[Eric A. Taylor (OP)]

Last Saturday morning my father woke to find my mother stumbling drunkenly around the room and her speech was very slurred. As my parents are both Mormons they don't drink or use drugs. Fortunately my father knew right away she was having a stroke and took her to the hospital right away. The ER in town happens to be the stroke center for the Pacific Northwest.

She was home from the hospital by Monday and is doing really quite well considering. She has quite a lot of weakness on her right side. On Sunday when she tried to feed herself some yogurt. She turned the spoon upside down and poked herself in the eye. This was not even a little bit funny!!!

Today I went to see her and found her knitting!!!!! not very well but she was doing it. And her speech has improved to the point she only slurs when she's tired.

My father told me why "stroke" scares him so badly. When he was a child, a family friend suffered a stroke and never uttered another word in his life, nor moved at all. His brain (thought process) was still intact. He was fully aware but unable to move or speak.

I wondered why a stroke inflicts some with so much damage while leaving others only a small bit effected.

Please don't reply to this with well wishes. I greatly appreciate the thought, but this is not really the place for that sort of thing. If you still want to send well wishes please send them to me by private message.

And if you're wondering....42 very happy years this month.

[RD]

I wondered why a stroke inflicts some with so much damage while leaving others only a small bit effected.

Different areas of the brain are affected causing different disabilities, the effects can be transient.

... a family friend suffered a stroke and never uttered another word in his life, nor moved at all.
His brain (thought process) was still intact. He was fully aware but unable to move or speak.

That sounds like "locked-in syndrome".