When Sharon Lee awoke at 4:30am, she felt like everything was fine. When she awoke at 6:00am, she knew something was wrong. “My arm was weak and I had lost my balance on the right side of my body,” she says. “I could still walk, so I thought maybe it was my medicine.” It wasn’t Sharon’s medicine; she was having a stroke at the age of 50. Sharon still wanted to go to work and asked her daughter to drive her because her eyes were blurry, but her daughter insisted they go to the emergency room. “Blurry eyes are a sign of stroke, but I didn’t know that. You need to pay attention to your vision, your legs and your speech. By the time I got to the hospital, I was slurring my words.” Sharon arrived at Lovelace Women’s Hospital Emergency Department within the hour, and was later transferred to the Lovelace Medical Center emergency room for testing.
After Sharon’s stroke, she spent one week in the hospital, and one month as an inpatient at Lovelace Rehabilitation Hospital. “They do a lot in one month!” she says. “When I went into rehab, I couldn’t walk, talk or swallow. It was scary, and I didn’t know what to expect.” Sharon spent five hours a day in rehabilitation doing speech therapy and occupational therapy. “The nurses were wonderful, comforting and made me feel welcome. They gave me my leg, arm and speech back through therapy, and they did it in a loving way. They tried to give me a cane when I left, but I walked out without any assistance.” Sharon believes the hospital is the way it is because of the leadership there. “They treat their employees with respect; I would work there if I could. I had so much fun, I didn’t want to leave.”
In between therapy sessions as an inpatient, Sharon would go to lunch with her group. “I didn’t like it at first, but then started to view it as a social gathering. Before long we became our own little family, which made it a fun environment.” Sharon eventually got to know all of the patients there, and would talk to each of them. “If you passed me, I was going to say hi, and learn your name,” she says. Once Sharon completed her inpatient therapy and transferred to outpatient therapy at the hospital, she decided to schedule an hour before and in between therapy to go find and talk to other patients. “I go to the cafeteria and I talk to five people each time,” she shares. “I talk to them and let them know I was in their same situation, and encourage them. I am so thankful for my therapy success, and have so much excitement, I have to get it out somehow…so I talk to patients, and try and uplift them.”
Sharon is attempting to return to work next month. “God will guide me where I need to be, I trust Him.” In the meantime, she walks two miles in the morning and two miles at night for exercise, apart from her outpatient therapy. Sharon also visits her elderly neighbors and helps pull weeds in their yard for free, which also helps exercise her arm muscles. “My goal every day is to focus on something positive, and do something nice for someone.“
To learn more about Lovelace Rehabilitation Hospital or to make inquires on outpatient or inpatient rehab, click here or call 505-727-4725.