Stories & Achievements: Gabbi’s Story
Gabbi’s story: sew good
I was in our lounge room in Sydney and I said to my mum “I have a headache.” I was stumbling like a drunk person and struggling to stand up. After lying down I still had the headache and so mum rang the ambulance. Because I answered all the questions properly they said there was nothing wrong. As a precaution they said “If you want to come to the hospital drive behind us”. As we were driving it was grey and cold outside, but I said to my mum “It’s too bright”. She said “but there’s no sun.” But for me it was so bright. At the hospital they put me on a drip and I woke up 21 days later.
“I was seven when I had my stroke. It was quite a shock. My dad was down the south coast at the time. My mum had to tell him to come home and his hair went grey overnight.”
When I woke up I couldn’t walk or talk or draw. Nothing. But then I got moved around the wards and slowly I got better. I had intense physiotherapy, OT, hydrotherapy, everything. I did that until I was about thirteen. It was intense, I’d even leave school to go and do things. Then when I hit high school I stopped everything because I wanted to focus on school. My parents were OK with that, and it wasn’t until I moved down here to Newcastle that I heard about the NDIS and applied for it, and more recently got back into physiotherapy and that sort of stuff.
Technically I had three strokes while I was in the ICU. So that’s why mine is so severe compared to others, and it depends on which side of the brain and where in the brain it decides to burst. I had to have three operations and they had to remove the bone (skull) for the swelling to go down. Thankfully I don’t get headaches today, only if I’m on a screen for too long sometimes.
The doctors told me my stroke was caused by a malformation of a blood vessel. In a blood vessel there’s large, medium and small, and I was missing the medium vessel. We have blood clots that go through our body each day, and it went through the large fine but couldn’t go any further and burst.
“It’s quite interesting because lots of kids have stokes around 7 years old. I can’t remember the statistic, but it’s quite a lot.*”
*Every year up to 500 children in Australia have a stroke. Source: Stroke Foundation.
My parents moved to Forster and I did my schooling and things up there. I was at Uni doing teaching. That has been my big goal, to be a teacher, because I’ve seen the massive difference that they make when they’re actually on board with someone with a disability, especially when they’re in a mainstream school. Especially back in 2000. Things have developed more over recent years.
I got married in 2019 to my lovely husband Luke. He’s great. We met at Uni, we were in the same class. I got halfway (though my teaching degree) and then health complications happened, so I deferred. I could go back in time if I wanted to. When I left Uni I was a teachers aid, and I loved it! I did that for a while because I had them at school. They do so much work, just by sitting there and listening. Especially if you daydream - and I’m a daydreamer - if I’m not interested in the topic, so they would, write down the formulas and use little tricks that would actually teach me more than the teacher did.
I had a job in 2019, working in an office. I loved the interactions and everything about it. So right now I’m doing a Cert 3 in Business Admin and I’ll be finished by June.
After all the past years of not doing any rehab has made it a bit harder for me. I’ve now got a Second Skin splint and also a leg splint. They’re amazing! They help me walk better so my foot doesn’t drop, or I don’t roll my ankle as much. It stretched my arm out more and I can use my fingers a bit better now.
At around 25 years old I was finding that my muscles in my arm were getting shorter and things were getting more difficult to do. I was losing strength and some things I couldn’t do anymore. So I decided to start again and went to my physio. She said if I’d left it another five years there wouldn’t be a lot that we could do. But because I came in then we could still build things back up.
“I know it’s hard but don’t give up. You just cannot! I’ve had times when I’ve thought “that’s it”. But you can’t. You’ve got to keep going. You’re here for a reason.”
So my health has improved. I am now a lot more independent. But it’s still ok to ask for help. I try to be very independent but there’s time when I still need help, especially with things like household duties and getting around. I don’t have my licence yet but I am working towards that in June. So I’ve decided this year I’ll start to work towards getting it and not being dependent on people driving me places. I am able to catch a bus but that’s hard if I need to be somewhere at a certain time. You either get there half an hour early or half an hour late!
I’m very privileged with the life I’ve had. My parents and my whole family have been there 100%. And they’ve always said “you can do it”. My husband is a huge support too. It’s been six months or so with Headstart. It’s going really great! It’s good to get support with people who ‘get it’ with brain injury and things like that, because I’ve been with others and it’s not the same. If I have an issue I ring Dianne and she understands it straight away. Everyone at Headstart just ‘gets it’. I mean all brain injuries are different anyway so it’s good that there’s one place that specialises in it.
In a few years time I either see myself in Business Admin, or one of my teaches in TAFE is suggesting that I do Case Management. I’m thinking disability or with people that are homeless. I’d like work in something that makes a difference. I had an epiphany the other day when I was at TAFE: I want to work somewhere that makes a difference.
Renee and I get on really well and we often do sewing which is relaxing, it’s just a fun hobby. When Bethany comes over we go out and do things or we sit and chat. I love going to the beach with my husband but sometimes it’s a bit difficult because he works so I’ve got my support workers to do that with me now.
What I like about Headstart is that they try to match you with someone that’s like you: the same interests, the same type of personality. So I get in really well with Ren and Bethany because they like sewing too!
