Customer Reviews

My Year Off: Recovering Life After a Stroke

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

McCum's book begins with a riveting account of his stroke and his efforts to get help when he finds himself alone in his two story flat, paralyzed, passing in and out of consciousness, and unable to get to a phone without somehow getting out of bed and going downstairs. The chapters that follow, explaining "brain attacks" were not particularly interesting to me as a physician, but may be of great interest to nonmedical people in search of information and understanding about strokes. The account of his slow physical recovery was interesting but it was his honest assessment of the mental anguish that he struggled with during this period that I found to be the most compelling part of this book. He painfully but courageously descibes his disenfranchisement with the "normal" world, his realization that he can never be the person he once was, his grief at having to give up his former life, and his fear in facing the new life that lay ahead of him as a disabled person. His willingness to expose his fear, his vulnerability, and his darkest moments of his depression would help anyone suddenly stricken with a life-changing illness that finds themselves in the same sort of environment that McCrum did -- surrounded by medical people who can't or won't confront his fears of not recovering, of having a recurrence, and of ever having the semblance of a normal life again. His struggle to discover who he really is after the stroke strikes a resonant note in all of our lives, as he points out that this struggle is often simmering below the surface of our busy lives, begging to be attended to, but ignored and pushed back under the surface because we often do not have the time or energy to pursue the question. Not only did the stroke give McCrum the unlimited time to ponder such a deep question, but it gave him the courage to change careers, something he had been vaguely contemplating before the stroke but made a reality afterwards. This book should be required reading for anyone struggling to regain their footing after any life-changing illness, because the emotional changes are identical, and beautifully articulated by McCrum.

This book will help stoke victims, no matter the age, and their loved ones get the real facts, there is no watering down here. My Year Off tells us that stroke victims can make a come back, but it is mighty hard, like I said, no watering down here. As the readers learn of Robert McCrumb's story they will feel as if they are traveling the same journey and experiencing the same emotions as he. When Robert McCrumb awoke the morning of July 29 in 1995 he was unable to move. At the age of 42 he had a severe stroke. As Robert thrashed around in bed unable to sit upright, he wished Sarah; his wife of just 2 months was with him. He didn't experienced anxiety about his condition, just irritation and puzzlement. When a stroke occurs the brain suffers a hemorrhage infarct; the body experiences a colossal disturbance of its innate sensory equilibrium. Robert changed over night from a walking, talking person into an incontinent carcass, unable to make any sense out of his body. He kept passing out and wetting all over himself.

As he recuperated his mornings consented of Sarah showing up at eight in the morning with a tiny cup with a laxative type drink and fresh clothes. She also brought him the days post and the British newspapers, her addiction not his. Then he would be wheeled off by the nurses to have a bath, that was a laborious and exhausting process during which he tried to forget that the nurses were literally manhandling him moving him in and out of a wheel chair specially designed for use in the bath room.

Woven through the book are excerpts of Robert and Sarah's diaries, the reader is given a glimpse into their raw feelings and emotions as they go through this tragedy. The reader will hear the self-doubt the patient goes through as to whether they will survive or what will become of them, and the depression that they go through.

There are so many ranges of feelings in this one, it rates high on emotions. I found the book open and honest concerning strokes and their victims. It's the kind of book we need on the market to keep us informed. This is an excellent book, one worth reading whether there is a stroke victim in your family or not. It's worth being informed, you will not be sorry.

MY YEAR OFF, Recovering Life After a Stroke By Robert McCrum

I understand the frustration of Robert McCrum trying to reach a telephone when he succeeded he found that he could barely make himself understood. I went through the same thing, but I was lucky enough that I was with my wife when the stroke occurred and although I couldn't talk I was put in an ambulance, took to the hospital and was under a doctor care within 40 minutes. Robert McCrum's stroke was much more severer that mine. He was hours getting to a doctor with his condition getting worse all the time...

Actually, this book is a very good autobiography of Mr. McCrum's life thought his stroke and recovery; although he is still recovering I am sure. And an interesting life it was and will continue to be. This book will be very useful to the members of my stroke club. Now, I will read the rest of his books. This one is worth five stars to me.

Very insightful book. Referring to the past reviewer who dismissed this book because Mr. McCrum's stroke was not catastrophic enough, I am very sorry to hear of your loved one's difficulties. However this book could be helpful to many who suffer lesser degrees of stroke and eventually recover fairly well. I can understand this book would not be useful to you personally in light of your experiences. I can say though without a doubt, as a stroke survivor, that even a mild stroke is something no person would EVER want to experience. It often strikes like a lightning bolt and even if function is eventually regained it is hard for a person to ever get over being completely paralyzed and helpless even for a short period of time. Books like Mr. McCrum's help the world at large start to realize stroke can affect anyone, even the young. Best wishes and good health to all.

