MEET ALYSSA
At 23, Alyssa has lived a life as full of challenge and accomplishment as often takes a lifetime, if ever, to experience. At age 7, Alyssa suffered damage to the carotid artery causing a stroke due to a car accident. A passerby helped cut Alyssa out of her seatbelt while emergency responders were on the way. She spent two and a half months in the hospital. Rehabilitation is an ongoing reality for Alyssa as she focuses primarily on enhancing her ability to walk.
Among her goals, “making it to the Garden of the Gods trail by myself” ranks high. It is a place she loves to visit, visualizing what she will do the next time, setting milestones, engaging those around her to help.
Alyssa is also a writer who takes advantage of the writing classes at RMSC. She prefers poetry and hopes to get published one day. Her poems speak directly to the emotion and challenge of living with stroke, especially as a young person. She reminds anyone who asks that stroke can happen to anyone. She adds quickly, though, that “people do have a chance of recovery because there are so many people who want to help.”
There is another reason Alyssa likes the programs at Rocky Mountain Stroke Center. She likes to hang out with her friends from the groups. “I’m less timid now,” she says, noting that having a stroke often affects one’s social life. “I plan on making more friends and spending more time with them,” she adds with a bit more confidence now.
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