Four years ago, I should have died.  I’d had a ‘bad head’, so I spent all day in bed, but then I am told I fell out of bed and started fitting!  There was a 999 call and I was ‘blue lighted’ to Northampton General Hospital by John and Sandy and saw by a great doctor in A&E before all the family arrived.  The doctor got the John Radcliffe hospital in Oxford to accept me, and John and Sandy (who should have finished their shift) stayed to ‘blue light’ me there, followed by family and my husband Stuart, but our little girls were away at guide camp.

I was sedated for the journey, with no one holding out much hope, as most people with have a subarachnoid haemorrhage don’t even make it to hospital, let alone to a great one.  I have been told they were asking the people with me about organ donation when a nurse saw me move my foot, so a surgeon said he would operate.

Eight hours later I did not want to wake up, and I needed twelve days with a family member being with me most of the time before that changed.  Stuart’s employers were really good, letting him work different hours, so he could spend time with me.  All the family members made lots of trips to Oxford (or so I am told…).  We used the morning to meet them and then have an ‘afternoon shift’ in the coffee shop to update them.  I do not remember much of it, apart from two helicopters landing, as the landing pad was quite near my bed.

When I came out of my coma, I had brilliant nurses.  I was a pain because I kept pulling out my drips etc., and at one point they had to bandage my hands like boxing gloves so I couldn’t pull anything out!  When I woke, Stuart was first person in to visit that morning, and when he went back to the waiting room where Hannah Melissa and Sally were, who thought he had lost the plot, saying that I was sitting in a chair and trying to talk.  After spending Christmas in the JR with everyone coming on Christmas Day to see me, I was back to Northampton for New Year and then I was discharged home, under the care of the wonderful stroke team.

Hannah made sure I did I my physio every day and I was soon walking around the house unaided.  Today I still have a problem accepting the ‘new me’ and my ‘new normal’.  Our lives changed so much that day four years ago but I would not be where I am today without the support of family and friends, so thank you all, and through this journey I have made some new friends at stroke groups and DS Northampton.

Thank you all, and a big, BIG ‘thank you’ to all my family, but I must say especially to my husband Stuart.  Many would have walked away, but he never has considered it.  I love you Stuart.  You are not just my husband, you are my best friend, carer and rock.  Thank you to everyone that reads this.  Life must go in and I will carry on, doing what I can with the help of family and friends.  Things changed that day for all of us, not just me.  Things will never be the same again.  I accept that bit, but I am here, that’s the main thing.  I have things to look forward to now.  I am one lucky lady, thanks again all!  Xxx