Within minutes I could use my arm and leg again

Former teacher Karen Craven, 60, is married with two grown-up sons and lives in Wilford, Nottingham. She made a full recovery after a stroke thanks to groundbreaking treatment...

On the morning of my stroke in September 2015, I was getting ready for work when I felt an excruciating pain above my right temple, which lasted about a minute before subsiding. My eldest son Sam, 28, was downstairs – he’d come back from the gym instead of going straight to work as he’d forgotten his clean shirt.

I went down to speak to him and he asked if I’d been drinking because I sounded slurred. “Chance would be a fine thing,” I joked, and headed upstairs to finish getting ready. I dropped my hairbrush and, as I went to pick it up, I couldn’t grasp it with my left hand and that’s all I remember.

Sam came upstairs and found me on my knees with my left cheek flat on the floor.

When he lifted me up, he realised I might be having a stroke, so called 999 and a paramedic was at the house within minutes. I couldn’t lift up my arms and the sight had gone in my left eye, along with the use of my left side.

When I got to hospital I was assessed in a specialist stroke unit and a CT scan revealed two blood clots in my brain. The consultant referred me for a cutting-edge treatment called a thrombectomy – currently available in just a few UK hospitals – where a wire is inserted into an artery in the groin and travels up to the brain to pull out the clots.

I was awake during the procedure and there was a little pain when the surgeon grabbed the clots, but within minutes I had 100% blood flow in my brain, my sight was restored and I could lift my arm and leg. It was miraculous.

At teatime I was back on the stroke ward and able to get out of the wheelchair and walk towards my consultant to hug her and say thank you. I was home 48 hours later after passing all the physio and memory tests.

I had risk factors for stroke, but I wasn’t aware of them. I’d been diagnosed with AF at A&E in 2009 after feeling unwell and experiencing an irregular and rapid heartbeat. I was given a beta-blocker to slow my heart and told to take aspirin and, for six years, I had no distressing symptoms and my medication never changed. I didn’t know that aspirin is no longer considered sufficient to thin the blood of someone with AF.

Now I take beta-blockers, as well as blood pressure medication, a blood thinner and a statin. I’m trying to manage my weight with a healthier diet and smaller portions and, rather than comfort eating to manage stress, I use mindfulness techniques.

I’m more active, too. I recently cycled 150 miles along the coast-to-coast trail from Workington to Sunderland to raise money for the Stroke Association.

I’m proof that early intervention saves lives.