Can't Believe it's Been Ten Years

Today we celebrate 10 years since Jake survived his burst brain aneurysm and subsequent stroke. But with that comes a bit of sadness as we are quickly approaching the halfway point in Jake's life pre/post stroke. After December 1st, he will have lived with the effects from his stroke more than without.

I was going through pictures last night, getting extremely emotional thinking back on those first weeks/months in the hospital. So many of the memories are still so fresh in my mind. He was just a little boy when this happened and now he's an adult who has accomplished so much given what he's had to deal with.  

In honor of ten years, I wanted to share ten things I've learned in no particular order. "
 

1. Jake's strength and determination impresses and inspires me daily. 

 2. Watching him struggle to do certain things makes me so proud and breaks my heart at the same time. 

3. While the stroke happened to Jake, it impacted our whole family. It brought us closer in so many ways, but also resulted in some cracks and changed our family dynamic.

4. There are some truly amazing people in this world that we are so thankful to have been brought into our lives due to this experience. 

5. There are also some not so amazing people out there. ☹

6. I don’t need to be Jake’s protector; he is incredibly capable.  

7. How to be resourceful and get really creative finding solutions.  

8. The grace to accept help/generosity of others. Not an easy thing to do as someone who likes to be the helper. 😊

9. A big life event like this helps keep life’s everyday irritations in perspective. (Although I admit I need to reminders sometimes)

10. Breakdowns/sadness are ok and necessary, as long as you don’t stay there.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us over the past 10 years. This will likely be my last post. Now that Jake is an adult, I will leave it up to him to continue if he chooses.  

And with that I am going to turn it over to Jake. 

I don’t even really know where to begin. It’s hard for me to comprehend the fact that his whole thing started ten years ago. While a large part of me is proud of how far I’ve come, there is still a part of me that’s sad that I’ll never relive my teenage years and that I’ll more than likely be dealing with the repercussions of my stroke for the rest of my life.

Since graduating high school, I’ve taken a semester of college classes and worked two different jobs, one with the school district and the other in a middle school. Due to my limited time with work and therapy, I have not taken any other classes. Now, I am working from home and recently launched my first online course.

I am also in a band that I started in January, and we have been working on writing some songs and will hopefully be releasing an album later this year. My drumming has gotten a bit better over the past couple of years and I’ve modified my kit in a way that essentially allows me to play one-handed. As much as I would love to have full use of my left arm, I’ve accepted the fact that my left side weakness is something I’ll have to work around for the time being. I have also gone to several concerts this year and have seven or eight more lined up for the rest of the year as of now. I have to say, standing for five or six hours at a concert is something that’s still tough, but there’s no way I could have done that even just a few years ago. It’s times like those that I’m reminded how far I’ve come. Music is one of the things in life that I truly love, so having the ability to experience live shows is just one of the ways that I can show my true appreciation for it. 

 In the future, I’m hoping to continue to grow my business and make it my full-time job. Working full-time made me realize how taxing that is, and even more so because of my limited stamina. In the interest of preserving my energy for the things I love, I’ve decided that working from home is my best plan of action at the moment. And having the ability to build my own business gives me a greater sense of accomplishment. At some point, I’d like to write a book about my life in the hospital and the years since then. My hope with this is to provide a bit of perspective for people who don’t know what it’s like to live through something like this and potentially help people who are experiencing something similar. I would also like to thank everyone for their support over the past ten years. I really appreciate everything, and I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without it.