For whatever reason You’ve ended up here (the analysis I get says mr.google pulls me out on words like: young male, stroke, hospital) so I have accumulated a list of things that kept me sane during my 9 weeks of inpatient stroke recovery, in case other people land here looking for similar .

Phone – to have contact with the outside world/ loved ones etc, yes my speech (possibly similar for other survivors) wasn’t clear for calls but either way my one good arm could text and message and I did, a lot, I was constantly talking to my best friends, my husband, children, family when they weren’t with me

iPad / tablet – see above but bigger screen meant better for web browsing and tv, my hospital room had no tv so I could only watch Netflix, iplayer etc on my iPad In a world where your options have been massively shrunk and your options limited just choosing tv becomes huge thing.

Headphones or noise cancelling ear buds – see iPad, being able to chose some entertainment and try to close the world off a little is huge, noise cancelling is a god send at nighttime when care centres are noisy.

Eye mask especially if there’s no or tricky light controlls, to close the world out was great, I got the darkness I wanted and staff a visual queue I was sleeping which meant less wake ups for observations

Paper and pens or on reflection a small whiteboard and pens. For things I couldn’t speak or stuff I wanted to remember.

Photos I didn’t have any and it is a regret, well wishes cards I had and could partially read kept me going but photos would have made the alien environment a little softer and nicer with good memories of my loved ones

Chargers – for electronics mentioned above but extra long cables ., stroke patients probably won’t be able to plug things in or reach sockets Long chargers are an easy solution

Tissues – I was regularly a bit snotty and/or teary and nice tissues were welcome and heavily used, a runny nose is apparently quite typical. And tears to be expected.

Body wash- while I couldn’t wash myself the staff did shower me daily and having a nice non hospital body wash that smelt like me was super welcome; if my day set off clean and smelling right it changed my outlook for the whole day. My husband would once a week shave me with my electric shaver to make me look smarter too, he would do facials a couple of times a week too, properly scrub my face with nice face washes, cleansers and moisturisers so even if my body was melting away my face looked nice

Hair products I still wanted to look and feel like me and for me a dry hair powder did that

Sweets – in my case, M&S Percy pig fizzy tails – I love sour and fizzy sweets and these made me feel better and like I was at home.

Chocolate biscuits too. Small joys from the real world go such a long way.

Bedding and linens. – of course the hospital had regular bedding but it had that weird fusty smell and just weren’t as nice quality as what I have at home. I was brought

One of those big triangle pillows to keep me a bit propped up when my core was weak and stop my affected arm falling off the side of the bed, I used it for this purpose

months after coming home too.

Eventually I got a quilt and quilt cover too, something just nicer than hospital standard and more familiar.

Towels – again the hospital had them, well apart from the days they ran out and I was dried with bed sheets after sitting naked in a wet plastic shower chair for a while. But they were thin, scratchy and fusty, and regularly in short supply, having a couple of my own was like a luxury, knowing I’d always have one available and it was soft was lovely