Our Story Our Journey by Nick and Yvonne

I am a five time stroke survivor, I have had an intracranial Haemorrhage and many mini strokes. I can’t believe how lucky I am to be alive, let alone able to put pen to paper. 

My partner Yvonne and I have always faced the challenges of stroke and stroke recovery as a team, I am a lucky man as challenges shared are challenges halved. I don’t think I would be where I am today if it wasn’t for Yvonne. I recognise that the stroke has affected her as much as it has affected me.

We are currently enjoying a holiday in Italy, this trip has been a long time in the making, stroke made sure of that. It is our hope that by sharing our experience it will make it easier for people who find themselves in a similar position. Ours is a love story, facing the ups and down of stroke together.

It has been almost three years since the strokes started. I had been having some health issues, and my Doctor could not work out what was happening, I had numerous tests and nothing came of them. 

One night I woke up feeling disorientated and with blurred vision. I got up to get a drink of water but was confused so I went back to bed hoping that I could sleep it off - I didn’t.

In the morning my GP sent me to Bendigo Emergency department, I had a CT scan which didn’t pick up anything. Five hours later I was told to book myself in for an MRI in a weeks’ time. 

The MRI did show a brain bleed, so I caught a Taxi back to the hospital, calling Yvonne on the way and asking her to meet me there. It took another six hours to be admitted to the orthopaedics ward, which was not ideal. I was put on steroids to help reduce the swelling around my brain. Waiting was bloody hard on me, but I think the impact on Yvonne can’t be underestimated, watching your partner not getting the support they desperately need is terrifying.

Finally a bed at St Vincent’s hospital in Melbourne became available and we were told I would need surgery for what looked like two tumours. 

On Monday 30th November 2015 I went in for surgery. The following day I was told I had had a major stroke sometime within the last 12 months. 

Part 2

We’re still on holiday, England are out of the World Cup and I have reconnected with my daughter after 15 years and met her fiancé – life is good. Something I am so happy to be able to do.

After my diagnosis of a stroke, we had some answers and felt we could take the next steps in my recovery. With Yvonne’s help I took my first shower, but I took a turn for the worse and I started to lose my balance. It was another stroke. This event prompted a move into the specialised stroke ward as a bed had become available.

I was visited by numerous specialists and a social worker, and put on medication for the pain and to aid recovery. Yvonne still had to work, she was going back and forth, visiting me at lunch time and in the evenings. Yvonne would then go home after I fell asleep to start the job of communicating with family and organising what I needed for rehab. 

Finally the day came when I was able to go home to Castlemaine, unfortunately in the car on the way home stroke number three happened. We didn’t call an ambulance, but went home for the night. I don’t know what we were thinking, it hadn’t occurred to us the symptoms could be another stroke – I had just been discharged. 

The next day Yvonne called an ambulance. I was taken back to St Vincent’s hospital, this time treatment was rapid, off for an MRI and then put on a drip to force fluids into me to get my blood pressure under control. 

The treatment available had not always been the best, but now I had a full team treating me, and my family and friends had all been informed of what was going on. It felt good to get messages of support from my mates, Golf buddies and work colleagues. I felt that I had turned a corner. 

I was discharged again from hospital and a week later I went back to St Vincent’s to have the staples in my head removed. I was feeling really agitated. At the hospital I had stroke number four, and I was back to the stroke ward via the imaging department. I was fed up by now, it is tough when you can’t trust your own head. You begin to lose a bit of faith in it all. To cheer me up Yvonne helped to organise a round of golf when I was next out of hospital. 

On the day of my golf game the temperature was very warm. Yvonne was driving me around the course acting as my ‘spotter’. I stated to find it difficult to cope with the heat and my joints began to seize up. We went home and after a sleepless night Yvonne called the ambulance again. I was back in St Vincent’s – I had suffered my fifth stroke.

Unfortunately I was never given a solid reason for my strokes, the first one was probably caused by smoking, but for the subsequent ones there was no reason found. 

On December 23rd 2015 I was finally released from hospital, just in time for Christmas. We celebrated the season in with family and friends. We opened presents, ate great food and I slept a lot.