Patient Stories
Sutter Neurosurgery
Sharon – Re-Acclimated to Life After Stroke
In 2001, Sharon met Bruce and in a few months learned first hand the effects of a stroke. Years earlier, Bruce had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke at the age of 36. The two married and Sharon not only became a wife, but a full-time caregiver to the man she loved. She learned about adaptive shower equipment and how to prepare her husband for work. She learned about aphasia, emergency rooms and enough about stroke medications to feel like an expert in the field.
With all that learning and caretaking, Sharon lost sight of her own health. On a Sunday afternoon 17 months ago, Sharon laid down for a nap with a nagging headache. She awoke with blurry vision and a hand that wouldn’t work. Sharon wondered if she had a stroke, but her fear of hospitals and denial put her back to bed. The next morning, Sharon went on with her normal workday routine. She got ready for work, but it was really hard to put on her clothes. She walked to the bus stop with her husband but didn’t feel quite right. And at work she wondered out loud to a co-worker, “I think I had a stroke.”
Sharon was rushed to the Sutter General Hospital Emergency Room via an ambulance. She recalls her blood pressure being 275 over 187, well over what is considered at high risk. In the Emergency Department, it was confirmed that Sharon had suffered an ischemic stroke.
Her distrust for doctors was immediately wiped out by the teams of Sutter physicians and clinicians that went above and beyond to make Sharon and her family feel welcome -- from her stay in the ED, to the week she spent off and on in the ICU.
“My family felt welcomed sitting with me or calling in from out of state,” she says, “and everyone was not just concerned with my physical state, but were concerned with my mental state and well-being.”
During her week stay in the hospital, Sharon recalls the faces of the staff that helped her with everything from preparing for a CT scan to monitoring her medications. And it was during her inpatient stay that she met Tess Carter, stroke center nurse and supervisor of Sutter Neuroscience Institute’s Neurovascular Center. Tess introduced Sharon to a stroke clinical trial that Sutter was participating in. The trial introduced medications and protocols to help prevent a reoccurring stroke. Sharon signed up because she would get the most comprehensive care available, at no charge.
Sharon went home after a week in the hospital and had to relearn how to type, write, clean and take care of her husband. Two weeks after her initial visit to the ED, Sharon was back full-time answering the phones at her job.
Over the last year and a half, Sharon has been working closely with Tess and her physician Richard Atkinson, M.D., Medical Director of Sutter Stroke Center, to get her blood pressure under control, something she has been struggling with almost her whole life. A few weeks back, it stabilized.
Fortunately for Sharon, her stroke didn’t cause her to become paralyzed or aphasic. Her strong will, medical support and positive attitude have helped her re-acclimate to life. She walks daily, happily cares for her husband, works full-time, and speaks to various groups and clubs about strokes. And serendipitously, her basset hound recently also suffered a stroke (she’s OK now, too).
Learn more about Sutter Neuroscience Institute’s Stroke Center.