Janice's Stroke Adventure
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On arrival in the Stroke Unit (Ward 21), after the usual processing through A&E, she was accommodated in a single room, over night, but on Thursday was moved out, to accommodate a stroke patient who was also contagious with some malign but unspecified condition and needed to be isolated. She was moved to the "main" room, at the far end of the Unit, which has 7 bed spaces, with associated services. She was allocated the 8th, which was a small space between 2 of the real spaces, without curtains, services or privacy. She remained there until Saturday evening, when, during evening visiting, she had another stroke.

This one appeared to kill her. She became completely paralysed and unresponsive, to the point that not only was the Stroke Unit Emergency Response team (or whatever it's called) activated, so was the Cardiac Crash Team from Ward 20 as well. At one point there were 20 medics round her bed working feverishly to keep her breathing. Eventually I was thrown out (9.30pm) and went home in a state. I rang at 6.00am the following day, dreading what I was going to hear, to be told that she was sitting up enjoying her breakfast as if nothing had happened! However the effects of the first stroke were still active - paralysis of the right arm and leg and some slight difficulty in speaking.

She made such rapid progress in recovering from these effects that she was soon moved to the Rehabilitation Centre (Rookwood) at Chorley Hospital. This Unit may be a Centre of Excellence for the treatment of stroke victims but strokes also happen to people already suffering other maladies and 2 of the 5 ladies in the ward were demented. One in particular sang loudly all night, interspersing her performance with bursts of obscene language, and addressed in similar tone all male visitors. Janice hated it and insisted on being discharged. Fortunately she passed the "climb the stair" test and was allowed home pdq.

I moved her bed downstairs, prepared for a lengthy "convalescence" but within a week she was back upstairs, so my investment in a hi-tech baby alarm was unnecessary. The effect of her strokes is almost completely repaired and she appears to be normal.

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