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    One Sided: Observations on Living with the Aftermath of Stroke and Other Unrelated Topics
    One Sided: Observations on Living with the Aftermath of Stroke and Other Unrelated Topics
    One Sided: Observations on Living with the Aftermath of Stroke and Other Unrelated Topics
    Ebook87 pages1 hour

    One Sided: Observations on Living with the Aftermath of Stroke and Other Unrelated Topics

    By P. Francis Quinn

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    About this ebook

    This book is a first- hand account of the experience of surviving a stroke and adapting to life with new limitations. It is the story from the architect-author's perspective from home to emergency room to hospital bed to transitional care and finally back home again. It is a story of hope and bewilderment from a survivor who had no reason to believe he was at risk but who found himself without the use of his dominant left side, without a job, but with a desire to help others understand the traumatic implications of this medical event and the opportunities it presents to understand our fragile nature and giving spirit.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAuthorHouse
    Release dateMay 14, 2012
    ISBN9781468594416
    One Sided: Observations on Living with the Aftermath of Stroke and Other Unrelated Topics
    Author

    P. Francis Quinn

    Patrick F. Quinn is 100%Irish, a retired architect and member of the American Institute of Architects with a degree in architecture from the University of Minnesota and an advanced graduate certificate in educational facility planning from San Diego State University. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota where he tends garden, washes his car and moves snow around his driveway.

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      Book preview

      One Sided - P. Francis Quinn

      © 2012 by P. Francis Quinn. All rights reserved.

      No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

      Published by AuthorHouse 04/16/2012

      ISBN: 978-1-4685-9439-3 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4685-9440-9 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4685-9441-6 (ebook)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2012906982

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      This book is printed on acid-free paper.

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Contents

      Dedication

      Acknowledgments

      Preface

      This Little Boat

      Of Mine

      Introduction

      A Funny

      Thing Happened

      PART ONE

      The Opposite Of Me

      The Opposite

      Of Me—Sequel

      We Are All

      Snowflakes

      The Absence

      Of Presence

      Just Do It,

      If You Can

      Saints And Sinners

      And Then

      There Is Life

      Wrong Handed And Off-Balance

      False Hope

      Faux Future

      People Of The Sea

      The Manicure

      Dilemma

      Suicide, If I Could Only Live With The Regret

      Left Side Neglect

      Competitive Napping

      Speech Therapy

      Everything’s An Opportunity

      One Lucky Man

      The Fruit Drink

      Axis Of Evil

      People Is Funny

      Et Tu Velcro

      Past Perfect Tents

      Leaving Baggage

      Behind

      Gadgets For Independence

      The Cleansing

      Some Final Words

      About The Bike

      The Purpose

      Of A Stroke

      Off Balance

      The Mentor

      PART TWO

      Follow The Way-

      I’ll Lead You

      Transparency And The Vanity Mirror

      Accountability

      Dark Matter Meteor Creates Invisible Catastrophe In Downtown St. Paul

      The Passion

      For Passion

      The Grand Irony

      Of Equity

      Stuff

      Dedication

      This is dedicated to my wife, Willie, who makes meals, keeps our life in order, holds down a job, maintains the house, has actually started the lawnmower, is my indispensable caregiver and called 911when she found me on the floor, though she had other options.

      Acknowledgments

      I must extend a warm thank you to all of my friends and relatives who have encouraged me and helped me in this first effort to write something longer than a long-range plan for an urban school district. I thank all the therapists and doctors, who gave me back my health and provided every idea contained in this book. Special thanks to my wife for her patience and my sister, Sheila Anne Gannon, for her assistance in editing the final draft. I also give a similar thanks to my friends who have taken the time to read and critique my earliest and latest versions of this manuscript. And another special thank you to Chris Kindy for working his magic and keeping my computer running.

      Preface

      Dear reader,

      At the time of writing-I am a five year survivor of a right hemisphere ischemic stroke (known as a CVA, or Cervical Vascular Accident), an unemployed architect, retired and unable to use my dominant left hand. and only begrudgingly right-handed.

      I am admittedly angry at life, but cognizant that things could be worse. Issues aside, I drive a car, ride a three wheeled recumbent bicycle (a tricycle), and thrive alone during the day. I read continuously and pepper the local newspaper with letters to the editor to correct the myriad social injustices I observe from my liberal patio or sofa.

      Argument about the correct form of this document is allowable and understandable. It is hardly poetry, and barely prose, but assuredly and at its heart nonfiction.

      Regardless, I hope you will find it useful, perceptive and possibly even amusing. Most of all, if you, too, are a stroke survivor I hope you can mine this document for nuggets of useful suggestions, or at least can gratify me by identifying with my perceptions.

      Please feel free to contact me

      Patrick F. Quinn

      wiquinn@comcast.net

      or Facebook

      St. Paul, Minnesota

      This Little Boat

      Of Mine

      Join me in rowing this metaphorical half boat. so cleverly devised to tip eternally toward its missing side. Its remaining oar can barely touch the water before its virtual centerline rolls comfortably over drenching me daily in disability

      I have tried to dive astern and grasp the rear gunwale, kicking furiously, sloppily and as effectively as I row

      My provisions have long since sunk to the bottom, where all non-buoyant things go, though I have so far survived.

      My progress is impossible to measure for no wake will form behind this craft but for the waste I leave behind

      I am a torpedo as slow as a curling star across the night sky. I am a race car, absent only its engine, a runner absent only his legs. It is a race lost, an opportunity missed, a flower seed failed to sprout.

      Driftwood salvaged from the foaming, stinky sea now forms my bed. The sea is my lady with whom I lay. I hear her smacking liquid kisses on the hull. Her contrived groans I know to be the shifting cargo I have collected from the flotsam meandering by sometimes at night, sometimes in daylight, but just within reach: the leftovers of some violent act struck from above-the Earth’s own stroke carelessly leaving lame-legged trees and rocks to practice falling, sometimes surviving.

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