Stroke is an often sudden and scary experience — and it can be followed by months of uncertainty about recovery. Tracey Lange depicts the aftermath of stroke, including the disruption of daily life and changing relationship dynamics, in her new novel “What Happened to the McCrays?” Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka joins to lend her stroke expertise.
Stroke is an often sudden and scary experience — and it can be followed by months of uncertainty about recovery. Tracey Lange depicts the aftermath of stroke, including the disruption of daily life and changing relationship dynamics, in her new novel “What Happened to the McCrays?” Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka joins to lend her stroke expertise.
This episode was made possible by the generous support of Ken Stevens.
We talked with:
Tracey Lange was born and raised in New York City. She graduated from the University of New Mexico with a degree in psychology before owning and operating a behavioral healthcare company with her husband for fifteen years. While writing her debut novel, We Are the Brennans, she completed the Stanford University online novel writing program. She currently lives in Bend, Oregon with her husband, two sons, and beloved German Shepherd.
Courtney Hrdlicka, M.D. is a neurologist with subspecialty expertise in stroke and cerebrovascular disorders at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Her clinical focus includes expertise in management of both acute and chronic neurologic illnesses, cerebrovascular diseases, acute stroke treatments, and telemedicine in stroke treatment. In addition to her clinical duties, Dr. Hrdlicka is active in research and education, working with medical students, residents and fellows. She authors expert content and publishes in scientific journals.
Purchase “What Happened to the McCrays?”
Got feedback?
If you've got ideas or book suggestions, email us at readtalkgrow@mayo.edu.
We invite you to complete the following survey as part of a research study at Mayo Clinic. Your responses are anonymous. Your participation in this survey as well as its completion are voluntary.
Connect with others talking about the podcast in the Read. Talk. Grow. group on
, an online community moderated by Mayo Clinic. Mayo Clinic Connect is free, trusted, moderated, welcoming, safe and easy-to-use.
Dr. Denise Millstine:Welcome to the “Read. Talk. Grow.” podcast, where we explore health topics through books. Our topic today is stroke; having a stroke, but also focusing on recovery and rehabilitation after a stroke, and being a caregiver for someone in this situation.
Our book today is “What Happened to the McCrays?” by Tracey Lange, published by Celadon Books. I'm your host, Dr. Denise Millstine. I'm an assistant professor of medicine at Mayo Clinic, where I practice women's health, internal medicine and integrative medicine.
My guests today are Tracey Lang, who graduated with a degree in psychology before owning and operating a behavioral health care company with her husband for 15 years. Her first novel was the immediately bestselling, “We Are the Brennans,” followed by another bestseller, “The Connollys of Countdown.” Her third novel is “What Happened to the McCrays?,” and she joins us from Bend, Oregon, where she lives with her husband, sons, and beloved German Shepherd. Tracey, welcome to the show.
Tracey Lange: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Denise Millstine: I have to say, this book was not a hard sell for me, Tracey. I loved both of your first two books and I'm a hockey mom. So when I saw health condition, hockey, and Tracey Lang, I was in without a doubt.
Tracey Lange: Oh, great. Thank you.
Dr. Denise Millstine: Our expert guest today is Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka. She's a neurologist with a subspecialty in stroke and cerebral vascular disorders at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Courtney, welcome to the show.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: Thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Denise Millstine: “What Happened to the McCrays?” is a modern novel about a fairly typical family navigating a health crisis and its aftermath in the midst of interpersonal strain. Its main character, Kyle, has returned to the small town where he grew up and lived before his marriage fell apart. Now he's being called back to help care for his father, Danny, who's had a stroke.
Okay, you both know how “Read. Talk. Grow.”works. We discuss books that portray health topics in an effort to better understand health experiences through story. In this case, we're going to discuss the recovery and caregiving after a stroke. Tracey, tell us your inspiration for the novel and particularly the character of Danny.
