Stroke survivor shares their first glimmer of hope

Elena is 37 and lives in Lisburn with her husband Geoff and daughter Esther.

Elena had a stroke in 2014 when she was 31. Now, six years on from her stroke, Elena experiences pain and difficulty with movement on her left side. She also lives with problems with balance, memory loss and depression.

When Elena was pregnant with Esther, now three, she knew there were likely to be issues because of her stroke history.

“I got to about 36 weeks along in my pregnancy when my blood pressure started to get quite high,” she explained. “The hospital team started to worry that I was going in to labour early. The day Esther was born I wasn’t very well at all myself. Esther was born about midnight and straight away there were complications and Esther had to be resuscitated. When she did finally breathe, she started to fit. She spent three days in the Neo-Natal unit and when they did a MRI scan they discovered that she’d had three strokes in the first few minutes after birth.

“Despite the fright she gave us back then, she’s doing great now and she’s loving mainstream nursery. When we think back to how sick she was at the beginning, we’re just so thankful. She’s up and about walking and talking and we’re working with her on her speech. In the early days, we worried when she didn’t hit those milestones that parents look out for, like rolling around but when she got up on her feet and started to walk, that was it, you couldn’t stop her. We know it’s early days for Esther and we’re attending Warren Children’s centre, Lisburn, for further assessment but she’s so smart it’s ridiculous.

“For us, I’d say the glimmer of hope with Esther’s progress was when we attended a physio therapy appointment not long after Ester started walking. We’d been warned from the beginning that there may be issues with Esther’s physical development but that day, the therapist just said that she was no-longer even concerned about her progress, which was wonderful to hear.

“The months after my stroke were really tough. I felt so depressed and very negative. I kept thinking, ‘why me’ and what was I going to do now but I remember a glimmer of hope around the sixth month period though. My walking was getting better and with that my confidence was returning. I realised that the stroke wasn’t the end of my world. I’m not sure what changed but I just became emotionally stronger and that helped me to face the future with a more positive outlook.

“We’ve kept in contact with the Stroke Association over the years. It’s helped us know that we’re not on our own. That someone is there that you can turn to if you need support. This Christmas, consider donating to the Stroke Association and support stroke survivors and their families to rebuild their lives.”

To donate or for more information about stroke and the vital role that hope plays in stroke recovery and rebuilding lives, visit www.stroke.org.uk/hope