In July 2017, I woke up during the night with the feeling gravity was pinning me to the bed.
I managed to get up and shuffle to the bathroom before waking my wife. My left side didn’t seem to be responding as it should. We’re both familiar with the F.A.S.T (Face. Arms. Speech. Time) signs of stroke so when we switched on the light and saw there was no change to my face, we went back to bed. We hoped whatever was going on would sort itself out by the morning.
However, the next day things were clearly not right so we went to hospital. I was assessed by the stroke team and had a scan of my brain. My scan didn’t show anything and my symptoms were deemed to be related to a virus, so I went home.
Back home, I nearly fell over in the driveway as my leg failed to step out of the car. I still had movement in my left limbs, but they were reacting slowly. I couldn’t walk unaided. I needed assistance getting into the house and getting into bed, where I stayed until the next morning. By then, the situation had worsened and I went back to hospital in an ambulance.
I was assessed again and had another brain scan. This time the doctor saw a stroke.
I had been diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat nine years earlier when I was 47. My cardiologist, at the time, conducted a treadmill test and echo test. She concluded that my heart was strong and my arteries were clear. I was otherwise well, so I was told not to worry and enjoy life.
The doctors in the hospital detected my heart irregularity and said I had atrial fibrillation (AF), and that is what caused my stroke. According to the Stroke Foundation, atrial fibrillation affects more than 400,000 Australians and many of those people don’t even know. People with AF are five times more likely to have a stroke.
My occupational therapist put everything in context. She said my white blood cells were stripping away the dead brain cells and other cells were taking on the job of that part of my brain. But these cells needed to learn, so the more I did or tried to do, the better chance they would have of establishing new pathways for messaging to the rest of my body.
This made sense to me so I kicked into gear – well, not quite ‘kicked’ but motioned at least. My left side was impacted so I started working on it. I ordered a banana with breakfast each morning and spent a few hours holding and twirling it in my left hand until I got sick of it and ate the sucker. I worked out I could use the bed rail as a makeshift tricep lifting machine to strengthen my left arm, until the nursing staff caught me. They thought l might break the bed so they brought in some dumbbells. I did other exercises as well and noticed the more l did, the more movement was coming back. I was excited to wake up and see what my brain had learnt the day before and how it would respond today.
After a week, I moved to a rehabilitation hospital where I did occupational therapy and two physiotherapy sessions each day. I was determined to improve, and I did my own workouts in between. I was told I would be there for up to four weeks, but was discharged after two weeks. I wanted to stay longer because I felt there was more improvement I could make, but I was sent home and continued as an outpatient.
Once I was home, I had a garage gym I began working out in and also hit the local gym every day focusing on what I could turn this new body of mine into.
On my first day back at the gym, I picked up 12 kilogram dumbbells in each arm, which is what l used before the stroke. The first few days were pathetic attempts to use these weights, but I persisted. Amazingly the strength came back fairly quickly and I now use 17 kilo dumbbells.
I took an initial three months off work as a home loan specialist to rebuild my body, then another three months to try and build brain endurance as brain fatigue would hit and it would hit hard. When I was able, I’d go to the gym as l found the blood flow and endorphins would give the brain fatigue a run for its money and replace it with muscular fatigue – which was much nicer.
I couldn’t have done any of this without the love and support of my family. They were my cheer squad. My wife was my rock and my recovery journey has inspired each of them to some degree in different ways.
Emotionally, I never felt upset or depressed. I had a pretty simple approach to my situation – I had lived 55 great years, married a wonderful woman and we had raised great kids. My life to me was a book – I didn’t write it; it was written for me and I have no idea how many chapters are in my book. No-one does.
The reason I wanted to share my story was partly to highlight that not all the F.A.S.T factors need to be present when a stroke occurs. But more importantly, stroke doesn’t mean your life is over. The human body is an amazing thing and the recovery journey I’ve been on has shown me what it is capable of doing.
Although it has taken time, my journey has been exciting in many ways as l watched my left side become operational again. I am actually stronger now than l was pre-stroke. I have also returned to work – all that within eight months. - By Greg Crawford
‘I am now a better person than before the stroke'
Beating the odds: Jenithaa conducting a training programme.
KLANG: She was at the height of her career when the inevitable struck, leaving her physically and financially devastated.
However, years later, Jenithaa Santhirasekaran, 56, believes that the stroke she suffered in 2011 was a blessing in disguise.
Jenithaa, who was then a country director for the Malaysian AIDS Council overseeing an externally funded programme on community action and harm reduction, recalled: “The stroke and the physical disability that followed made me look at myself, and life in general, from a different perspective.
“I was doing very well before it happened, but I was proud, arrogant and self-centred, believing I had the best career, as well as wealth and glamour.”
The mother of three daughters aged 33, 22 and 17, and grandmother of a six-year-old girl, had also served as the executive director of outreach organisation PT Foundation before joining the Malaysian Aids Council.
Jenithaa recalled how the turning point in her life came after she was injured in a snatch theft incident that resulted in her suffering injuries to her head, face and neck.
“I was on medical leave for two weeks and suffered from nausea and headaches and felt faint all the time long after my medical leave ended.
“Two months later, when attending a meeting in Bali, I suffered a stroke in my hotel room,” said Jenithaa.
The stroke rendered her unable to walk and talk, and also affected her right eye.
After being hospitalised in Bali for two weeks, she was allowed to return home to Malaysia and was readmitted here two weeks later after suffering fits.
Wheelchair-bound but able to speak by then, Jenithaa said she went for everything she believed could help her, such as ayurvedic treatment, massages and acupuncture.
“I was jobless, broke and an OKU (orang kurang upaya – a person with disabilities) and after a while I had no money left in my bank account.
“There came a time when there wasn’t even any food in the house to feed my children and that truly devastated me and made me feel useless,’’ said Jenithaa, adding that it was then that she decided to take her own life.
Desiring to spend one final day with her three daughters, then aged 19, eight and four, Jenithaa emerged from her room, where she had been isolating herself, to be with them.
However, when she saw how much her children loved her and their happiness upon seeing her, Jenithaa chose to fight back and refused to let the stroke control her life.
“I stopped using my wheelchair and held on to walls and objects while teaching myself to walk again.
“I also literally begged, borrowed and stole to raise my children in the condition that I was in.
“I made myself ‘thick-skinned’ and asked for help but unfortunately lost so many ‘friends’ during this time after I approached them to seek financial help,” said Jenithaa, who became a single mother when her youngest daughter was born.
She also called up friends and acquaintances and started going out to let people see her in her post-stroke condition.
Jenithaa added that she started taking any job that came her way as well as pursued courses and developed herself into a speaker, forum panellist and advocate for the differently-abled.
“I am now a certified neuro-linguistic master practitioner and trainer, clinical hypnotherapist, disability equality training trainer, non-governmental organisation management trainer, environment social and governance trainer and a diversity, equity and inclusion trainer.”
She added that she has also developed and run modules on emotional well-being, climate change and innovative parenting and has conducted over 100 workshops to date.
Jenithaa said she is currently completing a diploma in integrated psychotherapy specialising in childhood and adulthood abuse, trauma, grief health and past life regression therapy.
Despite sight not yet fully returning to her right eye, her right leg completely numb, her right hand disabled and her speech sometimes impaired, Jenithaa added that she has finally found herself.
“I am happy that I am now a better person than I was before the stroke happened.”
She can be contacted at jenithaa69@gmail.com
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