Danni's story

Something wasn’t right. Danni was totally in the dark about what could be wrong with her – as her eyesight started failing, things would eventually become clearer.

She had been getting a lot of migraines – what started as once a month had snowballed to as many as twice a day, but the worst was yet to come.

While shopping with her youngest daughter, she suddenly experienced double vision at the checkout.

"So, I just went and sat on a seat and, within a few minutes, it stopped. I still felt awful. I'd gotten a real fright.”

Then it happened again - only this time, at home and for a whole ten minutes. Fortunately, Danni’s mum was living with Danni and her children at the time and helped to keep her calm.

After a quick visit to the GP, it was thought Danni had experienced a variation of migraines although Danni had niggling doubts.

When out driving alone, Danni experienced what she now knows was her first stroke.

“I turned a left corner, and after checking for traffic turned my head back to keep driving. It felt like my brain didn't come with me.”

Danni pulled over straight away.

“I actually messaged my sister who lives in Canada. I told her, ‘I think I might have just had a stroke’ and we were kind of joking about it. For probably 20 minutes, I just couldn't hold my head up properly. I then went home and just assumed it was what the doctor had been saying, ‘migraine-related.’”

Then it happened again - only this time lives were counting on Danni. Her oldest daughter, who had not yet hit her teens, and her dogs were relying on Mum to get them home from a lovely time at the dog park.

Danni suddenly lost a big patch of her peripheral right-side vision.

“I said to my daughter, ‘Don't panic, I just feel a bit weird, but if you needed to call 111, would you know how to?” She couldn't even get the phone to unlock! I was thinking, ‘yikes’ because I was worried that I might lose consciousness and she wouldn’t know what to do. I couldn't hold my head up. The feeling was like if you're carrying a really heavy bucket of water and the weight makes it tilt to one side. I didn't want to call an ambulance. I was like, ‘what would happen to the dogs?’ I just had a huge desire to get home.”

She eventually managed to drive home and her nephew took her to the GP who then referred her on to the hospital. There, once again Danni was told it was most likely migraine-related and was discharged.

Danni knew one thing – her migraines didn’t usually last for more than 45 minutes. With her vision still gone the next day, Danni was sent back to the hospital by her GP. Like a tennis ball being volleyed back and forth, something had to land and it finally did in the hospital’s Acute Medical Unit.

A senior doctor at the hospital knew straight away what was going on.

It occurs when blood flow to the occipital lobe, located at the back of the brain, is interrupted causing visual disturbances.

“It's not my right eye that’s the problem, it's both eyes on the right hand side. That means it's the brain that's causing the visual loss.”

A CT scan confirmed Danni had experienced a stroke. Then an MRI scan, the next day, revealed she had actually had two strokes.

Danni had a hard time believing it. She was a young mum at 45 years and was now being wheeled off to the stroke unit for rehabilitation with blood thinners in hand. She was however relieved it wasn’t a brain tumour (that had crossed her mind) but, for a while, she was too embarrassed to tell anyone.

In her head, stroke only affected old people and she wasn’t sure, being slightly overweight, if her lifestyle was to blame.

“So my nephew looked after the kids and I said they could come and visit, but I didn't want anyone else to know.”

Danni would spend five more days in hospital and her rehabilitation would be slow. While she’s thankful her speech was only mildly affected, she has ongoing problems including fatigue, short term memory loss, issues with processing information, and the visual loss that has never returned. Going to a supermarket has its challenges with sensory overload.

“Everything is louder and brighter, just people and crowds and stuff and music playing. Because I've got little vision on the right-hand side, I will come around an aisle with my trolley and walk straight into someone.”

Danni now works as a Community Stroke Navigator for Stroke Aotearoa. As a former teacher, she knows she is in a good position to be able to help others with their stroke struggles. Danni has also seen the impact that stroke can have on the loved ones of the stroke survivor.

“I can think of one very clear example where a husband had a stroke and he was doing a lot of the talking during my meeting with him and his whanau. I was watching his wife. I said to her, ‘That must have been really traumatic for you.’ She just burst into tears. I was thinking, my goodness, what she would have had to deal with while this was happening was also really traumatic.”

Danni knows that, if she had got the help she needed quicker, life could be very different for her now.

Despite her challenges, Danni is grateful she can bring clarity to others dealing with stroke.

Danni is one of our team of Community Stroke Navigators helping Kiwis across the motu who are living with stroke. Danni also helps educate our community to prevent strokes and its devastating impact from happening. If you would like to chat with Danni or one of the team about stroke-related issues, please call our free helpline 0800 Stroke (0800 78 76 53).