I talked to my sister over the weekend and she needed to talk about her fiance's accident (I hadn't known). Apparently, they had gone to a bar and while Mike had a lot to drink (bac = .2), my sister didn't (bac = .038) - but they got into an argument in the bar. My sister decided to leave the situation & got into the truck to leave. (Let me first say that my family likes Mike very much as he is gentle and very calm.) When she got into the truck, he had followed her and during the argument, he hit her. So hard, she saw stars. She started to drive away and noticed that he was standing on the running boards along the side of the truck. She stopped and thought he got off of the truck so she took off again. At about 30-40 mph, she heard something and slowed down abruptly. He was still on the truck and her slowing down caught him off guard and he fell forward, hit the side mirror and fell to the ground. She stopped and went to his side. Someone called 911 and the EMTs were trying to get to Mike but my sister kept insisting that he was okay, just sleeping (she was in shock). There was blood everywhere. The EMTs finally got to him and took him to the hospital. He was unconscious for a few days (but not in a coma) and is now alert but is having difficulty similar to us strokers - he is unbalanced, slight aphasia, general difficulties.

She is convinced that he will bounce back quickly and will be fine in no time. I take the blame for this. I know I recovered quickly and it is unrealistic and unfair to hold me up as a typical stroker/brain injury survivor. At the same time, I had a stroke and still feel the remnants of it and struggle with it. This difference tears me up. argh.

I also talked to my brother this weekend. His birthday was Aug 24th and I left completely obnoxious voice mails for him about how he is sooooo OLD! (his 30th birthday) about how he is closer to 40 than 20, he is an old fart. Oh, I was ridiculously obnoxious! I finally got in touch with him this weekend and found out that although he is old, he is still virile - his girlfriend is pregnant! I congratulated the old goat heartily.