Vicky Chard, 34, suddenly became unwell while showering
Vicky Chard, 34, suddenly became unwell while showering
A mum-of-two suffered a stroke after suddenly falling ill in the shower, just a year after giving birth to twin boys. Vicky Chard and her partner, Carl Smith, had been settling into family life when she suddenly became unwell while taking a shower at home. She began to feel sick, started vomiting and experienced numbness down the left side of her body.
Vicky, from Connah’s Quay, called out to her partner, who helped her out of the bathroom before she collapsed on the floor. Through her work as a carer, Vicky recognised the symptoms immediately and realised she was having a stroke.
She said: “I couldn’t move and lost all the feeling down my left side and my face went numb. Carl was telling me to move my legs so he could get me on the bed but I couldn’t move them. I just collapsed and it was very scary.”
Following a frightening three-hour wait, an ambulance arrived to transport the young mum-of-two to Wrexham Maelor Hospital, where an MRI scan confirmed she had experienced a stroke, reports Wales Online.
Things took a turn for the worse when Vicky began to get swelling on the brain. She was transferred to intensive care at The Walton Centre in Liverpool and warned she might have to have surgery to cut through her skull to relieve the pressure.
Successful treatment brought the swelling down without surgery but Vicky had to learn to walk again, using a frame and then a stick, and after four weeks in hospital was allowed home.
She believes it was only her determination to get back to her year-old twins, Kaine and Kaelen, that helped her pull through.
She said: “I was very young to have a stroke. Doctors said they didn’t know whether it was as a result of the pregnancy and birth and we still don’t know.
“About a month after giving birth I had a funny turn when I was swimming and went numb but recovered. .At the time they said they thought it was the result of an infection from my ceasarean section scar and gave me antibiotiocs and I was fine but now I think that may have been a mini stroke.”
As she recovered at home with Carl and the boys Vicky then suffered another blow.
During therapy for her stroke medics asked her to look at a clock and tell the time but she could not. At first they thought she had lost attention as a result of injury to her brain from the stroke. Then they realised that in fact Vicky could not see properly.
Tests showed Vicky had lost the left side vision completely in both eyes.
She was devastated to be told her sight loss was permanent and to be classed as visually impaired and disabled and have her driving licence taken away.
Just as Vicky had been looking forward to motherhood with her two energetic boys, and returning to work, she had to completely reassess who she was and how she lived.
She said: “What it means is the wires in my brain are broken, not that there is something wrong with my eyes, but it means my vision is impaired.
“I did not accept it at first. I was thinking: ‘Why me? I have so much to do.’ I could only see half my boys’ faces since they were one year old.
“My job before was as a carer in a nursing home and I had been talking to them about going back but now I couldn’t. I loved that job. My sight loss took a lot away from me. I am classed as visually impaired and disabled.”
Vicky fell into depression and barely left the house for two years. She didn’t want to speak to anyone other than Carl, her boys, and close family. She said she doesn’t know how she would have got through without them and the support of her parents Diane and Denis Chard.
She said: “I had counselling and a psychologist through the Wales Brain Injury Service. It was so difficult to accept my sight loss at first. I had a lot of counselling. I didn’t want to go out with my boys in their pram.”
Eventually Vicky decided she must make an effort for her twins. She continued: “I was a new mum and said to myself: ‘You can do this’. It should have been a happy time but it took two years to accept what had happened. The worst part was accepting the sight loss and that this was the new me.”
The stroke also continued to affected Vicky’s balance and she walked with a stick for two years. Her desperation to hold her twins’ hands eventually helped her get the motivation and courage to learn to to walk without a stick.
Now she uses a white symbol stick to help identify her as visually impaired. While Vicky can see out of the right side of both eyes she effectively has half of her previous vision and has injured herself slamming into lamp posts and hedges she couldn’t make out. Now she only walks accompanied to avoid injury.
Vicky said: “The boys got me through. I had twin boys and needed to hold their hands. I had to do it for them. I built it up. My walking is fine now but I am visually impaired and use a symbol cane so that people are aware.
“My whole life changed that day I had a stroke. I don’t think I would have recovered so fast if it wasn’t for the boys.”
Seven years on Vicky is rebuilding her life. She takes blood thinners to cut the risk of another stroke and has had a monitor fitted into her chest to check her heart rate but so far her heart has had no abnormal readings.
The boys, now seven, are happy at school but in a cruel irony Kaine has also been diagnosed with a totally separate visual impairment known as nystagmus. This condition causes involuntary wobbling of the eyes moving side to side, up and down, or in circles.
“Kaine has had glasses since just before he was three and then when he was five he was diagnosed with nystagmus which makes his eyes wobble. It was a massive shock,” said Vicky.
“He is visually impaired but wears glasses which do help. Both the boys go to a mainstream primary and Kaine has a teacher for visual impairment to help.”
As a family they have all learned to get along with the challenges they face. Vicky said her boys have never known her any different and they accept her eyesight and “wonky” left hand. The stroke left her unable to use her left hand without thinking about what she needs to do with it.
She said: “The twins are typical boys and like cars and football. They are super-caring. To them I am their mum and I can’t see out of the left side of my eyes and my left hand is wonky.”
Vicky said another huge help coming to terms with her visual impairment was talking to others with sight loss or who are blind. She knew no-one with sight loss before her stroke. She found help and support from the charity Vision Support in Chester and is also part of the newly-launched Sight Loss Council Cymru.
The Sight Loss Council (SLC) Cymru, a two-year pilot project, is run by Wales Council of the Blind and funded by the Thomas Pocklington Trust. It will bring together 19 volunteer representatives from across Wales who are blind or partially sighted.
Anita Davies, SLC Cymru engagement manager, said: “Our members will work closely with local action groups where they exist or with local sight loss groups in their area. This ensures the voices and experiences of blind and partially-sighted people are heard, helping to shape decisions that affect their communities. This is an exciting opportunity to make their voices heard and help create a more accessible Wales.”
After years of coming to terms with and accepting her sight loss Vicky hopes SLC Cymru will help her and others. And she had this advice for anyone struggling coping with vision: “Just keep going. It takes time. It’s a long game to acceptance. Keep going.”
