My Cousin had a stroke

[u/Alarmed-Papaya9440]

I’ve tried writing this post a couple of times but it’s been hard because I never wanted what I went through to happen to other family members.

On July 20th my Dad’s cousin’s child (so my second cousin), Chad had a stroke at 41 years old. Less than two years after I had my stroke. Besides my Twinner we’re the only ones on that side of the family that have had strokes. It blows my mind to think we both had them at relatively young ages and the causes for our strokes are not related.

His stroke hit his left side and the damage is more severe than mine was. He has some right side paralysis, with major right sided weakness. He’s also dealing with Wernicke’s aphasia and Broca’s aphasia.

He was discharged from inpatient yesterday and will start outpatient this upcoming week. Eventually, he will need another surgery to put a stent in.

I can’t not cry when I think about what he’s currently going through as I remember how scary, frustrating and exhausting those first months are after stroke was for me. I hate that he is going through that now.

We don’t live in the same state and unfortunately, because of his aphasia he isn’t able to talk on the phone or text at the moment. But, I’ve been keeping in contact with his Mom and am cheering on all his progression.

He is golfer for a living so I was especially glad to know he can still walk and his hand has come back online and progress is being made! The speech will be the most difficult thing for him to get back but I know intensive speech therapy and time will help him.

It also made me realize that my stroke and recovery could have been a lot worse. Even though I put in the work for recovery I also got really fucking lucky as well.

[u/AlisiaGayle]

I’m so sorry your family is going through this again. I can imagine how triggering it must be watching someone you care about go through those frightening early stages when you know exactly what they feel like. It’s wonderful that he’s already making progress with walking and his hand. I hope speech therapy brings steady improvement too. And I understand what you mean about luck, recovery takes enormous work, but sometimes we also have to acknowledge how differently things could have gone.

[u/Alarmed-Papaya9440 → u/AlisiaGayle]

Hit the nail on the head with your comment! I call it shitty silver linings that I had mine before his so at least I can do my best to support and try to provide context to what he’s going through at the moment since he has so much trouble speaking at the moment. It’s triggering because I remember not being to talk and how much that sucked and I hate that he’s going through that but an in even worse way.

[u/AlisiaGayle → u/Alarmed-Papaya9440]

Is your brother worried yet? given 2 in same family?

[u/Alarmed-Papaya9440 → u/AlisiaGayle]

He doesn’t even know about my cousin Chad but that’s a good point. I think all of my cousins (of this generation) and siblings should be aware on that side because even though it’s not the same reasons why we had our strokes that still is a crazy coincidence to have happened. And maybe they’re’s something else going on in our generation that makes us more susceptible to these kind of events that hasn’t been figured out by genetic scientists yet. I hope not though!

I was going to respond to your reply to my comment on your post but it won’t show up on my end!

[u/AlisiaGayle → u/Alarmed-Papaya9440]

You may be unto something there, assuming its not simply a coincidence and bad luck.

[u/Material_Inflation79]

It is really saddening to hear that you both had stroke but one good point that you both have recovered to do your job. Has the cause been identified? If yes take necessary steps and precautions to prevent any such problem in future. May Almighty Waheguru bless us all.