Name: Paul S.

City: Downingtown

Brain Injury: Stroke, occured October 2006 

Explanation of Mask:  Basically, my mask displays my orderly life before having a stroke and the state of disorder it is in after having a stroke.  In October 2006 my life changed forever.  From that point forward, my entire life was altered.  I was no longer the person I had been.  I was someone “new”!  At that time of my stroke, I didn’t know what was happening with me.  I tried to get ready for work and that morning my wife even went to a school meeting for one of our daughters.  When she returned home, I was sitting on the foyer steps and said as best I could that something was wrong with me and she should take me to the hospital.  I will always wonder if this delay in diagnosis and subsequent treatment had an impact on me fully recovering from this incident.   Several weeks after my stroke, I wanted to go back to work, determined that I could improve my mind and my abilities.  Yet after about four months of trying and failing, my job became something I could no longer do and I needed to leave the company.   Since the time of my stroke, my mind has gone through numerous changes.  One of the biggest changes is that I cannot fully focus my mind.  I cannot remember multiple things at one time.  If I have to focus on “one thing”, but then become distracted, I completely forget about that “one thing” unless something occurs later to remind me of it.  It is very frustrating and after almost ten years since my stroke, I feel I have failed in life.  Yet, I pull up my socks and go on, and strive to make some kind of contribution to this life.  I am still not sure what that is or what it will be, but I fully believe it is out there for me…somewhere.