Tracey Lange: As far as the novel goes. I sort of figured I'd be diving into divorce at some point. My parents divorced when I was in middle school, and it was not what you would call amicable, and it was sort of … lots of drama and very hard on all of us. I kind of knew at some point I'd be diving into that topic and exploring it. So that was sort of the inspiration for this book, which is really just kind of a close up look at a failed marriage from both sides.
And as far as the character of Danny, he was part of the story from the beginning as Kyle's dad. And I knew they sort of had — as I was kind of getting to know their dynamic — I knew they kind of had a strained relationship. But when I thought about bringing Kyle back to his hometown, I loved the idea of using that as an opportunity to explore his relationship with his dad, because it has been sort of strained over the years, kind of fraught. And then when I just kind of went on deeper with that, what would bring him home, what's going on with dad, the idea of this sort of big, strong guy, you know, who's very independent, doesn't like to rely on anyone, is suddenly, that's Danny, is suddenly in a position where he needs help. Even though he really doesn't want it, particularly from his son in some ways.
So that's kind of where that started. And then I just from there, all kinds of questions presented themselves about, okay, what happened to Danny and how can Kyle help and like be part of his recovery? And so, you know, I researched various ideas and that's when I landed on the idea that maybe he had a stroke and that's what brings Kyle back.
Dr. Denise Millstine: And I've heard you say in interviews previously that the way you write is really to kind of sink into relationship with your characters. And once again, in “What Happened to the McCrays?” that just absolutely comes through. And in fact, with all of them. So again, well done. It’s a fantastic book.
Tracey Lange: Thank you.
Dr. Denise Millstine: Courtney, tell us your reaction to the book.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: I really enjoyed it and it was really interesting for me to see this depiction from kind of this interpersonal and in family relationship dynamic aspect of how strokes affect people. And I think it was a very realistic description of the way that this very sudden event, that's so out of someone's control, can make a massive difference, not only in that person's life, but in the life of their immediate family and extended family and the community around them.
It really can have a very large impact on a lot of different aspects of someone's life and community. And I think you did a really excellent job in depicting that. One of my favorite parts of your depiction of Danny and his stroke was his improvement and how he slowly, slowly improves and recovers from these leftover symptoms that he has after the stroke.
Tracey Lange: I just, that's so nice to hear, Courtney, because I'm not a doctor of course. I did lots of research and lots of talking to people, but to hear you say that you felt like there some accuracy there feels really, really good. It is fiction, but it's certainly what, you know, we're going for.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: This certainly rings very true from my experience of, you know, hearing from patients and families as they recover of what this is like and how big of an impact it can have, even if you end up going on to recover and doing well in the long term, for the short term and the medium term, it can have a really big impact for a lot of people.
Dr. Denise Millstine: And I wanted to just highlight that your role as a stroke neurologist is often caring for the person who's had a stroke, but there's no way you can do that without also working with families and caregivers and really teams of people who are going to help with the recovery process. But we're going to talk a bit more about that in a moment.
Tracey, we see Danny's stroke in stages, first when he's laying on the ground, next when he appears frail and resting in the hospital and then Kyle, his son, is seeing him for the first time finally awake, but not the man that he remembers from their last interaction. It's such an incredibly realistic way to even present those first stages of stroke. Can you tell us how you came to make that choice and researching what that looked like, cause you did do it so well.
Tracey Lange: Thank you again. Yeah, lots and lots of research. But I'll tell you one thing that's so interesting. When I research something like this, the impact of a stroke on someone, there's another character in the book that's in a wheelchair. A previous book, I had a character with a traumatic brain injury, and all of that required lots of research. But what was so interesting to me, and I'm kind of sort of becoming used to it now, I guess…is you go into it thinking they’re going to be this, this sort of almost a formula, like, here's what happens in a stroke, here's the impact, here's the recovery. But what you realize it is so incredibly different for everybody as far as the impact, how they recover. I almost hope to get guardrails, so to speak, with my research. I would say, okay, this is how this is going to work. And then I realize that's not how it works. You know, it's different for everybody, which gives you some flexibility. But it was just super interesting to see the vastly different impact on not only the stroke victim, but then their families and how all of that works. So yeah, lots of research went into what happened to Danny and I wanted to see a lot of that through his son's eyes.
