Are my strokes 6 1/2 years ago, I attended some local stroke support groups. As my brain cleared through the months, I became more aware of my conditions.
I wanted to explore "me." What is Aphasia? What are the statistics? How can I reach out to other survivors?
I started to do some online research about strokes and aphasia. Though reading was still difficult, I researched as much as I could. I wanted more.
"More" in the sense that I wanted to reach out to people like me: Younger stroke survivors with Aphasia. When I would attend stroke support groups, most of the time the survivors were much older than me. I craved interaction with people who could understand my issues.
And I had many issues. I lost my career and my income. I had a young son. Lost my identity in a sense. How was I going to fill up my days? With Aphasia, not even pursue my hobbies such as reading and woodworking.
I do love my older stroke survivor friends, but most of the people who attend stroke survivor groups are all retired people. Several of my younger survivors talked about decades of illness, boredom, worrying about money, etc.
I was 50 years old when my strokes happened. I was on the top of my game and in one instant I crashed and burned. Was I going to deal with this for another 35 or 40 years?
I needed something different to look forward to. I wanted more resources to help me.
Again I searched the Internet. Out of the blue, Facebook I found out that there are so many stroke and Aphasia support groups online.
Though the survivors are essentially strangers to me, we have been connected through this exclusive club that nobody wants to join: survivors.
Despite Facebook flaws, I have joined so many stroke and aphasia support groups on Facebook. I often get tips and support.
O
ften, I support others are going through tough times.
At the same time, Idaho State University conducted intense two week aphasia workshop. I was a participant in June of 2012. It was a great program with one and one and group activities. The eight participants had different degrees of Aphasia.Two years later, ISU asked several participants to start a new local stroke and aphasia group. Four of us are grade and with the university’s resources we started. Three months later, we were on our own.
I became the chair of the group several years ago. I was committed to use technology to help people. I started the Idaho Aphasia Facebook page.
Every week, try to put more content on our Facebook page. Most every day, I have posted videos some sort.
Often the content is through other aphasia and stroke support Facebook pages.
Through my own Idaho Aphasia stroke support group on Facebook, I have reached more people then I ever could’ve imagined.
Last week, I did my own presentation at our group. I go to school sometimes talk about stroke, aphasia, recovery and hope. I put my presentation on YouTube and posted it on many other Facebook stroke groups. As a result, more than 800 people throughout the world have watched my presentation.
Through technology, online stroke support resources, and YouTube videos isolation of stroke and aphasia is better than I thought.
I’m so grateful that I have these friends all of the world share my same story.
Comments