A serious brain injury can happen to anyone at any time but when it happens the effects are devastating. Hard to imagine but then imagine that you are a working wife and mother of 2 young girls, running your household whilst holding down a job in finance.
This is Karen’ story. In 2015 whilst cooking a family stir fry, Karen had a severe headache. Within 24 hours she was airlifted to the UK after a scan revealed she had suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage (bleed in the brain). Effectively Karen, aged 39 had suffered a severe stroke.
Karen was put into an induced coma and underwent brain surgery. She remembers snippets of her time in hospital. She recalls being offered toast but not being hungry, worrying that her husband, Darren had to sleep in a chair and having to wear socks with electrical pulses in them to counter thrombosis. Her memories of hospital are understandably sketchy as she was in ICU most of the time and she relied heavily on her family to do the simple things, like her Dad feeding her and her husband and girls encouraging her to walk again, first with a zimmer frame and then slowly back on her feet.
In hospital Karen often looked at a photo of Guernsey on her phone as an incentive for her to return home. But home was both wonderful and difficult and Karen readily acknowledges that reality kicked in at that point. Her fatigue was so extreme it meant that she was often falling asleep mid-conversation and although friends were eager to see her, all her energies were focussed on her husband and her 2 girls. In an attempt at returning to some kind of normality, Karen, with the help of a friend, cooked a Sunday roast but fell asleep before it was served.
If you have a serious brain injury, life is unlikely to ever be quite the same again. Feeling exhausted, frightened and isolated, Karen met Orla-Marie Manning, Headway’s services manager. She still recalls her “lovely smiley face” and someone who understood what she was going through. Karen is honest enough to acknowledge that she felt frustrated and anxious that she was unable to do the things she had done before her brain injury. She tried to return to work but it didn’t work out, something that still frustrates her. Orla-Marie believes that employers would benefit from training on how to facilitate a sympathetic and managed return to work if they understood the issues surrounding brain injury. “We would always encourage employers to talk to us about ways of accommodating valued employees if at all possible”.
Attending Headway’s cognitive programme, Karen has not only gained confidence and learnt how to accept what she calls the “new me” the new “normal”, she has also found others, with whom she can share experiences, good and bad. Karen is now able to manage her fatigue much better and to know when to avoid stressful situations which can set her back. She has recently passed her driving assessment which she is rightly proud of. Karen says “I now have a much more positive outlook and whilst I still have daily headaches and struggle with tiredness, I appreciate how lucky I have been. Attending Headway has helped me hugely and doing the modules with others, I feel that we can talk to each other and that we understand”.
Recovery from serious brain injury is a continuous journey and Karen says that “one of the hardest things to deal with is that I look ok, but people can’t see my brain or the damage so when people say “you look fine” it’s nice but also frustrating. But overall Karen knows that she is lucky to have her supportive and caring family and Headway by her side as she continues her lifetime of recovery to her new “normal”.