Lisa Deck - Stroke Survivor
- I was 21 years old, and I was going
to American University in Washington, DC.
I'd been sick for, like a day or two, where I had
a severe headache, my left side was numb,
and I knew something wasn't right.
I woke up one morning, on May 7th,
and it was 1997, and I knew I needed to go to the hospital.
And when I walked into this hospital,
there was a sign that said, "May is Stroke Awareness Month."
And I noticed it and thought, "Hmm."
When they told me that it was a stroke,
I didn't really know what a stroke was.
I thought that it was something that happened to old men,
you know, I really thought that was something that
would happen to my grandfather, not to me.
I called my parents, who knew I was going
to the hospital, were obviously worried, and the doctor
got on the phone and told my mom I had a stroke.
I can only imagine, now that I'm a mom,
how shocking and scary that had to have been for her.
(gentle music)
About four months after my first stroke,
I had a lot of the same feelings, and I just
took a cab to the hospital, and they admitted
me because I had had a second stroke.
I was diagnosed with central nervous system vasculitis,
which is inflammation of the blood vessels in my brain.
The treatment for the disease was very, very intense.
I gained 60, 70 pounds. I went into menopause.
I lost most of my hair, I developed high
blood pressure, high cholesterol, all of these
things were just part of the treatment.
At one point, they were tapering one of my
medications, I had a third stroke.
Being young was good because you're
kind of naive, and you just fight.
You don't know what else to do, you just fight.
But I was scared, very scared because
I didn't know if I was going to be okay.
I didn't know what this would mean for my future.
I always thought that I would get married
and have a family and have this great job.
I was so sick at times, I thought, "Nobody's gonna
"want to marry me," or "How's this gonna work?"
September 11th, 2001 was the day that I had
my MRI that declared me in remission.
- Actually, our first date in Washington, DC
was supposed to be September 11th, 2001,
which obviously we didn't end up going on that date.
We had some mutual friends who knew each other.
So we were acquaintances in our 20's.
I didn't really become aware of the seriousness of the
situation till probably after she was
in remission, till I heard about the full extent of the
three strokes and central nervous system vasculitis,
and all things that I had to educate myself about because,
at such a young age, it's tough to conceive of someone
dealing with so much and having to overcome so much.
I know about her now, and I see her
succeeding in everything she does.
I'm not surprised that she overcame
such a serious situation.
- When I was in remission, and I had been
living back in Rhode Island, I decided I wanted
to do something to celebrate being healthy.
I was like, "I'm alive. I want to celebrate.
"I wanna have a party," so I tried to figure out
how to do that, and in researching that,
I learned about the Train to End Stroke
marathon program, which is now Tedy's Team.
I raised over $14,000 for the team.
Maybe six months after my remission,
I walked a half marathon, which is something
I didn't know if I would ever do.
One of my favorite things I did
was create the Survivor Luncheon,
which is a part of the National Lobby Day
for the Heart Association, and I think
that's when I first learned about Go Red,
and I learned about how this movement was
talking about women and keeping women healthy.
Women often forget to take care of themselves.
Mothers, sisters, daughters, caregivers,
working moms, stay-at-home moms,
we're all busy, and we're all doing a million things,
and I think we often just forget to pay attention
to your body and take care of your body.
I have friends who tell me they have a headache,
and I'll say, "Now how bad is your headache?"
And they kind of laugh, but I know what can happen.
I know the sudden symptoms of things
^ that can happen, and you need to take action.
^ I look at my life today, and I'm very
^ fortunate for the life I have.
^ I have an awesome husband, I have two
fantastic, crazy kids, I'm just lucky I'm here.
And I want to be here, and I want to be doing
the right thing so that I'm here even longer.
I think Go Red For Women is important
because it's spreading the word that heart
disease and stroke do happen to women.
I think people forget that, again, I thought it
happened to my 80-year-old grandfather.
Not a 21-year-old girl who's in good shape.
It speaks and remind the women to take care
of themselves and to take care of their health.
Because without your health, you don't have anything.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsTc68gmXqc
Patrick's Story of Stroke Recovery
Hi. My name is Patrick and I had a stroke
and I spent some time at Kindred Hospital
rehab center and the hospital.
I’m a restaurant manager and I was at work.
I didn’t feel good and my assistant immediately
called the ambulance. They took me to Valley
Hospital and I was in the emergency room and
their care for about a month.
Later, they recommended Kindred and that’s
how I ended up there. I was first on the hospital
side.
He came here for rehab to help him get better
and get more independent to go home. His number
one goal was always to work on swallowing
because he worked in restaurants his whole
life and he was a big foodie so him number
one goal was to get back to eating regular
food and get back on a regular diet.
The speech pathologist, Kasey, she was a great
cheerleader. There was times you just wanted
to give up but she was tremendous.
People who have strokes it takes them longer
to get their message across, longer to process
information and so if you can just stop and
listen to them and hear what they have to
say and letting them know that you’re there
to listen and help them, just taking a little
bit of extra time.
It’s like you think of the words but you
can’t say them. It becomes very frustrating
when someone doesn’t understand you.
The number one source of frustration for a
stroke patient is they try to communicate
and their communication doesn’t always come
out clear so they have to repeat themselves
over and over and so just having empathy with
them, being very patient, telling them you
understand their frustration and then providing
them with strategies. Once Patrick was given
those strategies to make his speech clearer
he took them and ran with them and he’s
doing really well.
Typically the folks who are on the LTAC side
are extremely sick and need that extra level
of care and then typically once they get them
a little bit stronger and they’re able to
handle more rehab then they send them over
to our side so that we can get them back home
or to an assisted living or whenever they
came from before so that was kind of his continuum.
I think it’s really nice for the patient
that they don’t have to get bounced around
from place to place. Essentially to them they
see it as they’re just switching rooms so
it’s kind of nice because a lot times when
patients get transferred from facility to
facility they can get more confused, they
can get disoriented and it’s just not a
pleasant experience so to be able to keep
them in one building is really nice.
I felt more comfortable of course recognizing
the surroundings and the employees, having
the same doctor and establishing a rapport.
It was very helpful.
We just continued the therapy to get him more
independent because he was home alone before.
The biggest area of progress was definitely
with his swallowing because he was NPO, had
an NG tube when he first got here. That was
removed, we got him back on a regular diet
with nectar thick liquids and the water in
between meals and he was able to communicate
at a conversational level.
If I could say I could do something, then
she believed me. An employee like Kasey is
one in a million.
Part of doing my job is helping people and
being an advocate for them, making sure that
they’re safe and getting the best care,
so to me it’s just doing my job but it’s
good to hear that I was really was able to
help somebody that much.
He’s home by himself now. He has some caregivers,
home therapy that comes in and helps him but
that was always his goal from day one when
he got here. He had just purchased a new home
and he wanted to be back home and by himself
and he accomplished that.
It was a tremendous feeling to be back in
my own home. I can feed myself now and I’m
fully independent in my house now so I’m
very fortunate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=np5Zdas1Xww
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