Recommended: My Stroke of Insight

Many years ago I had the opportunity to drive my grandmother, then in her late 80’s, to her doctor. She had suffered a minor stroke or two and didn’t talk much by then, but as we drove along I asked her a question. No response. The silence dragged on, and then, perhaps 3-4 minutes after I had asked her the question, to my astonishment, she gave me a perfectly coherent answer. That began a long conversation between us, punctuated by long silences while she processed what I had just said or asked – but a perfectly coherent conversation. I have wondered about that for years now, wondering just what was going on in her brain.

Now I have just read the book My Stroke of Insight, by Dr. Jill Taylor, a neuroanatomist who suffered a stroke in her mid-thirties and has been able to write a book about the experience as she witnessed it from the inside. In the hours after the stroke in her left hemisphere she lost many of her faculties, but her right hemisphere was able to watch and observe the whole process, and now a decade later she has recovered and written a fascinating book about the experience, from onset through years of recovery, both from the point of view of a neuroanatomist and from the point of view of a victim.

This is a book everyone should read, since almost all of us will either suffer a stroke sometimes in our life, or know someone who suffers a stroke. I wish I had read this book before the experience with my grandmother – I would have understood what was going on and how she was experiencing the conversation. Particularly important are the things Dr. Taylor learned about how to help stroke victims recover – things we ought to know if we ever suffer a stroke or need to help someone close to us recover from a stroke.

I can’t recommend this book highly enough!