Book List

You may be interested in the following books which have been written by stroke survivors about their personal experiences. They should be available from good bookshops or alternatively, you may find it easier to order through an online bookseller such as www.amazon.co.uk

List prices quoted are correct Feb. 2000 (But may have increased since then)

My Year Off - Rediscovering Life After Stroke - by Robert McCrum

When I was just 42 I suffered a stroke. Paralysed on my left side and unable to walk, I was confined to hospital for 3 months, then spent a year recovering, slowly getting myself back into the world. If there was one organisation that helped me to face up to what had happened it was Different Strokes.

When I was seriously ill in hospital, I longed to read a book that would tell me what I might expect in convalescence, and perhaps also give me something to think about. There are many books about stroke in old age, but I was young and had been vigorous and there was nothing that spoke to me in my distress. For several weeks I lay in the National Hospital, Queen Square, Central London, with "why me?" resounding through my consciousness. Slowly "why me?" became "if me, ?". And then I began to form the idea of writing about the horror of my experience from within, a kind of worm's eye view of a catastrophic illness that might provide help for those who had suffered as I did.

I wanted to explore the unmentionables of stroke: the rage and the depression, the crying and the fear of the night. I wanted to acknowledge the sense of shame and indignity that afflicts the stroke sufferer, young or old. I wanted to tell the health care workers what it felt like to feel suddenly on the scrap heap of life. I wanted stroke doctors to know that the medical profession's refusal to commit itself to an interpretative prognosis with very many stroke patients can be a source of immense anger and frustration. Also, more positively, I wanted to record my opinion that, if my example is to be trusted, the brain seems to be an astonishingly resilient organ, and once capable, in certain circumstances, of remarkable regeneration. That was when, in my head, I began to write "My Year Off".

Coping With Mild Traumatic Brain Injury - Dr Diane Roberts Stoler

Dr. Diane, a health psychologist and professional speaker in America, sustained a stroke from a cerebral bleed and two traumatic brain injuries (a car accident and brain surgery). Her book describes the most common physical, mental and psychological symptoms of brain injury, explaining why each occurs and what can be done about it, as well as offering practical suggestions for coping with the problem. Also covered are financial, insurance and family issues; the rehabilitation process; and eventual outcomes.

Return to Ithaca - Barbara Newborn

When she was 21 years old Barbara Newborn's dreams of teaching English and getting married were cruelly shattered when she suffered a severe stroke. Her world changed overnight. One day she was an independent, happy and carefree young woman, the next she was paralysed, had lost the ability to think or communicate, and was a stranger even to herself. Written from the stroke sufferer's point of view, this is an autobiographical account of a young woman's recovery from the effects of a severe stroke.

I'm Not Stupid, Just Disabled - Some Serious Chitchat about Life After A Stroke - Wolfgang Haufe

This is not just another book about a CVA. It is an easy to understand and easy to read account of not only one, but several stroke survivors' experiences. The inclusion of several case studies and other people's ordeals make not only for compelling reading, but provide the platform for a better understanding of stroke by other stroke survivors, caregivers, and the general public. It is set in 14 point, considering readers with double vision or poor eye sight.

For more info, check out http://www.insbook.multiservers.com
or e-mail the author at bbw@clear.net.nz

Stroke of Luck - Ian Thorpe

In the summer of 1997 Ian Thorpe, aged forty seven and at the top of a career in Information Technology flew back to Manchester from a week working in Stockholm. On the journey he felt unwell, drained and exhausted. Being only two weeks from the end of his contract he was looking forward to a long holiday. Ian did not make the flight to Sweden the following Monday. Paralysed by a massive stroke he was to spend eight months in hospital and rehabilitation. Conventional medical opinion is that after suffering such serious brain damage, little recovery is possible and after six months improvement will only be slight. "Do not build false expectations" said one doctor when the possibility of living a full and productive life again was mentioned, "you will end up disappointed and bitter. Let us help you learn to live with your disabilities."

Living with disability did not sound like a game Ian wanted to play and he set about learning as much as possible about the condition and managing his own recovery. When it was first suggested he write a book about that recovery in order to share with others an attitude that conquered the gargantuan task of regaining his physical ability, Ian was appalled, he had planned a new career as a writier but intended to fulfill an ambition cherished from childhood by writing fiction. Eventually resistance to the idea was worn down. One of the things that changed his mind was the glut of commercially published self - help or recovery books. "I read some," he says, "they are appallingly tacky, mostly the work of opportunists and commercial interests eager to cash in on the victim culture promoted by the psychotherapy industry. When I made up my mind that because people were being abandoned by medical authorities and needed a guiding light I would write about my recovery and the way I motivated myself it was with the proviso that I would never personally make money from it and that anybody recovering from brain trauma would be able to get the book free."

The full length memoir of Ian's recovery can be downloaded for free from his website


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