by Isaac Peterson
193 pages, publication date December 8, 2023.
Isaac Peterson was lucky in that his verbal and intellectual abilities survived a major stroke intact. The rest of us are lucky in that Isaac always had superior verbal and intellectual skills, and was more than willing to share with us what it means to survive a stroke, or a traumatic brain injury.
Isaac and I go back a ways, to the 90s, when we both were writing columns for Bartcop. Bartcop was one of the rare liberal voices on the web in those days, and one of the best satirical and strident. He was the online version of Jon Stewart. Isaac’s essays were more journalistic (he was a prize-winning journalist) whereas mine were more ironic and humor oriented. We each developed a respect for the other’s work.
When I learned of Isaac’s stroke in November of 2016, I called him in his hospital room and we spoke for about 15 minutes. It was a rather bad time overall; Trump had just won the election, and I was taking care of my mother, who was suffering from dementia. But when we concluded our call, my first thought was a relatively cheery one: “He’s going to be OK.” Obviously I didn’t have any medical basis for this, but I could sense a spirit of determination in his words, and even though it was clear he was still working out what had happened to him, it was obvious he wasn’t about to lie down and quit.
I won’t say I stopped worrying about him, but I took it as a given that he would continue to play an active and positive role in the lives of others, including his friends in our online group.
And that’s how it has worked out. Our lives are the better for it.
Isaac had an AVM (arterio-venous malformation), a congenital condition that caused a weak spot in his brain’s circulation, and a high blood pressure condition triggered a blowout. He suffered a hemorrhagic stroke which he notes in his preface is an event often fatal or severely disabling in older black males. So his initial prognosis was a grim one, involving a need for 24 hour care and little hope for any sort of personal independence. Fortunately, the outlook presented was a generic one-guess-fits-all sort. People who have strokes of that size usually do end up dead or as invalids. Of course, no two strokes are alike, the brain being an incredibly complex and surprisingly adaptive mechanism. But the other factor an initial outlook can’t adequately address is the spirit and character of the person who suffered the stroke. If still alive and capable of awareness, is the person a victim, or a survivor?
Isaac doesn’t use the word ‘victim’; not in relation to himself, and not about other TBI survivors.
Kim Thompson, self described non-profit communications professional, writer, editor and caregiver, was an employee at a blog called Brain Energy Support Team, or BEST. She was responsible for organizing and publishing their social media. Also, although she encouraged and supported Isaac from day one, the one who pushed him into writing (before I felt up to it) was Jeff Hartson, facilitator of the BEST TBI support group. The results have been spectacular, as Isaac has submitted 400 entries, knowledgeable, insightful, often profound, sometimes funny, sometimes emotionally searing.
Isaac curated 44 of his best for Brainstorming.
You may be a TBI/stroke survivor yourself. You almost certainly have friends or family members who have had TBIs. You certainly will come face to face with America’s most common injury/mishap. Knowing what a stroke or TBI entails, how to deal with it, either as a survivor or as someone close to the person, should be an essential part of your skillset for getting through life.
Isaac Peterson’s book is a brilliant place to begin. You can find more of his essays here. (https://www.brainenergysupportteam.org/archives/18309)
Now available at Amazon in Kindle and Paperback.