Emma’s Stroke Recovery Fund

One year on since my life changed forever

I suffered a cerebellar stroke due to the “Simultaneous Triple Artery Spontaneous Dissection” in my neck which caused a lot of blood clots to form in my brain along with a huge one in my brain stem causing a Posterior Cerebellar Artery Stroke on 16th February 2023. I was given 1% chance of survival.

What happened?

To you the reader, I’m assuming your life is probably relatively "normal"? Maybe you had a few things that haven’t gone your way during the week, but you are probably happily plodding along giving out about the small things? That was me and my family until 10:06am on the 16-02-2023.

What had been a niggling headache for two days prior and a “muscular pain” in my neck and shoulder a week prior, changed for the worse. I lay on the bathroom floor, all the sensation on myleft-hand side had disappeared. I desperately tried using my phone with my left hand to regain sensation but it wouldn’t work. My mouth started foaming up and still didn’t know what was ahead of me. After a short period of panic, not knowing what to do and then a friend taking a risk of calling an ambulance even though I thought they were being “dramatic”, the paramedics arrived and that was the last time I saw my son for 5 days. I was rushed to University Hospital Waterford then to Cork University Hospital then back to University Hospital Waterford once my 72hour intensive care period was complete.

Since then I have also been admitted to St Vincent’s Public Hospital, St Vincent’s Private Hospital and The National Rehabilitation Hospital.

Deficits I have been left with

It has taken almost a year for me to accept my deficits and to face them. I have been left with:

Aphasia - “Aphasia is a language difficulty that is often a result of brain injuries such as stroke. A person with aphasia has difficulty communicating and engaging in conversation. Speaking, understanding the speech of others, reading and writing is affected.

Left sided weakness - I have no sensation down my left side so much so that I ignore that side of my body. Luckily, I still have the muscle memory to carry out tasks but life is different. It’s difficult. It’s scary.

Fatigue - I could sleep for 24 hours and still wake up tired. Some mornings I struggle to wake to my alarm and every day I experience a headache that feels like my head is literally lifting off my shoulders.

What has changed?

I have gone from being an independent, social woman, a single parent with a full time job, her own car and own house to my mum having to take carers leave from work to be my full time carer. Now I have a headache every single day, can’t cope in loud places and do not have any social skills due to my speech and the insult my brain has taken this past year. My mood is poorly, the fatigue is crippling and the fear of this event happening again is agonising.

Looking to the future

I am adamant I want to get back as close as possible to my baseline - back to work, back to driving (which I tried but had to give up after a month), back to being a full time mammy to my son Jack who is everything to me.

Things could be a lot different this year, my son, my parents, my sister, my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends could all be mourning my loss but I beat the odds and the 1% chance I had of surviving I grasped with both hands. As stubborn as ever.

Why “GoFundMe”?

The Waterford News & Star published my story this week and since then I have had people messaging me asking if there is a Go Fund Me or anything that they would like to help out. A close friend suggested setting this up so that if people want to, they can donate as much or as little as they like and the donations will go towards me getting back my independence and towards my continuous recovery. “It takes a village” as they say. And I am overwhelmed by the well wishes and support I have received so far.

I intend to use the donations towards bills both at a domestic and a medical level, seeking medical advice regarding my weakened side to try get it back to what it was and for therapies which will hopefully aid recovery. I intend to go down the holistic route and would also like an investigation to find out the exact cause of my stroke.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Emma