Sunday 29 March 2020

When coronovirus is over...

Seeing as I'll be using at least some of my lockdown time to regenerate my blog,  it's only fitting to devote a short  post to this strange, unsettling confinement.
In actual fact, I was rather looking forward to it. I had such plans. As well as blogging, I was going to give my dusty old house a thorough spring clean and maybe (if really desperate) a lick of paint. I also have a mountain of books to read, and a whole raft of chat groups to visit, populated by wise and witty friends, and, of course, Twitter. I could refresh my  foreign languages, learn a new skill, and even write a novel - oh yes, time would fly!
So what have I been doing since my self-isolation began?
Slumping on my sofa with endless cups of tea watching daytime TV.
The last time I slobbed out like this, I was out of work, my daughter had decamped to London and for the first time in my life I could do exactly what I wanted....as long as it didn't cost anything.
I was quite industrious at first. Realising my Jobseekers Allowance wasn't going to pay many bills, I spent hours advertising my freelance services with flyers, emails and straightforward begging letters only to meet with a blank wall....and then I found myself being inexplicably lured in an entirely new direction...
It was only meant to keep me company; a reassuring presence, a hum of friendly voices and familiar faces....besides, I told myself, I needed to keep up with the news, to be informed, alert to world conditions.
But gradually, remorselessly,  inevitably, I was totally sucked into a vortex of soaps, quiz shows, cookery programmes and the endless machinations of reality TV.  Coach Trip was a particular favourite...Come Dine with Me, Four in a Bed, Location Location, Doctors, Father Brown and scores of detective series repeated over and over again. I should have known better, should have been stronger,  but, before I knew what was happening, it was too late.
I was hooked.
If the phone rang, or I needed to nip to the shop, I'd feel irritable and anxious, cutting all social contact short to get back to my beloved friend in the corner. Even so, I thought I could handle it, refusing to recognise my problem until an advertising agency contracted me for 3 months in Manchester.
This came as quite a shock....not only had someone actually bothered to read my profile, they were now dragging me away from my comfort zone, a way of life I yearned for on that chilly Monday morning, waiting for a train to the first day's assignment. That's when it struck me: I was a TV junky, wrapped up in a  cosy, unthreatening world I had now been forced to leave.
Goodbye sofa, goodbye Kirsty and Phillip and Holly and Brendan....I had to break free! I DID break free.
But now?  With weeks of home confinement on the cards, can I really resist the "On" switch? Will I emerge from the coronovirus clampdown with my senses still intact, or as a helpless telly addict?


  

Wednesday 4 March 2020

Life after Locked-in Syndrome

3 Soldiers Finish the Job Together




As members of the 22nd Cheshire Regiment, Andrew Harding (left), Peter Coghlan (centre)  and Shaun Schofield (right) served together on a peace-keeping mission in Northern Ireland. This is Peter’s story:

“We all had each others’ backs during that time; keeping the peace was a very scary task for a 19-year old, I'm not ashamed to say. Fire bombs, bricks and a few hundred angry people wasn’t our idea of a night out on the town! We would spend a lot of days on patrol across the Northern Ireland borders too, feet bleeding sometimes from all the kilometres we covered in full combats. Carting the heavy I.E.D. detectors (Improvised Explosive Device) with helmets, webbing, magazines and rifles was not easy! Crossing wet barbed wire fences for days occasionally catching your privates while ripping your tackle area open...Oh yeah, we were living the dream!
  I loved to see that Chinook helicopter arrving to take us home when near to dropping with bleeding feet. The sound of it coming before we even saw it was incredible. ThudThud thud thud thud thud thud thud....The sound came from everywhere - and you had no idea for a while where she was! I sometimes got the seat right above the RAF Gunner, literally hanging over him or her as the chopper banked left and right WITH THE DOOR OPEN!!! Gunner covering the arks. Yeah, we became close in the army us Stockport lads, for sure...one mate is training me at the moment, boxing the pads. Rob McCormick or Macca as we know him.
Now, I’d better explain where this is all going!
In 2011, after a severe blow on my head brought on the stroke that left me locked-in,  I was nothing but a quadriplegic fart in a bed ..watching my drip-drip-drip..all day in ICU. No speech, no movement just these memories of a young, fit soldier and the dreams for a future I once thought I had!!
Being rolled about the bed in my own faeces, being pumped full of drugs and craned in and out of bed like a sand delivery, I certainly didn't visualize that 9 years after my brain stem stroke I'd be on national television with Holly & Philip on the ITV This Morning show watched by millions of viewers. I did okay, I think, but you can judge for yourself here:
youtube.com/watch?v=I6QXSL

Having learned to walk and to speak again through 9 years’ obsessive behaviour, I'm living proof that the brain is more powerful than we know. All it needs, I believe, is the will, stubbornness, and persistence.
I absolutely refused to believe my life was over. As a soldier I wasn't going to stop until the job was done!
Andrew and Shaun were going to join me in a new assault.. up Mount Snowdon, which has sadly had to be postponed, due to Covid-19 and my having to return to Oz. But it was great seeing my old army pals again. Andrew, who got me busted for raiding a RUC cigarette machine (see my book)* and Shaun, who is now a CERT-ED Mountain Leader, have always been great guys to have in my corner.  These Cheshire Regiment pals have still got my back in civi street all these years later (cheers lads)!
I'm hoping we can inspire many head injuries & stroke survivors out there with my story. Cancer patients too!! as I was discharged from the army in 1998 with Hodgkins Lymphoma - my first battle.
If you want to follow my incredible 9-year rehabilitation, visit my website petercoghlan.com, or YouTube - In the Blink of an Eye - Reborn
Today I’m being used to help occupational therapy and physiotherapy students in university education to better understand LIS and stroke from the survivor's point of view. To show the strength and the power in the human brain and to provide insight into how determination can help the human spirit overcome adversity.
I'm very proud indeed to share my story with you and I hope I can make a difference to this, sometimes, unforgiving world.”

Peter's book  'In the Blink of an Eye Reborn', is available from Amazon and Smashwords

mybook.to/ITBOAEP