Brief history of my health crisis
On 16 October 2022, at the age of 42 years, sitting in my car at a parking lot, my left arm and leg suddenly became fully paralysed, and I could not speak anymore. I realised this could be a stroke, so I let myself fall out of my car, lying on the ground, in the hope somebody would call an ambulance. Luckily, somebody made that call, and I was rushed to the hospital: a thrombus in the CM1 segment of the right arteria cerebri media with subtotal occlusion was discovered (cryptogenic stroke), leading to a National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) of 17–18. A thrombectomy was executed, with full revascularisation, and I was discharged from the hospital 2 weeks later. Two years later, a repeat MRI of my brain was made (figure 1), showing the damage done (mostly on the right hemisphere and deep in the brain behind the right eye).
Figure 1
Repeat brain MRI at 2 years after my stroke. The black areas in this scan indicate scarred/destroyed brain tissue.
Isolated anatomically but not physiologically
From the moment I regained consciousness and woke up in my hospital bed, the first goal I had was to regain mobility as soon as possible and progress to exercise training. Through my academic training (PhD …
