blinkie, does it require a lot of physical strength to care for you?
Did your wife need to have any kind of training before she brought you home?
joins other Dopers in admiration of Mrs. blinkie
Well at least you have the important one 
Koeeoaddi
Mrs. Blinkie is a small woman and I am about 6 ft (well 39 inches these days) and she can physically do it no problem. A lot of that is equipment we have to handle me. Hopefully we’ll have to talk about that later.
I was in the hospital a looong time, and when I did come home I didn’t have a trach anymore although I was still on a feeding tube. She didn’t get any formal training but while I was in rehab she became familiar with all aspects of my care.
The Camden Aquarium is awesome! I have been there at least 5 times and it never gets old. They recently renovated it around 2005 I think. The hippos are a must-see along with the outdoor penguins. Here’s their website: Camden Aquarium.The site has lots of virtual tours so you can check things out before going.
The Baltimore Aquarium puts Camden to shame though. It is a lot bigger and consequently has a lot more to see. Depending on where in Jersey you are Baltimore shouldn’t be too far of a drive. A few highlights are the wrap-around shark tank and the full floor Rain Forest. They also have a dolphin show. It was pretty lame last time I went this summer but if you’ve never seen one before you should really go. If it’s a nice enough day the Baltimore Inner Harbor offers a lot to see and enjoy. Here’s the website for the Baltimore Aquarium.
Blinkie, thanks again for the effort it takes you to post here. I’m glad that you have such good angels and care in your life. And, I love your good sense of humor. That has to carry you through so much of the time… Any observations on sense of humor and disability, what you’ve observed in your own experience and with others in a like situation who don’t have that? Are there “in” Locked-in jokes in that community? I hope that’s too odd a question; Of course, a sense of humor helps us all get by in life, but I wonder about the finer lines in difficult situations, and what is that human distinction of being able to laugh, or at least a wry smile, to press past adversity.
I hope you have found reason to stick around this place; there are so many good folks here who are supportive, intelligent, and talk a lot about a lot with good humor, too. Well, most…
You should all ask blinkie about the book he wrote. Given his limited typing speed, I’m sure the others on this thread will be extremely impressed to learn that blinkie has written a 165 page long memoir that describes his life (before and after the stroke) in great detail.
I keep encouraging him to post it… I think he need some prompting and pleading from others…
-Blinkie’s Kid
Doper Chic
Thanks for the info. Baltimore is another one I wanted to try, so I guess I’ll wait for that one til spring.
Elelle
My best Locked In friend has a very satirical sense of humor that put me to shame. He is also adjusted and well cared for. We’ve never discussed it but I sense there hasn’t been a change in him in that area. Most are fairly depressed having been left or abandoned. A few have found religion but I really don’t talk with them about it. We tend to talk to each other about care issues. Otherwise we like to interact “virtually” with normal people.
Locked In jokes? Well most of us can’t eat or drink but every once and a while we try something we shouldn’t. One of might say, “That scotch was to die for” and our New Years Eve toast is, Here’s choking at you.”
This reminds me a bit of what we went through 5 years ago last week when our son was born. He was born with Pierre Robin Sequence (basically a combination of small jaw and cleft palette that made it very difficult to feed him - spent the first seven months of his life in hospital and had many surgeries in that time, and we became acquainted with feeding tubes very quickly; even though he hasn’t been on feeding tubes for about 3.5 years now, I could probably pick it up again quickly if needed due to how many times I had to do it for him - my wife since got a job that requires knowledge of it (she’s an on-call paraprofessional that takes care of kids with special needs in schools.) We were prepared to take home a bunch of medical paraphernalia when he was discharged, but fortunately, just the feeding tube was needed.
You do what you have to when it’s for someone you love.
(BTW, for the curious our son is pretty much a normal just-turned-five-year-old, the only thing that sets him apart is the scars on his stomach where the feeding tube was and on his jaw where they had to do surgery to bring his jaw forward.)
