REBUILDING THE LIFE I LOVE #1 (post 8)

Part One

Friday 5th April, it was my 30th birthday and I had been appointed my first outpatient physiotherapy session at the Repatriation Hospital. Not the way I had ever envisioned I would be celebrating, however in all honesty, I was grateful to be alive to celebrate. Brody and Millie were in childcare and my sisters took me out for a lovely birthday lunch and drove me to my appointment. Walking into the gym at the repat was certainly a moment that bought the reality of what I had been through and what the future would entail to light. The first thing that caught my eye was the ballet bars that instantly reminded me of the tv ads that show accident victims re-training their bodies to walk etc I was now one of those people.

The physio ran through my discharge notes from the hospital and my personal history. I mentioned the upper limb weakness and lack of control I had experienced in my right arm when I first returned home however that had appeared to have resolved itself by this appointment. I have always struggled to find the words to explain the sensation I felt in my leg/ankle/foot. It felt heavy, numb and constantly like I had pins and needles running down my leg, not pleasant I can assure you. When laying down I didn’t have the ability to raise my leg off the ground without physically picking my leg up using my hands and if I let go my leg would fall straight to the ground. My mission was to retrain my brain to be able to control the movements of my right side of my body.

I walked up and down the hallway with my physio closely watching every step. If I lost concentration my right foot would catch the floor and I came close to stumbling several times. She timed me as I balanced on my right foot with my eyes closed, my best time for this first session was less than 2 seconds. We also discussed some short- and long-term goals that I hoped to achieve. My long-term goal was and remains to be able to run a half marathon as I had been training to achieve that goal before the stroke and I was registered to do one on the 31st March.

My physio gave me several different stretches and exercises to focus on, some being the same that I had learnt from my hospital physio which was comforting to know I had been on the right track during the weeks leading up to this appointment. I remember leaving my first physio session feeling very disheartened and flat as it was very clear that I had lost perception of the position and movement of my right leg/ankle/foot and the challenging journey I had ahead of me.

Initially I had an appointment every week, mostly these were on Friday’s as Brody and Millie were in childcare. At one of my early sessions I was asked to lay down with my eyes closed and my knee bent in the air. Holding my ankle, my physio explained when my foot was in a neutral position, was raised up or if it was down. She would then move my foot to one of these directions and ask which it was. Surprisingly this was extremely challenging and in these early sessions most of my answers were wrong. My situation was quite often referred to as not being aware of where my leg/ankle/foot was in ‘space’, meaning when my foot was not touching a surface my mind had no idea where it was.

My prescribed exercises focused on improving my strength, coordination and balance skills. Some examples of my initial exercises include simply walking forwards and backwards in front of a mirror to visually focus on my leg movement, glute bridges where I would need the assistance of a resistance band to keep my right leg from dropping to the side, heel raises, side leg raises and short squats in front of a chair or bench so I had support if needed. Although there was a major focus on improving my right hip, leg, ankle and foot I also learnt several exercises using resistance bands to help build the strength of my right arm and shoulder.

At the beginning of each session I would perform the exercises I had been working on the previous week in-front of my physio and would leave each session with anywhere from 2-5 new exercises to include in my regime on top of what I was already doing. The exercises progressed each week and within a few weeks I was able to perform standing high knees and step ups. These sessions also had a major focus on exercises using a Pilates reformer machine which I would mimic using resistance bands at the gym in my own time.

5 weeks into my rehab program I was referred to an Exercise Physiologist (EP) who focussed specifically on retraining my body to be able to run again. After an introduction, my first session commenced with a HiMAT (high level mobility assessment tool) that I performed outside. I was timed and required to walk forwards, backwards and on my toes, walk over obstacles, run, skip, hop forwards and backwards on both my affected and non-affected sides and bound on both sides. My initial score for the HiMAT was 17/36 (modified score due to no stairs available) full HiMAT is out of 54.

By attempting some of the above exercises I already noticed improvements in my coordination and was able to introduce exercises based on building my cardio fitness back into my routine on top of my stretches and what I refer to as ‘slower ‘exercises. I was so excited by the idea of increasing my heart rate and feeling ‘puffed’ again. We introduced the exercise bike, walking on the treadmill, cross trainer and eventually the step machine. Depending on availability I would see physio and/or EP over an hour session either weekly or fortnightly.

8 weeks post-surgery on the 10th May I had a follow up appointment at the Austin Hospital where Ryan and myself met with one of my surgeons. It was a very brief appointment where we discussed if I had experienced any unusual pain or discomfort. My immune system was down, and I had already had 3 colds and 2 bouts of gastro in those 8 weeks. He checked my scar, which although was slightly sensitive it was healing nicely. I was required to walk toe to toe in a straight line (something I certainly couldn’t do when he last saw me). He seemed really impressed with my progress and it was from that simple test that he wrote a letter granting me medical permission to drive from 3 months post-surgery (without a medical clearance legally the time frame for driving after brain surgery is 6 months).

I had a number a of questions I was curious about including, could I drink alcohol. I have never been a massive drinker, but I do enjoy a glass of wine at a celebration and April had been a month full of celebrations as myself, Brody and Millie are all born in the month (we didn’t plan that well). During the lead up to this appointment I had just assumed not drinking would be the logical safe thing to do. I was also curious about flying as my younger sister had recently got engaged and had her heart set on a wedding dress on the Gold Coast and she had asked if I would go with her however, unsure if it was safe to fly I hadn’t been able to commit to her. Now Ryan’s question, would it be safe to have another baby. The only hesitation the surgeon had was regarding my question on flying as he asked for reassurance from the head surgeon and it was a yes for all the above.

Rehabilitation Centre

Inside the centre/gym