Rachel Liddell

Friday 16th March 2007 was no ordinary morning. I had two children aged 21 months old and 9 months old and at the age of 23, I had put all my energies in to bringing them up with all the love I could. Oliver was walking and starting to talk quite well and Jasmine was just becoming less dependent on me and had learned to move about shuffling on her bum.

I had been suffering from a pain in my neck since I had been at the Pub with my friends on the previous Wednesday evening. I assumed it was a cold draft from the pub that had caused the problem. My neck had just clicked and it had been uncomfortable since. Anyway, I had been used to aches and pains in head for years which had been investigated with no apparent cause and I suppose I had learned to accept that head aches come and go and I could do nothing about it other than take paracetamol and rest.

The head ache I had on the 16th March 2007 was bad. Head splitting bad and my neck was really aching too. At 6.30am , I threw up but as I have said, I was sort of used to not feeling 100% and just went back to bed. Andrew set off to the gym as usual at 6.40am but I called him within 20 minutes as this time, I really felt so bad that I could not face getting Oliver and Jasmine ready for the day ahead. Andrew was home by 7.15am and he took the kids downstairs to let me sleep off the discomfort with my usual dose of tablets.

Andrew arranged for my mum to come around as he could see that I was not quite right. She arrived just after 9.00am and Andrew went to work. At about 10.00am I tried to get up from my bed as my headache was still very bad. Again, I still had no reason to suspect anything else was wrong as I was used to this kind of pain. I went down the stairs and collected some more tablets, checked my mum was ok with the kids and went back up the stairs. On entering the bedroom, I suddenly lost my balance and I fell over. I managed get back up and shout for help before falling over yet again. It was a horrible and new sensation as I struggled to see and move. I could hear the kids screaming and my mum calling an ambulance.

I had suffered a Basilar Artery Dissection at both sides that had caused a clot to form and was starving my brain of oxygen. I had to undergo a life saving operation to bust the clot that had formed. My cerebellum took the brunt of the damage but I survived the operation. Just 24 hours later, my life hung in the balance again as my brain swelled and caused further damage to my brain, this time to the brain stem.I had a drain inserted to relieve the pressure and I was on a ventilator for a week before the doctors considered that breathing for myself was an option. I was then moved on to a High Dependency Unit where my recovery prognosis was deemed as very poor. In fact I was on a DNR ( do not recover ) notice for the first four weeks of my recovery.

I do not recall much that happened in the following month as I went through various wards although I clearly remember being transferred to Castle Hill Hospital’s rehabilitation ward in an ambulance to begin re-learning my basic life skills. At this time, my right side was useless and I only had limited movement in my left leg and arm. During my recovery, I have always been able to I understand things but at first I could not talk as my lungs were not strong enough. My only sounds were when I cried or yawned. I could not feed myself, bathe myself or take myself to the loo and all of these infringe on your privacy but I accepted that this would be just part of the recovery process and set these things as goals to get back too. I was in that ward until 26th July 2007, a total of 14 weeks and 1 day. I have continued to receive physiotherapy at home but I have found that by trying to do things around the house that this is the best way to regain movement in parts that seemed that they would never work again.

The damage to the cerebellum and the brain stem has resulted in me having problems with balance and co-ordination. My strength has slowly returned but my left side in stronger than the right, yet I have reduced sensitivity to heat and pain in the left. I have all but dispensed with my wheelchair and now move about the house with my trolley and outdoors with a stick. I can now manage about 500 paces but at a slower pace than I would like. There have been no other real impacts and I have clear method of thought control and mentally I am the same person. Thanks to strong support from family and friends who have assisted us magnificently, I have managed to not get depressed (as was expected) and I am now able to look after all the children’s needs as well as my own without any help – although I still get plenty which is nice to have.

Each week seems to bring about some more improvement and although I am not happy at the fact I still cannot drive or chase the kids around the house like I would like to, I am determined to carry on pushing myself to improve my balance and movement and my neurologist is confident that I should continue to improve for at least another year and he thinks I will be able to drive, with the aid of an adapted car, by the end of the year too. Oliver starts school in 17 months time and I am determined that I will be able to walk him to the school gates to wish him good bye on his first day.

I never expected this to happen to me and I appreciate that my stroke, as with every stroke, is unique in its impact and what effect the outcome on your life it will have, but if you keep positive, push yourself to get better and have plenty of support from the people who care and want you to get back to full health, you can overcome most things and enjoy life like you did before.

Thanks to Rachel 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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