Here's this firefighter dad that's always been a little bit larger than life in Kyle's mind. And of course, to see him then suddenly be so vulnerable and sort of weak physically. And so I'm glad that came through, because I watched before my dad died. I sort of watched that transition. And so I know how impactful that is to see.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: Yeah and just to expand on that from a medical perspective, Tracey's exactly right in that because your brain controls everything that you do. A stroke can affect any part of your ability to function, and the degree of severity can range from minimal, even symptoms right, when they start, to absolutely devastating, in each domain of that part of your body or that type of function of your brain. So you're spot on that there is no one typical or common way that stroke affects people.
Tracey Lange: Right, and I can only imagine it's just like this happened in the story. You just don't know. You don't know what the, you're hopeful. You don't know what's going to happen. You don’t know exactly what the prognosis is. And so there's just a lot of waiting and hoping. And I certainly, it ran through my mind several times, being the medical professional in that situation where you have people that just want answers, tell me what to do, tell me what's going to happen. And you don't know.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: Yeah. I've been on the other side of that conversation many, many times. And it's really difficult because I wish I could give people a clear answer. But everybody and every stroke is different. And we're really bad at predicting with a great degree of certainty in a lot of situations. We can give you kind of broad outlines, but then as more time goes on, that kind of best case scenario and worst case scenario get closer and closer together over time. But that process is much slower than people and their families would like.
Tracey Lange: Sure.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: So it's a lot of uncertainty after a big scary event.
Dr. Denise Millstine: In Danny's case, specifically Courtney, he has these jerky movements, this halting speech, a left side droop in his mouth. Is this one common presentation for stroke?
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: Yeah, certainly can be. Weakness of one side of the body is very common. The type of trouble finding words that Danny has, is also very common. As a symptom of a stroke, our brain language and communication centers are pretty big and important, and it becomes statistically relatively common to, for those areas to take a hit as well. And so the type of symptoms that he has and the type of struggles that he has are very, very common. But there's no prototype. But I see this situation very, very frequently.
Tracey Lange: I really like the idea of, you know, he needs his son’s help and Kyle wants to help, but their communication is just like immediate conflict. They already kind of had their tension, but then to be in this situation where he's trying to figure out what his dad needs and his dad can't communicate very well and he's frustrated, it just made for some really instant conflict there for them.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: And that's so real world. Families have interpersonal conflict. And when a big medical event like a stroke happens, it brings these people together who have these underlying conflicts and sometimes put people who have these conflicts into this direct caregiving role, like Danny and Kyle, and that has real challenges. That's so real. We see it. This is happening to people every day.
Tracey Lange: Yeah. Honestly, Danny’s stroke is what I consider the sort of inciting incident for the entire story because it is what brings Kyle home back into, you know, his ex-wife lives across the street, so they're in each other's orbit. But that and she's close to her father-in-law still. They have a nice relationship. So it really is sort of sets the whole story in motion.
Dr. Denise Millstine: And I think you're right, that this is a really common way for this to happen. In fact, Danny’s stroke is fairly traumatic in how it's found out. So you've mentioned Casey, who's Kyle's ex-wife, who lives across the street but remains very close to Danny, even when Kyle's not living in the town and she finds Danny on the floor. She comes over for some reason, unrelated reason, and finds he's fallen to the floor. He's hit his head. He's bled all over the place and now has a concussion on top of his stroke. Tracey, you had to keep layering these things on this poor guy, but that is, again, pretty realistic. Not every stroke presents this way, but that the symptoms come on suddenly or can come on suddenly and affect whatever you're in the middle of doing. So if you're standing in your kitchen and you fall to the ground, if there's a sharp edge, you just might hit it. So can you talk about deciding that? Is it again, a literary device to bring Casey back into this orbit and all of that. But still, that was a, I think, brave decision to make.
