Therapy Begins

One of the best things about moving here was the therapy I found.  I go to a clinic called Southwest Advanced Neurological Rehabilitation (http://www.swanrehab.com/).  If you are reading this and know someone who has had a stroke, I highly encourage you to explore this option.  Neuro therapy is different from normal therapy.  It is all about retraining the brain through repetition.  It is like playing the piano.  The more you practice, the better you get.  The program is based on intense therapy and the regular program is six hours a day.  When I was not there, I was working at home.  I had my own therapy room, and it was my full-time job.  Although I am not working as hard, I still work on therapy today and have a lot I still want to get back.  I have learned to live with my disability and it does not define who I am.  I have control over how hard I work but only God controls my recovery.  The ultimate goal in therapy is to get you to a point in your life that you can function independently and be closer to the old you.  I have my life back and that is the most important thing.  Your faith and heart is the most important thing to God.  When you take everything away and you are down to nothing, God will always be there.  He does not care about all of the earthly things we do.  It is truly a miracle that I am where I am today and I have the privelege of being a Mom!

Obstacle Three For Our Family

We had gotten settled in and liked Goodyear.  One afternoon in September, disaster hit again.  I was shopping with my parents and Dainis was at work when I had my first major seizure.  I was rushed to Mayo clinic, where I stayed for several days.  So, I was sick again and we had no doctors or resources.  My neurosurgeon in MN said I looked great and had no signs of seizures so he took me off my medication.  We now know that anyone with a brain injury should never go off anti-seizure medicine.  We learned quickly to be our own advocate.  The next two years were very hard and almost worse than the stroke.  We were always in a panic mode.  After two years of battling the seizures, we finally found a medicine that worked.  I have now been seizure-free for 5 1/2 years. We started to get our life back and new opportunities came about as I got stronger.  Becoming involved in the Women's Ministry at church was my first step for going out and meeting new girlfriends.  It has changed my life.

Our New House

We moved into our new house in August and started getting settled in Goodyear.

The Big Move

Because our house was so special to us, it was very difficult to leave and say good-bye.  Thankfully, we had a new house waiting for us in AZ.  I had worked with my therapists at the hospital since the day of my stroke.  They were very special and played an important role in my recovery.  Now it was time to move onto a new therapy clinic.

Dainis Is Off to AZ

Dainis found a position in Goodyear, AZ at an aircraft maintanence and overhaul facility.  He started there in June 2003.  I stayed with my parents in MN as they helped us sell both of our houses and then came to AZ to buy two new ones.  We would never be where we are today if it wasn't for them. Selling two houses in MN, buying two houses in AZ, and moving two families right after my stroke was unbelievably difficult.  If it wasn't for Lori's parents, we would have never gotten through it.  We moved to Goodyear because of Dainis's job, but it was a huge blessing in disguise because through it we found our current church, Desert Springs Community.  We love it and have been so blessed by everyone there.

The Next Obstacle For Our Family

When I came home from the hospital in March, I did not know that Dainis's job at Northwest was in jeoparty, due to all of the layoffs from 9/11.  On May 5th, 2003, Dainis lost his job, so the search began. 

The Day Our Lives Were Changed Forever

On January 24th, 2003, the day started out normal, and I was off to the church to work.  I had resigned from Northwest Airlines and started working at our church 3 weeks prior to this day.  In the afternoon, I started feeling funny.  Soon, my arm and leg on the left side went numb.  At the age of 29,  I suffered a massive stroke.  My parents had moved to MN from TX to be closer to us and were just a few minutes away from the church.  Although I couldn't speak, I knew my Mom was there before I lost consciousness.  I was rushed to the hospital and they determined the problem right away.  I had had a bleeding stroke.
There are two types of bleeding strokes.  The first one, which is the one I suffered from, is called an intracerebral hemorrhage.  This is when blood vessels inside the brain bursts and bleeds in the brain.  I had a malformation of blood vessels on the right side of my brain that was never detected.  The amount of blood on the right side of my brain when the stroke happened was the size of a fist.  With the second type of stroke, a blood vessel breaks and bleeds into the space between the brain and the skull.  The type of stroke I had accounts for only 13% of all strokes.  Research shows that my type of stroke is the most lethal and hard to recover from and result in death as much as half the time.  Only about a fifth of those who survive function independently.  I am so blessed to be where I am in my recovery today!
On the evening of January 24th, I went through emergency brain surgery to stop the bleeding.  I was in a drug induced coma for 17 days.  When I woke up, I had lost all function on my left side.  So we started from the beginning.  First we learned to sit up and balance and then kept working on it till I could eventually walk with lots of assistance.  I went to rehab to start working for a month.  On February 26th, I had my next brain surgery to remove the malformation.  The surgery was successful and there was not a chance of another stroke.  Now I just had to work hard on therapy and see what I could get back.  I came home at the end of March.