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Corax · 02-26-2004, 07:56 AM

Hi Brian,

I don’t usually join forums, I don’t usually have the time to keep up with them, but I had to join when I saw your story.

To give you a little hope. I recently watched a program on Discover channel that had a segment with a woman who was a brain specialist at (if I remember right) Harvard Medical. She had a stroke, left hemisphere, and it took her nearly two hours to dial the phone to call her work for help. She said knew what was happening to her but some things, like dialing the phone, didn’t make sense to her. She couldn’t figure out what to do with the numbers. To make a long story short, she made an excellent recovery. They interviewed her and if you just met here on the street you would never know she had a stroke. The brain is an amazing thing, if connections are broken, it starts trying to rebuild those connection and bypass the damaged parts. The right half of her brain eventually took over the functions that were lost in the Left half. That’s not to say there weren’t consequences. She no longer practices medicine, her interests and talents now lie in the artistic side. She makes beautiful pictures of the brain in stained glass. She says her personality has changed some, she is much more artistic and less logical and regimented than she used to be. It was incredible to see her. She was obviously still very intelligent, and was very articulate. It was very interesting and can hopefully give you some hope of a recovery. If anyone can find a way to get it to you, or maybe you could find a transcript or something online the show was the series: Understanding, and was about the human brain.

Your wife has several things going for her.
1. She’s young, the connections are easier to rebuild in young people.
2. She’s female (women naturally use their brains more evenly on the two sides than men, so one side can more easily take up the slack if something goes wrong with the other.
3. She has a loving Husband and Family.
4. She has a new baby she wants to get to know.
5. The fact that she is already talking in complete sentences is a good sign.

Even if she can’t speak or doesn’t seem fully aware of what is going on, she may very well be fully aware, but be unable to express herself normally. Keep talking to her. Talk to her about the good times, funny stories about the kids, things you did when you were dating. Stimulate her brain to start making those new connections, and re-connect to the tings that weren’t damaged but were cut off when the cells around them were damaged. Don’t give up! If you have a bunch of home movies, show those to her, whatever you have to do to get the information flowing again.

Good luck,

You are in my thoughts… (why else would I be writing this at 5:00am)

02-26-2004, 07:56 AM	#87
Corax Cooling Neophyte Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Bellingham, WA Posts: 4	Hi Brian, I don’t usually join forums, I don’t usually have the time to keep up with them, but I had to join when I saw your story. To give you a little hope. I recently watched a program on Discover channel that had a segment with a woman who was a brain specialist at (if I remember right) Harvard Medical. She had a stroke, left hemisphere, and it took her nearly two hours to dial the phone to call her work for help. She said knew what was happening to her but some things, like dialing the phone, didn’t make sense to her. She couldn’t figure out what to do with the numbers. To make a long story short, she made an excellent recovery. They interviewed her and if you just met here on the street you would never know she had a stroke. The brain is an amazing thing, if connections are broken, it starts trying to rebuild those connection and bypass the damaged parts. The right half of her brain eventually took over the functions that were lost in the Left half. That’s not to say there weren’t consequences. She no longer practices medicine, her interests and talents now lie in the artistic side. She makes beautiful pictures of the brain in stained glass. She says her personality has changed some, she is much more artistic and less logical and regimented than she used to be. It was incredible to see her. She was obviously still very intelligent, and was very articulate. It was very interesting and can hopefully give you some hope of a recovery. If anyone can find a way to get it to you, or maybe you could find a transcript or something online the show was the series: Understanding, and was about the human brain. Your wife has several things going for her. 1. She’s young, the connections are easier to rebuild in young people. 2. She’s female (women naturally use their brains more evenly on the two sides than men, so one side can more easily take up the slack if something goes wrong with the other. 3. She has a loving Husband and Family. 4. She has a new baby she wants to get to know. 5. The fact that she is already talking in complete sentences is a good sign. Even if she can’t speak or doesn’t seem fully aware of what is going on, she may very well be fully aware, but be unable to express herself normally. Keep talking to her. Talk to her about the good times, funny stories about the kids, things you did when you were dating. Stimulate her brain to start making those new connections, and re-connect to the tings that weren’t damaged but were cut off when the cells around them were damaged. Don’t give up! If you have a bunch of home movies, show those to her, whatever you have to do to get the information flowing again. Good luck, You are in my thoughts… (why else would I be writing this at 5:00am)