Stroke. Before the medical dispatcher of the Samu pronounced these three letters on the telephone, Régis had no idea what they meant. “Sir, you are having a stroke. A cerebral vascular accident. An ambulance is coming.” said the voice on the end of the line. It was ten years ago, and Regis thought it was all over for him. “When I woke up in the hospital, I was paralyzed on my right side, remembers this former confectionery salesman in Haute-Marne.Before that, he was able to walk 10 km, despite his 130 kg and hypertension problems. “Overnight, I found myself in a wheelchair, then pushing a walker. At 56, it flanks a blow. »
Today, Régis celebrates his tenth “post-stroke birthday”. He walks again. With a cane, “and pretty heel pads on my orthopedic shoes to rebalance the guy”, he specifies. “Nevertheless, some days, I can last two or three kilometres. My wife is chasing me now! » If Régis takes stock in a humorous tone, he does not hide that he has some “drooled”. “A stroke, it still puts a hell of a mess in your life. You start from scratch. »
Elodie, she says that “it’s like a second life that begins”. You have to tame a different body, “get used to everything again, differently”. You also have to digest the shock. Especially when the stroke comes when you’ve just turned 30 and have a second child. “I never would have thought that something like this could fall on me”confides this brunette with a baby face, who remained suffering from hemiparesis. “It means I can move my arm and my leg, but I can’t control my movements”she translates.
Learning to “be disabled in a world of able-bodied people”
Four years later, the young woman rewinds the film for the thousandth time. This New Year’s Eve first, when she fell suddenly, “as if my legs were no longer carrying me”. Simple stroke of fatigue, she thinks then. Then that routine doctor’s appointment ten days later. “My sight was blurred when I got into my car. I had no more strength in one arm. Arrived in the waiting room, I could not move. The doctor immediately understood what was happening and called the fire department. »
Some days, Élodie curses fate. A stroke right after giving birth, who does this kind of thing happen to? But more often than not, she tells herself that she had “luck in bad luck”. “Without this doctor’s appointment, I might have died…”
To say that his life has been turned upside down is an understatement. “I discover what it is to be disabled in a world of able-bodied people”, summarizes this farmer’s wife, who lives in the Oise. She who always had ” need “ music can no longer play saxophone. Above all, she had to give up her job as a legal representative.
To reduce the rigidity of her limbs, the young mother receives botox injections every six months, and then has to spend five weeks in a rehabilitation center. Far from her husband and her two children, whom she finds on weekends. “It’s complicated to find a job with these constraints. But I feel capable of many things. Anyway, in our society, having a disability means fighting twice as hard”says the young woman, who has started a validation of acquired experience (VAE) to become a social worker.
Invisible sequels
Say goodbye to some things, conquer others. To reinvent oneself. It is also on this trying path that Martine progresses. She was 46 when the stroke struck, at the gym. Unimaginable for this great sportswoman who led a life without excess. “Cancer, we hear about it all the time. But that, much less, especially when you’re youngshe believes. For me, the emotional shock was very strong. »
When she wakes up after six weeks in a coma, two and a half months of rehabilitation await her at the Avignon hospital: physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy… “It was hard, but the hardest thing is the return to real life. For weeks, time stands still. When you go out, you feel like things are going full speed ahead. Everything looks new, complicated. »
Six years later, Martine has almost no sequelae. At least nothing that is noticeable at first sight. But his feeling of slowness in a world galloping at a hundred miles an hour persists. “The ideal rhythm, for me, was at the start of the Covid. There, my brain managed to follow. But normally, I get tired very quickly and get upset easily. Ask my daughter! »
Formerly a childminder, she is still employed in a school, but at 80% and as a maintenance worker. Looking after children takes too much energy. But what frustrates her the most are the words that regularly escape her in the middle of a conversation. She who has always been a ” big mouth “. “Sometimes I look for a term for five minutes. But I don’t let go, I persist, and I finally find it. Stroke won’t shut me up! », she throws out a challenge.
Refuse nostalgia
To this accident, Martine even says « merci ». Because he reshuffled the cards of a life that did not make her happy. “I realized a lot of things that were wrong. I ended relationships that didn’t make me feel good. » Her philosophy: tell herself every day that life is beautiful, and that if someone should love it, it’s first of all herself.
Élodie, too, says that she conquered a form of freedom in this ordeal. Unsuspected strength. “Strangely, it pushed me to do things that I never would have dared to do before. » Like standing as a substitute in the legislative elections, it doesn’t matter that it ended in defeat.
Like her, Régis refuses to live in the nostalgia of who he was. He looks forward. Now retired, he would like us to talk more about strokes, and to support the “survivors” more. “It’s crucial to be well surrounded when you experience an event like this. Me, I was lucky to be very supported by my wife. Alas, some people find themselves alone. »
To break this isolation, Régis created the French Association of Stroke Victims seven years ago. He has also invested in social networks, where he tries to reassure those who, like him ten years ago, are wondering what will become of them, if they will ever recover. “I encourage them, but I don’t want them to have any illusions, he points out. There is no cure for a stroke. At least not as some hope. We reorganize our life, we improve certain things, we learn to compensate. But what is necessary, above all, is to accept that it will not be like before. The hardest part is that. »
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The leading cause of death among French women
According to the Ministry of Health, more than 500,000 people live with the after-effects of a stroke in France.
With 30,000 deaths per year, it is the third leading cause of death in the country and the first among women.
More than half of strokes affect people aged 75 and over. A quarter of the victims are under 65, and 15% under 50.
The first risk factors are high blood pressure, smoking and obesity.
A deformed mouth, weakness on one side of the body, or speech problems appearing suddenly are characteristic signs that require you to call 15 immediately.