Jenny: Okay if I can't walk, okay maybe I can do swimming, maybe...
It was funny like the only things I was thinking in my mind was how am I going to get back in the water?
Return to sport: Surfing
Jenny: Surfing, I came I started getting back into it about eight weeks post stroke.
I was in hospital for four weeks and then I had another four weeks of really intense rehab before I wanted to try surfing and crazy enough I could still do it.
I was like a bit shocked as well and relieved.
Like I've been surfing since I was 16 and so I'm nearly coming up for 30 years and you know
I surfed when I was pregnant, I surfed... I've just, I've just surfed, and we live close to the beach,
my son's just started surfing...
When I was young, a bit younger I was competing in the stand-up paddle comps for surfing and gotten to like Australian titles several years in a row, state titles, and I was, you know, surfing had in essence had been built around me as well, and it was like, I've got to get back in the water.
And I just love the water like it's just...
Can I do this?
Jenny: What is this going to feel like, what's changed, like can I do, like it was just like I didn't know, like had I gone back, how far back was I, like if I had to learn to walk again, will it be the same with surfing?
And the first time was a bit wobbly, and the first couple of waves, and then all of a sudden bang it was like, brain.
So it was, it took a little bit and then it was a couple of weeks later I was surfing with my friend and this nice wave had come and I got it and she was behind me, and I felt, and I still remember to this day this feeling, and I felt like, the connect, it was in my stroke leg, and it was like the light bulb had come on.
And it was like it clicked.
The mental fire
Jenny: I knew, you know, learning to walk again was quite tricky. Like it was a shock, but I knew that, you know, I had the resilience, and I knew I had that mental capacity and the mental fire that sport had given me to be able to keep it going and to be able to... and the endurance side, like I took it as another, I guess like another challenge, another competitiveness within me was just like the stroke's not going to stop me from, you know it's I can't walk, but that's not going to be for long
It's taken away, you know the, I can't do combat sports now because of the high risk of bleeding and injuries and that sort of sense, but the haematologist was like "What other sports do you do?" And I'm like "Surfing."
And he's like, "Okay let's talk about this."
And I'm thinking, "Don't take..." And I was like "Please don't take this away from me.
"It's my way to cope with life and the world and it's just something, please don't take it away."
And he was basically, he was like, "I'm not going to take it away from you, but there is a bit of a protocol that you'll need to do, and you will need to do this forever and a day now."
And I'm like, "Okay, like I'll do whatever you tell me to do so I can continue to surf."
What changed
Jenny: I find now it's definitely more depending on the conditions and depending on days that didn't ever affect me can affect me and conditions that didn't affect me before affect me now.
So it's yeah, that's, that I wasn't prepared for post stroke
I wasn't prepared for that change in how my brain would look at things previously
I found that that that's been a big adjustment, coming back from a very high level to you're almost starting again in some essence.
Like I've got the ability still, but my brain is just still lagging and trying to catch up I think it feels like.
I’m at the stage now my surfing's, the way I’m surfing, is pretty much back to normal and when I do get really good waves, I find like I am so happy and it's just like you know, this is what I've needed more than anything is because it's quite cleansing, quite calming as well out there, and it's just it gives you that moment of appreciation of, like this could have all been gone so easily
But nup, I wasn't letting it.