Tracey Lange: Yeah. When I realized it would be Casey who would probably find him, she still pops over. She does things like clean out his fridge still. So when I realized that she would likely be the person to find him, I did make it even a little harder on poor Danny when he hit his head on the way down. Even that, just seeing him that way, kicks up an awful lot of turmoil for Casey. And of course, the fear, and at first, she's not sure if he's still alive. And so it takes a huge toll on her. And then, you know, and then Kyle comes back and sees him the way he sees him. So that's kind of where I added little head injury in there, was just really because that does bring back some memories for Casey as well. So yeah, in so many ways, his stroke is really what sets all of this in motion.
Dr. Denise Millstine: Listeners will have to read the book to find out what you're talking about, Tracey, because we are not going to spoil the book today. Courtney, I think a lot of people think that stroke presents this way, with this kind of sudden collapse or suddenly can't move one side of your body. But can you tell our listeners how mild strokes could even present and maybe this is a good time to talk about how important it is to get care for stroke as quickly as possible.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: Well, thanks for giving me the opportunity to say something that's going to help me sleep better tonight. So this is exactly, strokes generally happen very suddenly, not necessarily 100%, but generally it's a very sudden onset of symptoms. And so the vast majority of time people don't have any warning. It can be big and dramatic, fall to the ground, everyone who sees you knows instantly that there's something very wrong. But it certainly can be a lot more mild, where you could be in the middle of having a conversation with someone and they don't realize it. But all of a sudden a curtain came down over one eye and now you can't see out of one of your eyes anymore. Or you could just suddenly have a little bit of trouble finding the right word and or that, let's say you go to reach for your coffee mug and you're just having a little bit of trouble picking it up and almost knock it over. It could be anything, but really anything that suddenly isn't working the way that it normally does is something that you should go and call 911 and get checked out immediately because there are lots of great acronyms out there for ways to memorize or remember common symptoms of a stroke, but they're all incomplete.
And so the one thing I like to tell all my patients and everyone I can get ahold of…so thanks for giving me the opportunity to do it here … If anything suddenly stops working, however mild it is, go in and get checked out. Because even if it's not a stroke, it's something. Something just happened. And it's important that we find out. Because there are some emergency treatments that we can do for some types of strokes.
There are two main emergency types of treatments that we can do, clot busting medicines, which is actually what Danny was able to receive in the book, as well as clot retrieval procedures. And finding out whether or not one or both might be a safe option for you is not something that you can do at home. It's something that requires a lot of specialized knowledge as well as well as more pictures actually, of the brain to find out whether or not either of these are options.
So if anything suddenly stops working, please don't take a nap to see if it goes away. Don't wait around to see if it goes away. Just please come in. Call 911. Get to the nearest hospital right away, because we can really help people. And it's heartbreaking to see situations where I probably could have helped someone if they had come in right away.
Tracey Lange: I think that's another reason why I went fairly dramatic with Danny, because if it had been something mild, I think he's the kind of guy that would have waited around, taking the nap or said, “I'll feel better tomorrow” or, you know. So yeah, I think that's one reason I decided to go a little more on the dramatic side with Danny.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: Yeah, or you're watching a hockey game to wait till the end of the game to come in. I have seen that with that in other sports quite a few times. Please come in right away.
Dr. Denise Millstine: When you're watching a hockey game and it's intense, are you a higher risk for having a stroke? Is it going to make your blood pressure go up and you should worry about that? Or can we feel rest assured, it's okay to go to our hockey games and cheer as loud as we want to.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: I think everyone should live their life and go to those hockey games and cheer loud. Could something like that potentially be the straw that breaks the camel's back and be why a stroke happened at that moment instead of the next day or the day before? Maybe. But it's not going to happen out of the blue, unless you were already about to have a stroke. So please everyone, live your life, go get excited and cheer on your favorite teams, and don't worry about causing a stroke in yourself.
Dr. Denise Millstine: But if you have high blood pressure control it with medications and work with your healthcare team. Please work with your healthcare team.
