Dunham Family and My Stroke Story!

When I started my blog, it was to be somewhat like a journal about my son.  For several years, the focus of my blog was my family. 20 months ago, the focus changed because of my strokes. Nevertheless  sometimes I go back to my original  idea and I  post "stuff" about my son.    One evening when we were getting ready for bed, I asked him what he would want for breakfast the next day. He said, "Corn puffs."  I said that is not a good breakfast. He said, "Dad! This is a complete, wonderful breakfast." I reminded him that when I was a kid it was called "Sugar Smacks" and the new name is a marketing ploy. Ethan responded saying, "Well, Daddy, your are old and they are very new nutritious." I was watching a PBS show called "Rick Steve's Europe." Ethan said, "What is that show? Torture?" I never told him about "Lawrence Welk" which was torture when I was a kid! Heather commented that she pulled ...

Last June, a year ago, I went to the Idaho State University's aphasia group for a two-week intensive therapy session. There were eight participants and we all had varying degrees of difficulty with communication and other things. For two weeks we all heard our stroke stories. We shared tears and joy. It was heartwarming and heart wrenching at the same time. So what is aphasia? Here is a very good definition: Aphasia is an impairment of language, affecting the production or comprehension of speech and the ability to read or write. Aphasia is always due to injury to the brain-most commonly from a stroke, particularly in older individuals. But brain injuries resulting in aphasia may also arise from head trauma, from brain tumors, or from infections. Aphasia can be so severe as to make communication with the patient almost impossible, or it can be very mild. It may affect mainly a single aspect of language use, such as the ability to retrieve the names of objects, or th...

When I was a child, my parents divorced, and my dad moved from Twin Falls, Idaho to Boise, Idaho.  I think that I have travelled back and forth at least 500 times….maybe 1,000 times.  A very small town called King Hill was about the midpoint. King Hill was called “King Hill” I assume because there is a large plateau that resembles a crown. Maybe that was just my analysis. But, I always assumed that town was called King Hill because of the prominent  plateau.    The concept of a therapy plateau was always a consideration. Even when I was in the hospital, the doctors and therapists cautioned me about that. At that point, I wondered about they were talking about. To have a plateau, it seems that you needed to start before you could plateau. I thought a lot about King Hill because, in my head, I was so concerned that I was going to plateau. That desert plateau represented my journey.   One of my favorite books is “ The Myth of Sisyphus.”   W...