Anatomy of a stroke
At just 38, avid runner Laura suffered a stroke after ignoring her risk factors. Here, she shares how she’s managed to get back on her feet.
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Icertainly didn’t fit the classic profile of the ageing stroke victim. At the time of my brain explosion, I was 38. I’d run eight half-marathons and had a diet and exercise regimen that helped me cross those finish lines. But I also had an intense job that involved booking groups into hotels. That’s what I was doing at 2am on the Friday before Christmas in 2013, welcoming a group to their hotel. I got four hours of sleep that night, then drove 145 kilometres to my mother’s house to drop off Christmas presents. On Sunday morning, I was supposed to meet another tour group. But, by that time, I was fighting for my life.
NEUROLOGIST DR MITCHELL ELKIND:
cooked up a reminder. That Saturday night, my husband, Aaron, had gone ahead to see family for Christmas, so I was alone when I set my phone alarm for 7am and went to bed. When the alarm sounded, my world changed.
My head was fuzzy, which I assumed was morning grogginess. That was excuse number one. When I reached to turn off my phone alarm, my right arm was numb and I couldn’t open my hand. Excuse number two: I must’ve slept on it funny. I tried to roll out of bed, but my right leg was numb from the knee down. I finally started to freak out.
I dragged my non-functioning leg into the bathroom and saw in the mirror that the right side of my face was drooping. I grabbed my phone and Googled ‘signs of stroke’ and a site popped up, showing the acronym FAST: F for Facial drooping, A for Arm weakness, S for Speech difficulty and T, Time to call emergency, even if only one of those symptoms is present. I had two of them and would soon experience the third (speech issues). Adhering to the fourth – call an ambulance – was the only logical move. But I called my mum instead.
DR ELKIND:
My mum worked as a hospital social worker, and after I described my symptoms, she said, “Don’t do anything. I’m coming right over.” That wouldn’t be possible unless she hired a helicopter; she lived so far away. But I did what she said. I waited 90 minutes while my brain tissue eroded.
LAURA’S MUM, VIRGINIA
While they were taking my vitals, one of the nurses began addressing my mum as if I weren’t there. “She’s drooling out of one side of her mouth,” she said. “Is that normal for Laura?” (FYI: No.) Doctors and nurses kept appearing at my bedside, asking me again and again, “What’s your name?” “Do you know what day this is?” “Do you know where you are?” The answer to that last question was pretty obvious: I was in a world of trouble. Still, I pushed back. I told anybody who would listen, “I’m 38. I don’t smoke. I exercise. I don’t drink a lot. I don’t have time for this.”
Yet my speech was slurred, my thinking foggy and my limbs not working. My symptoms worsened and the on-call neurologist confirmed the obvious: “Young lady,” she said, “you’ve had a stroke.” I replied, still in denial, “Oh, you mean a mini-stroke.” She levelled me with her gaze: “No, a very serious stroke. We’re going to do everything we can to help you survive.” It was an ischemic stroke: A blood clot had closed off an artery and started suffocating my brain.
Once we had the diagnosis, there was no avoiding it: we had to notify my husband, who was still blissfully unaware. How would you like to receive a text message like this, sent by your partner’s mum? “We’re in the emergency room. Laura’s had a stroke.”
LAURA’S HUSBAND, AARON: “
My care team’s best guess as to the cause of my stroke was stress-related hypertension. They put me on blood pressure- and cholesterollowering meds and I began taking a baby aspirin every day. A nutritionist advised me to focus on ‘brain foods’ with healthy fats, antioxidants and anti-inflammatories, including walnuts, blueberries, salmon and avocado as well as lean protein and organic produce, and to avoid inflammatory pesticides and chemicals. She also recommended I ditch dairy. I cut down on sodium and eliminated caffeine, too.
There were weird after-effects of the stroke, such as not being able to pronounce words ending in ‘s’. I practised cursive writing on my iPad and did crosswords to exercise my memory. It was absolutely exhausting, but every time I managed something new – like when I wrote my name without it looking like a two-year-old’s scrawl or pronounced each ‘s’ correctly – I celebrated as if I’d just crossed a finish line with a new personal record. When I tied my shoes on my own (that was really hard), it was like winning at the Olympics.
DR DUNCAN:
hours, but I didn’t care: it was progress. I soon introduced a few shuffling running steps and told myself: Laura, this is not hard. Learning how to cut your food again, learning how to dress yourself – that was hard. Running is not hard. I went back to work, in part because there was a treadmill in the office. I vowed to run an extra 30 seconds every day. Keep that up for two months and you start to get somewhere – like a half-marathon in April 2014, 129 days after my stroke.
In the race, I ran the first three kilometres, then alternated running and walking for the remaining 18. It took me three hours, a personal worst, but, in some sense, it was my best time ever. At the finish line, I bent over and cried like a baby. It was such a celebration of life, embracing my second chance, and a reminder that tomorrow is promised to no one, no matter how fit you are. I can’t afford another blood clot. But now, seven years later, I’m as close to 100 per cent as I think anybody can be.
Remember, a stroke doesn’t know your age. It doesn’t care if you’re busy. It doesn’t care if you’re a race-running jackrabbit like I was. It can affect anyone, especially if you’re ignoring your risk factors as I was. So when you go to get a checkup, pay attention to your numbers. Watch your diet and make sure you get at least 30 minutes of exercise a day, five days a week. You can turn the numbers in your favour. And that’s so much easier than working through stroke rehab (if you even make it that far). You’re never too busy, young or fit to have a stroke. So, make time now to avoid one. Your life may depend on it.
• If you are, or someone you know is, showing symptoms of a stroke, call 000 immediately. Remember, time is critical. Symptoms can include sudden numbness in the face or body, especially on one side, slurred speech, blurred vision, dizziness and mental confusion. For more information on stroke recovery and support, go to enableme.org.au