Life Changes

Joanie, and her daughter Sarah

I was always proud of both of my daughters, but Sarah was probably the one I worried about least. Until she had a stroke in May 2009. For Sarah, that meant aphasia – a word we’d never heard of. 

At first we were so thankful that she’d survived.  The statistics we’ve heard recently are that 150,000 people have a stroke each year in the UK. Of those, 50 thousand die within the first 10 days, 50 thousand recover within a month, 50 thousand are left with some kind of disability.

After several months of physical therapy and ongoing speech therapy, Sarah was out of rehab and we were at home. The first few weeks out of hospital were probably the lowest point. So happy to be at home, but feeling very isolated and scared. It’s odd that most people dream of having more time at home, but if it’s forced on you because of a family illness it is quite a different experience. Sarah’s hopes of going to University had been put on hold. Nobody really knows what the future holds with aphasia.