Dunham Family and My Stroke Story!

When I started my blog, it was to be somewhat like a journal about my son.  For several years, the focus of my blog was my family. 20 months ago, the focus changed because of my strokes. Nevertheless  sometimes I go back to my original  idea and I  post "stuff" about my son.    One evening when we were getting ready for bed, I asked him what he would want for breakfast the next day. He said, "Corn puffs."  I said that is not a good breakfast. He said, "Dad! This is a complete, wonderful breakfast." I reminded him that when I was a kid it was called "Sugar Smacks" and the new name is a marketing ploy. Ethan responded saying, "Well, Daddy, your are old and they are very new nutritious." I was watching a PBS show called "Rick Steve's Europe." Ethan said, "What is that show? Torture?" I never told him about "Lawrence Welk" which was torture when I was a kid! Heather commented that she pulled ...

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...

When I was a child, my parents divorced, and my dad moved from Twin Falls, Idaho to Boise, Idaho.  I think that I have travelled back and forth at least 500 times….maybe 1,000 times.  A very small town called King Hill was about the midpoint. King Hill was called “King Hill” I assume because there is a large plateau that resembles a crown. Maybe that was just my analysis. But, I always assumed that town was called King Hill because of the prominent  plateau.    The concept of a therapy plateau was always a consideration. Even when I was in the hospital, the doctors and therapists cautioned me about that. At that point, I wondered about they were talking about. To have a plateau, it seems that you needed to start before you could plateau. I thought a lot about King Hill because, in my head, I was so concerned that I was going to plateau. That desert plateau represented my journey.   One of my favorite books is “ The Myth of Sisyphus.”   W...

I had another round of vision therapy today, and it is very interesting. Here is the description: A Brock string (named after Frederick W. Brock ) is an instrument used in vision therapy . It consists of a white string of approximately 10 feet in length with three small wooden beads of different colors. The Brock string is commonly employed during treatment of convergence insufficiency and other anomalies of binocular vision . It is used to develop skills of convergence as well as to disrupt suppression of one of the eyes. During therapy, the one end of the Brock string is held on the tip of the nose while the other is tied to a fixed point. The three beads are spaced out at various distances. The patient is asked to focus on one of the beads, while noting the visual input of each eye and sensation of convergence. Techniques may be made more difficult by bringing the beads closer to the nose and by employing lenses and prisms . Here is a video that you can watch:...

  I found an eye doctor who specialized with stroke and vision. I sought a doctor because I am a voracious reader, and because of my stroke, I have great difficulty reading.  Reading was my hobby, and, for work, reading is key. So, I have started a new round of therapy. I started last week, and I anticipate that it will take 6 months, two times a week. Dr. Scott Lewis describes his practice in this way:   “ What is vision therapy? You can think of vision therapy as physical therapy for the eyes and the brain. The neurological aspect is very important because the eyes are direct physical extensions of the brain. We see with our brains and minds, not just our eyes. There are plenty of web pages which give accurate definitions of vision therapy .    Here is some related information about reading and stroke:  People who have suffered a stroke can sometimes see the reading impaired. Calling this kind of alteration Acquired Dyslexia. This di...

One Year…. Yesterday, my brothers, Steve and Dirk, and I went to Twin Falls, Idaho. It was a quick trip.  We had to do some estate legal work, and after that, we went to the cemetery.  Our parents died in September, and we have not seen the headstone. It was kinda surreal.  Because we live in Boise and our parents lived in Twin Falls, it seems that they are still here.  Seeing the headstone makes it real. It seems like yesterday that my wife told me that my Mom was sick.  It was about early May.  Our step father was ill, and we knew that he would not get better, but this sudden news that both of our parents were going to die was heart wrenching. Last summer was odd. I was recovering after my stroke (still am…), and my brothers and I went to Twin Falls every week…sometimes two times a week.  There were so many fires last year, and the scenery seemed like a burnt orange Moonscape. Watching a parent’s demise was awful. It seems like r...

When you have a stroke, you need to rely on others for many things. Simple tasks are sometimes in insurmountable like tying a shoe, making dinner, personal hygiene, etc.  When you have a stroke, people want to help you which is great though sometimes a stroke survivor needs to do things for themselves. But sometimes, “people” who are most often the most close to you, seem to take for granted that survivors do recover and they have opinions which are real, well founded, rational, intelligent, and have value. It is often the case that a survivor has to deal with well-meaning people – friends and family – who seem to believe that because an individual who had a stroke is less intelligent.   When a survivor has a different opinion, it is easy for these people to say something like “well, he had a stroke you know, just humor him.”  In the eyes of others, you are less than a real person….you have diminished capacity on all fronts.  It a surviv...