Stroke is among the top-10 causes of death in childhood. More than half of the survivors will be left with some sort of long-term incapacity, including seizures, physical disability, speech and learning difficulties.
Kate Ryan, below, was just 10 when her innocent world was turned upside down by a stroke, paralysing her down the left-hand side.
Today, little is still known about the causes of childhood stroke, but Newcastle-based Kate, now 39 and a mum-of-two, has shared what she learned the hard way in her inspiring new book, Beyond Stroke: Living Independently With One Arm.
To commemorate the release of the handbook for anyone living with the after effects of stroke, Kate takes us back to that life-changing day below, and how she managed to get her independence back:
“It was 1987 I was 10 years old; I was happy, social, enthusiastic, capable and full of life. I was a ballet dancer, captain of the netball and softball team and played flute and piano.
I played with my friends, rode my bike, read books and I liked going to school. Life was happy and normal. I was just like any other 10 year old.
One day just like any other, I was on my way home from school, I had a terrible headache. I held my pounding head in my hand as my mum said, “Just stay home tonight.
‘Well this isn’t going to stop me’, I thought and I said to myself, ‘I’m going to push even harder’. Shortly into the class we began our exercises.
I tilted my head to the right and then the left stretching my neck. Sitting for the next exercise the teacher asked if I wanted to get some water.
Next I found myself at the front of the hall with my body fitting wildly, I had collapsed. The class was continuing in front of me with the music blaring and my head pounding like an axe.
After one and a half hours the dance teacher called my mum. Mum raced me to the hospital seeing instantly that I had suffered a stroke.
I spent one month in Sydney Kids Hospital and many months following travelling 2 hours to and fro for daily physiotherapy and doctors’ visits.
Daily physiotherapy was heartbreaking, imagine being asked to move your thumb and being unable to, when only weeks before your entire hand and body was doing graceful movements in a ballet performance.
I had my arm and leg in plaster casts stretching out the tendons which were slowly getting tighter and tighter.
I thought I was in a nightmare, one day I would wake up and everything would be back to normal. The weeks, months and years rolled by and this stroke became my life.
I found that everyone had moved on with their life and it was presumed I would too even though I was suffering crippling depression and undergoing painful and intensive physiotherapy with constant headaches.
The people around me, school teachers, school friends and acquaintances lacked the capacity to understand because the awareness around stroke and disability was in its infancy during the 1990’s.
The Turning Point
How was I to use this stroke to my benefit? I thought. How can I move on successfully too? I taught myself how to live using one arm. I learnt to dress myself with one arm, how to make my meals and even use a computer because no one really considered I needed to be shown.
I embraced this learning task and soon became entirely independent of others help.
Becoming an adult I found freedom from people’s misjudgement by being capable and independent. I moved from grief to determination by travelling independently, studying at University, having children and doing everything that’s involved in bringing them up.
After many years and the power of my mind I overcame daily epileptic seizures and received acceptance of my stroke. I can see it as a gift now rather than a burden.
My stroke gave me mountains of inner strength. I learnt to cope in a two-handed world using one arm. I adapted to a new way of life. In doing so I reclaimed self-worth, freedom and dignity. I didn’t need to rely on others and I wasn’t stuck being unable to take care for myself.
In my book, Beyond Stroke: Living Independently With One Arm I highlight the main areas of life and show how simple daily skills can easily be completed with one arm. Including ‘In the kitchen’, how to cut food without it falling on the floor!
In my book I have included smart techniques to achieve daily living skills with one hand. The one handed ideas are quick and easy to adapt to, simple to learn and will make daily life stress free again.”
- To read more about Kate’s inspiring story, visit her blog here, and like her Facebook page. To purchase copies of Beyond Stroke: Living Independently With One Arm, please visit www.ryanpub.com.au.
