Once a survivor.   Now a warrior.

During the flood of New Orlean, waters crept up and ruined the foundation of the houses of the parish. An old man sat on his roof to avoid the sewage of the water. A firefighter standing in the muck called to him, “Can I help you?” “No,” said the old man, “God will help me”.…

Primo said in his book, “suffering is like a gas that you turn on in a small room or, a big room.”  Nope.  I don’t believe that.  I feel that my soul has lightness & darkness, joy & sad.   BUT, my soul has NOT changed a bit. It’s like my hand in front of…

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…

You are the Stoke Hero. Do what you can do. Everyone has their own unique expression. Loving baby-steps. You are NOT on the stopwatch approach. You are NOT on the robotic approach. You are NOT on the physician’s plateau You are a child-like being; be playful, be curious, be watchful, be emphatic about yourself &…

I have climbed a mountain. For someone like me who has survived a stroke, this has meant stepping from “stroke victim”, climbing to “stroke survivor”, and, finally, reaching the summit at “stroke warrior”.  My life post-stroke has been an adventurous journey. I have had to shed my victimhood, say goodbye to my doctors, therapists, and…

I feel like a 14 year old sashaying over grass in her high heels. I’m trying something different today; wearing sandals without my ankle brace. I’m walking around my home as I do the dishes, climb the stairs, stand up from my office chair, and hop up on my bed. While walking outside, my foot collapsed…

It’s not uncommon for “normal” people without a damaged brain to have difficulty with word retrieval.  There are several phrases for this such as Deja-vu, tip-of-the-tongue, and stuttering.   Dr. Karin Humphreys, of Canada’s McMaster University, states “the more we think about the missing word, as we are inclined to do, the more it eludes…

Your brain is a command center issuing commands to the army (your body). Imagine that some terrorists blew out one room, maybe three, with a grenade. Now imagine those “terrorists” are the blood clot. The “grenade” is the damage done by the blood clot to your host of neuron cells. No one has an answer…

Six years ago, I had a car accident. My seat belt ruptured my artery. And a blood clot went up the artery into my brain. A couple of months after that, I had a stroke. The doctors put me in a medical coma. When I came out of the coma I couldn’t remember my name.…

Americans love my Euro sounding accent. I am an anglophone who grew up in an English speaking neighborhood of Montreal and I have South African English parents. I have Foreign Accent Syndrome. I couldn’t speak after my massive stroke in 2008. Finally, around 2012, thanks to my speech therapy and the SpeakIt! iPhone app, my…

Montage “is a technique in film editing in which a series of short shots are edited into a sequence to condense space, time, and information” in a movie. It infects us because the hero is triumphant since s/he takes her or his time which is NOT showed by the use of the montage (except from…

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…

My tango teacher did a flawless position with his foot. I tried that but, my drop foot wouldn’t come off the dance floor. When I at home, climbing the stairs my drop foot goes outward & right from my core. The foot is magically transformed into the Minister of Silly Walk’s foot. Outside, wearing shoes,…