Skip to main content

I am working on a book to chronicle my stroke and amazing recovery...

I have shared with many people my miraculous story, but, hopefully you will be able to read about it as well. I am in the process of putting together a book chronicling my struggles, triumphs and the miraculous recovery. The book, entitled "Living the life of a miracle: experiencing God's grace in the midst of a deep trial", will be in two parts. Part 1 tells a little about my history, my life before the stroke and the reality that something was not right. Part 2 will be my various blog posts since my stroke, giving a "real view" of what I felt and how I responded as I followed this journey. I am trying to make sure I include the Doctor notes and some of my MRI and CT scans in the appendices. My prayer is that it will be a good read and bring glory to God.

Comments

  1. oc1deanDecember 21, 2010 at 8:42 PM

    Good luck on the book. I'm glad to see that you are planning on including your MRI scans. The other survivor books I have read are great for showing what persistence does but without the scans you can't tell whether the recovery was easy neuroplasticity of the penumbra or hard neuroplasticity of the deadd brain functions.
    I opine on these subjects at www.oc1dean.blogspot.com
    Dean

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sometimes my new life stinks...

For the last few weeks I have been experiencing some pretty terrible headaches; not the kind that you can relieve by rubbing your temples or taking Tylenol, but headaches that radiate from the back of my head. It seems as though I have tried several things to relieve them: taking naps, lying down on heating pads, taking Tylenol, turning the lights of, etc. but nothing seems to help. Now, I don't have them all the time, only a few days a week and I can tell that they are more from muscle tightness than anything else. I have been instructed to go the ER if they flare up again, because of my past history of headaches before my stroke, but most likely it is due to the muscles that were cut in the back of my head for the Craniotomy. I would say that most days I do not struggle with headaches at all; but, the days I do have headaches they are a doozy. I don't have blurred vision with them or sensitivity to light or sound; it just hurts. As I look back over the past 3+ years I realize...
8 comments
Read more

Does it get any worse than a stroke? Yes

On December 8, 2008, my life changed forever. I had a double sided cerebellar stroke with 2 brain stem compressions. It was not until December 10, 40 hours after my stroke, that surgery was finally done to relieve the pressure. Dr. Piper, the neuro-surgeon from Iowa Methodist hospital in Des Moines, told my wife that surgery was nothing more than an attempt to save my life, but that it would not erase the deficiencies as a result of the stroke. Although she admits that she did not really understand what Dr. Piper had just said, my wife, Laura, agreed to the surgery and the care team performed a decrompessive craniotomy, to hopefully relieve the pressure and allow my brain to function somewhat normally. For those who have followed my blog for the last 14+ years, the surgery was successful, I returned to the church and I now live a relatively normal life, although I do have some pretty severe, though not always visible, defieciencies. I really thought that life could not get any worse th...
Post a Comment
Read more

A little lethargic the last couple of days....

The last couple days I have been really, unusual. I don't know exactly how to describe it. I'm tired all the time. No matter how long I sleep at night I never seem to get enough sleep. The last few days I have noticed that my eyes have been acting a little weird. I tried to explain it to someone but it is like I just can't find the words to describe it right. It is worse when I have to change my focus, when I am looking at one thing and then have to change the focus to something else it seems as though it takes just a fraction of a second to refocus. Now, a fraction of a second does not seem bad until you are driving; then it can be pretty problematic. I also noticed that I seem to get a little dizzy when I stand up. It is not something that really bothers me, but it is a little irritating. It is not bad enough that I think "Oh, no, not this again." But it is something I notice. I don't know, perhaps it is because tomorrow will be the 2 year anniversary of the...
5 comments
Read more