"My Story" is a collection of blog posts that discuss Alison Piepmeier's personal experience before and after her surgery at Duke to remove a cancerous brain tumor. Alison's tumor is in the language area of her brain. She is a writer and professor, and she uses her ability of language not only to connect with others, but as an integral part of her career, so the placement of her tumor is inopportune to say the least. Alison gives a vivid account of the days leading up to her surgery and speaks in depth about her main concerns of surviving in order to be with her daughter and retaining her ability of language. Her story is real and honest in a way that makes the reader feel as though they are part of her experience. Not only does she speak about how she is feeling leading up to her surgery, but she also writes post-surgery, which provides an extremely interesting insight into how exactly her surgery impacted her language and ability to communicate through written words.
I chose to write about Alison's experience for my final neuro note because I had not previously written about a personal account with a neurological condition. I truly did gain a lot from reading Alison's story. For me personally, I get so much out of hearing the stories of the real life people that have experience with the diagnoses that we learn about in school. Connecting a diagnosis to a name and face makes its impacts seem much more real and dynamic than just hearing the general implications that a particular condition or disease has on a person. One of my favorite parts of Alison's blog posts is that she writes during the time immediately after her surgery. From these posts, the reader is able to see exactly how her brain is working to process language and put the words she is able to find down on paper. I think that as occupational therapists, this is a great example of being able to see how exactly a tumor in a certain area of the brain can impact a person's abilities that are controlled by that particular part of the brain. Alison's story really relates to our course by giving an account of how brain tumors can change a person's abilities that are controlled by a specific area of the brain, but because of the brain's plasticity and ability to change, a person can still learn and heal their brain in a seemingly short amount of time. I would certainly recommend Alison's story to all people, especially healthcare professionals that work with people who undergo brain surgery because of the powerful way she uses words to convey her experience.
Link to Alison's Story: https://m.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/my-story/Content?oid=4985574
Piepmeier, A. (2014, September 3). My story. Retrieved June 13, 2017, from https://m.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/my-story/Content?oid=4985574
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