Neuro Note #1

I chose to watch the documentary, My Beautiful Broken Brain for my first neuro note. This powerful documentary is about a 34 year old British woman who sustained a hemorrhagic stroke. I chose this because after completing the diagnosis snapshot on cerebrovascular accidents this past week I wanted to see how someone perceives their experiences and life after a stroke. The young woman, Lotje, had her stroke at only 34 years old and she explained how the onset of it took place. Lotje says she was woken up from her sleep to extreme pain in her head that caused her to fade in and out of consciousness. Her life before the stroke was very busy and family and friends claimed that she was always multitasking and working. After having emergency surgery to relieve some of the pressure on her brain her recovery process was very interesting. In the first few weeks following her stroke she was discharged from the hospital and her rehab team consisted of speech therapy and occupational therapy. It was clear that Lotje was experiencing aphasia, she would become very upset during some sessions because she was unable to express herself through words or not be able to think of the name of an object even though she could recognize it. Lotje also records herself throughout the recovery process, which I found very interesting because she was say that she needed to record everything because she knew she was forgetting a lot of things. I thought this was interesting because even through she was forgetful, on some level she knew she needed to record things and could remember to do so. She also tries to explain how her vision has been impaired by the stroke. She tells us that her  vision out of her left eye is normal but her vision out of the right eye seems to be seeing things in somewhat of a euphoric state or hallucinations. As the documentary goes on it is clear to see the improvements in Lotje's speech and her processing skills as she carries on conversations. Although Lotje makes substantial progress during the year following the stroke she still knows that she is not her old self anymore. She comments that she is enjoying her new life and her new self, and that she is at peace knowing she won't go back to the person that she once was. This really stuck with me because I have wondered what the emotional healing process is like for someone who has had a stroke and hearing her thoughts about herself gave me a lot of insight about a person's metacognition. I really learned a lot from this documentary and would recommend it to anyone who would like to know more about strokes through the survivor's eyes.

Reference 

Robinson, S., Sodderland, L.(Directors). (2016). My Beautiful Broken Brain [Motion Picture].                               Retrieved from https://www.netflix.com.

Retrieved from: https://www.netflix.com/Title/80049951