IN the latest instalment of his account of his road to recovery, Wee Ginger Dug author Paul Kavanagh reveals just how serious his stroke was
ANYONE who has had weeks away from sleeping in their own bed will know just how good it is to get your head down on your own pillow. It’s just happened to me, and it was the first time I slept properly for a month. It’s things like that which make you appreciate your home and the people around you even more.
I got home on Thursday and I was determined that rather than be carried upstairs to my top floor flat, I would try to walk up the two flights of stairs to my front door.
To my own amazement, I managed to make it up those two long flights, though I had two occupational therapists standing by just in case something went wrong. I did have a wee wobble but after a great deal of effort, I made it to the top – but I won’t be doing that again in a hurry.
It meant I knew how the Scotland team felt when they beat Serbia that night. It’s the feeling of achieving something that you are committed to and nobody really expects. So my going home four weeks after my stroke meant a great end to what had started out as a shit month.
Not only have Scotland actually qualified for the Euros, we’ve got rid of Donald Trump, Dominic Goings is offski and I am back home – things are a looking a lot better than a month ago.
I have a whole lot of therapy to do every day and I am absolutely determined to do it because that is how I will get better.
One of the exercises is to grab and move my walking stick. I look like Peter Boyle playing the monster in Mel Brooks great comedy Young Frankenstein – I go “woo, woo” just like him too, though I think I’m not quite ready for sophisticated dance steps just yet.
The serious point is that it’s a good method of working my left elbow and improving my grip. I am now able to bend my fingers inwards but I have very limited movement in my thumb.
The NHS staff who have looked after me so well are so pleased with my progress they have recommended me for a research study. This means I’ll have to go to hospital on Wednesday to be assessed as to whether I am suitable for the project, which is a bionic glove being developed here in Glasgow by a team from the University of Glasgow and the Scottish NHS.
It’s a piece of equipment which helps you to extend your fingers. People who have suffered a stroke can often soon get their fingers bending inwards, but it’s the finger extension which can be the problem. I don’t know if I have sufficient movement in my thumb as yet but I’m hoping I’ll be selected because I’d really like to try to help in the research.
One thing that did happen to me in hospital was finding out just how bad a stroke I had. I asked the consultant if I could see the CT scan of my brain and she agreed. Seconds later I was gulping for air, because I could quite clearly see the extent of the damage to my brain.
As the therapist explained, I had suffered a massive stroke. Because I had been making good progress, I thought it must have been a limited sort of stroke, but I was shocked to see how extensive it had been. The rear right third of my brain is gone, effectively.
My main problem remains the loss of sensation in my left arm, leg and foot. Here I am at 58 having to learn how to walk again, and I have to concentrate on every step and where my foot goes because I can’t sense it automatically as we usually all do.
Things are getting easier and the staff at the hospital are hoping I’ll make a full recovery but obviously because the stroke was so extensive there is a real possibility that there could be permanent impairment. But it’s far too early to say and the therapies I am getting at the moment are aimed at getting “workarounds” to avoid the damaged area of my brain which, as I say, was extensive.
Being to the back of my brain, the stroke missed two vital brain parts, known as Broca’s Area and Wernicke’s Area, the former related to the production of speech and the latter to do with comprehension.
The stroke missed both of them so my language has not been affected. So all you Unionists out there – I’m still here and I’ll still be the gobshite calling you out for all your nefarious words and deeds.
The National is supporting Paul Kavanagh through his recovery by commissioning extra articles and offering free advertising for his rehab crowdfunder in the paper. We wish Paul all the best – the independence movement can’t do without him
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