Ella was 14 years old with dreams of being a professional soccer player when the most unexpected thing happened one day at school – she suffered a stroke. Most people think strokes happen to older adults, but it can happen at any age. Read Ella’s story on how she found gratitude for her stroke experience and has found purpose helping others rehabilitate from brain injuries.
“There’s no way this is anything more than a standard migraine,” I thought while clutching my head sitting on the bathroom floor in tears.
I was confused because I never experienced headaches or migraines, yet what I was feeling in that moment felt like my head was about to explode. I decided to suck it up, so I grabbed a book from my locker and headed to my fifth period, grade 9, drama class. I walked into class and immediately passed out from what I thought was simply the pain in my head. What actually happened was a malformed group of blood vessels in my cerebellum had just ruptured, and the “migraine” I felt was my brain absorbing the blood.
On that day, January 10, 2008, not even 3 months after my 14th birthday, I experienced
As a child, Ella dreamt of playing soccer professionally, but her stroke interfered with those plans.
an arteriovenous malformation rupture in my cerebellum, and 2 hemorrhagic strokes. And boy did that screw up my plans of playing soccer professionally and being a big shot lawyer. Since the damage occurred on the left side of my cerebellum and right side of my cortex, I lost some control over the left side of my body. I also experienced balance loss, a period of short term memory loss, and some vision loss. Rehab consisted mostly of physiotherapy, the use of a walker (which was not fun, whatsoever), and a speech pathologist. And although I was 14 at the time, athletic, healthy, and gung-ho on rehabilitating, a couple years after my injury, I noticed some lasting effects. And although these effects were minor, stacked on top of each other, they began to get me down. Long story short, I spent years upon years wondering if my broken brain meant I was simply a broken person. I constantly teetered the line between feeling worthless and feeling gung-ho about recovery. Eventually my teetering became 1-sided and I couldn’t bare the self-hate anymore…
Finally, in June 2017, (brain injury awareness month in Canada) I spoke out for the first time and conducted my first independent public talk on brain injury awareness. I briefly touched on the physical effects, but most importantly I discussed the mental rehabilitation and personal development that led to
me becoming a vibrant person again. After my injury, I came to recognize the beauty of existence. And through the power of habit and a lot of hard work, I learned to retrain my brain to become the person I am today.
Here I am, 11 years later, grateful for the brain injury that taught me to love my life. Ifyou’ve ever hit rock bottom because of a brain injury, mental health, or any other experience in your life, I want you to know that with the right doses of self-care, self-development, and self-discipline, you too can retrain your brain!
I now blog and speak on everything I’ve learned in the past 11 years of retraining my brain after my injury. I also coach others on using the power of habit to help them retrain their brains as well!
Ella today!
At the age of 25, I can finally say I wake up each morning happy. I couldn’t be more grateful for the gift of my brain injury.
To continue to follow Ella’s journey follow her at @ellasssofia on Instagram and read her blog at www.ellasofia.ca. Connect with more stroke and brain injury survivors on the YouSoRock Facebook Support Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/yousorock.
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