Don’t Have a Stroke–Read About It!

In ‘My Stroke of Insight’ Jill Taylor, a neuroscientist with a PhD, details from a scientific as well as a personal point of view what it was like to have a massive stroke.  Her particular stroke destroyed part of the left side (speech and logical thinking) of her brain.  Before her stroke at age 37, she was at a high point of her career and she would have known all about what was happening to her.  She wrote the book after her painfully difficult recovery which took eight years.

She was lucky to have professional friends and family who helped her through an almost super-human effort following her stroke.  It’s important to realize the difficulty of rehabilitation following a stroke.

After a few years of primary progressive MS my symptoms were stroke-like.  My left side of my body was extremely week.  I struggled to walk with a cane and a leg brace.  My Doctor sent me to a state-of-the-art stroke rehabilitation program for two intensive weeks.  It was multi-disciplinary, it was comprehensive, and it was exhausting.  Imagine trying to make your earlobes bend.  That’s what it seems like you’re up against when you try to find new pathways in your brain.  I have enormous respect for what Jill Taylor has accomplished.  Few people could do it.

Jill Taylor has managed to recover much of her pre-stroke former brilliance.  It is inspiring and informative to learn what she went through.  I have a few problems with her writing style and with some of her insights.  But, they are minor compared with the book as a whole.