Guitar Player Who Suffered a Stroke

[VTexan]

I'm doing a story on this guy, who was a pretty accomplished guitarist 'til a Friday afternoon at work 3 years ago he suffered a major stroke. Despite repeated efforts, his abilities with his strumming hand haven't come back.

That said, he's gotten quite good at using his fretting hand to still play his guitar. Here he is doing the intro to LITTLE WING.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44bTXxu2oZw

[lowrider]

Where there's a will, there's a way!

Good for him.

[LifesShort]

That's quite impressive!

[VTexan]

...to the story when it's done.

[jaymarsch]

Interesting. I wish him well. Both Gordon Lightfoot and Pete Huttlinger came back from strokes but it is different for each person. I look forward to the article.

Best,
Jayne

[VTexan]

You can read the article if you want, but if you hit LISTEN below the title, you can hear it.

https://www.tpr.org/arts-culture/202...wake-of-stroke

[Earl49]

Cool article. I have lived this also.. .. to a degree. Shortly before my 53rd birthday, I was having trouble getting up from bed one Sunday morning and needed help dressing myself in sweat pants. A trip to the Urgent Care clinic was quickly followed by the ER, where I actually walked in unsteadily. At one point in an exam room they asked me to stand up for something and my entire left side just collapsed and buckled. I went down hard. But collapsing in the ER department is a good thing - they get you immediately into a CT for a scan. I can tell you exactly what it feels like to have the doctor come in and say, "The good news is that you did not have a stroke. The bad news is that we found a 2 cm tumor in your frontal lobe".

After four long days in ICU fighting for my life, they took the infectious mass out (it wasn't cancerous - more like a big zit in my brain) and I spent a month in the rehab hospital. Total left side paralysis was due to swelling and nerve impingement because of the infection. The paralysis went away slowly after massive IV doses of antibiotics. Nine days without being able to move anything on the left side of your body is SCARY, especially when the docs could never explain why. I wondered if there was any music in my future, or being able to work, or walking..... To this day no one can tell me why, how, or how quickly the mass grew. All we know is that the removal was successful.

Being a tough SOB and pretty driven, I worked hard at rehab and within a month was noodling on my ukulele again from a wheelchair. Then eventually I built up enough strength and dexterity to move to a nylon string guitar. Four months later I could play for 15 minutes on a steel string again. These days I am back to about 95% of where I was originally. There is some loss of dexterity and strength in the left hand. Barre chords have become a bit challenging again. But I can still play!

[VTexan]

...given its outcome. Glad to hear you're nearly back.