Dunham Family and My Stroke Story!

World Stroke Day is observed on October 29. I didn’t really think about strokes until I had mine. My two strokes were caused by a torn carotid artery because of a genetic condition called fibromuscular dysplasia. The bottom line is 20% of my brain is dead and I have aphasia. I was 50 years old and in good health. This photo shows my brain scan. The white sections on my brain shows dead brain tissue. Here are some sobering strokes statistics: Stroke kills about 140,000 Americans each year--that’s 1 out of every 20 deaths. Someone in the United States has a stroke every 40 seconds.  Every 4 minutes, someone dies of stroke. Every year, more than 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke.  About 610,000 of these are first or new strokes. About 185,00 strokes--nearly 1 of 4--are in people who have had a previous stroke. About 87% of all strokes are ischemic strokes, in which blood flow to the brain is blocked. Stroke costs the United States an estimated $34 billion each yea...

Last weekend I was in Austin, Texas for a meeting. I’m on the Board of the Idaho Housing and Finance Association and this was a national meeting. During the trip to Austin, I was thinking of all the travel I used to do professionally. I was the CEO of the Idaho Association of Realtors®️, the lobbyist and a vice president at Boise State University, and the director of the Associated General Contractors in Idaho. With those jobs I also traveled throughout the state and the Northwest. That means from 1984 until January 10, 2012 I traveled extensively for work: Hundreds of flights, airports, conference rooms, and hotel rooms. One morning in Austin, I laid out my travel bag with items such as a razor and a toothbrush. I was struck about those ordinary items that are used to take for granted. In the hospital right after my massive stroke, my therapists patiently made me name those items. For toiletry items, I had to figure out how to use them. It was incredibly humbling and perp...