Anon - Male

I am 32. In June 2010, I went to see my GP with a headache that I'd had for 2 weeks. I was fortunate to have a diligent GP who saw that something was very wrong, and she sent me straight to casualty, where I was assessed as having had a stroke that night.

I have to say, it was only much later when I realised that there was something wrong, I was awoken by a doctor in the middle of the night and was asked to move my left arm and my left leg, which I found difficult. (At the time I felt a bit cross about being woken up in the middle of the night and asked to move my limbs. Thinking back me not moving my limbs may have been a mixture of both stubbornness as well as the stroke itself!). I'd had a stroke, which had left me with what I think is called a left sided weakness.

I consider myself very lucky to have been in hospital when having the stroke. My general experience with the NHS after having the stroke was very positive, except when an ambulance driver got lost in London after putting the wrong postcode into the satellite navigation system when I was being transferred from one hospital to another. The nurses and doctors in the hospital were very personable and were willing to answer all my questions, no matter how silly! Unfortunately, the stroke had caused my swallow function to, deteriorate, which meant that I could not swallow my medication. This meant using an unconventional method of administering the tablets. I had lots of sympathy for the nurses who had to poke pills up my bottom! I used an ng tube for food. The staff at the hospital were well organised, and were quick to begin my rehabilitation I was soon getting massage treatments as well as occupational therapy and physiotherapy.

2010 was a world cup year, and I was disappointed not to be able to watch the games from the comfort of my own home or the pub. (Although I have since looked at some of the match reports; I have been told that I did not miss anything too exciting!). My swallow reflex soon came back, and I quickly made up for lost time! I ended up doubling up on meals. I would eat the hospital food as well as eating the food that my wife would bring in for me. (I am glad that my lovely wife was bringing me food too, because the hospital food, though probably healthy and nutritious is probably something that Jamie Oliver should look at to improve flavour after he has finished with school dinners.)

I soon settled into hospital life, where things that were previously straightforward became an event! Going to the bathroom required two nurses to support me when I moved from my bed onto a commode. (They did try to use a mechanical hoist to carry out this transfer once. Unfortunately, it ran out of battery during the procedure, and I was left dangling over the bed. Fortunately, the nurse found a spare battery pretty quickly, and I wasn't dangling for too long!) When so much effort goes into getting onto the commode, one feels that there is pressure to deliver results, which wasn't always easy, especially knowing that the nurses were waiting nearby to clean up using what I can only describe as sandpaper.

My sister let me borrow her laptop, which I used to read about the experiences of other young stroke sufferers on the Different Strokes web site. I also used the laptop to find out about the latest medical research in strokes, which I used to good effect to confuse doctors by asking if they had read certain British Medical Journal articles. (It's probably not a good idea to wind up the doctors that are responsible for your care. I did ask one doctor why his ID badge was out of date.)

Although managing with fatigue is still a challenge, I realise that my brain has been through significant injury, and that its repair is going to be tiring. I imagine that there are little people in my head who have put up scaffolding getting on with the repair! I feel very fortunate to be able to say that, I feel like I am close to making a full recovery, for which I am thankful. Throughout my adventure I have been lucky to have my friends and family around, me, who have kept me positive throughout. I feel that this has played an important role in my recovery. People kept telling me that I would make a good recovery because I am young. Pushing myself to use my brain has also helped me get back into a structured routine. I have been trying to use the brain train game on a Nintendo DS every day. I am also trying to make sure that I do the exercises given to me by my physiotherapist, which can be tedious at times. I have to say, I do feel more impatient than I was before the stroke, but I think this is just something that I need to be conscious of and manage by telling myself to be patient. I guess I realise that I do not want to live the rest of my life as an angry and impatient person.

Thanks to Anon for sending in his profile. Anyone else who would like to share their story can send it along with a photograph (if you're not shy!)

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