JOIN USHow to beat a crippling paralytic stroke...
How does it feel to be a patient in the very hospital where you are a doctor? After years of handing out diagnoses to patients, how does it feel to have a diagnosis handed out to you, particularly a scary one? It can be a traumatic experience and a terrible upheaval.
Dr Jyotsna Rao, nuclear medicine and PET-CT consultant, Apollo Hospital, Hyderabad, lived through one such trauma when she experienced a crippling paralytic stroke. However, she emerged triumphant after fighting back with quiet courage and an indomitable spirit.
Life was beautiful for Jyotsna. The USA-trained doctor had a good job, active social life and was a hands-on mother to two teenagers. However, this changed when she experienced a severe headache and vomiting before going to bed one night. Taking pain medication she managed to go to sleep, but woke up with more pain the next day. “As a doctor, I sensed something was wrong, especially since my left hand was feeling weak and numb,” she recalls.
She informed her colleagues, called her driver and rushed to the hospital, accompanied by her mother. On the way, her condition deteriorated. On reaching the hospital, she had to be helped into a wheelchair as her left leg too had become weak and unresponsive.
The hospital’s stroke team was informed and she was taken to the emergency room. “I first felt a terrible fear when my responses to their examination showed something was seriously wrong. I was overcome by a sense of doom,” confides Jyotsna. She was wheeled into the ICU. Her memory of this is still hazy as her brain had been severely affected. She vaguely recalls crying with pain and pleading for painkillers. Five days later, when the second CT scan showed a second bleed in her brain, she was taken for surgery.
As Jyotsna explains, “Not every stroke patient needs surgery but my condition was serious. The final diagnosis was Idiopathic CNS Vasculitis. The surgery was a craniotomy. The skull had to be cut open to evacuate the blood in my brain.” The doctors gave a guarded prognosis to the family, as there were possible risks to the operation. Family, friends and colleagues rallied round her. Her sister, Swapna Eleswarapu, flew down from Mumbai to be by her side and provided invaluable emotional support to Jyotsna, their octogenarian parents and Jyotsna’s children.
Road to recovery
Fortunately, the post-surgical recovery was good. However, as she lay in bed, for weeks being cared for by the nurses, she remembers being overcome by sadness. “All diseases are fearsome and traumatic but stroke is terrible. It gives you no time to prepare, unlike cancer, for example. One day I was perfectly active and next day, I had become a near-vegetable.”
She was also assailed by questions of ‘why me?’ and ‘why now?’. After all, she had no risk factors as she was only in her late 40s, was a non-smoker and had no
diabetes or hypertension.
“I also worried endlessly about my children and their future,” she adds. But she knew she had to fight and survive for her own sake and the family’s sake. She fought off negative feelings as best as she could, listened to a lot of music, read books and chatted with friends over the phone.
She also religiously underwent challenging physiotherapy sessions, which had her lifting weights, walking in a water pool, working the hand cycle, leg cycle, treadmill and undergoing an electrical stimulation for the muscles.
Today, more than six months later, she has recovered about 75% of her normal functions, is articulate, has an active social life and is back at her job, full-time. Of course, she still undergoes physiotherapy and some form of this will be part of her life, forever.
Her remarkable recovery has been inspiring for friends, colleagues and other stroke patients. What’s her advice to those who are suffering from similar medical predicaments? Here are her simple, yet effective suggestions:
Divert your mind from your medical condition, as worry can slow down the recovery. Read, listen to music, chat with friends.
Think positive. Recall pleasant memories and imagine a normal future.
Never give in to laziness or procrastination with regard to your physiotherapy routine. Every day matters. It is tough and physically demanding, but vital.
Get back into your social routine as quickly as possible. Mingling with others (as you did before tragedy struck) will increase your confidence and bring a sense of normalcy. Don’t be embarrassed to be seen in public because the stroke has altered your physical appearance in some way and slowed down your mobility and reflexes. Accept it and move on.