Yvonne's Story
It was just a regular summer’s day. I was celebrating a friend’s birthday with a BBQ at the beach; a game of cricket and a couple of drinks. The picture of normalness. When I got the most unbelievable headache it never crossed my mind that I was having a stroke. The headache came first. BOOM. Out of the blue, like someone was punching me in the head. I took two headache pills, but they did nothing. Within five minutes of getting the most extreme headache in my left temple, my symptoms worsened. My body turned weak, I was light headed and had difficulty standing due to a loss of balance. I suffered numbness on the right hand side of my body. Yet my biggest concern was loss of vision in both eyes. For a short time I was blind in both eyes. I felt like I wanted to be sick, so I tried to walk to the nearest bathroom. As I got up, I realized that the right hand side of my body was not working. I was unable to put pressure on my right leg. I was moving slowly, my vision was slowly coming back in my right eye but there were a lot of ‘black’ spots of non-vision.
I went to a friend’s house to rest. My symptoms continued. Then I started losing my memory, my train of thought. I would get some food out of the pantry and then three seconds later, I headed back to the pantry to get something out to eat, not realizing I had just done that seconds ago. I was repeating stories within a minute of each other.
I still wanted to be sick, but I wasn’t. All I remember saying to my friend is "This is not normal, this is not normal." Yet I still stupidly self-diagnosed myself. I didn’t know the symptoms of stroke other than paralysis which everyone talks about. Since I was in the sun all day I just thought I must have been suffering sunstroke and decided against seeking medical treatment.
Nine days after the episode I was still suffering the majority of the initial symptoms and decided to visit my local GP. He sent me to an eye surgeon, who sent me for a CT scan. I then met with a neurologist, and was admitted to hospital - all within 24 hours.
I spent 12 days in hospital over a three week period. They thought I had everything from a brain tumour to DVT. It wasn’t until my comparison MRI that the narrowing of my blood vessels into the brain was noted, causing the stroke of five weeks ago.
It’s now ten weeks after my stroke and I have not regained peripheral vision in both eyes and my eye specialist informs me that I never will. I like to think of this as my consist reminder of what occurred and how I should not ‘lose sight’ of all the good things life has to offer. Fatigue is a daily struggle. My muscles still feel weak and even getting out of bed is proving rather difficult. Whether than is more physical than mental remains to be seem.
I’m back on steroids to deal with the regular headaches I was getting. This takes me on an emotional rollercoaster everyday. You never know whether you are going to get ‘happy/crazy/hardworking/lazy/tired Yvonne’.
I have gained a new found appreciation for life. I have made many positive changes, such as limiting alcohol intake, ceasing use of the conceptive pill, and placing importance on healthy eating and physical activity. Every time I now get a headache, I am scared of what else may follow… but I have to remember that there are only certain ‘stroke risk factors’ within my control and those are what I now concentrate on. I know it’s hard to look past the emotional stress, the tears, the physical and mental disabilities. But once you realise it could have been a lot worse, you learn to appreciate life more on a daily basis.
I listen to my body more now than ever before. I tried to run before I could walk, literally. I remember trying to run around the block (less than a kilometre) and I couldn’t even walk it. Things do improve with time. Close friends are bliss. I didn’t want to share my story with everyone, but it helps to have a couple of people who know what you are feeling, what are you thinking and can be that friendly ear you need, especially when it seems like life is falling apart all around you. I'm no preacher, but I’m finding it ‘my duty’ to educate those around me. If I didn’t know I 27 year old could suffer a stroke, there are millions more out there like me. Educate others on stroke symptoms, what to do if someone suffers a stroke, and what you can do to prevent a stroke.
I found humour a blessing and made this video about my experience to date.
Check it out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLGvRoHfP1Q
Thanks to Yvonne 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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