The Year I lost when I had a Stroke. Gerda Nischan

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      Gerda Nischan

      The Year I lost when I had a Stroke

      AUGUST VON GOETHE LITERATURVERLAG

      FRANKFURT A.M. • LONDON

      Die neue Literatur, die – in Erinnerung an die Zusammenarbeit Heinrich Heines und Annette von Droste-Hülshoffs mit der Herausgeberin Elise von Hohenhausen – ein Wagnis ist, steht im Mittelpunkt der Verlagsarbeit.

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      Lektorat: Dr. Annette Debold

      Titelbild: Gerda Nischan

      ISBN 978-3-8372-1995-1

      Inhaltsverzeichnis

       Part I

       – Chapter One -

       The Stroke

       - Chapter Two-–

       Exploring with Gaby

       – Chapter Three-–

       Urgent Care

       - Chapter Four -

       The Hospital

       – Chapter Five –

       The Reading

       – Chapter Six-–

       Coming Home

      Foreword

      On Monday, April 27, 2015, I learned my mother was hospitalized after a stroke. From that day onward, I didn’t know what lay ahead, but I knew I had to do whatever was needed to help her survive. Like my mother, I have always faced challenges head-on rather than hiding from them. That made my decisions relatively easy, because my focus was on making progress – any level of progress.

      From a long distance, I had to immerse myself into a world I knew little about and this meant recruiting others with various skills that could be applied in certain areas. Everyone was important and everyone had a role – whether they worked in medicine, brought flowers, ran errands, or just spent time with my mother during her recovery. The new responsibilities I was suddenly faced with gave me the feeling of having taken on a second full-time job, but I did so gratefully and eagerly because my mother is worth it.

      I would not be where I am today personally or professionally if it were not for my loving parents, so there was never a question that I was prepared to do whatever I needed to do for my mother. This book will give a bit of insight into our experiences during the healing process, and hopefully it will serve as a good reminder of how important it is to never give up, regardless of the endeavor. Trust me, it’s worth it.

      Michael Uwe Nischan

Part I

– Chapter One -

The Stroke

      I celebrated my 75th birthday with my best friends, people I truly loved. I was a very healthy person; you can imagine… the last person you would expect to have a stroke!

      My doctors were at a loss: I did not have high blood pressure, no high cholesterol, nor was I overweight. I ate a healthy diet, went to a fitness studio every day, had yoga and Pilate classes, a great social life, and great relationships with many interesting people. I had done so much three weeks ago, like traveling by myself anywhere. I had given readings a year before in Los Angeles at the PEN conference, reading from my own published books. I was a published writer who read at international book fairs… and four weeks after my 75th birthday I had a stroke when I was in a hospital. Would I ever again be able to go to the Frankfurt book fair like I had done so often?

      One week after I had returned from my trip to Europe, Germany and Switzerland, I had a stroke. I could not believe it, neither could my doctor who diagnosed it. Days earlier I had been with my family in Germany, celebrating Easter, having Sunday brunch with my family in the Palatinate, and had spent time with my friend Gaby in Martigny, near Geneva, Switzerland. Gaby had been a friend since school days 50 years ago, when we both attended an International School in Bournemouth, England. We had studied English Literature... I remember reading Oscar Wilde. Gaby owned a beautiful apartment in an historic house that had been built in 1725 in Martigny. We kept our friendship alive all these years, visiting each other and included our husbands. My husband had become a very well-known history professor and her husband – Jean-Claude Rouiller – was a famous painter. I remember we all attended, as their guests, a wonderful vernissage in Verbier in Valais in 1976 where her husband’s work was exhibited. It was an unforgettable experience for my husband Bodo