Neurological Double-Tap: a stroke of bad luck

A stroke is the abrupt loss of blood flow to brain tissue, either because a vessel is blocked or because it ruptures. The former is ischaemic, the latter haemorrhagic, and both are catastrophic in different ways. One starves neurons, the other floods the surrounding tissue under pressure. Either path leaves a sudden absence where function once lived, and the brain rewrites itself around that void with whatever resources it can still muster.

I survived two strokes within days. Damage to the cerebellar and occipital lobes distorted balance, vision, and cognition in ways that are invisible from the outside yet constant from within. I wouldn’t recommend the experience to anyone. The hardest part is that nothing looks “wrong,” so people assume nothing is. The disability is real, persistent, and profound even when the surface appears unchanged.