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Love Conquers Brain Trauma, Dementia

Randy Rozek • May 13, 2016

A love story about two people living in Wisconsin has surfaced and the couple, who have been together for more than 30 years have not let brain trauma or dementia come between them.

The Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel published the article recently about the couple’s journey.

“Mike Grassel loves Julie Grassel and Julie loves Mike,” the article reads. “And someday, Julie says, when they die and join each other in heaven, she will remind Mike of all that has happened.”

When Mike was a sophomore in high school he was in a crash with his mother. As she was driving him to work on Interstate 94, a wheel came loose from an oncoming car, smashed through the windshield of their car and, without harming his mother, hit him in the head, according to the article.

As a result of the crash , Mike was in a coma for a week. When he finally regained consciousness, he didn’t recognize Julie, but that didn’t keep her from staying by his side. He had a difficult journey ahead and Julie was determined to be there for it.

Mike eventually relearned how to walk. He relearned how to talk. He relearned how to do everyday tasks and how to function in a world new to him.

The question asked of Julie the most, according to the article – why? Why would she stay with a man who on many accounts, wasn’t the same person? Even Mike asked her why, gave her a way out and told her that no one would blame her for leaving.

“I didn’t even understand the question,” Julie says in the article. “I had made a commitment. Nothing changed for me.”

Mike eventually returned to school, got his degree, married his true love and built a career. The couple had two children and moved to Brookfield.

But Mike’s fight wasn’t over. He began to forget things about seven years ago.

“Connections in his brain came apart. Well-worn neural pathways came to confusing dead ends. Where once there was something, there was now a gap,” the article reads. “Mike was just 43-years-old, and his doctor thought he might have early onset Alzheimer’s disease. The diagnosis was modified to progressive dementia, the result of his brain injury.

The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that about 5 percent of the more than 5 million Americans with Alzheimer’s have an early onset.

Many people who sustain a severe head injury never develop Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. More research is needed to understand the link.

According to the article, Mike and Julie have adjusted their lives so that Mike remains social and connected; they are very active in various programs offered through the Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. Mike has even found a new passion in art.

“Mike remembers some of the past, though he remembers less than he once did, and in the years to come he will remember less and less,” the article reads. “As for now, he remembers meeting Julie on their first day of college, in a psychology class at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. As for now, he remembers how it quickly became clear to them both that they would live out their lives together.”

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