Dunham Family and My Stroke Story!

It is always something.... I’ve had eye floaters for as long as I can remember. My paternal grandmother had them. My brothers have them too. They’ve always been part of my vision—little drifting specks, threads, and shadows moving across my sight. Over time, you learn to live with them. Sometimes they swirl around, sometimes they settle toward the bottom of your vision, and most of the time you simply ignore them. Floaters are actually tiny clumps inside the eye that cast shadows on the retina. They’re common as we age, especially after fifty, and usually they’re harmless. Doctors will tell you that most people eventually tune them out. But sometimes they change. On Wednesday, while we were driving home from an overnight trip, something felt different. It was my left eye. The floaters suddenly looked darker, heavier, and there were flashes of light along the edge of my vision—almost like a bright crescent moon flickering on and off. At first, I tried to ignore it. After everything ...

I voted early. I have always voted on Election Day since I cast my first vote for Ronald Reagan when I was 18 years old.  That was the 1980 election. I could not stomach another four years of Jimmy Carter's inept presidency and "malaise."   I wanted to vote early this year for several reasons. I voted for myself for another term on the Board of the College of Western Idaho. I am unopposed. Tough race! My second reason is to support the CWI Bond Election. It will be a tough race because state law requires a 2/3 rd   vote. Despite the compelling need, the reactionary anti-tax voters will be voting against us. I voted early to change my luck! Third? Well. Our horrifying presidential candidates. At the voting booth, I thought I would get a vision about who is the best of the worst candidates in our history. No vision came to me. I voted begrudgingly and held my nose. The early voting at my county was crowded. The handy cardboard temporary ...

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...

When I was a kid, my parents recorded me snoring. I was embarrassed. I was about 10. Throughout my life, I routinely made sure I would not snore. Never sharing rooms, staying awake, etc. My dad snored as well.   Years ago, my doctor asked about my sleep. I thought I slept well usually. However, I realized I was often tired. My wife (bless her) is a sound sleeper but she made sure she went to sleep before me! Dunham Sleep Study 2009 In 2009, I had a sleep study. The results were startling and somewhat concerning. The  sleep doctor noted that I rarely completed a deep sleep. He said it was one of the worst cases of sleep apnea he had encountered. From the Mayo Clinic: “Sleep apnea is a potentially serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts. You may have sleep apnea if you snore loudly and you feel tired even after a full night's sleep.” I have “Obstructive sleep apnea,” the more common form that occurs when throat muscles relax. On th...

Early this morning I drove to the grocery store to get Downy. At the store, I bought bacon,  stew meat, eggs, bacon and English muffins.  This morning, I'll be making breakfast and preparing beef stew for dinner. On the way to the grocery store, I drove to to get my Mountain Dew, which is my last vice since the strokes. Returning from the store, I drove to Dutch Brothers coffee to surprise my wife with a skinny mocha. Basically, it seems like a typical Sunday morning.  The severity of my strokes two and a half years ago makes this typical Sunday morning a miracle. This typical Sunday morning belies the fact that when my strokes happened, most people -- including my doctors and therapists -- believed I would never  have that typical Sunday morning again.  Consider this morning: I got dressed. Alone. I made sure that I had my wallet, my car keys, and my phone. I drove to Jackson's, Fred Meyer and Dutch brothers. I conversed...

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...