What I Wish I'd Known About Stroke Recovery, From Jill Bolte Taylor

During my stroke recovery, the thought I had and voiced frequently was, "This is a Do It Yourself project." Since then, I have not found much awareness out there about my post-stroke issues. I, too, wish someone would do a thorough study of stroke survivors. It is all too often a trial and error exercise with medications, exercises, and understanding.

Although my mom has passed on in January of 2011 - I wished my siblings would of been more understanding to mom at the age of 89 and her wanting to sleep more than be awake. Luckily she never suffered a severe stroke but continued to have ongoing TIA's, which were slowly breaking her down. Everyone was pushing mom and all I wanted her to do was just feel good whether it was her being asleep or awake (she mostly just wanted to sleep). Your article has made me feel better knowing, letting my mom sleep was the best thing for her.

As a stroke survivor myself, I tell people NOT to read this book. Taylor makes having a stroke sound like a really cool LSD trip. Believe me, It's not. I have to agree with her about some of the techniques that therapists use, there is no one size fits all therapy. I was lucky, I had minimal deficits, but my first therapist had me making a list of how to make coffee, and I was required to stand up and shake her had when she came into the lobby. As an executive with a large IT company it was all pretty demeaning stuff. My second occupational therapist was great, she took the time to understand my previous job and my personal goals to get back to work full time and tested me to discover that one of my deficits was that I could no longer multi-task which was key to my job. She developed a therapy plan that made me aware of the problem and taught me how to work around it. ( which I successfully did after about 10 weeks and returned to work full time.)

What I'd wish I'd known abourt stroke recovery. That your medical staff really has no clue how to help you recover, there are no detailed protocols, no research studies, no case studies to look up. They could have just as well said, 'We know nothing' and told us we are completely on your own to find out what works. As you notice,Jill had to do this exact process to recover on her own. When is a 20 year longitudinal study following stroke survivors going to take place? Her need for no extraneous stimulation contradicts some existing studies that suggest enhanced stimulation is helpful during the acute stage.