Once a survivor.   Now a warrior.

Stroke Hero People who had a stroke BUT didn’t feel that they weren’t a “stroke victim” or, “stroke survivor”. They wanted to show themselves and the world that they were able to build their muscles and their brain by using brain building exercises, muscles building exercise and they know that their brains’ neurons were able…

A Man stands in a boulder and scrub-grass strewn desert watching sheep. He is an unlikely shepherd; a tall, handsome Man of about thirty, obviously brought up in luxury and not used to this kind of life. The other shepherds his age, with their weather beaten faces and toothless grins, could easily pass for the…

I thought you will intrigue by my orally sentence structure. Last December, I printed out the alphabet suffix pages. Wherever I sit down for breakfast, I usually take three or six big words. I study them by orally saying them 3 times with my SpeakIt! or, not. It’s changed my ability to connect my thoughts…

In October, 2008, about two months before my coma, I wrote this letter to my old friend.     I looked at your photos… you look so happy! Your eyes are on fire. It brought me back to the time you took me to dinner in Boston for my birthday and we spoke about me becoming…

Kintsukuroi (“golden mend”) is the Japanese art of mending broken pottery using lacquer resin laced with gold or silver. As well as a nifty form of repair, kintsukuroi has a deeper philosophical significance. I have mended my body and my mind. Before, too along ago, I was captive for my crazymaker personas.  That was before my…

Do you know what the hardest word to say for me is?   Silk.   First, my tongue draws back to the ‘Eeessss’ then, slides across the mouth and double loop-de-loop to say, ‘eeeee’. Then rounds it up around the palate and ‘laaaa’ and drop down to say, ‘ka’. Confusion reigns in my brain and…

So, Alon and I were talking about what it means to be “handicapped.” This term in itself to me is not derogatory. I have a friend who in her 50’s backpacked the entire Pacific Crest trail, which is over 1,000 miles. On parts of her hike, she had groups of people who joined her. One…

What is ‘neuroplasticity’? And how can I get some? What is the relationship between my neuroplasticity and stroke? First of all, you need to learn about neurons to make the connection between your neuroplasticity and stroke. A neuron “is an electrically excitable cell that processes and transmits information to other neurons through electrical and chemical…

I wonder what a medieval gravedigger might feel if a stroke survivor who “woke up” from being in a coma inside his grave. Someone who talked in gibberish and crawled out of his grave to limp after the gravediggers who are running away. “Zombies” are in fact, stroke survivors who’s family piled them up top…

Baby steps are measured in months and years. Mademoiselle Violin decided she was going to pick up the violin and, what-the-heck, play it. What’s transcribed in her YouTube video is magical and shows hard work (conquers all!). I have been doing ecstatic dance for some time now.  Recently, a guy from my ecstatic dance came…

Americans love my euro-sounding accent. I was from Montreal. But, I was an anglophone who grew up in English-speaking neighborhood of Montreal and I’ve got South African English parents. I have Foreign Accent Symptom. I couldn’t speak after my massive stroke in 2008. Finally, around 2012, my speech therapy, SpeakIt! (iPhone app) and my book…

  Poetry I wrote between my car accident & my stroke. 9/22/2008 When you told me that loved him, You turned on a particle accelerator and blew my atoms to bits. I did not know what was inside, thank you for giving me back to myself. ~~~~~~~~ I love the way your face shines when…

I wanted to hire an acrobat to be my coach to help with stroke rehabilitation. I was flipping through Instragram, that smartphone app that “is a fun and quirky way to share your life with friends through a series of pictures.”  I found Cassie.  She was lying on the floor, balancing her adult student upon…