Stroke Survivor of the Month -
January / February - page 2
Larry Batchie
Elmsford, NY

EMS took me to the medical center. I don't know exactly what part of the brain was affected, but they had to do surgery on the right side. They cut me from the beginning of my hairline just about all the way down to the neckline. The whole left side of my body was affected. My speech wasn't good, but they didn't deal with that right away. Their main concern was that everything was OK inside my head and my blood platelets were good. That held me back from going to rehab for a while. I don't know what medications were being given to me in the hospital, but when I left I was only on two medications. They never put me on coumadin.

Once I was put in rehab I started speech therapy and a lot of physical therapy. The speech came back pretty quick, but the physical part was gradual. I had a lot of occupational therapy to understand how to do things again. I had no memory problems. I remembered the Constitution and things like that so they didn't do too much in that area. I was there about a month. I was walking again and doing pretty well. Then I contracted pneumonia so I had to go back to the hospital for two weeks. Once that was under control, I went back to rehab for another three weeks. I was in the hospital July 4th until August 1st and in rehab until October 31st. I'm a holiday person - I got sick on Independence Day and went home on Halloween.

I had an in-home therapist for two or three months - physical and speech. In a lot of ways I was very happy - it was wonderful to be home. It was very nice at first, but I had some problems with people understanding me and my needs. I was at home alone with my mom and dad. They took it very hard but the way they treated me was excellent. I couldn't ask for anything better. I also had a girlfriend who was really a trooper…..if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't be here.