Gary Needs Help Since His Stroke

Help. Stroke survivors struggle with many issues, some issues are longterm - as I am finding out for myself. I am about to become homeless in 2 weeks, if I am lucky, even though I am on social security now. I am struggling to find Affordable Housing where I live, but have not found anything yet. If you can help me with the process of getting into Affordable Housing please let me know ASAP. (Update 2023/11/07: a friend has offered to let me stay with them for a few months or so just a few miles from where I am currently living. I am so thankful for my friends! Now, to get the packing and moving done.)

Any assistance you might be able to share will be greatly appreciated. Thank you so very much for any help.

Trauma and disability manifest differently for each of us. Far too often folks assume we stroke survivors are “fine” because in their eyes, we “look fine”. For us stroke survivors, our injury and disabilities are inside our brain and cannot be seen or detected by other folks, unless our stroke resulted in some sort of physical paralysis that you can see.

I cannot tell you how many times I have heard folks say to me: you “look fine”. Well, of course I look fine, because you cannot see that the part of my brain that died when I had a stroke. No one else can see I had a stroke unless they look at an MRI of my brain. Consequently, each stroke survivor struggles with similar or even very different issues, that you cannot observe by simply looking at our outside appearance. However, our struggles with our disabilities are very real, and we live with these disabilities daily for the rest of our lives. Yes, some stroke survivors seem to recover most of what they had prior to their stroke - if they were lucky enough to get medical assistance within 4 hours of having their stroke.

In my case, 9 days passed before anyone took me to a hospital to see what was wrong with me and why I had been laying in bed comatose for those 9 days. Since my stroke it has taken me over 6 years to realize that my ability to focus and remember things has been greatly reduced compared to before my stroke. There are still many times when I simply draw a blank when I try to do something I know I used to do as second nature.

Also, my ability to concentrate has been greatly reduced since my stroke.

It has taken me these past 6 years to realize these conditions are not improving. Post stroke I am not able to do many things like I did prior to my stroke - I simply draw a blank. I continue to struggle to focus my attention, concentrate and function throughout the hours I am awake. Some think that I seem to not be able to remember a lot of things, daily.

If you think these issues generate much frustration and disappointment, you would be correct.

I cannot tell you what I do not know. My stroke has damaged my brain, but I cannot tell you just how or what the damage is, nor can I tell you what now, I do not know.

This is a very simple concept. However, for stroke survivors not only have we lost some of what we used to know, but also we may not be able to focus our attention, concentrate along with lost memories and functions like we used to prior to having a stroke. These are issues I continue to struggle with.

Any assistance you might be able to share will be greatly appreciated. Thank you so very much for any help.

GoFundMe is http://http://gofundme.com/f/gary-needs-help-since-his-stroke