Archive for June 2016
The woman who changed her brain
“Barbara Arrowsmith Young (born November 28, 1951) is a Canadian author, entrepreneur and lecturer. She is the founder of the Arrowsmith School in Toronto and the controversial Arrowsmith Program which forms the basis of the school’s teaching method. In 2012 she published The Woman Who Changed Her Brain which combines an autobiographical account of her…
Continue ReadingWhy emojis are so important
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…
Continue ReadingImpossible – Mohammad Ali
“Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary.…
Continue ReadingFisher Price People
Years ago, my occupational therapists would say I was using my affected arm and hand during my therapy sessions. However, my therapists were actually using facilitated communication to help me use my affected arm and hand. Medicare insurance paid for a S****Retch. What a disappointment! My unaffected hand did 99.99% of the work with the…
Continue ReadingAphasia – A 1980 arcade game
I used to design greeting cards, board games, costumes, program websites and write screenplays. Now, my AlonTree team and I design neurological devices, games and equipment in Asheville, NC. I knew about aphasia after reading Oliver Sacks’ book, The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. But, seriously, having aphasia is like playing a…
Continue ReadingThe art of being broken
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 my stroke, I was held captive by my crazy personas. Post-stroke, I was puzzled…
Continue ReadingJewish sarcasm
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”.…
Continue ReadingReflections through poetry
These selected poems were written after my car accident and stroke 9/22/2008 When you told me that you 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…
Continue ReadingTwenty Years Before I Discovered my Aphasia, I researched an Essay on Global Aphasia
On December 8, 2008, I was unconscious. I lay there in the ICU in a medical coma. The brain surgeon was completely exhausted He wept to my parents, “He had a fist-sized blood clot in his left hemisphere of his brain. What we’re seeing is a catastrophic massive stroke”. He was carefully pointing out that…
Continue ReadingTwo Months Before I Slipped Into a Coma
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…
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