OK, here’s the prompting and pleading, Blinkie’s Kid, thanks for that. It will be read with good heart and attention.
Go Ahead On, Blinkie!
Details are not required but… sex life? Any? Yeah, nosy I guess. I"m hoping it’s a simple pleasure you and wife can still enjoy.
(Don’t look at me like that, you over there - erections are a reflex, as long as the reflex arc isn’t damaged a paralyzed man might well be capable of sex. I have a cousin who married a quadriplegic and they produced four kids. Sex with the handicapped: don’t knock it 'til you’ve tried it)
Broomstick
Yes it’s possible!
Woot!
Thank you, blinkie, for joining us. You have touched us all and made us think; what higher calling could there be for a Doper?
My thoughts are prayers are with you; I know God sent you those two angels in the hospital, and the angels who help you in so many ways. I never would have gotten throug the death of my daughter if it hadn’t been for the help and especially the prayers of so many. Even strangers wrote me notes of condolence. I could never have done it by myself.
Anyway, thanks again for sharing your life — and enriching ours!
Are you published, blinkie? If not, you may not want to post your memoir on the net-free-for-all, but if you are ever published, count me in for one! 
Hi blinkie,
First let me join the chorus of welcomes and thankyous, it’s great to have you here! As others have mentioned, I think one of the most amazing things about your story is that you are able to communicate so freely with us here, and if you had chosen not to share about your condition then we may never have known. In fact that’s what my questions are about.
Your time Locked In has coincided fairly well with the rise of the internet from niche interest to the prominent role it has in our society now. Did you realise from the start that the 'net could be a useful tool or was there a certain event or a certain website that made you recognise how important it could be?
I know you said that you’re not a gamer yourself but are you aware of things like World of Warcraft and Second Life? Do you know if other people in your condition find them useful? If control is an issue, do you think you or others would play them if and when technology makes it easier?
There are disabled WoW players–here’s a recent WoW Insider article about a quadriplegic raider. (He has more movement than blinkie, though.)
Actually, I already asked and blinkie answered. Combined with his confirmation that he has “total sensation”, I think we can take it as read that he’s capable of a full and rewarding love life.
Watch the excellent documentary Murderball, about wheelchair rugby, possibly the most brutal sport ever invented. These guys talk about their sex lives and how they deal with physical limitations. You get the impression that, in some cases, they are doing better now than before their accident. There is a great scene of several of the guys talking about their pick-up technique.
Ellen Cherry
Thanks for the welcome. I offer my condolences. That is a cross I am not sure I could bear. One thing I have learned is that everyone gets to carry a burden, you just never know where or when.
Ruby
I’m not published. I wrote my story about 2 years after the stroke. At that time writing was a looot slower than my 10-15 wpm. It was one word tops. Although my family thinks it’s good I have quite a different opinion of it.
Wayward
I am not sure of how to answer your question. About 9 months into this the folks at my rehab facility hooked me up to a system that would allow me to access a computer. That in itself allowed me to begin expressing myself. But there was no internet access at the hospital and I only had access 3x a week for about 45 minutes , so I had to be satisfied writing a paragraph of mostly questions I wanted my family to ask the staff.
When I got home I got online. As someone who was really computer resistant I had no idea how much I would learn to rely on it and how it would expand my world.
Gaming for someone like me has been limited to mind numbing simple games like Tetris.
Sunday though I posted a thread on the Dope asking for help in getting involved with strategy games. The answer came the same day and I am now able to play games like Civilization.
blinkie – one possibility for publishing at least part of your memoir would be to submit it for teemings, the once and future SDMB ‘zine. (After a few years’ hiatus, I’m trying to get it started again.) See info here.
The upside: you could work with a professional editor (me). The downside: you wouldn’t get paid.
Trikster
It’s not like I’m getting paid now. Unemployment would be a step up!
Wow! Your sense of humor is amazing, Blinkie!