Recovery from a Hemorrhagic Stroke

By Donna Richardson

This book is all about how I died and went to heaven and what I saw. How I came back to earth and what I have accomplished in the last 11 years. It tells about my childhood and my stroke recovery years. It also tells about whether I could travel. Read to see what I have accomplished.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Jul 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781663204653

Donna Richardson

During the reading of this book, you will realize you have read most of my life. I hope you enjoyed reading this book as much as I have enjoyed writing it.

Book preview

Copyright © 2020 Sarah Young.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-0464-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-0465-3 (e)

iUniverse rev. date:  07/28/2020

To Thomas, my husband, friend, and caregiver; my children; and my four grandchildren. I love you so dearly.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Chapter 1     Years Prior to My Stroke

Chapter 2     My Stroke

Chapter 3     Therapy and Recovery Years

Chapter 4     Trip to Test My Endurance

Chapter 5     Falls

Chapter 6     Things I Am Doing Today

Chapter 7     Exercises I Do Every Day

Epilogue

Acknowledgments

T o all my good friends, I hope you enjoy reading this book.

I want to thank the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost for giving me back my life.

Thank you, my husband, for your support and all the caregiving you gave me during my time of need. I love you dearly. I know this was not an easy task.

Many thanks to my children for supporting me.

To my family, thank you for all your support and never giving up on me.

Special thanks to my best friend, who read and helped with this book.

Many thanks to all the doctors, hospital and office staff, and physical therapy staff who helped me through this experience that saved my life. I would not have had this opportunity to share my story. I am very grateful.

Thank you to the EMTs for saving my life. I will not let you down.

To all my neighbors who fed my husband each and every night for months, I am very grateful.

Thanks to my editor for the many helpful suggestions and ideas.

Preface

N ames in this book have been changed to protect all parties.

This is the story of my hemorrhagic stroke. I have been going through therapy and will continue to do so probably until the end of my life. I will never give up. If someone tells me I can’t do something, I say, Watch me, and I will prove you wrong. That is my first thought. I do not want to prove people wrong to make them feel bad, but it is my will to live and do all I can to recover to the best of my ability. I have a strong will and do not like to be told I can’t do something. This gives me the strength to surpass it. I hope this book helps other people who have had a stroke. If you take any information from this book, call your medical team or doctor. My hope is for your recovery to the fullest extent, and my thoughts and prayers are with you.

CHAPTER 1

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Years Prior to

My Stroke

I was born in Eastern Pennsylvania at Valley Forge Army Hospital in 1953. For the first two and a half years of my life, we lived in a trailer in Alexandria, Virginia. Then we moved to Western Pennsylvania, where my parents were originally from, in January 1956. We lived in a trailer there for a few years as our house was being built.

While staying in the trailer, we had bunk beds, and I slept on the top bunk. One night, I fell out of the bed and dislocated my shoulder. My mother had to take me to the doctor’s and have it put back in place. Thank goodness that was the only thing that happened while I was living in the trailer.

We moved from the trailer to the house once it was finished, and we stayed there until 1968 when I was in the eighth grade or about twelve or thirteen years old. My father was in the military, and my mother stayed home with us in Pennsylvania so we did not move around. We lived in a development, and our cousin’s farm was three doors away. Our backyard was at the top of a hill. It went down a steep incline in the back. It was cleared where the power lines went through, and then the incline increased back up to a dairy farm. We used to go sledding in the valley in winters and go to the dairy farm in the summers. When I went up to the dairy farm in the summers, a rooster that lived on the farm used to chase me, and at my age, I was very afraid of it.

We used to climb trees in the valley during the summers because it was wooded, except where the power lines went through.

In first grade, I had my mother’s teacher. She always called me by my mother’s name, and one day, I ignored her—big mistake. I was writing, and she smacked me with a ruler. She said, I did not tell you to start yet. (Back in those days, you could be punished by