Stroke facts: Your first time in public since your stroke.
It’s your first time in public since your stroke. Your body is still a little funny. You look a bit like the Leaning Tower of Pisa and now and then - you still drool a little.
You round a corner of an aisle at Walmart being careful not to fall down. A little girl about three years old looks up at you. Her eyes widen like she’s just seen the real life Frankenstein. She runs behind her mommy, peeks out and whines, “Mommie!!!! He’s scary!”
How do you handle stuff like that? You know you look weird. You hate looking at yourself in the mirror because the person looking back isn’t the person you remember. In some ways, you understand how she feels and probably scream yourself.
So what do you do? I have no idea, I was hoping you had an answer. What I did after my stroke though, was try to avoid little kids. It was the only solution I could come up with. After all, how do you explain to a three year old that you’ve had a stroke when one - they won’t understand and two - they can talk better than you can. So, avoid them.
Bigger kids are easier. There was a little boy who came up and asked what was wrong with me. His mother nearly died, but I loved it that he asked, and he asked because he really wanted to know.
Once more I was back to wondering how to explain it. Here’s how the conversation went:
Me: I had a stroke.
Kid: What’s a stroke?
Me: (I grin.) A big brain fart.
(kid starts giggling)
Me: Brain farts make you look ridiculous. (Now I’m laughing.)
(kid giggles some more)
Meanwhile, his mother is in the background not sure whether to laugh or not.
I thanked him for asking and we went our separate ways.
You know, it’s tempting when people ask what’s wrong to tell them our story. Sometimes we just want and need to get it off our chest, but out in public isn’t the time or place to do it.
Instead, a simple answer works best. “I’ve had a massive brain fart and frankly - it stinks.”
Leave a Comment