Andrew Bub, 53, says his passion for games has helped him rebound from a stroke.

I've been obsessed with games since I first discovered Dungeons and Dragons as a kid. When I was 13, my family moved to Singapore, where I started playing video games. When we moved back to Irvine, CA, three years later, I continued playing games through high school.

By my midtwenties, I was reviewing and reporting on video games for a living. After I married and had two children, I was inspired to launch GamerDad.com, a website that helps parents use video games to bond with their kids. I've been playing all types of games with my children since they were really young.

In 2007, when I was in my late thirties, I had a heart attack and underwent quadruple bypass surgery. That motivated me to quit smoking, improve my diet, and scale back at work. I thought I was doing all the right things, but I had two strokes in late 2022. The first occurred in November and primarily affected my brain's occipital lobe, impairing my vision. Then, a few days after Christmas, I had a second stroke, which affected my memory, spatial awareness, executive function, reading, and emotions.

Games have been a crucial part of my stroke recovery. When I returned from the hospital, my family and I began playing Crokinole, a board game that requires players to flick disks into scoring areas around the board, with the center hole yielding the highest score. Playing it helped improve my vision and spatial awareness as I trained my eyes to look at the full board. Other board games, like Junk Art and Klask, have boosted my dexterity and hand-eye coordination. To work on my fine motor skills, I've played Blokus, Connect Four, and dominoes and done lots of puzzles. I play Trivial Pursuit and Scrabble to improve my memory.

I realize that no scientific evidence shows that these games can improve dexterity, motor skills, or memory, but I've experienced many positive changes in two years. When I first began playing games after my strokes, I would have to stop after one game because I was so confused. Now I can play six or seven games in one day. I understand and remember the complex steps that make up every game. While I may need reminders about rules, even my memory is improving. I'm retired now, which allows for more time with my family. I've also started painting Dungeons and Dragons figures as a hobby.

For most people, recovery from a stroke requires hours of physical, occupational, and speech therapy. For me, it's been hours of fun and games. —As told to Paul Wynn