Claude, Gemini and I
Using Ai for cognitive recovery
When I first emerged from my stroke, I couldn’t walk more than a couple of paces. my balance was shot. my foot flopped, my left arm was curled at my side. the left side of my face drooped. I could barely string a sentence together and sometimes it would be in French. I walked like a Pirate, I talked like a Pirate.
For the first couple of months it was as much as I could do to shuffle down the stairs on my backside and with the aid and assistance of my wife, collapse into my armchair where I would watch trash TV, mostly Peaky Blinders and old war films. After a couple of months and with the aid of a walking stick and some assistance I was able to walk the length of my lounge, about 5 paces and then after a short rest, walk back again and sit down. This phase lasted for about 12 weeks, gradually extending my range into the kitchen. I tired so easily. I built this up thought slow repetition. The tap of the walking stick, my metronome. Bit by bit I was able to walk a bit further and faster. I began to read again. Studying about strokes and how to recover. I started back doing Qigong using my mountain walking poles for assistance. I was like a toddler again. I kept at it. I wanted to go out walking with my dogs once more.
This didn’t happen until 12 months had passed. I quite clearly remember the first walk. 0.5 kilometres and it took nearly an hour. Aided all the time by my poles. Steadily day by day I increased the distance. 12 months later I hit 25KM. Then we had lockdown. At first it was wonderful. It was beautifully sunny and everywhere was quiet. Then Disaster struck. Every time I had a jab, it would knock me back. It affected my legs and I developed A-fib and high blood pressure. I tried anti-coagulants and statins but they made things worse. I was back where I was 18 months previously.
I had ditched the walking stick but was back needing it again. I had been walking independently with just a Shepherd’s Crook. I had begun to go up into the hills again. Now I was back on flat ground and relying on walking poles once more. This has been a repetitive cycle since that time. Knocked down by something and then back up again. Each time I would rely on my walking poles.
Physically I am emerging, yet again from a trough in this cycle (angioplasty). I still rely heavily on my walking poles. There will come a time when I won’t have to use them but will choose to use them for safety. So it is with my mind, Like a watermelon, dashed to the floor I have scooped up the mush and am forming it into something new. The Swiss Cheese is filling in the gaps. Just as with my walking I have continually extended cerebral challenges. I see the degree I am pursuing as being such a challenge. I have plenty of RAM storage and a massive HDD full of everything that is me. The communication bus between the two is corrupt. I am using valuable RAM as Hard Drive storage. Just as I have needed sticks to help me walk I also need support in this. Claude and Gemini are my walking sticks and poles. I make NO apology for using them to get to the point where I can walk on my own once more.
I fell confident, that just as I have always been aware of when I have been ready for assessment, so too will I be able to recognise the moment when it time to walk alone once more