I had a haemorrhagic stroke

By Heidi

In 2019 I came home after a workday with a thunderous headache. I had suffered with migraines in the past, but little did I know that this time I was suffering a haemorrhagic stroke.   

Taking myself to bed, I hoped that in the morning I would be back to my old self and ready for work.   

During the night I got up to use the loo, Brendan, my husband, helped me. We still assumed it was simply a migraine, so back to bed I went.   

In the morning, the headache was getting worse, so I called work to say that I was going to the local GP.    

Luckily, Brendan was having none of that, and had already called triple zero (000).   

He had noticed that I seemed disorientated and was not using my body naturally. He thought that I may be having a heart attack. Brendan knew that if I wasn’t going to work, something was really wrong.  

When the paramedics arrived, they immediately started to check for the F.A.S.T. signs of stroke. They asked me to lift both arms, but I couldn’t. They asked me to smile and it was lopsided.    

They told me that they suspected that I was having a stroke, which Brendan and I knew nothing about.   

I was bundled into the ambulance and taken to hospital. On the way, we stopped at an oval for a neurologist who had been choppered in. He started working on me in the ambulance.   

That is when reality really started to set in, I knew that I was in trouble. I was petrified.    

I was rushed into the operating theatre, for the first of three operations to clamp the bleed. To operate, three pieces of my skull had to be removed. I looked shocking, but my hair has grown back.    

After the operations I was in a coma for three weeks, then in the G2 Ward for three weeks, and four months in inpatient rehab.   

It’s been a long haul, and we didn’t understand how long it would take to get back to a semblance of the old me. I have left-sided paralysis and use a quad stick to walk, I also have epilepsy, which is being managed effectively, and fatigue. I have relearned most of what I lost, like using cutlery, and have regained my speech.   

I am home now, but I still have a team that comes for rehab and to help with some day-to-day activities. Work is off the agenda, but my plan is to study again.    
However, I don’t want this blog to be only about me, or Brendan. We want to take this opportunity to thank the people that helped me, helped us, get to where I am today.    

Thank you, Associate Professor Mitchell Hansen, who saved my life. 

Also, a very special thank you to the team at Rankin Park Rehab Hospital and Dr David Kellet, who got me back on my feet. I gave the physios plenty to laugh about, the teasing and jokes made light of the very hard work. 

Lastly, I want to thank my husband Brendan, who has been by my side every step of the way. When we said our vows, we didn’t know what the future would hold. You saved my life by calling the ambulance, and you stand by my side every day. - Thank you