Striking Back at Stroke: A Doctor-Patient Journal

At age 43, Cleo Hutton awoke to a frightening and completely unfamiliar world. In the prime of life, she experienced a devastating stroke. Suddenly unable to speak, understand, or even walk, Hutton found herself struggling first to survive and then to regain her physical skills and her independence.

Striking Back at Stroke is Hutton's personal journal during this trying time, detailing her hard-won success rebuilding a life in ruins and overcoming difficulties she never imagined confronting. Using a tape recorder and a notebook by her bedside where family, friends, and hospital staff could write messages, Hutton kept a record of the day-to-day emotional, physical, and financial trauma of her condition. Hutton's account of her experiences is interwoven with medical and scientific commentary by Louis Caplan, M.D., who explains Hutton's case in terms of what scientists and doctors have come to know about strokes. He documents in a clear, concise manner what actually happens before, during, and after a stroke—as Hutton in turn lives and documents her experience. Caplan also focuses his observations on how the medical system served her, as well as on the shattering effects a stroke can have on the families of patients.

Both authors give valuable advice—about home care, emotional support, and physical recovery—from the frontlines of the battle against stroke. These two wise and experienced voices make Striking Back at Stroke a wrenching and inspiring personal story as well as an indispensable guide for anyone enduring the cataclysmic changes that a stroke can bring to a life, a family, and a sense of self.

At age 43, Cleo Hutton awoke to a frightening and completely unfamiliar world. In the prime of life, she experienced a devastating stroke. Suddenly unable to speak, understand, or even walk, Hutton found herself struggling first to survive and then to regain her physical skills and her independence.

Striking Back at Stroke is Hutton's personal journal during this trying time, detailing her hard-won success rebuilding a life in ruins and overcoming difficulties she never imagined confronting. Using a tape recorder and a notebook by her bedside where family, friends, and hospital staff could write messages, Hutton kept a record of the day-to-day emotional, physical, and financial trauma of her condition. Hutton's account of her experiences is interwoven with medical and scientific commentary by Louis Caplan, M.D., who explains Hutton's case in terms of what scientists and doctors have come to know about strokes. He documents in a clear, concise manner what actually happens before, during, and after a stroke—as Hutton in turn lives and documents her experience. Caplan also focuses his observations on how the medical system served her, as well as on the shattering effects a stroke can have on the families of patients.

Both authors give valuable advice—about home care, emotional support, and physical recovery—from the frontlines of the battle against stroke. These two wise and experienced voices make Striking Back at Stroke a wrenching and inspiring personal story as well as an indispensable guide for anyone enduring the cataclysmic changes that a stroke can bring to a life, a family, and a sense of self.

Publishers Weekly

Writing with Caplan, chief of Stroke Service at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Hutton, a journalist and former nurse, offers this self-help guide for stroke patients. Hutton writes from her own experience as a woman who suffered a debilitating stroke at the age of 43. Having kept a journal throughout her life, Hutton was determined to continue after her stroke-but first she had to re-learn to speak and write. Combining Hutton's journal entries with Caplan's response to and explanations of them, the book presents a kind of dialogue-a format that nicely suits the material. In one diary entry, Hutton explains a sense of confusion that prompted her to go to an emergency room: "I have a sharp, constant pain behind my eyes, and I find it difficult to focus my vision. The left side of my body is heavy...." Caplan responds, "Strokes... seldom occur out of the blue without cause or warnings." He then advises how to communicate these symptoms to doctors, and explains the types of stroke. Both author and doctor write in ancompassionate tone and thoroughly explain each step of a stroke, from its causes to rehabilitation. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Cleo Hutton, a licensed practical nurse, has published articles in the American Heat Association/ American Stoke Association's Stroke Connections and the National Stroke Association's Stroke Smart magazine, and she lectures around the country about stroke recovery and awareness to stroke survivors and their families. She is writing under a pseudonym to protect the privacy of her family and, as she says, because "I am only one of hundreds of thousands of stroke survivors every year."

Louis R. Caplan, M.D., is one of the nation's leading clinical researchers in the field of stroke and the author of the American Heat Association Family Guide to Stroke Treatment, Recovery, and Prevention.