Mike D.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
By: Mike D.

Survivor

I am affected on my right side to the extent I have been permanently disabled since my stroke in February 2004.  Since recovering from my stroke, I have primarily asked myself what can I do to live a full life, instead of being absorbed with what I can't do anymore. As a result, I have walked through jungles in Central America (with a walking stick), swam with dolphins in Mexico, gone to Hawaii several times, traveled to Israel with a church group and its pastor, and I have just finished writing a book that will be published sometime in 2011. I also like to swim, using a one-armed stroke, play cards, dominoes, and attend a writing class.

Believing one should give back, I have volunteered for several studies about stroke victims at the nationally acclaimed TIRR Hospital in the Houston Medical Center where I was treated. I have also participated in a couple of other university or drug-company studies. I was extremely athletic while in high school and college, and had maintained myself fairly well up to the stroke, which happened three days after a surgical procedure I had.

So an agile body turned into a disabled one, and it was particularly hard to adapt to being disabled. But I have no alternative, so why not make the best of a bad situation.