 Two years ago and three months I had a stroke and I was only 42 so I was very devastated at the time and the reason I was 42 I don't know my family doesn't have a stroke in it I don't know what happened to me and my doctor says he doesn't know why I had a stroke so as you can see I'm sort of paralysed in one hand and paralysed in one leg if I don't have my ABO on so after rehab and I can't say rehabilitation for 12 weeks in the hospital I went home before that I found out I'd no longer have my license and that was devastating for me because one thing I knew was in my years of driving I haven't had drink driving I hadn't had anything wrong and that was really really hard for me to do so by the end of the year I thought I have to go for my license again so by the end of the year so in between the year I have lots of rehab as well and I can't stop it and all other stuff so in my car I have Fiona who come along and she assess my license and she said no you'll be fine you can have your license so I say yay I have my license but I then I realized that I didn't really have my license because now I have to get all the stuff on the left hand side so I have to get a steering knob on the left hand side I can't just have a normal car I have to have brake and accelerator on the left hand side not the right hand side I no longer to could have a manual car I had to have an automatic and so that was a bit of a shock for me as well because I had a manual car so I gave it to my daughter then I had to go to VicRoads again to get my license done again because although they had a good license on the back they had to go on what I had to do to have my license so I had to have a manual automatic car I had to have these and that blah blah blah so so also alright so I'll get someone else to drive me up to VicRoads and get my license get done again then I felt like I needed a new car not my second-hand car so I've went up to Ford and tried out Ford Focus the reason I had Ford Focus not a Fiesta because it's too small to fit my sorry wheelchair in thank you Peter to fit my wheelchair in as well so I have to go up one size and get that then I had to go to sweeps in and see if they can update there and get all that stuff in it it nearly cost four thousand dollars to get all updated to that so that was pretty sad for me because now I know that if one of you said to me oh come on and you drive my car I said no I can't because I won't have all the stuff I need so that was a bit disappointing about oh well that that will have to do so when I finally got it from Ford Ford when I finally got it from Ford then I had to go to the mechanic to get it fixed so finally on the 1st of July last year yay I've got my license I've got I can I can freedom anything I want with my car I can't help I can't tell you what that freedom means to have this aid to get in my car and go where I want when I want hooray so I could take my daughter to work I could go and visit my parents instead them coming to visit me I could go for you set friends etc so it's just amazing but two months later having drive in my car I went up to the QE and I did my swimming and then I did my speech therapy and then I had one I had one more thing I had to do was to get to Centrelink and get the form in and then I could go home and relax for the rest of the day well in Centrelink I said I waited for half an hour just to get this form in and half an hour of standing at Centrelink was not a very good idea no one came and asked me would I like to see somewhere so I just waited waited waited for half an hour so one o'clock I said hooray now I'm going home but unfortunately I will put it in reverse and I well I hoped I backed out I don't know what I did then because next thing I know I was in an ambulance so I don't know how long I was there I don't know anything so then I come up here to the base hospital the policemen came and saw me and he said you have to have six months of driving six months I nearly died then I saw the neurologist at the base and she said no you have to have six months of driving then I went and saw my local GP and he said no you have to have six months off driving I said one two three so I'm devastated I have to have six months of driving so now what does not driving mean to me for two years now I haven't had my license apart from that two months I have not have my license every day I wake up and I look out the front window at my car and it's just sitting there and every morning I say I miss you car I'm gonna come back to you one day but it's not today I have the loss of independence again it was terrible to think I now had to rely on my mom or dad or my daughter or my friend Peter or otherwise a taxi so it's not very nice it means the loss of my independence I didn't I couldn't go out anywhere and I didn't want to go out anywhere I was very frustrated because to think I have my license now and now I don't have it for six months I was very angry as well because yeah I missed I missed that independence as well it's very hard to for me to say to you most of you I imagine would have your license I end up on depression because I couldn't rely on my parents every day to come and see me which is fine and plus who wants to see their parents every day my children I've changed the thing because my children live in Geelong so it's only once in a while they get up to see me in Balorat and even though they come and see me they also have 21st to go to and things like that so I have to ask for help occasionally so I have to ask my mom can you please get my shopping for me I have to ask my friends if they want to can we go out for a coffee but I'm sorry can you pick me up I have to get a taxi I fortunately I have a half price but it's still a lot of money when you're going somewhere and always in a taxi so I try not to get taxi every day except for the QE and back I wanted a scooter like so I can drive myself around I asked for one 15 months ago I still haven't got it so in terms of that I can't really go into the shops and all that because my leg won't take me all that way so it's very hard as well each December my doctor has to say yes or no if I can still drive so that's another point so now I'm into seven months of waiting for my license back and I still don't have it back so it's nearly four weeks over due and there's no news so is if there is a doctor in this house come and see me later and I'll talk you about it thank you very much