Today I ran into my daughter's 4th grade teacher. As we were chatting, she told me that she was grading a recent test and one of the answers made her cry. In Social Studies, they are talking about planning events and how it might not happen exactly as was planned. On the test, the question asked was "Name a time that you planned something that did not happen the way you expected." My daughter wrote that she had been planning a birthday party, but then her daddy had a stroke so it did not happen. I almost fell apart at the school; I have spent so much time focusing on my own difficulties that I did not take the time to think how others are still dealing with the situation. Yes, it was nearly 2 years ago, but that does not erase the difficulties that some have had dealing with the result of that event. So, thanks Mrs. Kamp for reminding me that, even though I sometimes do not hear about those difficulties, it does not mean they do not exist.
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
Your stroke happened 2 years ago? I thought it just happened this year. My mom had a mini stroke this past summer (she's 76). She's doing fine now even though she now has diabetes ans is in heart failure. Whenever she forgets something or makes a stupid mistake she jokes around saying "after all I did have a stroke" and we laugh it off. Maybe you need to think about other things. Your stroke i your whole life now.
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