One of the biggest challenges I faced was learning to walk again. The few days after the stroke, I had trouble walking and needed a lot of help. Also during my hospital stay I was mostly bed-ridden. In the inpatient rehab hospital, my physical therapist helped me learn how to walk again. When I was discharged from inpatient rehab, I could walk on my own, but you could tell something happened to me. I shuffled, had a limp, and had a very hard time walking a straight line. Also, my right arm wasn’t coordinated with my walking and didn’t swing with my leg movements. When I got tired, I looked like I was drunk. I had no coordination, lost my balance a lot, and could barely function. The therapy I received in inpatient rehab laid a great foundation, but I knew I had a load of work ahead of me to get back to where I was before.
When I started outpatient rehab, I was prescribed physical therapy. I started with three sessions per week, and they were an hour each. In those sessions, I did a lot, such as leg strengthening, balance exercises and walking on the treadmill. I found those exercises to be extremely difficult and my body weak. They made things easier by having my right ankle taped to prevent it from rolling and my knee from turning in. That did help, and it did teach me to walk straighter, but overall strength was an issue and until that was up I couldn’t walk fast.
I practiced and practiced, and my dad sent me a Wii to help. As silly as it sounds, a Wii does help with strength, balance and coordination. Before I knew it, I could walk fast and straight. People told me they had a hard time seeing anything different about my walk. I still had the problem with looking drunk when I was tired, but I knew that would go away with time, as I got stronger.
At my therapy sessions, I could do everything they threw at me, so we moved on to more challenging things: jumping and running.
My balance had gotten better, so during one session, my therapist handed me a jumping rope. I sucked at jumping rope before, but just being able to do it now was enough of a challenge for me. I surprised myself by getting more than 20 jumps in a row! I learned that even though things seem impossibly hard, I should still try them; I might surprise myself.
From there, my therapist helped me start running again. She had me start on a treadmill and helped me get the feeling again. She helped coordinate my arms with some strengthening and coordination exercises and helped my legs by using the elliptical and a Bosu ball. I started off really slowly, and running felt unnatural, but I knew given time and practice, she had paved the road for me, and I know now I’ll be ready for the Chicago marathon in October.
I don’t really go to PT anymore; I have one session left on March 2, and I don’t know if more will be scheduled. I can walk fine now and I can run slowly. I think the therapist really did her job, but she said she wishes more of her patients were like me: determined to get better, so she will tell you it was mostly me. To pick up where she left off, I am seeing a personal trainer three times a week and am doing things at home to progress.
I used to wear heels almost every day. I work in IT; it’s a male-dominated field, and in addition to being a woman, I have a baby-face. I’m 27 but I look 21. I still get carded. So I’ve learned that the more professional I look, the more seriously I’m taken. I know heels aren’t for everyone, but for me, they help me look and feel more polished. And as the years have gone by, I’ve come to love wearing them. I’m a shoe-whore, self-admitted.
I own about 50 pairs of shoes, and a lot of them are stilettos. I own very few flats, and most of them are super casual (read: sneakers), so I am very limited with what I can wear to work. That combined with the fact that I am determined to get better from this stroke has motivated me learn to walk in heels again.
One of my closest friends, Larcker, is getting married this October (congratulations!!!!). She asked me to be a bridesmaid and I gladly said yes. Though I am extremely happy for her, that’s not really the point of this story. The point is, for her wedding, I bought 4” heels. Some call me crazy, and I know some of those people would think I’d be crazy for wearing them whether or not I had a stroke. I can’t help that. But for the ones who think I’m crazy for buying them because my stroke caused problems with my movement, I assure you I bought them for that very reason. They gave me motivation to not have any problems, and to be able to walk, jump and dance like I used to.
So having gone back to work and knowing the wedding is in October, I have slowly gotten back into wearing heels. I started with shorter, chunky ones, practicing at home. I tried walking in them, and moved on to more complex movements, like dancing. Then I tried wearing them outside. I have worn shorter, sturdier heels both out to bars and to work. All has gone well, so the next step is doing the same with my higher, more unstable heels. I also have to be able to wear the shoes I bought for the wedding.
Like everything else, I’m sure it will be a tough challenge, but hey, if I survived a stroke that would have killed most people, then this will be cake for me.
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