Janice Christie

I had a sore head all day before I had my stroke, previous to that I had been off work with a sore neck. I saw two different doctors about my sore neck, neither of them examined me or took my blood pressure, I went to see a chiropractor and she discovered I had high blood pressure, it took me ages to get an appointment with my doctor and the ironic thing is I had an appointment the day after I took my stroke!

The day I took my stroke as I said I had a headache all day, then I started to get a tingling in my face. My daughter phoned the doctor and explained what was happening and was told I would be seen right away. When my husband got me to the doctors he had to get me a wheelchair and by this time I was crying and quite distressed as I didn't know at the time what was happening to me (my dad died when he was 39) after what had happened to my dad I was really scared and I was 38! My husband had to ask the receptionist three times to get a doctor to look at me and when they eventually did it was an apprentice doctor who I had never seen before. The doctor kept me in his surgery for about half an hour, then he called an ambulance and got a nurse to give me oxygen, I had been taking a stroke before his eyes, I lost feeling in my right side and was fast losing my speech, I was then taken to the hospital by ambulance, the hospital is about 1½ minutes from the surgery, by this time my mother was there and she came in the ambulance while my husband followed in our car.

At the hospital I was seen by a team of doctors, I don't remember too much about it, I can remember getting a scan and later on that night a lumbar puncture. I was moved to a ward and can remember my food being liquidised for the first few days and getting physio as well and sleeping quite a lot. I was on that ward for about two weeks and all the time I got help from the nurses as I couldn't walk. I was then moved to what they class as a rehab ward but in reality before it was a Geriatric Assessment Unit and as far as I am concerned it still is as the majority of patients were old, I remember well when it was a G.A.U. from when I worked as a carer. I was really depressed on that ward and cried nearly every day, they promised me intense therapy, I am still waiting for it, I got up to 20 minutes a day if I was lucky and that was about 3 out of 5 days, I did manage to walk again, but got more physio when I went out with friends and family, I used to go out as often as possible because I hated the place so much.

I still have limited movement on my right side, I get the lower rate DLA to help me cook a meal (I am unable to cook) I get no other benefits and have to pay for my prescriptions, which is 8 items, I have gone from earning £250 - £300 a week to £15 and lost all my independence. I can walk, but have no confidence or road sense so I cannot go out alone. I had to travel 70 miles for an MRI scan which showed the stroke had affected the back of the brain, which affects co-ordination but no real reason apart from high blood pressure has been found for me having the stroke.

I have since changed my GP and been transferred over to the Doctor who deals with strokes, both of them are really good as is the stroke nurse.

Thanks to Janice for sending in her 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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