Here are some words that I said right after my stroke: What I was trying to say: outpatient What I actually said: amphibian
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When I see so many images of chaos and destruction, it makes my problems seem terribly small.
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"Look at my eyes. I said, my eyes."
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Often it is hard to feel glamorous when you are disabled. Sometimes it is hard to feel glamorous when you are not disabled.
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A month or so after brain surgery, whenever I looked at a large white space, like a blank wall, for a moment it would be covered with scrawls
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Stroke victims often wear an ankle brace on the bad leg. Women particularly hate their ankle brace.
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I was not a patient person before my stroke. I am now. Your view of time shifts as your mind and body reboot, ever so slowly.
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I watched while my friends did extraordinary things. They discovered planets, became doctors and lawyers, started companies, had kids.
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At the rehab hospital, there was a boy patient of about 14 years old. He had been hit by a car whose driver was talking on a cell phone.
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Despite my stroke, I am charming and well-adjusted.
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“Neuroplasticity — the brain’s capacity to create new pathways — is a crucial part of recovery for anyone who loses a sense or a cognitive or motor ability....I have seen hundreds of patients with various deficits — strokes, Parkinson’s and even dementia — learn to do things in new ways"
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Right after my stroke, I said lots of bloopers. I called my friend Helen "Halibut."
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