Okay, okay, so even at the beginning of the novel, Danny's had his stroke. We hear the back story coming and, but Tracey, as Danny's ready to come home, the team talks about needing to relearn literally every everyday task and that he's going to need help with simple activities like preparing his meals and caring for his home and of course, transportation to all of his appointments that he is now going to need to attend. So, I think you were showing that stroke is suddenly life changing, like we've said, but that also it requires you to rely on other people, right?
Tracey Lange: Yeah, 100%. That's the set up between these two, between father and son. And I especially loved the idea that there were certain exercises, that kind of Danny's homework, PT homework or that Kyle could help with, that would actually bring them in close proximity. Even that is a little challenging for them, but I think it's all part of healing their relationship for sure, too. As time goes on. But then also Kyle learning, his ex-wife sort of helps him figure this out, what he can do to help Danny in the moment. Like Danny's very kind of plumb and square guy. He likes things very tidy and so she kind of gives Kyle, gives Kyle that tip, and he's like, oh yeah, this is something I can do to help my dad feel a little more in control. So yeah, it's very much about letting people help you, which for some of us is a lot easier than others.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: And it's a reversal of those roles that have been. So Danny was Kyle's father. He raised Kyle. He was always the caregiver and so when the caregiver is suddenly, whether it's from stroke or some other medical or some other condition, the caregiver is certainly forced to receive care. That’s really difficult for so many people who have been used to giving of themselves throughout their whole lives. To then accept help, especially from someone that you used to care for. That's really difficult.
And I think one of the things that just rang so true for me in the book, a little moment that I really loved, is that as Danny recovers at one point, he makes Kyle breakfast and he's so proud and just feels important and he's able to kind of resume that caregiver role in this just tiny way for just a moment. And that rang so true to me and really struck me. Because when people have a stroke, it's not just important to recover the ability to be independent again. That's clearly a huge milestone for many, many people. But most people want to be able to resume all of the previous roles that they had, not just be able to take care of themselves.
And so to be able to resume in some small way, some of those caregiving roles and that leadership role in the family, in just a tiny, that first baby step way, really is feels like such a big deal to someone who has gone through this. And I just loved that little moment in the book.
Tracey Lange: Oh that's great. I'm so glad you took that away. I hope a lot of people do, because that's what I was going for. It's a small thing in that moment in time, but it's something he can do for his son, who's struggling in that moment. And I love there are realizations that Kyle as, as the son here, has along the way about why, you know, they've had this sort of tough relationship most of their lives. But when these roles are reversed to some degree for a little while, it's like Kyle gets a little different perspective on his dad and maybe why he was a tough guy, you know, when Kyle was growing up. He kind of is able to think about all of that. And just that little shift in perspective helps their relationship a lot too. So much can come from that, that whole dynamic.
Dr. Denise Millstine: I also like how it highlights that Danny is still the person he was before he had his stroke. So if you are somebody who doesn't like to go unshaven, then not being able to shave your face is really a part of what's making you feel unwell and could be impeding your ability to recover. So if people are caregivers, for someone who's had a stroke, just kind of thinking through, is this somebody who liked something a certain way and can we bring that back? Whether it's order in the household or seeing a specific friend or something that was very important to you before this event happened. Because you're still the same person, just your brain has taken this injury, which hopefully most people recover from in the same way that Danny did.
Courtney, there was another element to that with Danny as this shaving and not being able to tidy up his house scene was unfolding, that he was just incredibly angry, even throwing things at Kyle, accidentally at Casey. Do you see this mood irritability, anger happen after stroke?
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: Certainly. So mood problems, both irritability, anger, as well as, depression, are very, very common after stroke. And it's both related to kind of the natural response to having something so out of control happen to you, combined with these chemical changes that are going on in the brain, as your brain has had this area of tissue that has died and is trying to form new connections and recover.
