Discussion Board

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/01/mark-kirk-stroke-/1

From the article, a statement from Kirk's office:
On Saturday, Senator Kirk checked himself into Lake Forest Hospital, where doctors discovered a carotid artery dissection in the right side of his neck. He was transferred to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, where further tests revealed that he had suffered an ischemic stroke. Early this morning the Senator underwent surgery to relieve swelling around his brain stemming from the stroke. The surgery was successful. Due to his young age, good health and the nature of the stroke, doctors are very confident in the Senator's recovery over the weeks ahead.

"Kirk, 52, was elected in 2010 to the U.S. Senate seat previously held by Barack Obama. His election ended a rocky period in Illinois politics that began when then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich was charged with trying to sell the Senate seat."

I hope he recovers well. As a Chicago area resident I thought I would add a bit to this as i find it interesting. I won't go back too far, but this Senate seat was held by Carol Moseley Braun when I moved to Chicago. During the Clinton years. where she earned the nickname "Carol Mostly Wrong". A Republican named Peter Fitzgerald from the North Shore displaced her. Peter actually voted against opening up ANWR and as his next election came closer started to badmouth the Iraq War. Rove threatened him with a challenger and he decided not to run again. Lo and behold the Democratic challenger in the next election was to be one Barack Obama. I have always thought it oddly karmic that Rove et al forced a moderate Republican out of the race that paved the way for Obama. Maybe thats why Rove poured so much $$ in the Senate election to replace Obamas Senate seat (the election after the appointment of Roland Burris by Blago). That was the election Kirk won. In that election year, a Democrat was elected governor and Kirk was elected to the Senate, which means that some of the voters that put the Dem Quinn into the gov position voted for the Republican Kirk for Senate. I will also posit that Kirk is in the military and voted for CAP AND TRADE as a congressman before campaigning against it for his Senate race.

Senator Mark Kirk on his rehabilitation "walking program" (quotation marks from video title): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpBoYmKX-QQ&feature=channel&list=UL

The video is about three minutes and his speech sounds good, though it appears he's reading and having a little difficulty at times. Still, from initial reports, his recovery thus far must be quite remarkable.

I noticed how bright his eyes looked, but only after I watched a bit of one other video from Dec '11. In that one his eyes looked awful--nearly closed compared to the post-recovery video.