Posts by Alon Kaplan
13th anniversary of my stroke
Today, December 3rd, I celebrate my 13th anniversary of my catastrophic massive stroke due to a car accident brought on by a texting addict who was distracted and plowed her car into my minivan. Texting while driving is the equivalent of being drunk… The brain surgeon told my family that, “Alon is a vegetable”.I awoke…
Continue ReadingHow I came to love my damaged brain: The ancient stroke story and a newly-improved ancient stroke story.
Could things have turned out differently? Perhaps. Normally, the brain surgeons would have had “the Merci Retrieval System an FDA-cleared device for restoring blood flow in the neurovasculature by removing blood clots in patients experiencing ischemic stroke”. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2TNz-TniIA). Or, if after the car accident, I would have gone to the ER and complained about my…
Continue ReadingHow I came to love my damaged brain
My pre-Stroke tragedy On a Thursday afternoon, August 14 2008, a young woman on hercellphone ran a stop sign and smashed her blue car into the driver’sside of my white minivan. My three daughters were secured in their carseats in the back. All that I had to secure me during the crash was afaulty seat…
Continue ReadingMy paradise, vol 2
Well, the teenager went off to California to road trip. My hippy friend was a over-grown angst teenager; He wanted to slacked-off. So, I decided that I want to wrestle with the Tennessee field stones, crushed-up gravels and a huge enormous bag of pebbles. In May 2020, I dragged cardboards out of my neighbor’s garden…
Continue ReadingI don’t need any pity
When I woke up from my coma, which lasted 6 days, I didn’t need any pity. Sure, I was clueless about my catastrophic massive stroke. However, I didn’t know who I was. I mean. Literally. Who am I? I didn’t know who I am. I didn’t know what place this hospital room was. I didn’t…
Continue ReadingMy paradise (my garden)
I and my friend, John Wolf, and a grumpy teenagers hauled cardboard, fruit saplings, huge boulders, river stones and Tennessee field stones to build a sanctuary for little birds, angry whistle pigs, a perfect-setting for a turtle and me. I wondered if my AlonTree’s products contribute as I hopped from stone to stone, balancing my…
Continue ReadingJust imagine what the nurses are going through…
I just went to my afternoon walk. I put on my mask and away I went on two miles of bumpy pavements, uphills & downhills. Ashevillians walking around on the Main Street. Nothing protecting them just bare skin. One of them could have been the silent carrier. I thought to myself, how the hell are…
Continue ReadingBeing here
I have been on an epic rollercoaster, known as my life. Let me delved into a Zen Buddhist koan about a person walking through the jungle and he see a ferocious tiger bounding after the man. Suddenly, he trip and falls over the edge of the ravine. He grabs a root as he free-falls. There…
Continue ReadingThe four fatalities of my adult life
My ex-wife divorced me one year after my stroke, took away my children, and my livelihood. My massive stroke took away the use of the right side of my body, and I was mute. Experiencing just one of the above events would have melted the pre-stroke Alon into an anxious numb entity. What’s changed? I…
Continue ReadingNeuroplasticity
In 2008, I had a catastrophic massive stroke in the left hemisphere of my brain due to a car accident. I was 40 years old but I couldn’t talk, write, or access my short-term memory. I couldn’t use the right side of my body. My damaged brain’s map couldn’t access the muscle groups in my…
Continue Reading