Charlotte
On 2nd December while Charlotte was away on school camp in Newcastle, her family got a phone call to say she had to be taken to hospital after collapsing and feeling weak.
She was returned to camp early the next morning and the hospital said she just had a panic attack. Her mum brought her home that day and later took her to hospital in Wollongong as she was still weak snd slurring her words and as a mother knew something was wrong. Again she was sent home and was told nothing was wrong, it was all in her head. ( words a mother will never forget!)
It was a couple of days later she woke up and collapsed she had lost all feeling down her left side and was rushed by ambulance to Wollongong hospital where they finally did tests and confirmed she has had a stroke well actually multiple strokes.
Finally after many hours of tests she was rushed up to Sydney children’s hospital in Randwick where she was then put under the neurological team where lots more testing was done to try find out why she has had these strokes which unfortunately we have no answer to that question.
8 weeks ago she started her recovery with not even being able to roll over onto her side or sit up or move her left leg or arm which was her dominant arm.
She is now learning to write with her other hand until her left hand is strong enough and walking around with a splint on her leg as she hasn’t got full movement back in her left ankle yet.
She will be having injections into her calf muscle to try and help with the movement of her foot. She has been strong and positive throughout her whole journey and after 8 weeks in hospital we will finally be able to go home and continue her rehab closer to home.
Her main goals when she first got here were to be able to get back to school to see her friends and to be able to get back to dancing. Charlotte has a long road ahead of her but she is working hard at that.
As a mother the best advice I can give after all of this is trust your instincts cause as a mum you know your child best and just because textbook says strokes aren’t common in children obviously it happens.
So if you think something is wrong with your child persist with it and I hope this helps someone else get help as quickly as possible.