Dear Darling Ones,

It’s been 366 days (thanks Leap Year) since my Cerebrovascular Accident. That’s the medical jargon for having a stroke.

366 days since I woke up feeling wrong and terrified.
366 days since I called 911.
366 days since seven male first responders did not believe me.
366 days since I had to have a friend bring me to the hospital.
366 days since everything has changed.

On this, my first Strokeaversary, I could talk about the avalanche of woe that has befallen me in the last 366 days. The people, places, and things I have lost. The money and eye troubles and the cancer scare and the ongoing inability to stand up for very long. I could tell you about my trip to the ER two weeks ago and a thing called recrudescence.

Instead I want to tell you how I recently watched a video called “What is trauma?” featuring Bessel van der Kolk author of “The Body Keeps the Score.”

In it he talks about the difference between stress and trauma, how the body remembers trauma, and how what might be traumatic to you might not be traumatic to me.

He says, “one of the largest mitigating factors against getting traumatized is who is there for you at that particular time.”

It’s been 366 since I had a traumatic brain injury and while it has and continues to be stressful, it does not feel traumatizing.

Why? Because so many people have been here for me during this time.

My family deserves 888 gold stars and Get into Heaven Free cards. They have stepped up in ways I could not have imagined and have never made me feel like a burden.

Friends, family, and internet strangers have kept me financially afloat in a year where my medical debt was twice as much as I made working. If you could donate to the GoFundMe I’d be so grateful.

It’s been 366 days of scary stuff made easier because I have been so loved and cared for that I cry more tears of gratefulness than sadness.

Thank you so much.

Jodi