My first stroke started at the tender age of 17.  I can remember it quite distinctly, as I was playing football with some friends down the local park on a Sunday.  It was quite warm; a balmy summer evening.  As the time wore on, I started to have a small headache – nothing too bad.  I’ve had the occasional pain in my head before, so I wasn’t that worried about it.  I decided to call it a night and got home.  As the headache persisted, I tried to go to bed early, I guess it must have been at around 10:30 pm, but the pain got even worse………and worse, and worse.  I had to call for some help from my family (living with sister, mother and father) and somehow, the pain became even more dreadful.  I started to hyperventilate, as the agony became excruciating.   My mother called the doctor and said that it most likely would be heatstroke, which is fair enough as it had been very hot that day.  I must have had several headache tablets, and breathing into a paper bag managed to stop the hyperventilation.

The next morning, I was still not in great shape.  Although the headache had gone down some, I was still very ill.  I tried to have some food but was sick.  The worst problem was that I had lost a bit of visual.  My family and I decided that really it couldn’t just be sunstroke, so I was driven to the hospital.

After having a scan, I was given the news that I had a stroke and that I had an AVM (arteriovenous malformation).  It was a bit of a shock – how can a young, healthy guy have a stroke?  What did I do wrong?  Isn’t that sort of problem, a ‘much older person’ dilemma?  Luckily though, the visual impairment cleaned up pretty quickly.  I had no real physical problems, perhaps I had a little tiny bit of numbness on the right-hand side, but things were OK…..until the second stroke.

This happened a year later on.  I was told that there wasn’t much people can do about the original AVM, as it was much too deep and diverse – no chance of embolism, and I hadn’t even heard of Gamma Knife Radio surgery at that time, but the chances of another stroke….well, I shouldn’t really have to worry too much – I was told.  Yeah right!  I guess the gods were against me that year.

It was September time and I was just about to start a second-year apprenticeship for an electrical company in Winchester.  As I remember, I was playing on my games console, not doing anything difficult at all….and then it hit me.  Bam!  To be honest, I really can’t remember any of the details – all I can recall is going to the local medical centre, and having a throbbing headache.  I was told that I was driven to the Southampton General, and my brain sort of got a lot bigger than normal.  They let me try to stabilize my condition, but it wasn’t going to be easy.  Apparently, I was becoming very confused – I would look around and suddenly not know where I was, or what was going on.  So, the doctors decided that this could not continue, and I was operated on.

I was in intensive care for five days, but I came through.  I had lost some vision, but the worst problem was that I had lost my power of speech.  I could sort of understand what people were saying, as long as they didn’t say too much, but I certainly could not reply in any decent condition.  I could manage to communicate to a degree, but it wasn’t that good at all.  I wasn’t that happy about it obviously, that’s for sure…..but I knew I could come through it.  There was no way I was going to give up – I still felt I was the same man, overall.  Sure, I was scared and frustrated, but there was no way I was giving up.

After six weeks, I came home.  There was no chance of keeping the apprenticeship, so instead of that I went to Speech and Language therapy, four days a week, for almost six months!  Of course it really, really helped me, and over the months most of it came back.  It was tough, but I knew I could still do something with my life.

After that, I decided to go into education, where I managed to finish a BTEC in IT (over two years) – lots of part-time courses and a BTEC in Graphic Design.  As time went by, as the words got much better and better, after six years I had got a lot of confidence back.

But, just as I was thinking that I felt that I had overcome my problem, and life was really on the up….I was working full time as a graphic designer/webmaster for a small company, and doing a part-time HNC (Higher National Certificate) in design……I was hit again with my third stroke!  Ahhhhh!  Sometimes, life can be pretty damn cruel.  All I can remember is that I was just waiting to play 5-a-side football on an AstroTurf pitch.  I was just standing, wasn’t even kicking the ball at the time – and that’s all I can remember.

I was in intensive care for twelve days – it was really pretty bad.  Not only was it a full-blown stroke, but I had a chest infection too.  Therefore, I just couldn’t recover properly at all, and I it took a while for me to come back.  Fortunately, I didn’t lose the speech again, thank God.  Although I wasn’t back to normal, and I certainly was very weak, I could pronounce most of my words again.  I had lost some more vision on the right side and a bit number, but I could come back.

I was very, very weak, and it took me two months before I went back to work and continue with my HNC.  Tinnitus seemed to be a new thing to me as well.  I can now hear a sharp tinging noise on the back of my ears.  Was it always there?  Maybe so!  But I’ve managed to overcome it, although sometimes it’s a pain; it’s not a real problem.

So my last stroke, was a year ago before I wrote this.  The most important thing after it, was Gamma Knife Radio surgery.  It was a bit overwhelming, I must admit……brain surgery…..phew!  A scary thought, indeed.  It was one of the most tiring days, where I had a MRI, angiogram and then Gamma Knife Radio surgery (all in different locations in London).

As far as I know, it went very well – I was very tired, but I didn’t have any real headaches or loss in vision.  I needed to have a few more MRI scans and angiograms and one more dose in a years’ time, but hopefully my AVM would have disappeared.

So that’s my stroke story…..one that I could’ve done without, but that’s life.  Many have told me that I’ve done well after my strokes…..not because I’m a particularly a strong guy, but it’s simple – I can still walk and talk (well, mostly).  Aphasia can be hell, but as long as you can overcome your odds, there’s still a chance…..then there’s always a way to improves one’s situation.

I had my second “dose” of Gamma Knife Radiosurgery and everything went well, the drilling of the frame (see picture!), MRI scan, angiogram and of course the main big thing!  The GKR (Gamma Knife Radiosurgery) took a bit more time, but I had no real problems during the procedure.  The most important piece of information for me though, is that I visited the hospital after, the results were reviewed for the most recent MRI scans since the dose….and everyone was very, very pleased by it.  Although the scans all looked a bit ‘samey samey’ to me, apparently the AVM has been reduced by a whopping 85%!  Which of course is a very pleasing result.  Hopefully, for the next year or so, the rest of the AVM should totally disappear.