Another element that Danny experiences that makes someone a little bit more likely to be more easily frustrated is his difficulty communicating. And when people have difficulty communicating after a stroke, it makes it so much harder for them to, you know, express those things that they need and those ways of regaining control that would be helpful to them. They can't get that point across. And so caregivers are put in a situation where you're trying to read someone's mind and they can't tell you what they want. They just are frustrated and they just can't get it out verbally. And so sometimes motions and throwing things is the only way that they can get across that they're frustrated in that real difficult, emotional thing that they're going through. And so that is very realistic, and especially for people who have trouble communicating in the way that Danny does it, it certainly is more difficult and more frustrating for the person who's going through it, as well as for the caregiver.
Tracey Lange: I think when we feel so out of control and powerless, we often we do go to anger, you know, to kind of cover up that fear and vulnerability. And I just in that moment, I, you know, we can't communicate. He hasn't shaved, his home is not the way it usually is. I just think that it was kind of a it all hit home at once. And that's when he, you know, he takes his anger out on the person who's around, who is Kyle, in that moment.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: We're all human and you're just as human as you were before the stroke.
Tracey Lange: Yeah, absolutely. And he had a hard time communicating before the stroke anyway. So yeah.
Dr. Denise Millstine: And Tracey, I think one of the things that resonates with me that Courtney just said is about Kyle in the caregiver role, and this is often a role that people haven't trained for, that they are falling into immediately. And while it seems natural to know how to manage a household and make meals and get food. If you're somebody who hasn't done it or hasn't done it with the person you're caregiving for, that can be incredibly daunting. Never mind the fact that you had all of these other events going on in your lives, or in his case, living in a completely different part of the country. Can you talk a little bit about learning about depicting a caregiver?
Tracey Lange: Well, like you just said, so many times, people are and I've seen this happen with friends and family members suddenly put into that role, where all you want to do best intentions, you want to do everything right, but you have no idea what you're doing. It's learning all of that.
And I think that that's what happens with Kyle, and that's why that moment when he sort of spends the first few pages, when he's on his way back home thinking, assuming that this is going to be kind of a probably a quick stint, that, you know, his dad is this tough guy, he's going to be fine. He's never called in sick, those kinds of things. But of course, then he sees him in the hospital, as you described earlier. And I think that's, you know, really starts to settle on Kyle, that this is a whole other level of maybe what he was expecting.
And this is a guy, you know, that he always felt like there was a certain level of disappointment with anyway. So he's up against it, Kyle. But his dad needs him. He wants to be there. But is it certainly takes a while for them to get in a groove. And there's trial and error and failure, but they, you know, they work towards that being able to work together in order to help his dad hopefully make progress.
Dr. Denise Millstine: I think an element of that is having compassion for the caregiver and as a reader, really wanting Kyle to have more self-compassion for everything he is managing and thinks he should be doing so much better and gets so frustrated with himself.
So Courtney, about a month after Danny's home, he is shown to have made significant progress. His speech becomes smoother, his movements are more stable. He can even do some things in his own home without his walker. His cognition or memory returns to normal, or what we call his baseline. Is this a common timeline, or how long can that process of recovery take?
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: Great question. So in general, the recovery after an ischemic or lack-of-blood type stroke --- as opposed to a bleeding type of stroke --- which is what Danny had, he had a clot-type stroke. The recovery after that tends to be fastest early on, and then the rate of improvement slows over time. But that improvement continues and is overall a much slower process than any of us would like. And so there is often quite a bit of improvement over those first days and weeks and, you know, throughout that first month, just like Danny experiences. And then that improvement continues but over a slower and slower pace. By about six months or so after a stroke, most of the symptoms have improved. They're improved about most of the way that they're going to improve. And by a year out from this type of stroke, the symptoms really don't significantly improve. Someone's function can improve as they learn to find new ways to adapt to their leftover symptoms. But the actual objective, the way we measure it when we push and pull and test someone's strength type of leftover problems don't tend to improve much beyond that point.
