I am a stroke survivor not a stroke victim. People who have suffered stroke are often referred to as  ‘stroke victim‘. I don’t like labels but if one is to be used I see myself as a stoke survivor not a stroke victim. But better still  a person who happened to have a stroke like many other people. I really didn’t like being labeled especially as one day I was introduced to a person in the following way.

 

‘Helen the stroke victim meet Bob the car accident victim’. It was hard to take in the person I was being introduced to as my mind was conjuring up this mental picture of these two unfortunate victims. I was really annoyed by this introduction and think I voiced my objection which wasn’t very gracious.
I was fortunate to survive so I am happy with the label stroke survivor if  a term is needed to describe what happened to me. I am Helen McIntosh. I am an author, educator and self publisher  but most of all I would like to think of  myself  as someone who cares for other people and if I can help anyone is some small way through my experience of stroke it helps to make the experience worth while. I would also like to think I am a better person for having had the stroke. I was probably thought of as being relatively young to have suffered a stroke but these days most likely thought of as an old  person by the younger generation in today’s world.

In  1987 at the age of  43 I  suffered a cerebral haemorrhage causing a stroke  leaving me paralysed down the left side. I also suffered a pulmonary embolism with in the first few days. All in all not  a good thing. When the stroke occured  it was lunch time and I was in a packed restaurant with my boss and two other colleagues. Up until that time I was left handed, was extremely busy and didn’t have time to stay in hospital for a week let alone the seven and a half months it turned out to be. But there is always a bright side because ten minutes earlier I had been driving my car so if the stroke didn’t kill me a car accident may have. But it didn’t  and although life is not always easy living with the residual effects of stroke you can make a good recovery  although life may not be the same.
It is now 2016 and a  lot has happened since I wrote  my book.  I would like to share some of this in my Stroke Survivor’s Blog. I was never able to return to work so  life took me on  a very different path. There are  two other members in  my immediate family.  The elder by a few days is Mac the cat, a very gentle little creature and the younger, a dog with lots of attitude is Tosh a miniature schnauzer. We are the McIntosh family, and a happy one. But like many families we do have problems when we go for a walk.Tosh is convinced that every person and every animal is a threat my existence. Any suggestions? If anyone else takes her for a walk she is perfectly behaved  and people stop and tell her how good she is. But more about living with stroke and the benefits  of having pets later from this stroke survivor.

‘Those of who have suffered a stroke are still the same people as we have always been, people of value and worth who want to be accepted as such by those around us’.  Helen McIntosh – Stroke Survivor

 

Psalm 139:13-16 The Message  Bible (MSG)

‘Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.’