What does your doctor have for getting you running again? NOTHING? THEN HOW FUCKING INCOMPETENT ARE YOU ALLOWING YOUR DOCTOR TO BE IN NOT HAVING INTERVENTIONS FOR YOUR GAIT REHAB?
Not just walking! Running!? Maybe something from this book?
Tommye-K. Mayer book; 'Teaching Me to Run'.
Ta’Mara Aarin couldn’t sit up after a stroke, but readies for LA 2024 marathon
This ultra runner has faced the Badwater marathon, and that has helped her run again
When Ta’Mara Aarin, 55, first arrived at a rehabilitation center after having a stroke that left her paralyzed on her left side, she was asked to set a goal. Aarin’s speech was slurred, her mind was foggy and she could barely even twitch the muscles on her left side, but she said, “100% recovery.”(This is what every survivor should demand.) Silence ensued.
The rehab staff stood there with the solemn understanding that Aarin would likely never be self-sufficient again thanks to the blot clot in her brain. But they didn’t say no. And for the past three years of recovery, neither has she.
“It was painful and my motor skills were affected,” said Aarin, a longtime Woodland Hills resident, on Wednesday June 28. “But I understood my body. It was really hard, but I wasn’t going to let (my life) slip by.”
“My recovery has taken me to some dark places,” she said. “I fought hard. Now, three years post-stroke, with lots of love and patience, I have returned to running.”
She will represent her charity, California Rehab Foundation, at the start of the Badwater 135 ultra-marathon in Death Valley from July 4 to July 6, supporting 100 runners on their 135-mile journey in 120-plus degree heat. She crewed the brutal race for more than ten years, but this week she and her husband will be on the sidelines, supporting runners with upbeat signage. She says of the future, “If you ask me for an ending to my story, it ends with me toeing the line at Badwater 135.”
Her life’s greatest challenge began on the night of March, 24, 2020 when Aarin experienced a stroke in the back of her neck, near her spinal cord. Her arm went numb and she had difficulty speaking, but neither Aarin nor her husband realized she was having a stroke. The next morning, her symptoms severely worsened, and she went to the hospital.
Once there, doctors conducted tests and an MRI, and confirmed she’d had a stroke. Since the stroke had occurred about 12 hours before she arrived at the hospital, too much time had passed and there was very little that could be done to reverse the damage.
After three days in the hospital, Aarin was wheeled to an inpatient rehabilitation facility. At the time, the COVID-19 pandemic had just started, so her husband couldn’t come with her.
“My husband helped tremendously, even though he couldn’t be there with me,” she said. “But there wasn’t a lot of support. There’s not really a lot that people can do. It’s more about what you do for yourself.”
During her first few days in rehab, she was in denial of the toll the stroke had taken on her body and her future, Aarin said. She had been an athlete and avid runner since she was a child, and the prospect of losing this core part of her life wasn’t just painful, it was unimaginable.
But while Aarin sat in her bed, her past athleticism—her years of experience running marathons and even parts of the extreme, 135-mile Badwater Ultramarathon in Death Valley—didn’t change her situation. She couldn’t sit up, she couldn’t move her fingers, and she had constant fatigue.
“At first, I was angry and I couldn’t accept the fate of the stroke happening to me,” she said.
Aarin didn’t know how brutal the road ahead would be, but her mind was firm and determined. For two months, she stayed in her room, in rehab. Each improvement took weeks, from unclenching her left hand to not falling over when moved into a seated position. As the pandemic surged, she couldn’t see her husband, so her main company was the TV comedy show “Impractical Jokers.”
“I had to learn to rewire my brain,” she said. “I had a routine and I paid attention to my growth. This helped a lot.”
The process was slow, but Aarin improved. She started to regain some motor skills and balance. By her second month in rehab, she could even take a couple steps.
Aarin was then discharged and went home, where she started intensive physical therapy. Typically, the goal of the physical therapy was that patients be able to perform necessary tasks, such as eating, showering, and moving around the house. But Aarin couldn’t imagine a life without running, so she set her expectations much higher.
Aarin has spent the last three years pushing herself through physical pain and self-doubt, and the results have been striking. Now she can cook, walk, speak unimpaired, lift her dogs—and run.
“It’s been quite an impressive process,” Aarin’s husband, Mike Anderson, said. “I’ve tried to be there, to do what needs to be done. It’s so impressive to see her progress.”
At this point, Aarin can run about 4.5 miles before losing her stamina, she said. She hopes to continue to improve, for not only herself but for others.
Aarin plans to run the 2024 Los Angeles Marathon next March, just four years after experiencing her stroke, to raise money for the California Rehabilitation Foundation which supports stroke victims through their medical expenses and recovery process.
“(The foundation) has been fabulous,” Aarin said. “That’s why I want to help give back to them.”
In addition to running the L.A. Marathon herself, Aarin is also partnering with the foundation to train a group of stroke patients’ loved ones to run it as well.
With her passion there to guide and center her, Aarin’s plan? Just keep running.
“I want people to know that if they’ve had a traumatic brain injury, never give up,” she said. “Because, I can (run), right? It’s possible. This is possible.”
For more information about her cause, go to: https://fundraisers.hakuapp.com/ta-mara-aarin
No comments:
Post a Comment