My Stroke of Insight summary

Most people know what a stroke is to some extent. It's commonly understood that it involves the brain, is dangerous and can be fatal. What's less well-known is that there are two types of strokes: ischemic and hemorrhagic.

The first type of stroke, ischemic, occurs when blood clots in the artery. This prevents the oxygen normally carried in the blood from flowing to the brain's cells and neurons.

Structurally, your brain has two halves – the left and right hemispheres – which look very similar but have completely different functions.

The right hemisphere controls all sensory aspects; here, what you see, smell and taste is combined with you thoughts. This is then translated into a big picture of what's happening at any given moment.

Bolte Taylor woke up on 10 December 1996 with an awful headache which she could feel behind her left eye. Trying to alleviate the feeling, and unaware of the danger she was in, she began to exercise.

As the morning continued, she felt increasingly disconnected from herself and her surroundings. The author experienced a peculiar feeling that gradually took over both her mind and body. She was oversensitive to light and sound and felt her cognitive function disintegrate as if she were observing rather than participating in her own life.

When a person has a stroke, their doctor usually orders an angiogram. This is an x-ray used to see the blood vessels in the brain so that the doctor can understand what type of stroke they’re dealing with and treat the patient accordingly.

Three days after Bolte Taylor’s stroke, the doctors had the results of her angiogram. She had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke caused by an undiagnosed arteriovenous malformation. The neurosurgeon suggested that they perform a craniotomy – a surgery that involves removing a piece of the skull to access the brain.

Five days after her stroke, the author was released from the hospital. In the months that followed, her mother stayed by her side and helped her recover from surgery. She had to learn how to talk, read, write and walk from scratch.

Luckily, her mother intuitively knew how to support her with such tasks. The pair would regularly go for walks together, and every time Bolte Taylor made progress, her mother would celebrate with her.

The surgery was a success – with the clot removed from her artery, Bolte Taylor felt like her usual self again and was no longer separated from reality.

While she was recovering, she had several epiphanies. Firstly, she realized the importance of being surrounded by others who believed in her recovery and treated her accordingly. On several occasions, she heard doctors say that those who have survived a stroke shouldn't expect to ever fully recover – especially if they haven’t done so within six months of the incident.