How the Stroke Physically Affected Christine

Christine Hyung-Oak Lee was 33-years-old when she had a stroke that destroyed her ability to form short-term memories and affected many areas of her life. Some of those were relatively short term problems that improved over time, while others continued to be an issue years after the stroke.

The first and, perhaps, most traumatic effect was Christine's inability to communicate. The morning after the stroke she had no trouble talking but could not find the words. While many people associate slurred speech with a stroke, she did not have that problem. For example, she could not remember the word “eggs” at breakfast that morning, and referred to “shell-bells” until hours later. In the weeks following the stroke, that remained a problem that combined with other issues to make her rage in anger. While she improved over time, she wrote that she still mixed...