Left of Tomorrow (ePub)

It comes as a great shock, when suddenly from one minute to the next, we are who we are, and then we are not... 'What? You had a stroke? Well, it could not have been very serious,' an acquaintance declares, 'You look just fine to me.' 'Yes,' I reply, 'My arm is not paralysed and if I concentrate I can walk. I may look alright but I feel all left... and half lost. What I have lost is gone and will never come back, but every day is a blessing - each sunrise is a gift to celebrate my life. No longer do I put off the joys and pleasures of today, for my tomorrow may never come.' Each year in Australia, over sixty thousand people suffer from stroke. Within the first few weeks over one third of those affected die. For the survivors there is an uphill battle of physical and emotional rehabilitation - anger, confusion, grief, depression and finally, acceptance. In August 2000, Wendy Lyons suffered and survived a devastating stroke. The small bleed in the left thalamus of the mid-brain caused a permanent shift in her innate ability to interpret and process sensory perceptions on the right side of her body. How would you cope when what should feel hot to touch is cold, when silky smooth textures prickle like barbed-wire, and featherweight objects seem unusually heavy? Wendy's brain tells her these things - but her memory reminds her, and her eyes confirm, that a cat indeed has soft fur, not the concrete-like texture she now 'feels'. Eight years on, Wendy shares her daily struggle to decipher these conflicting messages with a lifetime of remembered truths. A beautifully written account of the personal journey through stroke recovery which enlightens, encourages and uplifts the soul.