Skip to main content

Three years ago today....

It seems like yesterday that my first stroke happened. It has been three years ago today. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOAFIUx5S6c


I mark the days since my strokes differently now. It used to be days. Then months. Now years.


I could use my time like this Pink Floyd sang, "Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day. Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way."

Is that what I have been doing? I do not think so.


I cannot be bored. I need to be useful and have a purpose. I need to be busy!


However, my body and mind have limitations.


On Christmas Eve, I had a "incident." Neurologists call those incident a "brain attack." Nice euphemism until it is YOUR brain. 


Before Christmas, I had some headaches and it was compounded with being dizzy, minor chest pains, and a sore left wrist. Normally, I would not think about this. However, given my history, I told my wife. Then we called my neurologist.


Back to the St. Al's ER! Great.....

After several hours, the tests were in. I am fine.

Since that time, my neurologist suggested I cut down on my activities. "Schedule your board meetings in the morning and be done about Noon."
That is not realistic for many reasons. 

I am just one person. I cannot expected the other people to make concessions for me. 

And second, I will not give in to my strokes. I will continue to beat the expectations for stroke and seizures survivors. 

I will live my life like another Pink Floyd song: "The Great Gig in the Sky:"


"And I am not frightened of dying, any time will do, I don't mind. Why should I be frightened of dying? There's no reason for it, you've gotta go sometime." 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

The Two Faces of the American Dream

The massive wave of Norwegian immigration to Minnesota from the 1850s through the early 20th century wasn't a casual choice; it was an escape from crushing land scarcity and economic desperation.  My ancestors, the Dunhams, arrived in 1851 and built a life in Otter Tail County in Minnesota. My great-great-grandfather, Jens Christian Dunham, didn’t just survive—he thrived. He served in the Minnesota legislature as a Republican from 1888 to 1890 and later became a staunch advocate for President Teddy Roosevelt. He was the literal embodiment of the American Dream: an immigrant who fled poverty to become a lawmaker in his new home. Fast forward a century, and a new wave of immigrants—this time from Somalia—is following that exact same blueprint. Like the Norwegians before them, they fled hardship to build a future in Minnesota, and many have run for office to serve the state that welcomed them. Yet, the political rhetoric surrounding these two groups couldn't be more polarized. Don...

Phantom Blindness and Taking a Break after Strokes

I met with my eye doctor last week about taking some time off from my vision therapy. I have been doing therapy since my stroke almost two and a half years ago. I am tired, and a need a break. My doctor said, “This is completely understandable. Take some time off.” At the appointment, my doctor tested my vision. Because of the strokes, my vision was affected, and I have a problem in my field of vision on the right side. I have a deficit with my right side peripheral vision. However, it is getting better. During the test, I told him that I “sense things on the right side of my peripheral vision.” It seems that I know that something is there, but I cannot really distinguish what it is. He told me that there is a body of thought describing phantom vision or phantom blindness. A Polish researcher, L. Bieganowski, described this phantom blindness this way:    “The subject of the paper is the phenomenon of phantom vision. It occurs among the blind (or almost blind...

Greek orthodox and Catholic‘s

Being a history buff, I’ve always understood that the Catholic Church was split in about 1000 A.D. Our Greek tour guide mentioned the differences a little bit yesterday, but she did not capture the full history. Today I saw a small Greek orthodox by the roadside and I’m going to insert about the history. Eastern Orthodox Catholics and Roman Catholics are the result of what is known as the East-West Schism (or Great Schism) of 1054, when medieval Christianity split into two branches. The Byzantine split with Roman Catholicism came about when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne, King of the Franks, as Holy Roman Emperor in 800. From the Byzantine viewpoint, this was a slap to the Eastern Emperor and the Byzantine Empire itself — an empire that had withstood barbarian invasions and upheld the faith for centuries. After Rome fell in 476, Byzantium was the only vestige of the Holy Roman Empire. Charlemagne’s crowning made the Byzantine Emperor redundant, and relations between the East and...