Hi fellow survivors,
I just wanted to share my journey so far. I was a physically fit 51 year old prior to having an Ischaemic Stroke in November 2019. In fact, 6 weeks before my stroke I had passed my Judo Black Belt grading and then I suffered my stroke at the end of a Tug of War competition where my team won a bronze medal.
I was left with speech dyspraxia, hearing problems leading with having to wear a hearing aid and proplems with my eyes resulting in focusing issues taking several seconds to rectify when looking at different distances. This made even walking slowly and short distancing a nightmare, finally fatigue and painful headaches were my biggest concerns.
Within 2 weeks my vision returned to normal, my headaches disappeared in around 2 months. After 3 months I returned to work, working 3 1/2 days per week. Then covid19 entered our lives and I was sent home to self isolate. After 6 weeks I decided to return to work, slowly increasing my hours, and since then my recovery has been incredible. I now work 8-4 (just 1 hour to increase until i am back to full time) I put on 1 stone of fat since my stroke so since may Itackled that and have now back to my pre stroke weight. I no longer wear hearing aids, my fatigue has gone. My speech is now at about 85% back to normal, but I still say the odd stray word which can be embarrassing especially during teaching students or a management meeting (as i work in a college). I will either laugh it off or just ignore it.
I know that I was fairly young and my stroke fairly mild, but give it time and try to stay positive, have faith and i am sure you will improve. At first I looked at myself as a victim but as soon as I changed my mindset and became a survivor I started to heal.
Kind regards and stay safe
Clarkey