National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – The Next Three Days
May 8, 2007 by Lillie
Table of contents for Stroke
- National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – the Beginning
- National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – The Next Three Days
- National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – the Aftermath
As part of National Stroke Awareness Month, I’m sharing my stroke experience. You can read about the beginning in the previous post.
When I woke up in the hospital, I was paralyzed on my right side and had lost sensation on my left side. My balance center was destroyed, and my eyes were damaged so I had quadruple vision. I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow because I had no balance, I couldn’t move my right side because of the paralysis, and I couldn’t talk. The only thing I could do – and I did it well and often – was vomit.
The inability to communicate was the worst. My father was in an advanced stage of Alzheimer’s at the time, and I dreaded losing my mental capacities.
The neurologist said if there wasn’t significant improvement in three days, I might be that way for the rest of my life. I decided there was going to be significant improvement in those first critical days. If I could move the fingers of my right hand, grasp the bed rail with my left hand, and raise my head and right shoulder off the bed, I would be all right.
For two days and nights I tried to move my fingers. “Move, move, move!” And I prayed and prayed and prayed. In the wee hours of the third morning, I moved the fingers of my right hand. I reached out with left hand, grabbed the rail, and raised my head and right shoulder off the bed. Then I knew I would be fine.
I wanted to shout and tell the world. I wanted to call my husband and parents and siblings. But the phone was out of reach, and I couldn’t have made myself understood anyway.
From that point on, I never doubted that I would become functional again. I spent more than a week in the hospital and a month in a rehab hospital followed by six months of outpatient therapy several times a week.
To be continued …
Related Post:
National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – the Beginning
[tags]stroke, National Stroke Awareness Month, Stroke of Luck[/tags]
Lillie, thank you so much for two days of a riveting personal account of a brain attack. I read both stories today and I look forward to reading what you have for tomorrow.
45 is very young for a stroke, but that chiropractic session seemed to have brought that about. I won’t get into what I think about this sort of “medicine” as you already validated my point. Then again, I know of others who claim to have been helped.
Thank you for alerting everyone to “National Stroke Awareness Month” and let’s hope that what you are sharing will impact others.
God bless.
Thanks, Matt. I’m going to have another post about symptoms of stroke and also will talk about an article in a current magazine demonstrating that this type of stroke is more common than previously thought.
I hope to help with stroke awareness. I have a friend who has had a very rare form of cancer treated with several surgeries, diabetes, and a bad heart condition. She had a stroke about a year ago, and she said it was by far the worst of any of the things she has gone through.
[...] has shone the light on National Stroke Awareness Month by writing an account of her personal stroke experience and [...]
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really hope you get better soon.
I was watching Kill Bill and there was that scene where Uma Thurman got up from her coma and started moving even if her muscles were in an atrophy state. Then I read your post and now I don’t find that scene as impossible anymore. I guess if we put our mind to something and if we really want to do it we can. You are a very powerful person.
A positive attitude and determination are important, but I give credit to God and the great medical care I received.
Glad to see you were able to make some improvement.
.-= Anthony@Suboxone Detox´s last blog ..Suboxone Detox =-.
Thanks, Anthony. I’ve actually made quite a remarkable recovery though I do have some “deficits” as the doctors call them.
I replied to all comments at the time they were made, but when I moved my blog, nested comments (which included my replies) were lost.
Lillie, In addition to your related post to stroke I wish to share the latest web-page on 2010 National Stroke Awareness. The FACE acronym is something quite informative and I sincerely wanted to spread it out. Kindly read more @ this link http://www.whathealth.com/awareness/event/stroke.html
Best Regards,
Mack!
.-= Mack@Aliante Homes´s last blog ..Commercial Real Estate Bubble =-.
Mack,
Thanks for the link. That little video is very helpful. About three weeks ago, I was very glad I knew all this.
My husband complained of being dizzy and the next time he spoke, he was slurring his speech. I looked over at him and saw his mouth dropping on one side. I asked him to raise each hand and foot, and he couldn’t raise his right hand or foot very high.
I was sure he was having a stroke and called EMS immediately. The EMTs said they too thought he was having a stroke.
I called my priest while they were loading Jack in the ambulance. He prayed with me over the phone and activated our prayer chain. By the time the ambulance reached the hospital, Jack was improving, and he was diagnosed with a TIA (transient ischemic attack or mini stroke). All his symptoms have gone away now except for a little weakness, and I’m sure he’ll have his strength back soon.
Praise God! I am convinced those prayers turned a stroke into a TIA.
But I’m also convinced that it was a good thing that I knew the symptoms and got help right away.
[...] faced in my life were the physical limitations that followed my stroke. As I described in National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – The Next Three Days, there were many things I couldn’t do and few I [...]
Glad to read of your determination… Your doctor also helped by giving you some greatly needed motivation. Hope the rest of your story is as inspiring.
David,
The neurologist’s comment did increase my determination, but I’m afraid it wouldn’t have the same effect on everyone. Some people would take it as a prediction that there was no hope and give up. I don’t know if he would have treated everyone the same way or not—I just hope he didn’t discourage other patients by his dire warning.
Doctors do tell the pros and cons of everything that would possibly happen to their patients. It is one way of protecting the client as well as their own, since it is also their responsibility to inform. Hence the manner of informing clients varies from person to person. And it also depends upon the perception of the patient on his or her present condition. Glad that you have that fighting spirit in you.
.-= Jeff@Avoid foreclosure in Las Vegas´s last blog ..Hard times for Hi-Rise lender =-.
Jeff,
I certainly think doctors should give the pros and cons and possibilities, but it seems they could be a little more compassionate about it.
I suppose the way they have given the facts were too harsh. Although I must say, they should have made considerations about the emotional aspects of an individual. I just hope the same thing you had hoped for concerning the other patients.
.-= Jeff@Avoid foreclosure in Las Vegas´s last blog ..Hard times for Hi-Rise lender =-.
Jeff,
In my case, what the doctor said motivated me, but that wouldn’t be the case with everyone. And the doctor didn’t know me well enough to know how I would respond.
[...] National Stroke Awareness Month: My Stroke – The Next Three Days [...]
Studies have shown that including small portions of the following foods into your diet could cut the risk of dying from a stroke by as much as twenty-five to forty percent. Experts recommend the following daily quantities:
55g of peanuts or almonds
85g of spinach
85g of butter beans
140g of salmon
a quarter of a cantaloupe
half an avocado
a baked potato
five dried half peaches
a glass of milk
Johnson,
I would like to know the source of this information, the experts and the studies. None of this would have made a difference in my stroke caused by a chiropractic manipulation. There may be some kinds of stroke that can be affected by food choices, but certainly not all.
Thank you. I’m blessed to be functional and working when I could have remained nonfunctional.