Thought some of you might enjoy reading a (lengthy) article about a stroke survivor. It was posted on CNN Money on 9/9, about Sean Maloney. He was on the fast track to be the next CEO of Intel. He started having trouble writing and putting words together. Like all geeks, he googled his symptoms, and realized he was having a stroke. Technically, they were TIA’s initially, but did turn into a full blown stroke.
He was partially paralyzed (which came back fairly quickly), but he lost his ability to speak. Working with a speech therapist, he “taught” the right side of his brain to take over speaking, and had to relearn to talk again.
I think it shows what most humans can do if they are sufficiently motivated. Hope you find it good reading.
I think there are some good tips in here. When doctors say you’ll “never” do something again, try it anyway. Take as much time off as you can for rehab before going back to work. Don’t avoid an activity because it’s harder now; do it as best you can and expect small improvements to happen. The brain can create new pathways for old tasks.
But at the same time, I make sure to read most inspirational stories VERY closely, since they hide certain things and overemphasize others. For example, the article emphasizes Maloney’s effort. It doesn’t directly discuss how factors like Maloney’s wealth helped him do things like take 10 months off work…it just implies that anyone who is “sufficiently motivated” can get better through their own effort. Meanwhile, some of our friends on this site are living without insurance, without jobs, without an understanding family or friends…they are using all their inner resources just to keep their heads above water, and we should not forget that what they most urgently need is help from the outside–legal protection according to the ADA, universal health insurance, a better system of disability benefits, a changed attitude toward disability in society, etc. Maloney didn’t need most of those things, so his story appears to be a story of heroic individual effort. Individual effort isn’t going to get our neediest friends very far–in my opinion, the real challenge is for those of us who are able, to become politically active on behalf of all people with disabilities and chronic medical conditions.
Also, the idea of “sufficiently motivated” has two sides. On the one hand, it can remind us to get up and do what we know we need to do to improve or maintain function. And for people who happen to still have room to improve, that’s GREAT. On the other hand, it implies that if we haven’t reached a certain level of function, maybe it’s because we just weren’t motivated enough. Self-blame is a HUGE problem in the disability community, as is the problem of family members and friends who think we aren’t trying hard enough. The idea that we can all get better if we just get motivated adds to the problem. My husband will never walk “normally” again because of his AVM, and I won’t either (for other reasons), and this is not because we haven’t worked at it. It’s just the nature of certain injuries. Again, motivation is necessary and important, but it goes only so far. There has to be a balance between congratulating people for a job well done with their rehab, and congratulating people for getting better (which means that those of us who didn’t get better…flunked).
I hope no one reads this post as negativity…the article just made me think about some things that I hope someone out there wants to discuss!
