MY STROKE STORY - SCOTT McPHEE

It was September 26, 1989, a few weeks after my fifteenth birthday. That day, I remember that I had soreness down the left side of my body, along with what I thought was a bad headache.

I didn’t feel quite right, but I thought that this was nothing to get concerned about. Neither did my parents.

The headache, along with other symptoms, which I now realize were warning signs of stroke, were things I had experienced before. Then the pains had disappeared after a few hours. I put these down to crankiness, eyestrain, or teenage ‘growing pains’.

That night, I went off to bed, thinking that I would feel fine in the morning.

The next thing I remember was waking up in the intensive care ward at the Royal Melbourne Hospital Melbourne in the suburb of Parkville

I was eventually moved out of intensive care into a ward. I was paralysed down the left side of my body, and had a bandage around my head.

Then came the day when the doctors explained what had happened to me. I was told that I had suffered a massive stroke.

I had been at home in bed, when I woke up crying in the middle of the night, complaining of a headache, and being unable to move. My brother went and alerted my parents. When they realized that there was something seriously wrong with me, I was then taken by ambulance to hospital. I had been in a coma for four days, and I could have died. The brain surgery done to stop the bleeding had saved my life.

The stroke had been caused by a weak blood vessel in my brain that had burst. I had been born with this.

I remember crying when I found out. I felt so scared, and angry. "Why me?" I wondered. I felt like a freak, because I thought that teenagers did not have strokes.

My parents were shocked. My family and I were told by my neurosurgeon that people could suffer strokes at any age.

Soon, I was sent to stroke rehabilitation at the Essendon Hospital in the inner Melbourne suburb of Moonee Ponds. I was there for over three months.

At first, I had to use a wheelchair to get around. When I regained movement on the left side of my body. I had to relearn how to walk, how to take care of myself and all the other everyday tasks I took for granted.This was difficult for an independent minded teenager like myself to accept.

My short-term memory and thought processes had been affected by the stroke too.

In rehabilitation, there were other people my age, but most of the other patients were a lot older. I got used to their curious looks as they probably wondered what a teenage boy was doing in stroke rehabilitation.

I started to come home on weekends, and my friends would visit me. Being away from my family, my friends at school, and all the things in my life that made me feel secure was difficult. I struggled with tiredness, and erratic emotions, too. My therapists told me that this depression was a side effect of stroke.

A few months later, I was discharged from rehabilitation, and came home for good.

I eventually returned to school full time. It was hard to go back, as so much had changed in the time I had been away. I knew that the sight of a teenage boy with a walking stick would attract attention, and I hated this.  I still had days when I struggled with tiredness and erratic emotions.

In some ways, this was when I found out who my real friends were, too. I do appreciate that this is a common experience for anyone who goes through an illness that changes their life so dramatically.

With the support and encouragement of my teachers, I completed school in the three years after my stroke. I did well enough to gain a place at University.

In the years since, I learned to drive, got a University Degree, worked, and travelled overseas several times. The photo you see was taken when I visited Scotland earlier this year.

Thanks to physiotherapy and exercise at the gym, I was finally able to give up the walking stick that I had been using since I came home from rehabilitation. I have some nerve damage in my lower left leg, meaning that I have limited movement in my ankle, and cannot move my toes.

Recently, I returned to University to complete Postgraduate study in Journalism. Now, I am working towards my dream of pursuing this career.

As I think back over on what I went through, I do still wonder how my life would be if this did not happen to me. When I remember how I was when my stroke first happened, I am thankful for the recovery that I have made.

Faith, along with the support and encouragement of my family, and some good friends who have stuck by me, has helped me through the challenges of the past sixteen years.

Scott McPhee,
Melbourne Australia