Sarah Helen Snow

My road to Stroke-dom started, I suppose, in December 2000 when I moved to Vineland, New Jersey from the UK. My husband, one year old daughter & I had been living in United Arab Emirates until the summer of 2000 when he had gone over to the States to get a job & find us a house.

We moved to Vineland on 24 December 2000 and I immediately started the process of settling in to a new place by joining groups with the baby. At the end of January I had a week where I had a major headache. But as I was used to these, I paid it no more attention than the usual winging (I have that down to a fine art!) & laying in a dark room doped up with whatever painkillers I had to hand. At this point we had not as yet, registered with a local quack so I was just relying on over-the-counter medication. On the Wednesday (I think 01 February) the headache's nature changed. At least that's what Tom tells me. I complained of a different type of pain & was violently sick all night.

At this point Tom decided enough was enough & he was going to take me to see a doctor. I wouldn't go. I hate going to doctors'. I've always felt stupid about going with "yet another headache". I can honestly say that until the stroke I had never had a day's illness in my life. As a child, my mother used to send me to play with children who had chickenpox etc. in the hope I'd catch them. I never did. I don't get colds, flu's or any of the other normal things. I just have headaches.

Anyway, back to 2001. Finally I capitulated on Friday & let Tom take me to the quack. He prescribed me something & then said that if there was no improvement by 9 pm that Tom should take me to the A&E. There wasn't, so he did. They released me 10 days later having done MRI's etc & ascertained that I had, in fact, suffered a stroke.

Silly naïve me thought that, even WITH the benefit of medical insurance, one has to pay for health care in USA, that you'd get a decent service. I was very wrong. I got absolutely no care there at all. I thought America was all about counselling. At no point did anyone even ask me how I was, let alone offer any assistance or support (emotionally or practically). I was just left to my own devices the whole time I was in hospital & then when I went home too.

Luckily I do not require any physical help with things. The main defects with which I have been left are minor ones; I have no left peripheral vision in either eye, the left side of my face is numb but not weakened as is my left hand. The only other real problem I have is a poor short-term memory. Mind you, being blond I get away with lots!

Shortly after returning home from the hospital I lost a baby in the early part of pregnancy. To this day I do not know whether maybe the pregnancy could have brought on the stroke, or the stroke caused me to lose the baby. Again no support was forthcoming from the American health side of things.

Now for all the nasty things that have been said about the NHS I have nothing but praise for them. THEY have given me the care I never received in US. They have undertaken tests to see what damage has been done & THEY are the ones who discovered that I had a PFO. Although a bucket load of tests was done in US, this was never found at the time of the stroke itself.

After living in the States for a couple more years I came back to UK whilst awaiting details of where Tom's next job might be (he writes billing systems for mobile phone companies etc). Whilst in Worcester, I was sent to see a cardiologist who determined I had a first-degree heart block that warranted further investigation. So in January 2004 they did the bubble test & found my PFO.

As luck would have it a cancellation at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham meant that I was able to have this sealed in May before coming out to join Tom here in New Zealand.

When they closed the PFO, I was hopeful that that might be the end of the saga, but unfortunately that was not to be the case. Since closure I have had a couple of serious headache incidences, the first of which involved a doctor coming to the house to give me a morphine injection & the second involved a hospital stay of 5 days. Luckily neither event seems to have been a new stroke but it has dented my confidence somewhat to think that I could still have another stroke at any time at all.

Over the years I have tried to find triggers for my migraines. And yes, I admit to being a chocoholic, but that can't cause, having lived in the States where the chocolate is virtually inedible, I KNOW my migraines. I wasn't eating any when I had the stroke. They aren't caused by dairy produce either (although once I did eat a whole Roblochon cheese after which I had a stonker of a headache. Obviously overeating is going to cause problems for everyone). But basically I haven't found the cause.

Well, I think that bring you up to date on the saga that is Sarah. Hope I haven't rambled on too long. If anyone has any comments to make or would like to contact me for any reason, use the link.

Regards to all fellow strokees, their carers, family and friends.

Thanks to Sarah 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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