Alison Shapiro can be described as many things. On the surface she is a decorated and experienced mindfulness teacher as well as the Author of Healing into Possibility: The Transformational Lessons of a Stroke. In her life she has helped hundreds of people in their journey through life, navigating the difficulties of change and adversity. On paper she is incredible, but it’s the details that live outside her career success and helpful mindset that make her truly amazing.
Alison is above all things an overcomer.
Twenty-two years ago Alison had two brainstem strokes within 24-hours of each other. “I was profoundly injured. My left side was paralyzed, my right side was uncoordinated, I couldn’t sit up, I couldn’t walk, I couldn’t swallow, I had a feeding tube, I couldn’t focus my eyes, many other things,” said Alison during our interview on Thursday, May 23, 2024.
She continued to say, “Obviously, I’ve made a good recovery over these 22 years. But, I still have some residual issues. I’ve got balance and coordination issues.”
Despite her best efforts and the incredible feat she had been forced to overcome, her residual injuries came back to haunt her. “Two months ago, I had a bad fall. I injured my left thigh, deep bruise and contusion, really big, and I separated my left shoulder,” Alison said, describing an injury that resulted from her residual balance issues. She continued to say, “These are serious injuries that take a long time to heal. The left shoulder had to be immobilized in a sling for at least four weeks, and the whole process takes three months.”
Most people would receive this news and the weight of the reality would be enough to fully defeat them. Twenty-two years of hard work and resilience, just to fall back into the dreariness of recovery. Alison is not most people though. “When I got out of the ER on the way home, I realized I had some immediate problems to solve. I needed to be able to get in and out of the bed, and I needed to be able to get on and off the toilet by myself. If I couldn’t, I’d need somebody with me 24-hours a day, and that wouldn’t be a good way for me to rest. So I said, ‘how am I gonna do this?’”
Despite the crushing news and impending timeline for recovery, Alison kept a clear mind and searched for tangible results. When faced with adversity she cleared her mind of negativity, and was able to create solutions to her problems.
She continued to tell us all of the things she did to set herself up for success:
“So I began to think about things that were easy to eat. Things like hard boiled eggs, pieces of cheese, nuts and dried fruit mixed together. The things that I could use with my hand. And then when I had other kinds of food and I couldn’t cut it with a knife and fork, I got out the kitchen shears. And with the kitchen shears, I could cut all the food up one-handed and then just use a spoon or a fork. I needed to be well hydrated. Lots of water, so I had bottles or cans of water put near my bed where I could get them. Okay. Those things are in place. The next thing I had to deal with was how am I going to get clean? I needed to be able to shower.”
“ Alison then gently encourages, “Don’t be in a hurry. Please don’t be in a hurry. Wait a couple days till things settle down.”
She then continued to share, “And when I started to shower, I needed somebody to help me at first. This arm was immobilized. I needed somebody to get my clothes off and get them back on. And that was true for about a week, until I began to be able to shower for myself. But I could still use only one arm. How was I gonna get the shampoo on my head? I got these. Looks like a spatula. It’s actually called a Spoonola. It’s got a curve in it. I could put the shampoo here.”
“And then I could go like this with one hand. That worked. That was a problem solved. When you start to do things, it’s really important to be strategic. Don’t hurry. I needed to make sure I had everything set up before I turned the water on for the shower. Any fall would have made everything so much worse. I needed to be really safe. So I was paying attention to what I could do. Then comes clothes. I couldn’t wear the kind of clothes I usually wear. This arm was way too sore to move. So I borrowed some of my husband’s shirts. He’s a lot bigger than I am. If you wear something like a big shirt, it doesn’t take much effort to get it on the body.”
“And that’s all I could wear, plus some pull-on pants, because I couldn’t fasten my pants. Had those things in place so that I could stay safe and not hurt myself when I was trying to get clean. If you don’t have a big husband whose shirts you can wear, borrow some from a friend. Get some from a used clothing store if a friend will go for you. Please don’t try to put on anything that you ordinarily wear. Even now, two months into the injury, this shirt is bigger than I would ordinarily wear. I’m going to keep using bigger shirts and getting them smaller and smaller until I’m back to wearing what I’m used to wearing. All of this is just problem solving. I’m trying to find a way to keep myself in as best shape as I can while I wait for this to work its way through.”
“Fortunately for me, because I fell and also hit my head, I had an extra pair of glasses. It’s really useful to have an extra pair of glasses, because I broke the other glasses and made a cut in my forehead. I had a pair I carry with me in a suitcase when I travel, so I had my husband get them out and I can wear them. One of the things that’s really useful to do is a grabber. Lots of things I couldn’t easily reach, I can get with a grabber.”
Alison continued to say:
“What’s really important to remember is to settle in. Don’t push too hard. Go slow. Go steady. And don’t forget that you don’t need to forecast what’s gonna happen in the future. We don’t know what’s gonna happen. I have no idea even today, two months out, how much shoulder recovery I’m gonna have. I don’t need to know. What I need to know is what am I gonna do today? How am I gonna work with what’s happening right now? How am I gonna move through this problem? When I do that, all the solutions build on themselves.”
And when asked what advice she would provide to healthcare providers treating patients in her situation, she said:
“I work with a lot of healthcare providers, and I’m often asked, what would we like to hear from them? And I’ve thought about that a lot. And I’ve realized over the years as I’ve worked with myself and with other people, that many times our healthcare providers try to predict outcomes for us. They say to us, oh, it’s gonna be such and such. And they really don’t know. They have some general idea. And what I would ask every health provider in the rehab world that I have ever met to say to us, the patients, is we don’t know how much you’re gonna recover. We don’t know. We have a good idea how the trajectory goes, but what we can do is work with you and help you find out how much you will recover and if they do that for me then I don’t feel so closed in.”
Discussing adversity with Alison has opened our eyes to the power of overcoming and keeping a clear mind when facing long term recovery.
Alison is one of many people we interact with who truly represents positive thinking, and we hope that sharing her story can show you what the human mind is capable of.
