plugged my behaviour into ChatGPT<\/a>.<\/p>\n\u201cEven though I had none of the common symptoms, like slurring or paralysis on one side, it came back that most likely I\u2019d suffered a stroke or had a low electrolyte balance.\u201d<\/p>\n
By the time Candra got herself to Waikato Hospital, it had been two and a half days. While not initially worried because she wasn\u2019t presenting as they\u2019d expect a stroke patient to, a doctor\u2019s reaction to a CT scan told the couple all they needed to know.<\/p>\n
![\"Candra]()
Candra with her kids in the hospital. Photo \/ Woman’s Day<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw this doctor charge down towards us, then whip the curtain closed behind him,\u201d Candra recalls. \u201cHe said, \u2018I\u2019m very sorry to let you know you\u2019ve had a stroke,\u2019 and I was stunned.\u201d<\/p>\n
The scan showed a huge portion of her language centre had been affected. Further testing revealed Candra had a patent foramen ovale (PFO), a hole between the heart\u2019s upper chambers. While around 25% of adults have a PFO, so it\u2019s not uncommon, it\u2019s rare for a blood clot to pass through and travel to the brain, causing a stroke.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my case, the hole was only visible under pressure. When I coughed or sneezed, it would open. It was somewhat of a miracle for that to occur when a clot was in that area, but that\u2019s what they suspect happened to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following her diagnosis, Candra was prescribed heavy blood thinners, lots of tests and six weeks off work. In November last year, she had a heart operation to close the hole.<\/p>\n
![\"\"]()
<\/p>\n
Candra admits, \u201cI\u2019m a brain worker \u2013 I spend my day on emails, phone calls and in meetings \u2013 so I had dark days wondering what my quality of life was going to be like. A neurologist helped by saying the brain can do more than we think. At times, it will feel like I\u2019m relapsing, but the brain is just repatterning. It gave me the trust in myself to keep going and rebuild.\u201d<\/p>\n
That\u2019s included setting new goals to achieve, such as learning to knit, doing a new nature walk each month and signing up for Stroke NZ\u2019s 100km fundraising trek along the Camino de Santiago in northwest Spain this September. <\/p>\n
![\"Candra]()
Candra with her two daughters. Photo \/ Woman’s Day<\/p>\n
Candra enthuses, \u201cI can\u2019t wait \u2013 it will be a big bucket-list tick! Since my stroke, I\u2019m intentional about my time and what I prioritise. I used to be so busy with kids, their activities, work and being active, but I think the cortisol and adrenaline probably contributed to what happened.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t do obligations now and I\u2019ve learnt no is a complete sentence. I don\u2019t need to burn the candle at both ends.\u201d<\/p>\n
To donate to Candra\u2019s Camino walk, go to stroke-aotearoa-new-zealand.grassrootz.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe red flag for my mum was that I went to Disney On Ice and didn\u2019t take any…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":531703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,51,262360,5825,262361,14032,796,2398,139301,21661,2109,793,538,189,9641,28636,2203,6451,22055,35090,30504,111,43,139,69,6662,262362,1881,1314,26639,4371,31145,1361,210,61,1315,1524,1354],"class_list":["post-531702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-and","tag-auckland","tag-autopiloting","tag-ballet","tag-candra","tag-daughter","tag-diagnosis","tag-disney","tag-eldest","tag-exam","tag-family","tag-felt","tag-hidden","tag-holiday","tag-idea","tag-included","tag-journey","tag-knew","tag-leads","tag-lifechanging","tag-mums","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-off","tag-pullon","tag-recovery","tag-road","tag-shed","tag-stroke","tag-suffered","tag-that","tag-through","tag-to","tag-trip","tag-waikato","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=531702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/531702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/531703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=531702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=531702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=531702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}