My Story – Heather Leigh, aged 44

My stroke happened to me sometime between 15th and 31st October 2005. The past 15 years have been very stressful for me, 2 divorces, 7 moves, court battles for access to kids, trying to get maintenance through the CSA.

I married Kev in May 2005 in Cyprus, I watched the birth of my grandson in Sept and thought 2005 was a great year. How wrong was I as on the 13th Oct I suffered chest pains, which continued till the 14th when I decided to see my doctor. He told me I had reflux acid (indigestion). He gave me some tablets and said I should come back if it continued. That night I hardly got any sleep, my hubby was rubbing my back and shoulders. Neither of us could understand why I was in so much pain. My daughter was staying with us with my new grandson who happened to have colic. So I sat there holding my grandson, feeding him with boiled water to help him and I was drinking boiled water as well thinking it would help me - wrong!! After they had returned home I decided to ring the NHS helpline where the lady on the other end got worried. She said she would get an ambulance immediately because I was having a heart attack.

I was admitted into Warrington Hospital with having a major heart attack. I was attached to many drips in both arms. After 48hrs I noticed my left arm was feeling weak but the nurses put it down to the fact that I’d had so many drips and needles in me. The first thing I did when they took all the drips out was take myself to the toilet. I kept knocking into things and also found it a struggle to pull my underwear up and down (hubby laughed when I told him that). I was put on another ward for a few days before being sent home, still no-one had noticed what was wrong.

Being at home was a struggle, I couldn’t get up the stairs on my own. As the days went by I noticed that my arm and leg were getting worse. I decided to see the doctor again who referred me back to hospital. I had a brain scan where it was confirmed that I’d had a stroke. I was supposed to stay in hospital till I could fully walk and do things for myself but as I hate being in hospital I told them I wanted to go home. They offered me a zimmer frame and sticks but I told them where to put them. I was determined to get back to normal a.s.a.p.

I had the help of the physio team coming out to me at home and helping me to get back to normal. I’m lucky I’m on the mend now. I just find that my concentration is not so good as it was. The doctor that saw me originally with chest pains said, "I wasn’t old enough to have a heart attack". But it angers me because in the surgery they have an ECG machine and 5 mins in there would have told the doctor that something was wrong. I’m told by my stroke advisor that its because I’m such a determined person that I’ve recovered so quickly.

My husband stayed off work more than 3 months to look after me, his employers were very understanding about things, pity I didn’t have a boss like his! When I go back I’m expected to do 9hr days, none of this easing back into work, but that’s another story!!

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