Dunham Family and My Stroke Story!

In an unanimous vote, the Board of the College of Western has officially supported the new trustee zone bill, HB 512 . This is a better bill than the one what was forced on us before. I supported the motion at our CWI board meeting supporting the new bill which is HB 512. I do want to draw your attention to this language: SECTION 1. That Chapter 21, Title 33, Idaho Code, be, and the same is hereby amended by the addition thereto of a NEW SECTION, to be known and designated as Section33-2104A,Idaho Code, and to read as follows: 33-2104A. COMMUNITY COLLEGE TRUSTEE  ZONES. (1) Each existing community college district shall be divided into five (5) trustee zones. Each13 trustee position on the board shall be designated to a zone so that each14 trustee zone contains one (1) designated trustee position. (7) Notwithstanding the time requirements set forth in this section, on or before July 1, 2016, the board of trustees of each community college district formed before the...

Four years ago today, I suffered an ischemic stroke. In the hospital, three days later, I had a massive stroke. I lost a lot. As I have said many times, “I miss ME.”  Nevertheless, I count my blessings every single day. I could have died. So, what I have learned during the four years of loss and recovery? I am incredibly happy and blessed! Other things: “COMMUNICATION:” It was just a word before. But, when your degree is Communication and you make your living communicating, it is doubly devastating when you cannot talk, read, write, and understand even your own name. I just wanted to say my son’s name back to him. Today, though speaking is difficult, I am blessed to share my story making speeches about stroke and possibilities.    “PATIENCE:” I was never patient. However, my body and my brain are recovering slowly. Hurry up already! “MATH:” I cannot “do” math at all.  I can read financials but I cannot “calculate.” One of my therapists said, “Math is...

Over the weekend, I did a blog post about a hospital stay last week. I was not trying to an alarmist or to say "woe is me." Rather, I try to use by blog to describe my stroke journey. My blog is published in different ways. Usually, it is just in the blog sphere. That is it. The audience is limited to readers who find it on my blog. Sometimes, I put my blog on Twitter where I have two accounts: My personal account but also the Idaho Aphasia twitter account. I have sometimes posted my blog on my Facebook account. And, also, the Idaho Aphasia Facebook page. My last blog post was about the hospital stay. In that blog posts, I wrote " I have a condition called Fibromuscular dysplasia. FMD  is a progressive twisting of the blood vessels throughout the body. It causes abnormal growth within the wall of an artery . It is rare: Fewer than 200,000 US cases per year.” It can't be cured, but treatment may help like taking blood thinners. I ended by writing that " I...

  When you have a stroke – or two and seizures like me – a simple headache causes worry. In the back of your mind, your damaged brain thinks “it is happening again!” Recently, I had some severe headaches. They were different from the headaches when I had my strokes and seizures. These were a pounding ache on the left side and the top of my head. When they started on a Sunday night, I thought “they will go away.” They did not. I took several painkillers. My head kept aching. Finally, on Wednesday, I went to the hospital where I had a MRA and a MRI. The good news, I have an intense sinus infection. I forgot that a headache could be something else other than a “brain attack.” However, we discovered that had a brain incident. Or I did NOT have a brain incident. To explain, here is what I know about my brain. I have a condition called “Fibromuscular dysplasia.” “ FMD” is a progressive twisting of the blood vessels throughout the body. It causes abnormal growt...

The Idaho  Statesman published my Guest Opinion this morning. October 29, 2015 is "World Stroke Day." I published this to help raise awareness about strokes.  The Truth About Stroke – World Stroke Day is October 29 About 800,000 people in the United States have a stroke every year and someone dies from one every four minutes. On   January 10, 2012, I had a stroke. And three days later, while in the hospital, I suffered a massive stroke. My right arm was partially paralyzed. I lost all communication: speaking and writing. I did not know my own name. Before my strokes, I was a lot like you – a busy Dad, working hard to support my family and I thought I was in good health. I was an elected official as a board member at the College of Western Idaho and Executive Director of the Associated General Contractors, a large trade association. I was a prominent state lobbyist and educator. I was a master multi-tasker making presenta...

Three recent events made me realize that I have come so far since my strokes. On the other hand, I also know what I have lost. My recovery is bittersweet. The three events were: The Western Idaho Fair The “Saving Strokes Golf Tournament” sponsored by the American Heart and Stroke Association The opening game of the Boise State football season I have gone to the fair and Boise State football games for decades. My friends and I have loved to attend those events. Those three events tested my ability to participate for many reasons.  When you have strokes, you are very sensitive to your visual and sensory perceptions. Therefore, I need to k eep distractions and noise down. The fair and the football games were sensory overload. At the fair, it was hot. People were everywhere. The sounds and the lights were intense. In addition, because of my strokes, I have vision loss. Mainly, my right peripheral vision is gone. I was careful; however, I was jostled and bump...

One of my favorite professors when I attended Boise State University was Pat Shannon. He was a business professor and taught “Statistics.” I took two semesters of his class. As the saying goes, “he wrote the book on 'Statistics.'”  Literally he wrote a noted Statistics textbook. He used HIS textbook for his class. Years later, I joked with him saying that “I did not think that it was fair to use your own textbook. How could I argue about bad examples when YOU wrote the book!” He laughed, and said, “Well, at least you got ‘A’s’ because you were a math whiz.” And I was. Math was so easy for me. All math inducing calculus, algebra, trigonometry, statistics, geometry, etc. was so simple. Several years after my conversation with Pat, I had two massive strokes. My son was in the  1 st  grade, and I could not even do his homework at all. After my strokes, I had lunch with Pat, and I told him that “I should get a refund for my math classes no...