Lucinda's safe accessible kitchen

Hello my name is Lucinda and I feel a bit embarrassed sitting here asking for donations towards a new kitchen for me, " What a bloody cheek. This isn't what crowdfunding is about " you may think. It is true that I am not asking for help towards cutting edge medical treatment, there is no treatment but my reason for wanting/needing an accessible kitchen is simple; Sometimes after an extensive brain injury ,physical recovery is not an option, I

am one of the ‘no-hopers 'and recovery becomes about acceptance, adaptation, and concentrating on enhancing a person's physical environment to support their disabilities, just like accessible disabled toilets allow people to access their community and engage in activities, such as gigs. Before my sudden brain injury I had worked as an occupational therapist for 20+ years and adaptation was a vital part of my work with patients. Now I am here needing my own knowledge and experience. Here's what happened to me. I was an extremely fit and healthy 38 year old. Nothing extraordinary except for I was 26 weeks pregnant with my only child following years of infertility, followed by 5 miscarriages. Throughout my pregnancy I had no faith I would be bringing a baby home. I had a sense of foreboding only allowing myself to plan 2 weeks ahead. Then, out of the blue, ‘bang'. I experienced the most horrifying head pain. I jumped up and looked in the mirror to check I wasn't having a stroke. My face was fine. My arms were ok. I wasn't slurring my words. I clearly passed the F.A.S.T. protocol and went to go to sleep. Except the head pain wasn't stopping. It was unbearable. I was rushed to hospital where the neurologist watched my brain suffer 4 more massive bleeds. I was having a hemorrhagic stroke and it was bad. I was given an hour to live. Then12 hours. I smashed them. After a coma and brain surgery I awoke to find that my body was broken, I was paralysed on one side of my body. I still am. I use a wheelchair permanently and I have not really made much progress since leaving hospital 9 years ago. We have spent our life savings on physical therapies. People are under the misconception that the harder you train the better the recovery. This is simply untrue. Some brain injuries are not possible to recover from and I understand that I am unlikely to regain functioning on my one side. So I am getting busy trying to adapt to and make peace with with my situation. This generally means lots of equipment. I have a small kitchen that I can't keep my necessary equipment out. I need someone to set up my environment every single time I want to do something for myself and my family. The pandemic was terrifying and I was paranoid about being left alone to manage. As part of my acceptance and recovery aspirations I began to design my fantasy safe, adapted kitchen, Somewhere I could do the normal things that a mom does like feed her family safely and within a reasonable time frame and without running over the cat or my husband's feet. Somewhere where I can be truly independent. It sounds boring but I would just like to bake a cake with my little girl and cook the dinner. She tells me regularly that I am the best mom in the whole world and she would rather have me in a wheelchair than no mom at all. I want to be the best I can be for her and for my long suffering husband. We celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary on the stroke ward and he is my rock, refusing to leave me for an easier, happier life. This is why I am asking for help to fit an accessible kitchen. I have lots of plans for integrating the equipment and some ideas of my own for adaptations but it is expensive to fit something that is so bespoke. I don't have ideas above my station. I am the queen of upcycling and repurposing. I’m not after an ‘Elle Decoration ’worthy kitchen. We have begged and borrowed from family and we now have an empty room on the side of the bungalow. Everything has cost more than expected and it would be amazing to finish this project and take the next steps, pardon the pun, in my life and finally get on the road to independence. I now have a blank canvas to work with. I'm hoping that when I have finished my kitchen other ‘working age stroke survivors’ can find some inspiration and some hope to help move forward with their own journeys.