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What My Stroke Taught Me

nautil.us

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Re: What My Stroke Taught Me

#11

Post by blawson »

bertlequant wrote: post #2

It's been really hard seeing my dad after he had a stroke. Someone who used to be so physically active, now seems so fragile when he walks. The hardest part for him is how drastically his life changed. One day he was working and had a career he enjoyed, the next day he would never be able to work again in that field in his former capacity (medicine). It has shown me how resilient people are, because even though there…

How tragic. Does he work with a speech language pathologist? I understand they can help meaningfully improve communication abilities in stroke patients.

Re: What My Stroke Taught Me

#12

Post by abalone »

jimmywanger wrote: post #4

Having a stroke is not a whole lot of fun. There were two things. First, is the absolute helplessness and your forced infantilism. The bathroom is probably the most dangerous room in the house for you (you're not allowed anywhere close to the kitchen) and depending on your symptoms, you're not able to situate yourself on the toilet or wipe yourself properly. Having somebody else wipe your ass when you're an adult is…

You are very fortunate that those are the two things. All strokes are different and many can fundamentally alter speech, vision, movement, comprehension, personality, the ability to swallow, you name it.

Checking blood pressure is good advice, but worth noting that strokes can happen to anyone in perfect health, for example AVMs and many aneurysms (like in this article).

Re: What My Stroke Taught Me

#13

Post by abalone »

blawson wrote: post #11
bertlequant wrote: post #2

It's been really hard seeing my dad after he had a stroke. Someone who used to be so physically active, now seems so fragile when he walks. The hardest part for him is how drastically his life changed. One day he was working and had a career he enjoyed, the next day he would never be able to work again in that field in his former capacity (medicine). It has shown me how resilient people are, because even though there…

How tragic. Does he work with a speech language pathologist? I understand they can help meaningfully improve communication abilities in stroke patients.

Depends on the stroke. Some people fully recover, some people are left with permanent deficits despite therapy, some die.

Re: What My Stroke Taught Me

#14

Post by throwaway5752 »

bertlequant wrote: post #2

It's been really hard seeing my dad after he had a stroke. Someone who used to be so physically active, now seems so fragile when he walks. The hardest part for him is how drastically his life changed. One day he was working and had a career he enjoyed, the next day he would never be able to work again in that field in his former capacity (medicine). It has shown me how resilient people are, because even though there…

"even though there is a perceptible lag in his speech, he is still there as he always was"

Wonderful to hear, given the possible spectrum of outcomes. May your father recover further.

Re: What My Stroke Taught Me

#15

Post by nhangen »

My father was living on his own (around 65 years old) and suffered through what we discovered was a combination of 8-9 mini-strokes. What's worse is that his doctor did not notice, and they went untreated for over a year. He's now living with someone that is taking care of him full time, but his speech/motor functions are permanently damaged, and as someone said below, the best description of his life is "forced infantilism."

He's now been diagnosed with Parkinson's as well, which I've read can be caused by strokes.

Two years ago I had an active/involved father that played golf 3 days/week. Now I hardly recognize him. It's traumatic.

Re: What My Stroke Taught Me

#16

Post by mistermann »

nhangen wrote: post #15

My father was living on his own (around 65 years old) and suffered through what we discovered was a combination of 8-9 mini-strokes. What's worse is that his doctor did not notice, and they went untreated for over a year. He's now living with someone that is taking care of him full time, but his speech/motor functions are permanently damaged, and as someone said below, the best description of his life is "forced infa…

While it may be difficult for you, if your father's perception of the situation is similar to that of the author's, maybe it's not so traumatic after all, in a big picture sense.

Re: What My Stroke Taught Me

#17

Post by mistermann »

golemotron wrote: post #6
jimmywanger wrote: post #4

Having a stroke is not a whole lot of fun. There were two things. First, is the absolute helplessness and your forced infantilism. The bathroom is probably the most dangerous room in the house for you (you're not allowed anywhere close to the kitchen) and depending on your symptoms, you're not able to situate yourself on the toilet or wipe yourself properly. Having somebody else wipe your ass when you're an adult is…

All strokes are different. The author makes hers sound like the silencing of the default mode network [1]. That's something meditators strive for. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Default_mode_network

I'm off to do some googling on this, but if you happen to know of any particularly good articles or anything else (keywords, etc) that might help I would appreciate it!

Re: What My Stroke Taught Me

#18

Post by elastic_church »

That was a really fascinating perspective, becoming so infantile and less of a constant conscious that cares about anything, yet emerging from that state over years and having the recollection of it and the comparisons to a more relatable form of humanity.

Re: What My Stroke Taught Me

#19

Post by jimmywanger »

plg wrote: post #7
jimmywanger wrote: post #4

Having a stroke is not a whole lot of fun. There were two things. First, is the absolute helplessness and your forced infantilism. The bathroom is probably the most dangerous room in the house for you (you're not allowed anywhere close to the kitchen) and depending on your symptoms, you're not able to situate yourself on the toilet or wipe yourself properly. Having somebody else wipe your ass when you're an adult is…

re: bathroom --- what about Japanese-style auto-clean, auto-dry toilets?

The way they're set up is not very useful. First, the ones I've used either have a wireless control panel mounted somewhere you have to flip down a little panel to use, or little controls attached to the seat, which require that you turn your body and operate the controls with one hand. Depending on how you're impaired, if the hand you need to control the toilet is not functioning, you're kind of hosed.

Second, if you have any mental impairment, are you really going to go through menus with small icons to control the temperature and pressure of a stream of water directed to your nether parts?

Finally, the auto-clean/auto-dry toilets still generally require one last wipe to clean up. Think about it this way, if you're baking a cake, and if you smear frosting on your arm, are you just going to rinse your arm with water and call it day, or are you going to rinse it and then wipe the area dry with a towel?

Re: What My Stroke Taught Me

#20

Post by dotancohen »

jimmywanger wrote: post #19
plg wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

re: bathroom --- what about Japanese-style auto-clean, auto-dry toilets?

The way they're set up is not very useful. First, the ones I've used either have a wireless control panel mounted somewhere you have to flip down a little panel to use, or little controls attached to the seat, which require that you turn your body and operate the controls with one hand. Depending on how you're impaired, if the hand you need to control the toilet is not functioning, you're kind of hosed. Second, if yo…

> you're kind of hosed.

That's the whole idea!

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