and Transmission. I did this by borrowing money from a rich uncle who owns a Goldsmith Shop in the city. In my second year at college, there was an opportunity for me to apply for Government Scholarship which I did and I got the Scholarship offered by the Telecoms Dept. Upon graduation I worked as a technician with the Teleco and was shocked to realized that there was not much of a prospect working as a technician.

Once again with some savings and some borrowed money from my mother-in-law, I pursued a Degree in Electrical and Electronics at a University in UK, still majoring in Electrical Power. I had only one year tuition fees but I went ahead with the hope of earning enough to support myself via week-end work and during the long breaks. I managed to complete my undergraduate course but to my disappointment I could not get a job in line with my training. Having a wife and my first-born to support I had to accept the only job offers from a private company as a Telecomunications Field Engineer. I worked for this company right up to the day I retired. When I retired, I spent much time learning about computers, the hardware and software and lately learning about Internet Marketing.

Although by training I am an Engineer but in real life I stopped practicing Engineering a long time ago. I was groomed by my company to be more on a Mangagement role and through the years, was doing Sales and Marketing, Project Management and finally Corporate Management. What I can say is that one may end up with a very different career by circumstances quite beyond our control. I still wonder what happened if my parents could send me to medical school instead.

So to continue this meme I am going to ask my pals here

• doris chua


• franco


• hfchang


• tracy tan


• xilly

At 60 one is considered a Senior, universally. What is it like to be a Senior? Of course being a senior has its drawbacks but I guess there is no escape. One day you will join our club. I noticed that conversations among seniors invariable revolves around topics such as memory, eyesight, kidneys, urinary problems and our knees. Otherwise they are talking about Vitamins, Pills, By-pass and Surgery. In short when you see a group of seniors sitting around you can bet that they are talking about their health problems. How we get there? How else, it is by way of The Wheels of Life.

Well Senior Citizens are more valuable than any younger generations because :-

• We have Silver in our hair.
• We have Gold in our teeth.
• We have Sugar in our Blood.
• We have Stones in our Kidneys.
• We have Lead in our Feet.
• Finally, we are loaded with Natural Gas.