Stories & Achievements: Sharon’s Story
Sharon’s story: step by step with a smile
I can remember walking into the hospital, but not much after that”, shares Sharon. We caught up with her and husband Dick recently.
Dick recounts, “It was April 2021 and we were in bed watching TV when Sharon said ‘I can’t lift my left arm’. It just flopped down. She was walking wobbly too and it was straight to emergency. Sharon was in a coma state after they took the bone from the side of her head to manage swelling. She’d had a brain bleed and was in the acute stroke ward for about five weeks and then four months of rehab at Rankin Park.”
“I was in a coma for about three weeks where I had vivid dreams about working, buying things and having a lovely time,” recalls Sharon. “Arriving home I asked Dick, ‘Where is this thing that I bought?’. So there was this section of my life that wasn’t real after I came out of the coma. I remember people shouting at me, ‘Wake up! Why won’t you wake up!’ as they were weaning me off the sedation drugs.”'
“The wheelchair photo is a shocking photo to show anyone. But it puts it in perspective and shows how far I have come.”
Dick continues, “Rankin Park gave us a list of providers to choose from. Our friends had Headstart look after them and we also wanted a local company. Dianne was our first Headstart contact and she got involved in the initial NDIS talks before even leaving Rankin Park, because initially they thought Sharon would be wheelchair bound. Once they put the bone back into her skull it was almost instantly that she improved, from laying to one side drooling to sitting up straight and walking in a matter of days. Sharon came home on 5th October 2021.”
“My brain was like a kids toy with one of the batteries missing. When you put that last battery in everything sort of kicks into place and works.”
“Other than giving birth this was my first hospital visit ever. I just wanted to get home. I don’t think you’ll get better until you go home. I was ready to break out and I had a bad reputation in hospital where independence is frowned upon!”
“I’ve become used to people following me around in case of a fall. I’ll be trying to do something and not be able to - that’s when I get cheesed of off. The little things like tearing a toilet paper or blowing your nose with one hand. It’s annoying, but I’m alive!” I don’t have a hangup about being disabled, I actually don’t view myself as being disabled. For me it’s mostly an inconvenience.
“At the beginning, support worker (CSW)Kara asked me what I wanted her to do. I’ve never had anybody come to clean the house or anything. I don’t have a house hangup, so don’t mind having people around even though I’m almost OCD and I do like things done a set way. Even the cutlery drawer is organised!”
“Independence is important to me. I actually found that the more the CSW’s help me with more I can do. One day my challenge might be to get my arm up and touch the light switch. So CSW’s will help me with grip exercises and using the TENS machine in different positions on my arm and hand. I use it daily for electrical stimulation of the nerves to try and make new pathways. It zaps me and helps work the muscles and improve blood supply to slowly build the muscles back up.” It feels like somebody’s giving me a massage - apparently nobody else likes the TENS machine as much as I do!
“I’ve ordered a thing called an iron man glove to help spread my fingers as my hand has closed fingers. Sometimes it locks onto something like the back of a door handle or coat hook and I can’t let go. I keep all the windows open if I’m inside so I can call for help so that I’m not left hanging on the door.”
“I worked as an accounting software trainer with Xero, Quickbooks and Reckon, teaching people the tools to do their own tax. It was going very well. I can basically train the software now and set it up to look for keywords, because most of what you need to do is routine. But I’ve stopped now. If I can get my own annual accounts done - and it’s not too stressful - I’ll think about working again but probably more on a consulting level. I can use the mouse pretty quick now but typing with one hand is very frustrating.”
“In the past I’ve tended to work a lot and it was always on my mind. Even in hospital I was begging the doctors to let me out because I didn’t want to be fined thousands by the tax office because I was late with my accounts GST and BAS!”
Dick adds, “The girls will go up with Sharon to the back office just to make sure she’s allright. It only take about half an hour before she needs a break. Sharon can also shower herself, mostly, but needs a little help at times and with drying. Most things she can do, but she can’t prepare meals or things like that.”
“Not if I want to keep my fingertips!” agrees Sharon. “Apart from in the kitchen I get general help around the house. I don’t think I could manage without Headstart. The girls have come up with a list of things to do each day which hangs on the fridge. They just check off what they’ve done. The vacuuming, the washing, and so on.”
“I like to go shopping. Tuesday is coffee group which I’ve started with Headstart once a month. It was good! The last one I left without noticing that anyone had a disability. Simone wants us older ladies to all join lawn bowls so we’ll see. I like to walk but not to the point of counting my steps. I don’t do hills, just things like treadmills, shopping centres or concrete.”
“Sharon can walk around the shops, but how much just depends on how big a day it is,” says Dick. “We’ve got a electric wheelchair in the car for big days but if it’s just for an hour she’s fine without it. As she gets stronger, she’ll need it less.”
“Sharon likes to grab the shopping trolley and off she goes. She’s improved so much since last year it’s amazing!”
“I see the Physio weekly and OT fortnightly,” says Sharon. “A big shout out to Dianne who found them for me. Dianne asked me ‘What do you want in an OT?’ and all I said was ‘They have to be a nice person.’ The one’s I have aren’t hung up with her own ego, and a lot of the others are. They have a good gym too.”
“I go to the gym every week for rehab. OT is usually fortnightly. I’ve been on machines I don’t even know the names of, and I’m exercising muscles I didn’t know I had. I’ve got body parts that hurt that I’ve never had hurt before.”
“I’m probably fitter and stronger and better than I was before.”
“I’m a big reader. I’ll read anything that I can lay my hands on and I prefer e-books to the library. Although it’s more expensive to drop an e-book in the bathtub. Lots of cracked screens from dropping phones and things too. It’s very expensive having a stroke!”
“I’m reading more now than I did before my stroke, mainly because I’m not working. I put on my TENS machine and just zone out. They’ve put all the old classic books online for free, but the new Indie writers are what I enjoy so I have to find books that are not more than 99 cents. I’ve got Prime video and that gives you free books too. I also love crosswords Wordle, that type of thing.”
“I take each day as it comes. Independence is my big goal, and driving another. When you wake up in hospital and you don’t have your drivers licence anymore or your credit cards, you feel like your whole identity has been robbed from you.”
“I am a real homebody but one thing I will do is go out and watch Dick play in his rock cover band Anthology. Except you’ve got to get dressed and go through all that hullabaloo with makeup and getting ready to go out. On a Saturday night, all I really want to do was wrap in a dressing gown and stay warm. Some nights he leaves me home until late and I have a support worker come and stay over. But the nights we do go out I like watching him perform and I don’t mind pub food either!”
