It’s now been just over two years since Ryan had his stroke, and I have mostly been quiet about what’s been happening, so I think it’s time for an update.
As most of you who know us or maybe have come across my other posts about my youngest, he made an amazing physical recovery. Within 6 months you wouldn’t have know he was a stroke survivor. Unfortunately from then on we have had to deal with the emotional side of thing which have steadily gotten worse, and now we are at such a strained point it sometimes feels really hard to keep thinking positive as it’s one thing after another. Now I know that sounds a bit dark, but when I’m so tired and it’s the early hours of the morning, but he’s so upset or angry he can not sleep, I just have to ride it out with him, even though I know I will have to get up and cycle to work in a few hours, but as always we come through it.
We never imagined or were told about what could be the after effects, so they came as a surprise to us as they became more and more obvious. At first we just thought he was having a few difficulties getting back into a normal routine, but then the anxieties began to come through and just snowballed on us. He will not go upstairs on his own, will not go to sleep without one of us sat with him, he doesn’t like crowd’s now or loud noises, that one we found out on bonfire night when we went to see a display. All the walk there he was happy to see them go off in the distance, but when the display we went to watch, which we stood away from the crowds started, he put his hood up turned his back and sat on the floor. Never spoke a word for nearly an hour until we were home. His taste buds has change also, just some things he liked now taste odd to him.
All these things and a year and a half of not getting anywhere, we have finally, with help from our Neurologist and local MP have got into see the top psychologist in the NorthWest. Someone who we should of see at the start. In fact we had a meeting with someone from the Child Brain Injury Trust before Christmas, and she had said that if we lived closer to Liverpool, Ryan would of been in Alder Hey Hospital and would have had a team around him and us with advice and help, postcode lottery at its finest… But hopefully this psychologist can now put together a plan that will help him and us.
Ryan himself does not want to see anyone else, and having gone with him on a 8 weeks anxiety course I don’t blame him one bit. The course we were told in a polite way, if we don’t go on, Ryan would be discharged, was for him no good. And he had no worries telling them every chance he could. It was a blanket course that covered many things, but didn’t target the specific areas for us. On several occasions I questioned things that were said, and was told “well these won’t work in Ryan’s case”…..
Anyway, we are now moving forward and hopefully, we can see some positive things happening.
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