Sally (Stroke): Full Episode - Recovery from a stroke on the operating table

Stories of Recovery

Episode 2: Full episode - Sally Callie - Recovery from a stroke on the operating table (Stroke).
In this episode we meet Sally Callie, triple Olympian, a world record holder and an U23 world champion in the sport of rowing, who's also a mother, a teacher and a stroke survivor. Following the birth of Sally's second child in 2011 she experienced a seizure and upon returning to hospital discovered that she had a blood vessel deep within her brain which was ready to rupture. Sally needed to undergo brain surgery to remove the blood vessel and though this was successful, she awoke from the surgery to find that she could not move half of her body.
We meet Sally and hear about her Olympic career and the lessons she learned. We hear about the stroke itself, what caused it and we discuss her rehab, her determination and the lessons she was able to draw from her sporting career to assist her to regain her high quality of life.
Full transcripts and show notes are available for each chapter on the podcast website: storiesofrecovery.buzzsprout.com
Sally's recommendations:

• 12:41 - Work hard on your mindset "We can't choose what happens to us, but we can choose our response to it",
• 13:35 - Use visualisation to picture yourself in a powerful, confident state to prepare yourself for difficult/scary situations (in Sally's case a 7 hour craniotomy with a 20% chance of stroke, paralysis, coma or death),
• 19:15 & 27:30 & 36:20 - Use the initial 90 day period to push hard for all the improvement you can (Sally pretended that she was training for the London Olympics), and know that you WILL continue to recover after this time with dedicated effort,
• 20:45 & 33:45 - Visualisation - the beginning of Sally's recovery & how to do it. Visualise an activity which you are already very familiar with (using all of your senses),
• 31:30 - Read (or listen) to the book 'The Brain That Changes Itself - by Norman Doidge',
• 32:55 & 37:30 & 1:01:15- Take ownership of your recovery and your rehab. Set goals that YOU are motivated by (for Sally this was to run again, and to wakeboard again),
• 39:30 - If you are angry, channel it into your recovery. Take charge of your recovery,
• 46:00 & 1:12:00 - Set and be strict with your habits. Sally recommends making a checklist and ticking each item off each day: getting 8 hours of sleep, eating healthy and nutritious food, speaking positively and supportively to yourself, writing down three things that you are grateful for each day, and writing down the tiny 1% improvements,
• 47:10 - Read up on the latest research on stroke recovery and apply it yourself,
• 47:55 - Constraint Induced therapy (CI therapy) is very helpful recovering from stroke,
• 50:00 - Know that "being a stroke survivor is twice as hard as going to three Olympics",
• 52:18 - Read about Kintsugi and Wabi-Sabi. Redefine your perceptions of imperfection,
• 54:20 - Practise Sally's acronym of GOLD (Gratitude, Obstacles have meaning, Leading from within & Daily habits - the biggest one),
• 57:00 - For someone leaving the rehab centre: 1. Get your daily habits right (sleep, food, good support, books, positive self talk etc.), 2. Try to make sense of what has happened. Look for the opportunities and positives in your new situation to find meaning, 3. Begin to redefine imperfection and celebrate your point of difference. Own your new self,
• 1:15:19 - Start an AWAP Journal - 'As many Wins As Possible'. Celebrate the 1% wins.

For more detailed show notes, see the individual chapter sections on the podcast website.

Chapters

1. Chapter 1: Rowing, life & suffering a stroke (00:00:00)

2. Chapter 2: Rehab & taking ownership (00:24:01)

3. Chapter 3: Looking back & the key learnings (00:46:06)

4. Chapter 4: The Olymics & the recovery lessons learned there (01:03:21)