Archie Preston
My son archie was 27 months old when he had his stroke. He woke up on a Sunday morning, happy as normal, demanding he watch his Bob the Builder video. I settled him down and then went into my bedroom to get dressed. After about 20 minutes I went back into Archie's room to get him dressed. Archie was sat on the floor in his room and his face was smiling one side, but not on the other. I said to him "That's a funny face" (thinking that he had learnt to make a funny face like they do). When I asked Archie to come to me to get dressed, he couldn't stand up. He tried but just fell over. I called to his dad to come and see, he also called Archie, but he still couldn't walk. We tried to talk to him, but he was unable to say a word. I picked him up and his body on the right side just felt weightless. We panicked and rushed him to St Mary's hospital in Portsmouth to the minor injury clinic. We thought that Archie had a virus or a trapped nerve.
Looking back at him now it was so clear that he had suffered a stroke, but we thought babies don't have strokes, we thought it only happened to old people. The nurses we saw first weren't sure what was wrong so they sent us to the children's ward in the main hospital. Archie then went through a number of CT scans which had come back cleared, but the doctors told us they were worried that Archie had had a stroke and said he needed a MRI scan which he would have to be put to sleep for. They then asked us if Archie had had chicken pox in the last year, which he had. He had them in June of this year, but only had them very mild. We were then told that the chicken pox can shrink the arteries in the brain, which starves your brain of oxygen and hence causes a stroke. We were so scared as Archie could still not talk or walk.
He was attached to lots of monitors and had turned a very pale grey colour from all the bold tests they had to take. Two days later we had to go to a different hospital to have his MRI scan done. We were then told that our worst fears were true, Archie had had a stroke. The brain damage was to the left side of his brain, so he is paralysed on his right side of his body. We were discharged from hospital on the fourth day and sent home in the knowledge that physio and all the other professions would be in touch to help care for Archie. It took 3 weeks for physio to start, and we are still awaiting for occupational therapy and more. It has been 7 weeks now and Archie is making a good recovery. He is now talking and walking, but he is quite wobbly on his feet. We are waiting for some special shoes to help him walk better. He can move his right arm, but finds it difficult to use. He gets so tired and frustrated and angry, but we were told that this was to be expected as a stroke affects our emotions. We are hopeful he will make a good recovery as his is young and so can adapt to be left handed. We were so scared and frightened and still are, but we are doing everything in our power to get our little boy back to the Archie he was.
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Thanks to Archie's parents for sending in Archie 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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