 "Photo: Natasha Sankovich")
Cutting an onion, gripping a glass or even flexing an arm may seem insignificant to most. But to senior allied health major Aubrey White, it is what sets her apart.
When White was a senior in high school, one of her greatest passions was dancing. She was a member of the drill team, the Stingerettes, and took dance lessons. It was during one of these dance sessions that the unthinkable happened. She had a stroke.
"It's been over four years, it will be five years next Nov. 14," she said. "I remember that day well."
While performing a routine, her leg gave out and she could no longer feel it. Before long, she was not conscious of her surroundings.
She was rushed to the hospital and underwent brain surgery to stop the bleeding from a massive brain hemorrhage. She was induced into what should have been a 10 to 14 day coma. Her body was unwilling to go dormant because her body fat percentage was so low that the anesthesia was not properly absorbed. Therefore, she did not stay in the coma as expected.
White left the ICU in 10 days. She spent six weeks at the rehab hospital in Baylor-Dallas. She left the rehab hospital on Christmas Eve and returned to school for approximately two months before going to the University of Texas-Southwestern Hospital.
At UT-Southwestern, the malformation that caused the stroke was removed. She left the hospital after two weeks, and the four years since have been filled with rehabilitation.
White stayed home her freshman year at Rockwall, Texas, and attended community college. She transferred to Blinn in the fall of 2006 and began physical therapy at St. Joseph's Outpatient Therapy.
White transferred to Texas A&M in the spring of 2007. It was a transition she had been anticipating.
"It was really exciting because I had applied to A&M initially before the stroke," she said. "I had already sent in my application and everything and I couldn't go. This is where I wanted to go from the beginning," she said.
White said the size of Aggieland was intimidating at first.
"I got used to it pretty fast," she said. "I had to."
She said it helped that her handicap placard allows her to park anywhere on campus other than parking garages and gated areas.
"That really helps to narrow down the size of a campus," she said.
The previous summer, White returned to the physical therapy school at UT-Southwestern and participated in a research study program. The study used the Locomat - a robot that attaches to a leg and gives the patient a more normal gait pattern - and the Armeo - another robot that attaches to the arm and allows the patient to simulate movements.
"[The Armeo] like a virtual reality thing because it has a computer screen," she said.
With the Armeo, White could simulate activities like washing windows and cleaning the stove.
"It was more beneficial to me, because I'm a very visual person," she said. "It helped me to actually have a goal to do instead of just doing the movement."
White returned to the physical therapy school during the winter holiday to work with the Armeo and Locomat.
"I can't dance like I used to," she said. "That's been really hard. Peeling oranges is really hard, and everyday stuff that you don't think about when you're fully functional."
"I am still partially paralyzed, but that's a lot better than I was," she said. "When I first woke up from my coma, I was fully paralyzed, I couldn't feel anything on my right side and I couldn't talk."
Eventually White could say three phrases, "Mom," "I can't do that" and "Mark Hoover," her boyfriend at the time.
She said her biggest jump was in in-patient care when she was having therapy six hours a day.
When she had the surgery on her malformation, doctors inserted titanium coils to stop the blood flow through that area, and when she woke up, her speech was back.
"I still do slur and sometimes you can't understand what I'm saying when I get really, really tired," she said.
White has gross motor function but is working on her fine motor function. Her foot inverts and she needs it to level out to achieve full function.
"My toes are coming back, as well as my fingers," she said. White said her family and friends have been her support system for the previous four years.
White's parents bought a townhouse in College Station, but the bathroom had a step-up bathtub. They had to remove the bathtub and replace it with a floor-level shower.
"I found out who my true friends were, whether they came to the hospital or not," she said. "I had a lot of friends come to the hospital, which was really beneficial to me because I'm a people person."
White's mother collected all the cards White had received - mostly Christmas, since she was hospitalized in December - and covered the hospital room's walls with the cards. She also put a small Christmas tree in the room, and White's dance team decorated ornaments for the tree.
"My parents have been really involved," she said. "My mom basically lived with me in the hospital."
White's father and sister visited the hospital every day, as well as her grandparents.
"As a result of that, we're really close now," she said. "I can expect a call or I call my mom at least once a day," she said.
In addition to routine activities, White said her stroke caused her to reevaluate her future.
"This has drastically changed my life plan, because before I wanted to be a vet and I was really into animals and I was interning at a vet's office," she said. "And know I want to be an occupational therapist because I've had so much therapy that I can empathize with the patients and say, 'Hey, I've been there, and you'll get through it."
White is a member of Eta Sigma Gamma, the National Professional Health Honorary Society. She spent her Friday night with 30 third-grade girls for a lock in the society sponsored.
"It was intense," she said. "But it was really fun."
White said she likes to go out on the weekends, but that she has to balance her fun with studying because she needs good grades for occupational therapy school.
"I'm a pretty normal college student, other than the fact that I've adapted everything," she said.
The doctors expect White to make a full recovery but do not know when that time will be, and she was lucky to have the stroke at a young age.
"I'll have spurts where I make a lot of progress and then I'll just plateau," she said.
White will be the first to admit that she come a long way, from not being able to speak or move her right side, to going out with friends and taking a normal course load.
"It's a long process though," she said.
Be the first to comment on this article!