How to recognise a stroke
“Hi Roger,
I am a single 44 year old female living in Darlington, a recent stroke survivor just home after 5 weeks in hospital and 2 weeks in Eastbourne Care Home!
On 31st July 09 at 3pm my life changed forever when I collapsed at home alone and a neighbour heard my screams for help!
He took me to the Walk-in Centre who then sent us to A&E at Darlington Memorial Hospital who thought I was drunk. It was 3pm on a Friday afternoon and I was working from my home office as Area Sales Manager!! I didn’t know who I was, where I lived or what was happening. In my notes I had 2 unsupervised falls with injuries which explains my black eyes, bruised face, arms etc.
I was admitted at 10.40pm and at 11pm my friend phoned the ward and she was asked if I had been drinking!!
I had multiple TIAs and CVA then later diagnosed with Antiphospholipid Syndrome! Why did no one recognise my stroke?
I am left with partial blindness, cognitive issues, memory loss and warfarin for life!
I have lost my driving licence, my job, my car, my life and my home next. The only thing I have in life to keep me in touch with the outside world is my company laptop. They’re coming to collect it next week so that will be me home alone in my own little bubble as I cannot go out on my own because of my blindness!!
Its been a long journey, still got a long way to go!
I have 2 lives now, pre-stroke and post-stroke………… my new life is very different but I’m still smiling.
I used to have dinner parties, I cant even boil an egg or draw a clock now!
I would like to do more for others and help promote stroke awareness even by speaking of my experience and my new life I was blessed with.
I am attending a Stroke Awareness evening tonight at Darlington Memorial Hospital with Louise from Stroke Association (Different Strokes)… they have been fantastic with me and understand my needs.
Hope you can make sense of all this because I wrote it on my own!!”
This is the text of a moving e-mail that I received this week as a result of someone seeing on my web site my advice on “How To Recognise A Stroke”. Make sure that, if this happens to you or someone you know, you realise what’s happening and take quick action.
October 7th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
This is a horrific story in this day and age. The Stroke Association has done sterling work over the years and if I had not been sent FAST years ago my cousin would have, in all probability ended up with some disablement.
When we got to the A&E, within half an hour of the first symptoms, I had to blow my top to ensure that my cousin was treated within the first two hours.
Result of blowing top – action – and my cousin made a full recovery and this is over two years ago past August.
I am so so sorry that this happened, needlessly.
October 9th, 2009 at 9:07 am
I’ve registered to run in the Stroke Associations 15K Resolution race in Richmond Park (Dec 6).
They are also staging their Stroke for Stroke sponsored event in Jan 2010.
My friend is one of their fundraisers.