Stacks of caution signs with the word "anger" on them

Coping with Anger

One day you’re going about your day and  minding your own business. Next thing you know something happens, out of the blue, and suddenly you have a traumatic brain injury.  And suddenly, although you had always been calm and mild mannered, you have anger issues.  When I first got my stroke-related brain injury, I found (more…)

A graphic of a diverse group of people. Text reads: May is Stroke Awareness Month.

May is Stroke Awareness Month

  May is Stroke Awareness Month.  Our longtime BEST blogger, Isaac Peterson is a writer, advocate and stroke survivor who has offered important information, resources, tips, inspiration and hope for so many on these blog pages.  We urge you to click here to check out Isaac’s library of articles, essays, and more. You’ll be glad (more…)

a tabby cat and a border collie posing together

Pet Health: Know the Signs of Stroke

I wrote an article a couple of years ago concerning traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in household pets, but it looks like I didn’t go quite far enough.  The previous article was about TBI overall in pets; this article looks at causes of a particular cause of TBI in pets: strokes. The following information shares how (more…)

A person gazing up a starry night sky in the forest at the top of a hill

My BEST Story: Support, Opportunity and Hope

It wasn’t until I had been discharged from a month-long hospital stay in 2016 after experiencing a major stroke that I had even heard of the Brain Energy Support Team (BEST). For some reason I don’t really know or understand, I decided to get into a support group. The social worker at the hospital gave (more…)

Stars in the sky and a quote from the author: of course I will recover. I still have amazing things to do.

Five Years

I have an anniversary coming up, one I’m more than happy to celebrate.  November 8th marks five years since I lived through a major stroke. I’ve written here before that that’s a day I should never be able to forget, but instead it’s a day I’ll never remember. But I’m not worried about that—the fact (more…)

Person looking to the stars

Now I’m Here

I keep getting comments and questions about how I survived a huge stroke, and continue to not just recover, but to thrive since then. The other day it came up again, and my friend quipped that if surviving a stroke was an Olympic event, I’d take the gold.  That quip stayed in the back of (more…)