Stroke and Me
Navigating Stroke and uncertainty — finding hope in a long-lost skill from childhood.
Sometimes I feel like I can write like a famous author, painting beautiful pictures with words. Other times, it’s like I’m just learning to write again, struggling to put my thoughts into words. It can be both embarrassing and frustrating.
Having a stroke can be like suddenly waking up in a world where everything looks the same but feels unfamiliar and foreign at the same time. Simple tasks that once came naturally become daunting challenges. I remember just last week trying to fix my earrings, a task I’d done countless times before, and feeling lost, as if the familiar motions had been erased from my memory. I had to ask my Mum to do it for me and she is in her 80's.
Recalling events at times have become like grasping at mist, with memories slipping through my fingers like grains of sand. Walking, once a fluid and effortless movement, now requires the aid of a cane or walker, each step a careful negotiation with gravity.
Even something as seemingly simple as understanding spatial distances becomes a puzzle, with objects appearing closer or farther away than they truly are. It’s a journey of relearning, of rediscovering the world through a new lens, where every triumph, no matter how small, feels like a victory against the encroaching shadows of uncertainty…
