Congratulations. Since this guy is a complete outlier in getting fully recovered every single stroke doctor and hospital in the world should be analyzing the objective diagnosis of his damage and the protocols he used for recovery. Then apply those learnings to their own stroke program and patients. But if your doctor responds to this with; 'All strokes are different, all stroke recoveries are different', then you have a craptastic doctor, get rid of her/him and find someone better. Someone who keeps up-to-date with all the latest research. We have to start removing all the dead wood in stroke, it is taking too long to fall down on its own(I can provide chainsaws). Patients are going to have to do this removal, stroke hospital presidents have failed in this task as evidenced by keeping around any person who uses that 'All strokes' quote. But if we had a great stroke association then that doctor could give the diagnosis and protocols to them and that great stroke association would get it distributed to every stroke doctor.
Orland Park teacher caps off stroke recovery by finishing Wisconsin Marathon
The thing about stroke is that it can happen to anyone, even super healthy athletic young people who “win every FitBit challenge.”
Fortunately, for Chris Scholten, his wife Crystal was there when it happened to him.
Though risk of stroke increases with age, it can occur in anyone, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke each year, and about 610,000 of these are first or new strokes, the CDC states.
Early detection and treatment made possible by new hospital partnerships, and the fact that Chris was in good shape when his stroke occurred, have enabled the 30-year-old Orland Park special education teacher to not only make a complete recovery but run a marathon a year and a half later.
“My drive helped in my recovery,” said Chris, who just finished his third year teaching at Prairie View Middle School in Tinley Park. “But without Crystal, I wouldn’t be here. If she had not been there when the stroke happened, I wouldn’t have called (for help) and then it would have been too to late to call.”
Dr. Michael Schneck, stroke care specialist at Loyola University Medical Center, where Chris was treated, said, when it comes to stroke, put simply “Time is Brain.”
A rule of thumb for anything in medicine, Schneck said, is that the sooner you get medical help, the better off you are.
“We teach in our clinics and public ads if you think you’re having a stroke don’t delay,” he said.
Loss of vision in one eye, loss of sensation in your face, arm or leg, talking or walking like you’re drunk when you haven’t been drinking all can be symptoms of stroke, Schneck said.
“More people do better if they get (to a hospital) in time,” Schneck said. “The most important thing to remember is it’s better to cry wolf than say ‘I’m not sure if I’m having a stroke’ and stay home and wait. Don’t wait until it gets better. Don’t wait to call your doctor the next day. Get to a hospital.”
On Sept. 20, 2016, Chris said he and Crystal had just sat down to watch the premier of “This Is Us” on NBC when an ache in the back of his head intensified.
“I’d had a headache for about a month,” Chris recalled. “But I was being stubborn and didn’t get it checked out.”
That night, he was massaging the area when he suddenly felt a “pop” and began sweating profusely.
Thinking her athletic husband had simply worked out too hard that day, Crystal, a physical therapist, quickly jumped up to start a cool shower. By the time she returned from the bathroom, Chris had vomited “everywhere,” she said.
She suggested they head to the emergency room, and Chris responded, “You’re gonna need to call your dad because I can’t move.
“The room was spinning,” he recalled. “I had my hand on the ottoman and just couldn’t move. I couldn’t stand. I couldn’t even walk to the car.”
Crystal called 911.
By the time they reached Palos Community Hospital, Crystal said Chris’ speech sounded like that of a child. She said she knew her husband’s condition was something more than heat exhaustion, she said.
“I was thinking the worst because you do when you’re in this field,” she said.
Doctors at Palos teleconferenced with Schneck at Loyola, a connection made possible through a partnership that many academic hospitals that specialize in specific conditions such as stroke have with other hospitals where patients can be triaged. Loyola is a comprehensive stroke center, Schneck said. Its partnership with Palos enables stroke patients to be diagnosed and then receive comprehensive care, he said.
A microphone and full-color, high-definition camera at Chris’ bedside at Palos enabled the specialist at Loyola to chat with him, his family and his doctors and nurses.
Through the telestroke program Chris was diagnosed and transferred to Loyola, Schneck said.
Schneck said he does not know the basis of Chris’ stroke, which is often referred to as a “brain attack” because it occurs when blood flow to an area is cut off. Common factors that can lead to stroke, such as carotid artery disease and atrial fibrillation, did not apply in this case.
Schneck said doctors think he suffered a dissection, which is caused by a separation of the inner lining from the outer lining of a blood vessel, something that can happen suddenly.
“But why (it happened) is speculation,” Schneck said.
Because Chris experienced swelling in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that controls breathing, doctors performed a craniectomy, permanently removing a part of his skull, Schneck said.
“By doing the surgery we relieved the pressure and gave him a chance for a better outcome. And he had a great outcome as it turned out,” Schneck said. “He was fortunate.”
Afterward, Chris began the arduous road to recovery.
As rough as that was, he insists if not for his wife, he wouldn’t have recovered as quickly, if at all.
Even before his prescribed physical therapy was to begin, he said, “Crystal had me walking circles around the building. The first few times, I couldn’t walk in a straight line. I was weaving in and out like I’d been drinking all night.
“It was definitely frustrating. I played sports my whole life, worked out my whole life and suddenly I couldn’t walk in a straight line,” he said.
Family also helped, he said, as did friends who pooled money to get the couple tickets to Game 1 of the Cubs-Giants playoffs the next month.
Chris and Crystal met while attending Sandburg High School. They reconnected years later through mutual friends while she was a student at Bradley University and he was attending Illinois State University.
They had been married just more than a year when the stroke occurred.
“Recovery was the worst and best time of my life,” Chris said. “If it wasn’t for her, I probably wouldn’t be here walking and capable of everything I am today.”
On May 5, Chris finished the Wisconsin Marathon in just under 4:26. His decision to enter the Kenosha event, he said, is symbolic of his new “live your life like every day is your last” mantra.
“Running a marathon has always been on my mind. It’s always been something I wanted to do. I knew the longer I waited, it would just get harder,” he said. “So after the stroke I thought ‘Do it now.’
“Because you never know what can happen. You’ll have regrets about the things you didn’t do,” he said.
In addition to “seizing the day,” he advised, in times of crises “lean on your loved ones, use their support and appreciate it.”
His prognosis is good. Schneck said. “The likelihood (of Chris having another stroke) is small but not zero. Anybody who’s had a stroke is at risk for another stroke.
“But he’s doing wonderfully,” Schneck said. “That’s a testament to his wife’s faith in him, Chris’s faith in himself and the work of our nurses and staff here at Loyola.”
Teamwork, he added, makes a difference in health care and relationships.
Chris and Crystal, he said, are “a great family. I am very pleased that they can be a profile of what happens when you do things to the best of your ability. I wish every stroke turned out as well as his did.”
Crystal recently took a new job near Fox Lake and so she and Chris are moving from Orland Park to Wisconsin. Chris said the stroke experience has made him rethink his career goals. Though he still enjoys working with kids and will continue to coach soccer, he said, “Now I want to go into physical therapy.”
Crystal said such events can be life changing, even when they turn out well.
She said she’s come to realize the importance of not taking things for granted because “even competitive health nuts who win every FitBit challenge” can get sick.
“Life is too short to get mad at each other over stupid things. Just enjoy what you have. Enjoy each other’s company because that’s what being together is all about,” she said.
Although Schneck has given Chris the all-clear, Chris says he plans to stay connected.
“I told him I’ll see him as needed,” Schneck said, “and he told me ‘I’ll see you every year.’”
No comments:
Post a Comment