you just came home,” Robert adds. “Sometimes I’m not patient, but I look at the pictures that she took of me in the hospital and see how far I’ve come just by looking at those pictures.”
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Robert’s advice to stroke survivors
- Don’t give up or limit yourself. “Sometimes I would not let my wife do something and then I was like OK I can do it and that helped me. I started doing a lot of things by myself. You can’t be afraid to do some things by yourself because that’s the only way you’re going to get better. If you sit here not using your arms saying ‘Oh I can’t use this knuckle,’ it’s not going to get better, it’s gonna get worse. Right now, I can’t feel a lot of things but I can touch it and I’m still working with my ball, I’m still squeezing – still trying to get that motion back – but I’m not going to give up because I know if I give up that hand is going to fall apart and won’t be good,” Robert says.
- Remember your why. “I go to work every day from six in the morning to 10 in the morning and I was going to quit, but I prayed on it and God said ‘I told you it was gonna be hard’ and that’s what makes me get up in the morning because I told my wife last week I was gonna quit and she said you do what you want to do and I woke up this week and I got dressed this morning. She didn’t know I left for work and I was back out there again. I give everything to God because he’s letting me know you made a promise, you’ve got to keep and that’s what I’m doing,” Robert adds. “If it wasn’t for my wife, I would not be here.”
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Priscilla’s advice to spouses of stroke survivors
- Take care of yourself. “My advice is to get your rest – do what you have to do for yourself so you can be there for him or her because without you being there, they’ll start feeling like it’s all my fault that I’m here and she or he is sick. We have to learn how to take care of ourselves first and then take care of our spouse,” Priscilla says.
- Keep your faith. Priscilla shares that she and Robert live by the scripture Psalm 118:17, which states that “I will not die but live, and will proclaim what the LORD has done.”
- Tell your spouse you love them. “Love is the most powerful word that there is in the human language. Love is what love does,” Priscilla says.
Dr. Ooi’s advice for protecting yourself from Stroke and AFib
- Identify the problem. “The best way to protect yourself from AFib causing stroke is really to identify the problem. Patients with many different types of presentations – things as vague as just lethargy, having a racing heart, heart palpitations, feeling your heart pound from time to time, having this weird whooshing sound in your ear – these are all things that if you are experiencing, it’s important to bring up to your doctor so they can do the appropriate workup. And once the appropriate workup has been done and you’ve been identified to have that, that typically warrants a visit with the cardiologist and they will start you on medications 1.) to control your heart rate 2.) you may also have blood clots. As mentioned earlier, AFib can lead to normal blood flow within the heart and cause blood clots to form within the heart and get pumped out to the rest of the body. Taking a blood thinner can prevent blood clots from forming in the heart,” Dr. Ooi shares.