Reclaiming Motherhood
Profile of Heather Smith
From InsideRHCI, Spring 2008
A young Buzzards Bay woman reclaims her role as wife and mother after a stroke threatens her pregnancy
As 2006 ended, life was good for Heather Smith and her growing family. She and her husband, Chris, were expecting their second child. Her son, Ethan, 5, had started school. She worked at JML Care Center in Falmouth as a physical therapy assistant. At 34, she was energetic and dedicated.
But on January 14, 2007, her world turned upside down. Heather awoke in the middle of the night with a painful headache. She also felt uneasy.
“Something was wrong,” Heather recalls. “I felt disoriented and dizzy. So I woke up my husband and told him to call 911.”
Heather, 30 weeks pregnant, was having a stroke.
Paramedics first rushed her to Falmouth Hospital and then to Cape Cod Hospital, where doctors operated to a repair a ruptured blood vessel in her brain. Ten days later, she was admitted to RHCI to begin a short but intense regimen of physical, occupational and speech therapy. The goal for Heather: become independent enough to return home and have her baby, then start an intensive outpatient program to rebuild higher level skills.
“When you have to get up in the middle of the night to change a diaper, you have no choice except to do it. I kept telling myself that I have to get better so I can be a good mother to my children.”
Initially, Heather’s condition was serious. “When friends or family would visit, they would look at me and start crying. I kept thinking, ‘why is everyone so upset?’ It was at that point that I knew I was in trouble,” Heather says.
Carolyn Slesinski, a speech and language pathologist, was a member of Heather’s inpatient team at RHCI. “Heather was impaired across a board range of cognitive abilities,” Carolyn says. Heather’s speech and writing skills were diminished. Her memory suffered. She couldn’t remember her married name, for example. Her ability to work with numbers had evaporated.
Heather’s pregnancy further complicated matters. “We were very concerned about her baby,” says Susan Ehrenthal, M.D., Heather’s RHCI physician and a specialist in rehabilitation medicine. “She really touched the women on her rehabilitation team, especially those with children at home. We all took Heather’s case to heart.”
Heather’s team had to be flexible. “Because of her pregnancy, there were exercises she just couldn’t do,” says physical therapist Kim Patota. “We made adjustments to her treatment plan, and she was extremely receptive. She brought a wonderful attitude to her treatment. I think the fact that she worked in rehab herself helped. She understood her situation and what she had to do.”
On February 1, Heather left RHCI and returned home to await the birth of her child. She continued rehabilitation at home, while her mother and other relatives pitched in.
“I was at the house every day,” says Heather’s mother, Karin Callis. “We took care of everything and made sure Ethan got off to school. At first, Heather couldn’t do much.”
Still, Heather made slow progress. Then on March 12, she delivered Maxwell, a healthy baby boy, by C-section. Two months later, she was ready to start outpatient therapy at RHCI’s Bourne Outpatient Rehabilitation Center.
The outpatient team of physical therapist Jennifer Studley, physical therapy assistant Robert Correia, occupational therapist Julia Rush and speech pathologist Diana Granger put together a comprehensive plan designed to increase Heather’s physical strength and improve her cognitive and fine motor skills.
“She was very focused, very resolved,” says Diana. “She was a perfectionist. I kept calling her my very own Martha Stewart.”
“RHCI helped so much,” says her husband, Chris. “They were fantastic.”
Looking back, Heather credits Maxwell’s birth for helping her stay motivated. “All my focus was on Maxwell after he was born, and that helped a lot. When you have to get up in the middle of the night to change a diaper, you have no other choice except to do it. I kept telling myself that I have to get better so I can be a good mother to my children.”
“Everyone …was fantastic. They pushed me and encouraged me the entire time. I don’t know where I would be without them.”
Working with Ethan also helped. “He learned from me and I learned from him; we are both learning,” she laughs. “We play all kinds of board games and card games. We work on memory and telling time. It’s just wonderful.”
Nearly 14 months later, Heather is almost all the way back. She has some lingering deficits, but her doctors and therapists have told her that time will be the ultimate healer.
“I know how far I’ve come – and I also know how much more I have to go,” Heather says. “I’m not yet living up to my own expectations. But my friends and family have been so supportive.”
October 23 was Heather’s last day of therapy. “I could not have done it without RHCI,” she says. “Everyone, and I mean everyone, was fantastic. They pushed me and encouraged me the entire time. I don’t know where I would be without them.”
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