Saul Butler
I am 40 years old and prior to my stroke I was a keen cyclist and played football with my local masters (over 35's) team here in New Zealand. On the day of my stroke I was doing some work in the garden and came inside and whilst working on my PC felt a little odd and found I was moving the mouse but doing nothing else. My partner came in and asked me a question, whilst I could think of a reply I couldn't actually speak. She then noticed something was wrong and she thought it was a stroke straight away so called an ambulance. I tried to stand and my balance was all over the place. The ambulance came and I went to hospital and quite frankly I was terrified, I had no idea what had happened and why, as far as I knew strokes happened in old age.
I had a CT scan in A&E which didn't show anything and they kept in for more tests, as I was low risk for a stroke, don't drink much, don't smoke, not overweight, no history in the family. By the end of the day I'd got a lot of feeling back though had a droop on the right hand side of my face and my speech was very slurred. After a few days of tests and an MRI it confirmed I had had a stroke and they had found I had a PFO, the cardiologist put the stroke down to that, the neurologist thought is was stress related. I was put on warfarin and a follow up appointment was arranged in cardiology. I was not well enough to go back to work and felt very tired and had lost my appetite completely and lost a lot of weight over the next few months. With my family all back in the UK it suddenly felt a long way away here in NZ, probably more so for them than for me.
After 3 months at home and whilst still suffering from fatigue I finally returned to work, just part time. I saw the cardiologist and whilst they do not close PFO's as a routine in NZ he would recommend it if I elected to have it closed. The choice was easy to make, despite all the hype, given that otherwise I would need to take warfarin for the rest of my life. I had the closure done a couple of weeks ago and it all went fine and I am off warfarin but still taking anti-coagulant drugs (for the next 4 weeks).
It is 8 months now since my stroke and whilst I'm still part-time at work, I am feeling so much better that I think I will be able to return full time. After a few weeks of speech therapy my speech has improved though I still slur when I'm very tired. I'm planning on returning to playing football in a few weeks time and also on getting back to cycling. I'm even thinking of doing a 160km bike race around New Zealands largest lake, Lake Taupo later this year to raise money for the Stroke foundation here in New Zealand.
I wanted to share my story as just after the stroke I often thought would I ever get better and what would my quality of life be. I was very down at times and found reading other stories, particularly those who had a stroke at a younger age very helpful.
Thanks to Saul 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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