Slow progress with my stroke at present

It's now four months since my stroke which paralysed most of the left hand of my body.

To start with my improvement was rapid . I could move my leg  and walk though balance was a problem.

I could move my arm  to a limited degree and clench my fingers though with little strength.

However movement of individual fingers was totally beyond me.

My biggest problem is frustration. I am slowly coming to terms that I must put a slow but steady effort into getting better. It could easily take a year to recover full use of my fingers so I must think in these terms and set small less demanding goals if I am to succeed.

Steve the Occupational therapist , a fancy name for the guy who helps put up hand rails in the house (which incidentally were put up, kindly my very helpful neighbours, long before he arrived) then disappears to deal with his heavy work load, gave me some excellent advice:

Use it or lose it

With a good working right arm, hand and fingers, the temptation is to use this all the time and ignore the none functioning left hand.

I therefore have set myself a reasonably demanding task with regard to dexterity:

Getting out of a box  and then setting out my 32 chess pieces on a board ready for play.

It's tough and I need to be patient because in the process I easily knock pieces that are in place, down, only to have to put them back up.