So it's a much slower process than patients would like, then family was would like. People are really impatient to get better. And I get it. This is a slow recovery. The brain is slow to recover, but it is really remarkable how much people do improve. Danny has some really significant leftover problems at the beginning, right after his stroke, and then he recovers really significantly.
And that is very realistic. Some people have significant leftover problems after a stroke, but many people go on to have no leftover problems after a stroke.
Dr. Denise Millstine: So there's hope.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: There definitely is.
Tracey Lange: I hoped if he was committed to his, you know, to the recommendations, his team's recommendations and his process and his therapies. And he's got support from not just Kyle, but Casey and buddies in the community. It felt like all of that would only help him reach his goal. So that's kind of the community piece came into in this book was, yes, he definitely had to lean on Kyle, but there was a kind of a larger network of support for him too.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: Tracey, your instincts were spot on with that. So having that not only immediate caregiver support, but really the team of people, both the team of medical professionals, including the physical, occupational and speech therapists. And so we see Danny working, going to all of these appointments with his therapists, to you know, slowly, slowly improve and improve. And we see how much that works. And we do know that getting as much therapy as early on as we can makes a really big difference for how strokes recover.
And then emotionally and just, you know, function-wise, the broader community support makes a real difference in getting people back into what matters to them. And so it doesn't matter if you're strength and you know, ability to do physical therapy tasks improve significantly, but you still stay largely homebound and have given up the activities that you previously enjoyed, that's still a really devastating loss of quality of life for someone. As opposed to if they're able to get out and really resume doing the activities, even if they need to do it in a modified way, resuming the things that are important to them.
Tracey Lange: Yeah, I would imagine the connection to … and the people around them.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: Absolutely. It's regaining your full sense of self is so important to people. And so we want to try to help people do that in any way that they can, even if it has to be modified. It makes a real difference.
Dr. Denise Millstine: I think that's a point I really wanted to make sure we closed with, is that community is so important. Tracey, in all of your books, community and connectedness is so important. And so if listeners do know somebody who's had a stroke or know a caregiver of somebody who's had a stroke, this element of showing up and being present and in Danny's case, it was some of his buddies from the hockey community or buddies from the fire station, or he did a lot of volunteer work and having them come back into his life, whether they visited him at home or when he was then able to figure out how to get himself back into those activities, even with any of the limitations that he maintained.
So I really like the message that there's hope after stroke. And also that it's really important to support both the person who had the stroke and the caregivers who have a really difficult job.
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: I completely agree.
Dr. Denise Millstine: So listeners, this book has much, much, much more in it. Danny’s stroke is really the beginning of the story and we see his progress, which is wonderful. But there are themes involving the main characters. You're going to have to read the book to find out all about it. Thank you. Tracey and Courtney, for being here. It was a pleasure.
Tracey Lange: Thank you. It's such a treat to be able to focus on Danny. You know, so often the focus is on another relationship in the book. So this was a wonderful opportunity to talk about him and Kyle
Dr. Courtney Hrdlicka: And thank you for having me and I want to take Tracey for this really excellent depiction of what it's like to have a stroke and then and how all the different ways it affects both the family and the broader community, and how life can really be still really valuable and meaningful, and it can bring people together in a way. It's a way that we don’t want to have happen, but it can it certainly has, has, has big impacts on people's lives. That certainly can be positive. When you get to the end and look back in retrospect.
Dr. Denise Millstine: “Read. Talk. Grow.” is a product of the Women's Health Center at Mayo Clinic. This episode was made possible by the generous support of Ken Stevens. Our producer is Lisa Speckhard-Pasque and our recording engineer is Rick Andresen.
Visit our show notes to see the books discussed today and for links to other health education materials. Follow us on social media like Instagram and Facebook, or reach out directly to our email readtalkgrow@mayo.edu with suggestions for books or topic ideas. We'd love to hear from you.
This podcast is for informational purposes only and is not designed to replace a physician's medical assessment and judgment. Information presented should not be relied on as medical advice. Please contact a health care professional for medical assistance if needed for questions pertaining to your own health. Keep reading everyone!