When I'm at work, my afflicted arm, Larry, is usually safely tucked away in a sling, this is to minimize any confusion when I am ringing people up, I prefer people think I'm injured over wondering why I'm only using one hand.
As a result of this, I get a lot of questions about what I did to myself, I always segway into my answer by saying,
"It's really not a very cool story..I had a stroke, so the arm is paralyzed."
The response is usually a shocked look and an inability to know how to respond to that, it's usually a pretty uncomfortable situation to be in with a stranger. I always try to deflect the discomfort with some kind of self-depricating humor, I figure, if they can see that I don't take myself or my situation too seriously, that it's not nearly as dire as it seems. Today I found myself talking with people about how thankful I am to be walking around and talking about my experience, because some stroke survivors are left with some very serious deficits when it comes to communicating and this is why I always answr The Big Question honestly, because I may be the only stroke survivor that person evermwwts who can communicate clearly about their journey and, that's an important discussion to have, in my opinion.
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