The Unseen Effects of Stroke

When my father had his stroke his official diagnosis was a massive right middle cerebral artery stroke. This meant little to us at the time. We all wondered at Dad's ability to remember stories from his childhood, early adult years and his retired life with my Mom and growing family of grandchildren. We were then thrown into the world of superbacteria, the devastating effects of c diff, and our father's emergency surgery. As Dad has gotten stronger we are beginning to see the effects of his stroke and I have learned much more about the temporal lobe, parietal lobe, and insular cortex than I ever wanted to know.

We are all getting to know a Dad who is very familiar to us and at the same time a stranger. Dad has always been a quiet reflective man, but now he talks up a storm. The torrent comes whether he is in one of his therapy sessions or talking with us. Dad has always been a dutiful man. He served in two wars, rarely took a day off from work, is devoted to my mother, and takes care of himself following whatever orders his doctor might give. He now shows disinterest in his therapies preferring to sleep or talk about his family. While Dad can verbalize his desire to be home and his feelings about having to stay in a hospital, when it comes to recognizing the emotions in others he draws a blank. He has difficulty maintaining his attention and concentration is a struggle. This lack of concentration affects everything he does, even interfering with swallowing. As I am sitting here I realize he talks freely about his touch and go c diff hospitalization but has not mentioned his stroke or it's effects and ignores us when we discuss it.

The doctors talk about aprosodia, anosognosia, and neglect. They discuss auditory comprehension, lability, and post-stroke fatigue. I am beginning to learn what the doctors are saying when they speak this "foreign language." In many ways I am grateful for the research that has been done so they can actually name stroke symptoms, tells us specifically what part of brain they come from, and develop a treatment plan to help either remediate or cope with the damage. On the other hand with these symptoms unnamed it is easier to just look at my father, listen to the stories, and pretend he is my Daddy once again.