Six years ago, Annika Gaardsdal, her husband Anders and their four daughters were in the middle of the adventure of a lifetime. They lived in North Carolina in the USA, where Anders had got a job, when life took a turn when Annika suffered a massive brain haemorrhage. Now she struggles to get back to what she can of her life as it was before.
– The biggest goal is to become independent and be able to walk again, she tells Nyhetsmorgon.
The road back is not easy. But Annika and Anders choose to focus on the road ahead instead of what has been.
– I’ve realized that I can’t do anything about the fact that I had a brain haemorrhage. But you can make sense of it all and that’s what I try to do.
Shares about life in social media
Now she runs the Instagram account _katastroke_ where she describes her everyday life. She wants to break down the preconceived notions that exist about people who have suffered a stroke.
– We live like a normal family, she says in Nyhetsmorgon.
Annika points out that she is the same person today as before the stroke, which Anders agrees with:
– One of the positive things is that you are still the same person.
In the player above, Annika and Anders talk about their everyday life.
Stroke is: Lack of oxygen in the brain caused by a blood clot in one of the brain’s vessels (cerebral infarction) or by a ruptured blood vessel (cerebral hemorrhage).
Symptoms: Common symptoms are sudden paralysis and loss of sensation on one side of the body, difficulty speaking and loss of vision. Dizziness, headache, nausea and vomiting are other symptoms. Almost half of those affected have difficulty swallowing in the acute stage.
Affected in numbers: In 2019, approximately 25,700 people suffered and 5,800 died of a stroke (brain infarction or cerebral hemorrhage).
Source: Heart-Lung Foundation
Watch the full interview in the player above.