This is one of the best books I've read about brain injury. It's extremely well-written. I especially appreciated the honesty of the journal entries from Robert's wife. This book showed that brain injury affects the entire family. My husband had a brain aneurysm in 1992, resulting in aphasia (a language disability). Like the author, my husband is a well educated, young man, suddenly thrown into the world of brain injury and rehabilitation. I will share this book with others, especially wives of brain injury survivors.

This was one of a mountain of books I poured over following my father's severe intracerebral hemorragic stroke, which has left him quite disabled both physically and mentally. For persons, such as myself, searching for answers and insight on how to cope with the seriously disabling stroke of a loved one, this is not the right book. Mr. McCrum never lost consciousness, his mental faculties remained intact (indeed, he was keeping a copious and cogent log of his observations from the first days after the stroke), and his physical disabilities were relatively minor (a slowed gait, and weakness on right side). Frankly, the book had a slightly narcissistic tenor, McCrum using every opportunity to name-drop (constantly referring to his many notable visitors), recount his adventures abroad, and demonstrate his command of arcane literature, which he quotes constantly. He discusses how his stroke caused him to rethink his career choices, and feel more committed to his marriage. McCrum's existential crisis, which culminated in his decision to leave his editorial post to become a journalist, left me cold. I think of the thousands of stroke sufferers who cannot put two sentences together, much less write a book. In the end, McCrum's account is less about the consequences of his stroke, and more about the early mid-life crisis it provoked. Mrs. McCrum, on the other hand, wrote extremely candidly and touchingly of her fears and struggles throughout her new husband's recovery. Her passages provide a very real, honest glimpse into the turmoil suffered by the family members of stroke victims, who are often vexed by feelings of helplessness, fear, isolation and sorrow.

Robert McCrum wrote his autobiography so I don't have to write the same book. As a right brain survivor (when I just turned 51 years old), I found myself saying, "yes" at the beginning and end of each chapter. The diary by the wife, Sarah make this a love story.

Mr. McCrum, recently pronounced a completely healthy person, has an "insult to the brain" in his forties, and this book chronicles his thoughts and progress from the stroke onward, with sidetracks back to his "former" life, and how he deals with that vs. his "new" life as a stroke victim. For those of us who thought stroke only happened to our elderly parents, and don't quite know how to approach the situation when it affects our contemporaries (more frequently than we might like to think), this book is a good insight into what our friends might be going through, and what they will go through in the recovery period ... the effects of stroke are, of course, most difficult for the patient, but the friends and families also have a lot to think about and understand. I thought that the questions this book raises provide a lot of guidance for the things that one needs to think of, as well as an insight into what your friend might be dealing with. Very valuable from the perspective of the friends/family -- I await my friend's reaction as the patient, altho cannot help but think that it might be of interest because there seems to be a dearth of information about what is happening/could happen at a younger age, altho it is, in fact, rather common. I would highly recommend this book for people who know people in, say, their forties or fifties, who have had stroke -- it's quite a different issue than confronting it in your parents or elderly relatives, and we probably all need more the more specific information about what stroke is and isn't that this book provides.

McCrum's story is one which every young stroke victim will need to read. His book is one of those where you only need to read the cover and blurb to know it's the book you've been looking for.And so it is for every young stroke victim - read the first few lines and you know this man is telling your story.He echoes every anguished cry from those of us who, like him, were struck down in the prime of our lives and as we follow his slow road to recovery, his experiences, day by day, thought by thought, provides an invaluable sense of companionship, an alleviation of the terrible loneliness and isolation that often tends to overwhelm. His story is also a testimony of how the love and commitment of another is crucial in our recovery. To those who are caring for young stroke victims, the book is an encouragement as carers too, often feel at a loss when faced daily with a loved one's anguish, despair and mood swings. No need to go to a therapist, buy the book.

I find it difficult to review the book from a literary perspective, as much of the process of reading it was, for me, assessing if he accurately conveyed my experiences. To the extent that we both suffered some debilitation at a youngish age, I think he did. His real gift (for me) was his description of the feelings of otherness from the population, and the need to change his working environment. The tension between 'see me as I now am' and 'remember me as I once was' is sometimes unbearable, and he conveys some of that. Good on yer.