Yup. That phone call happened November 4, 2017. My first-born daughter. 28. Regular half-marathon runner. Desert and forest camper, rock climber. Eats right. Stays fit. Helps others for a living. Stroke.
Nothing can prepare you for hearing your kid call and say something like that and there is no respite from the memory of seeing them do CPR on your glassy-eyed child in a hospital room after heart surgery. Those things are never going away for me. What also won’t go away from me though is that Erin’s roommate had the wisdom to see that Erin needed to go to the ER and took her. Right then. I am so thankful for that.
Learn to spot the signs of stroke: F.A.S.T.
Hello Rus,
I had a brain haemorrhage at the start of September following bike accident. I am also much better now and my trauma was probably much less than your daughters but it has left me with a much better understanding of what these things are like for not just the patient but also the family so tell Erin hello from me – another Traumatic Brain injury survivor 🙂
Hi Sean,
Wow! Glad you’re doing better! My mother-in-law fell and her TBI put her in the nursing home. These things really impact people’s lives, as certainly well know, and it is amazing how often they occur. I’ll pass your greetings along!
Life is so fragile. My projected recovery path 7 days before I left hospital ( 5 days after admission ) was 6 further months in hospital followed by a nursing home for another 6 – 12 months. I was very very lucky in many ways 🙂
In my case it was much harder for my family as I have no recollection of the difficult times and am very well now.
It is interesting though as TBI “recoverers” often exhibit new “attributes”. I have two new attributes. I now talk too much ( even more than I used to! ) and I overshare my experiences 🙂