One year after having a stroke, Laura was celebrating her recovery. “I stood up in church and told everyone, I’ve almost made a year,” she says.
A few days later, Laura had an abscessed tooth. She was also feeling weakness in her left side and struggling to find words. Laura asked her husband to take her to the emergency room, thinking it might be related to her tooth. The doctor walked in and told her she had had another stroke. Laura was devastated.
“My life was turned upside down,” she says. “The first night, I cried the whole night.”
When she met with her neurologist, he could see that she felt defeated. “I told him I just wanted to feel normal again,” says Laura. “The next thing I knew, his office called me, saying, ‘We want to sign you up for Kandu.’” She told them she’d do anything and immediately signed up for the program.
Kandu Navigators provide support
After Laura signed up for Kandu, she was introduced to her Kandu Navigator. When she thinks back to her first meeting with Melanie, her Navigator, Laura feels grateful. “She’s so sweet. I told her everything,” says Laura. “She just listens, and she encourages me.”
In Laura’s case, Melanie provided emotional support, but she also helped Laura navigate her recovery. “She helped by making suggestions and telling me to follow up with this doctor or that doctor,” says Laura. “And then I bent her ear about what was going on in my life.”
"I learned that I still matter in this world and to others. Kandu has helped me accept the changes my body had to go through. It has empowered me to still love myself and put ME first!"
Discovering a sense of belonging through Connect Groups
There were moments when Laura was having symptoms that felt odd, and she didn’t immediately attribute them to her stroke. “I told my husband, I don’t know why I’m doing this or that,” she says. Then, she would look up the symptoms on the Kandu app. “And lo and behold, they show up as a condition of a stroke patient.”
She was always relieved to find out she wasn’t alone. “I’m not going crazy,” she says. “It made me feel pretty good to know that other people have the same problems I have.”
Even though Laura no longer meets with her navigator regularly, she still spends her Wednesday nights connecting with other stroke survivors in a Connect Group. “They have helped me so much,” she says. “I can’t begin to tell you how much they help me.” Laura jokes that her husband “has noticed that I’m in a better mood when I go to the survivors’ group on Wednesdays.”
Staying on track and reaching her goals
As she continues to recover from her most recent stroke, Laura remains committed to serving her community and caring for others, often expressing her care through the joy of baking.
“Laura is such a generous person. She’s always caring for those around her,” says Melanie, Laura’s Navigator. “She took advantage of everything Kandu offers and is back doing many of the things she loves, including caring for her neighbors and family. It’s been incredible to see the progress she’s made.”
Laura says Kandu is a gift to all stroke survivors. “It opens up a world of teaching us how to cope with everyday life,” she says. “It’s amazing.” She says she doesn’t want to think about what would have happened if it hadn’t been for Kandu. “I don’t think I’d be doing half the things I’m doing right now,” she says.
“I’m going to still try to do everything I did before my strokes,” Laura says. “I’m not going to give up.”
