Dunham Family and My Stroke Story!

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...

After my strokes three years ago, I remember one of my many doctors and/or therapists saying something like “If you had to have a stroke, you are much better off than if it happened even a  decade ago.” There have been so many advances in stroke and aphasia rehab. Rather than stroke survivors not getting intense rehab, many stroke survivors did not have a lot of hope. Sit on the couch! I do remember one doctors telling my family and me that my second stroke was so severe I probably could not do much. “Them are fightin’ words!” In the 80% of my brain that is left, I continue with my recovery. The biggest problem is aphasia. I have blogged about it probably too much. For example: When I wrote this word “probably” I  actually wrote “problely.” I knew it was not correct. In my head, I was trying to type “probably.” Nevertheless, I typed “problely.” The very useful Microsoft Word tool suggested “ potbelly” instead.  So, I cheated and used “Siri” on my iP...

This morning, from 10:30 to Noon, at St. Lukes in Meridian Idaho, I participated in the “Aphasia, Apraxia, and Dysarthria Support Group” started a year ago through Idaho State University. We meet weekly.  So, what is wrong with us? Aphasia is the name given to a collection of language disorders caused by damage to the brain. A requirement for a diagnosis of aphasia is that, prior to the illness or injury, the person's language skills were normal. The difficulties of people with aphasia can range from occasional trouble finding words to losing the ability to speak, read, or write, but does not affect intelligence. This also affects visual language such as sign language . The term "aphasia" implies a problem with one or more functions that are essential and specific to language function. It is not usually used when the language problem is a result of a more peripheral motor or sensory difficulty, such as paralysis affecting the speech muscles or a general hear...

My brothers have been a big influence in my life. My brothers are different in some ways but similar in so many ways. I am the youngest of the four brothers, and I learned a lot from them. When I was in the 8 th grade preparing to preregister for 9th grade at O’Leary Junior High, one of my brothers suggested that I should take typing in the 9 th grade not the 10th grade which was normal. He took typing in the 10th grade. He said the typing teacher at Twin Falls High School had some issues with him. It involved a sandwich and electric typewriters. It seems that my brother did not really like typing, the teacher, and perhaps school in general. The fact that the typing teacher had been teaching since the early 40’s predating electric typewriters was not the issue. It seems that my brother took a bite out of her sandwich when she was not looking and he also sabotaged one of the electric typewriters. I took his advice and took typing in the 9 th grade. I knew my brot...

I met a man almost two years ago named Jack. We met at an aphasia therapy group organized by the Speech Pathology Department at Idaho State University. I was one of 8 participants for a 2 week program designed to help people who have Aphasia. The National Aphasia Association defines our condition this way: What is aphasia?  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 the ability to put words together into sentences, or the ability to read. More commonly, howe...

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...