Leanne

I was 32 weeks pregnant. It was Friday night, I had finished work for the week and I only had 5 weeks left before starting maternity leave. I was looking forward to finishing my preparations to meet my little boy, I spent a lot of time dreaming about the day I would see his little face. What would he look like? How would it feel to hold him for the first time? We had his room almost ready, his name awaiting his arrival above his cot, ‘Thomas’ lovingly painted in baby blue.

I had gone to the toilet and didn’t feel right – I had lost my coordination. I phoned the doctors and they called me an ambulance. I don’t remember much after that but I was taken to hospital. I had a brain bleed caused by a ruptured AVM, something in my head that was there my whole life, but I knew nothing about it. My blood pressure was high with the pregnancy and caused the AVM to rupture.

My son was born via emergency cesarean and was healthy but spent some time in NICU. I had surgery and an amazing man Professor T J Singh fixed the problem in my head. I remained in a coma for about 6 weeks. When I woke up I couldn’t walk or sit up straight. I was lying in a hospital bed and my son was in NICU in the children hospital. When I started coming around, I was very confused – it took a long time for me to understand what had happened.

I had suffered a brain bleed and stroke and this meant I lost use of my left side, my short-term memory and cognition was badly affected too. I was in a wheelchair and the nurses needed a hoist to get me out of bed into a wheelchair. I couldn’t sit up straight or move my arm and leg. I had lost the use of my left side completely. I didn’t even know I had a left arm and my voice was barely a whisper. I spent my days in hospital with a busy therapy program, Physio, OT, upper limb group, orientation group and Speech Therapy.

I was given an AFO to support my foot so I could walk. I will never forget the day my husband came into see me in my physio session and I was stood upon my feet, not in the wheelchair. I had a long way to go still but this was the beginning of getting back to some normality. Then the day finally came when I was discharged as an inpatient to continue my therapy at home with RITH. Just in time for Christmas! I got to spend our first Christmas as a family together at home it was amazing!

My dad was visiting from England in October. We had promised each other that we would climb the DNA tower again in King’s Park as we had done on his last visits. I trained hard in my physiotherapy sessions with Monique helping me get to the stage where I could walk up and downstairs, I was ready to stand at the top of the tower with my dad and my favourite people, my husband and my son.

I passed my driving test and my husband returned to work. I started being able to do some shopping and take my son to playgroup each week. Being able to do normal mum things with him were all I had longed for. I quickly got enough confidence to take him to the park on my own followed by being physically and mentally strong enough to take him shopping with me!

Four years later my rehab continues. I am still improving despite having some impairments both cognitively and physically, but have learnt how to manage quite well with the help from my OT and Physio. I am driving, doing some cooking and cleaning, but most importantly looking after my son on my own. I didn’t think I would get there so quickly at times.

I’m so lucky to of had the most amazing surgeons, therapists and doctors on my team. I couldn’t have recovered so well if it wasn’t for all of them. My real heroes in my life are my two boys including my amazingly supportive husband, who didn’t just stand by me – he carried me, both physically and mentally from the moment it happened to this day. I couldn’t have done it without his support. My son was my biggest drive, to be the mum he needed and I wanted to be. I never knew what it felt like the first time I held him, but I know what it feels like every time I do now.