Finn had a stroke on 3rd July 2017 whilst at work at the Manchester Royal Infirmary. The stroke was caused by a carotid artery dissection during a workout at the gym that morning. That caused a clot to form to prevent any bleeding and a couple of hours later this dislodged and went to the brain. The only warning we got was that the vision in his left eye went very blurry which prompted him to attend the emergency eye department rather than A&E. It was while he was having his eyes tested that he had the stroke and was rushed into CT scan and subsequently blue lighted to Salford Royal Hospital. Finn received a thrombectomy to remove the clot within approximately 2-2.5 hours of the stroke which thankfully limited the damage caused.

The stroke left Finn with quite severe aphasia however physically he regained the ability to use his right limbs fairly quickly. The only physical effects that he seems to have had problems with is the fine motor skills in his right hand (which are improving with physio activities) and neurological pain in his right shoulder.

His aphasia affects both verbal and written language. While still in hospital Finn would only say the words "now" and "but". He couldn't name anyone or anything you showed him and when he tried to write something down the words looked like jibberish.

With speech therapy this has gradually improved and in the last couple of months he has started to try putting together sentences rather than talking in single words. For Finn this recovery feels frustratingly slow but as his wife I am encouraged by the fact that I can still see the improvements despite being around him all the time.

P.s. Finn found watching other people's videos on youtube really helpful. No two stroke recoveries are alike but it has given him hope and inspiration seeing how well other people are doing. The example he gives in the video is a young lady called Sarah Scott. :-)