10.2.12

Playing With LEGO

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Made a LEGO Red Car today at my weekly Stroke-rehab session (my personal blood-pressure is still frustratingly above the limit - even after increased medical dosage prescribed by my Stroke Doctor - but i reckon it still needs time for the pills to react...) and enjoyed every moment of it - lifted my dampened spirits, it did! Even needing to finger+find the mini-bits-n-pieces of the construct, with my chubby Stroke-fingers, was pretty fun!

Near everyone had mentioned that I was doing something that they wished they had a chance to do when they were young, and that got me thinking quite a bit - that if given the opportunity, I'd wish everyone had a chance to "play" with the LEGO-bricks, for both the recovering patients (like myself) and others more healthy in body. The chance to "play", at whatever age group one is in, is an important part of "life" folks tend to give up in adulthood (and I do not mean folks who already "collect toys" in the first place ;p).

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For folks like myself, the act requires eye and hand co-ordination (there is a guidebook showing steps all thru the way) along with the visual recognition of the pieces. Believe you me, what you take for granted - stacking colored plastic blocks on each other may not be as easy a task for folks with impaired physical abilities. Regular "play", is in some cases, yet another physical task that needs to be conquered as well.

I like the LEGO builds in the rehab center. I had previously done a BUS before (twice) and today was this red roadster, which had openable doors, and hoods! And the sense of finishing a vehicular structure, with wheels running along the table-top, no doubt would be an invigorating sense of satisfaction for whomever builds the unit, methinks! And that is something that is really beneficial to the mindset of a recovery, as it is one of those tasks that creates a instant response at the end of the effort.

And completing a build may well cater to the sense of "accomplishment" - however small they might be compared to the patient's ailment - as accomplishments might be few and far in-between on the road to recovery, IMHO.

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Me, I have a chance to play with LEGO and relive a slice of my childhood that I have not had the opportunity to in adulthood (sadly it had to be because of Stroke lol). I envy some of my friends who dwell in the realms of LEGO, and reckon LEGO builds are not just for kids, but much for adults as well. Now I just need to now what I need to do, to get some free LEGO sets! LOL

(All images posted here are courtesy of my therapist Jessie Chui ~ and thanks to Pauline Khoo for the LEGO-"treatment", and for letting me play with LEGO hahahaha)