Half a Mind to ..

Life after brain injury – one small victory at a time.

Tag: stroke

  • Insight 040 Small problems too big

    Insight 040 Small problems too big

    Some small problems are now too big to fit in working memory (Insight 040)

    Before my brain injury, I rarely thought about thinking.

    Like most people, I simply got on with it.

    If someone asked me to multiply 17 by 13, I would mentally break the problem into smaller pieces. Ten times seventeen is 170. Three times seventeen is 51. Add them together and the answer is 221.

    The arithmetic is straightforward. What matters is that the intermediate results have to be held somewhere while the calculation is being completed.

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  • A South Pole Record, and a Shared Story of Stroke  

    A South Pole Record, and a Shared Story of Stroke  

    There are moments in life when something remarkable happens “out there” in the world…
    and yet it feels strangely close to home.

    Recently my nephew Jonny Huntington became a three-time Guinness World Record holder. He is now recognised as the first disabled person to ski solo and unsupported to the South Pole.

    That sentence alone feels almost too large to take in.

    But for me, it lands somewhere quieter.

    Because Jonny and I share something that doesn’t make headlines.
    We have both had strokes.
    And we both live with what that leaves behind.

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