One year ago today, our first Instagram post went live. By most measures, today would technically be considered BrainStorm's birthday. In reality, though, BrainStorm was born about six months earlier, in the first weeks after co-founders Erika and Paul first connected. Our connection acted as almost a test subject for what would eventually become the purpose of BrainStorm. Paul was a recent stroke survivor in the very early stages of recovery, with no clear vision of what lay

When I returned home from the hospital, I wasn’t able to drive. I went 2.5 months without driving. My doctor issued me a temporary accessible parking pass, as at the time I was still occasionally using a cane to get around. When it came time for renewal, she extended it for a year, hopeful that time would heal (some) of the wounds and that I would no longer need an accessible pass beyond that. I got something in the mail today. No longer temporary, it’s now a permanent acces

The problem with acronyms is that they often prioritize memorability over accuracy. Important symptoms can get left out simply because they don’t fit neatly into something catchy - but medical conditions - especially emergencies - don’t present in tidy, predictable ways. Symptoms exist on a spectrum, while acronyms tend to spotlight only a handful of symptoms - and usually the most visible or physical ones. Take stroke, for example. First introduced around 2000, the FAST acr

Dear Stroke Survivor, Erika finds solace in a teddy bear, embracing the comfort reminiscent of childhood. First, I need you to know this: None of us would ever choose this road. But since life has placed you here, I want you to feel less alone walking it. Maybe right now you’re in the hospital. For many of us moms, those days were the only time we’ve felt truly taken care of: Meals arriving without asking, someone checking in every hour, no expectation to manage the endless

Stroke recovery is strange, something I’m sure any survivor would agree. While the experience as a whole could be described as such, there are five neurological consequences of stroke that are stranger than most. In the initial stages of my recovery, I was completely paralyzed on the left side of my body. The best way to describe the complete disconnection between mind and limb might have been as peculiar, if the experience itself had not been so overwhelmingly terrifying. I

" Congratulations, ” my neurologist said when I first told him I was returning to work. At first, I thought he was being sarcastic. But he wasn’t . Congratulations were actually in order. Throughout my rehab, I heard story after story about stroke survivors who never regained certain abilities. How few ever return to their previous careers fully functional. Only 3–6% of strokes are like mine: A hemorrhagic stroke in the basal ganglia. Of those, nearly half don’t survive the

When people think of stroke, they picture a familiar story: an older adult with a lifetime of health risks. They don’t picture people in their 30s or 40s. They don’t picture runners, professionals, or parents whose lives are in full swing. But stroke does not follow a script. And it does not care how prepared or unprepared you are. We are two people whose lives could not have looked more different. One of us built a life around discipline, wellness, and prevention, doing ever