2. About me

Drasko Regul 22 years after strokes
22 years after strokes

Part 2.

Me in a Nutshell

Prelife
Drasko Regul 8 months after strokes
Eight months after the strokes

Good day! My name is Draško Regul; welcome to my website (which is steadily growing into a virtual showroom)! My “normal” life was quite ordinary, or rather, not at all interesting to the general public. It commenced at the beginning of 1961, and at the end of the ’80s (after an extended, unconventional adolescence and a short delay), it finally attracted a wife, subsequently four children, and several different jobs (always more or less related to handling a PC). After a long delay, it also attracted a degree from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (English/Russian). It was abruptly interrupted in the middle of 2000 by a series of strokes in the pons area (part of the brainstem) that gradually extinguished me over three weeks, finally transforming my body into a mute rag doll (in the air of Kafka’s The Metamorphosis we would call this: millennium bug).

Despite miserable odds, I survived that calamity, and since then, I have existed in a strange human state of matter known as Locked-in Syndrome (LIS—the most prominent feature: don’t move, don’t talk). Which attracted a lot of oddity into my space-time continuum (indirectly—not only mine!), making it a grotesque adventure. Of course, I immediately wanted to put it all together in a book, although, initially, I had no idea how I could carry out such an undertaking.

Bonus-life
Drasko Regul 22 years after strokes
22 years after strokes

The primary/dominant problem was How to continue living. Solving it on the fly, I gradually returned to the rut of “real life” (no matter how truncated, barely noticeable, and surprising that return was). Nevertheless, the intention of writing the book was necessarilydue to the need to clarify my life situation as quickly as possible to a wide circle of curious people, but also for more effortless functioning in the “normal” world! very promptly channeled into the construction of a personal website. After its first publication, I continued to work on the book. Still, my bonus life swelled enormously and unexpectedly in various directions (as a direct result of the “slap” described in the part of the Intro, Mission).
These dynamics relegated my writing (at least writing the book) to the background and encouraged the refinement of this surrogate virtual autobiography. Note: it does not cover the dramatic period that directly preceded and conditioned its creation (more in Part 1 (Home/Intro). This is its 2nd part, and it contains four chapters:

Structure of the 2nd Part
  • Chapter 2.1. summarizes details roughly describing LIS (Locked-in Syndrome). On the other hand, its sub-chapter vividly further clarifies this phenomenon and my life situation. It features a credible (despite the patina) video material: the HRT documentary (2005) Cast Both in Heaven and on Earth.
  • Chapter 2.2. provides a concise overview of developing various ways of direct communication with me.
  • Chapter 2.3. discusses rehabilitation in general and explains shifting the emphasis of my rehabilitation from the motor sphere to the mental/spiritual/artistic one.
  • Chapter 2.4. elaborates on the meaning of the original (former) website’s name (RNDA-DRNDA).