With One Hand Tied behind My Brain: A Memoir of Life after Stroke

This memoir will force you to laugh through a tragedy, then cry, then laugh again, as it follows Avrel Seale's journey through a stroke, brain surgery, and recovery. It provides a revealing critique of the hospital experience, insurance industry, and rehab culture and showcases the struggles and possibilities of life after a stroke in twenty-first-century America.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 272 pages
Publication date: 30 November 2020
Publisher: Texas Christian University Press,U.S.

Avrel Seale was a fifty-year-old man who led a healthy lifestyle, abstaining from smoking and drinking, maintaining low blood pressure, and having completed over two hundred miles of hiking the previous year. However, his life took an unexpected turn when he suffered a stroke that nearly ended his life. In an instant, he was transported into the body of an old man, experiencing a range of physical impairments such as unbalance, shakiness, spasticity, and partial paralysis. Overnight, he found himself immersed in a world of brain surgeons, nurses, insurance case managers, and an abundance of therapists.

To set the stage for his memoir, Seale takes us back three weeks before his stroke, providing a minute-by-minute account of the harrowing day of his stroke and emergency brain surgery. We follow him through the intensive care unit (ICU), a rehabilitation hospital, and a neuro-recovery group-living center, where he meets a memorable cast of other stroke survivors, as well as individuals recovering from auto accidents and gunshot wounds. Finally, he returns home, embarking on a new chapter of his life filled with firsts, including returning to work, driving, playing guitar, camping, and even writing a book, all with one hand.

What emerges from Seale's humor, which is both elegant and devastating, is a revealing critique of the hospital experience, the insurance industry, and rehab culture. Through his unwavering pursuit of recovery, he showcases the sobering struggles and inspiring possibilities of life after a stroke in twenty-first-century America.

This memoir is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the power of humor to overcome adversity. It serves as a reminder that even in the face of tragedy, there is always hope for a brighter future. Avrel Seale's story is a powerful reminder that we should never give up on ourselves and that our lives are precious and worth living to the fullest.

Weight: 390g
Dimension: 152 x 229 x 22 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780875657646