Julie Lesslie

My stroke happened at 6.00 am on 2 July 2012.  I'd got up to go to the loo and as I was going back to bed I collapsed.  I was drifting in and out of consciousness but I didn't try to call for my husband, who was downstairs, For some bizarre reason I was just incredibly happy!  My husband found me about 15 minutes later and immediately called an ambulance.  I was taken to Watford General Hospital where I was to stay for the next 7 weeks and they told my husband that I'd had a major stroke and it turned out after having an MRI scan that I'd had a clot and a bleed!.  The main thing I remember is wetting myself when I had my MRI scan because I couldn't talk, but I thought I could!  It was very embarrassing for me but the nurses were great and just dealt with it.  The doctors couldn't find why I'd had the stroke so I had some tests done on my heart, which were awful and they sedated me first but it was still horrible!  They discovered I had a large hole in my heart which they think might have caused my stroke, but they'll never know for sure.  I hated being in hospital because I was the youngest person there by about 30 years. I can remember one day seeing the Doctor and being told that I would never walk or use my right arm (and I'm right handed!) again.  I remember crying a lot.  I was 48 years old.

After 7 weeks I finally left the hospital and was taken by ambulance to rehabilitation  in St Albans Hospital where I stayed for 8 weeks.  They managed to get me walking using a walking stick but my arm was very limp and I couldn't move it at all.  I had some extra bannisters fitted in my house and after making sure I could manage the stairs I was able to come home for weekends.  Because my toilet is upstairs I had to have a commode which was a godsend.

I had my heart fixed in the November 2012 and then I had NHS physiotherapy for six months.  When it finished I thought "now what?!".  I was very isolated, I couldn't drive and I had to give up the work which I loved, I was a PA to the Headmaster in a large comprehensive school, and all my friends work.  I then found a lady quite by chance who is ARNI trained and for about 2 years I saw her twice a week.  I then found a lady called Farsideh Bondarenko who's a neuro physiotherapist and I'm now seeing her twice a month.  She tells me that I'm her best patient and she can't believe I've come so far!

I'm currently training to become a counsellor and I'll qualify in July 2017.  It's very hard work but I'll get there.  I'm about 90% better. I've got an adapted car which has got a "driving stick" on the steering wheel and the pedals have been swapped round so that I drive using my left foot.  I'm still trying to write and next week I've got 3 weeks of intensive physiotherapy on my arm and shoulder.  I think that now all the muscles work but they're very weak so fingers crossed intensive physiotherapy (about 6 hours every day!) will do the trick!  My speech isn't what it used to be, but I've had a lot of speech therapy and I've got mild aphasia but I've got used to it and speak much slower than I used to.  In a way, whilst I can't say I'm happy that I had my stroke but before my life was very stressful, and now I don't get stressed about anything and I certainly wouldn't have become a counsellor!