When Dan was building his own deck, on a spring day in 2019, he suddenly couldn’t move the right side of his body and he fell down. The ambulance was called and he was rushed to the hospital where he awoke 8 days later to learn that he suffered from a massive stroke.
Dan said that he was unable to speak when he woke up and the things that he said made no sense. When he found out that he was paralyzed on one side of his body realization kicked in and he knew that his life had changed forever. He was told that he wouldn’t get much better due to the severity of the stroke, but Dan made himself a plan. Motivated by his goal to return back home he spent the next few months in the hospital learning how to talk, move and do basic things again.
With help from family and friends Dan was able to go back home and having someone in the house gave him the opportunity to discover and experiment doing things independently. “Every day I have to remember how to do things, how to move my leg but I have made a lot of progress over the last 9 months and I can function fairly well”.
Dan was referred by the hospital to the Case Manager Program, provided by the Brain Injury Society in Penticton. Because he was no longer able to work he had to apply for other sources of income and navigating that process was a real struggle. “It was a relief having someone with knowledge of the system that helped me sorting this out and having that financial stability now has taken away a lot of stress”.
With help from the Case Manager he applied for a powered wheelchair, allowing him to do his own shopping and banking again without having to rely on other people.
But Dan’s biggest motivation in life is the wellbeing and future of his 3 (adult) sons. Since Dan left his ex-wife about 15 years ago, he was granted custody for his special needs son who lived with Dan up to the day that he had his stroke.
When Dan returned home from the hospital, he was not able to take care of his son and it was hard on both of them to be living separately from each other. Regaining as much independence as possible has allowed him to take care of his son again who hasn’t left since he came to visit about 2 months ago.
It was really important for Dan to find a new life purpose after the stroke changed his life.
