Striding out of the water after an ocean swim at Bundeena, Royal National Park in NSW, Jolene Anderson contentedly flopped down on a towel to read the novel she was halfway through. Cracking open the pages though, something was wrong. The words in front of her wouldn’t form. Even though she knew they should be familiar, she just couldn’t seem to make sense of them.
At first, she thought she’d been bitten by a tick during the bushwalk she’d taken earlier in the day. Trying not to panic, she spent the next 15 minutes trying to make out the word “path”. “But I couldn’t read it and I couldn’t get past that word to form a sentence,” she tells The Weekly of that terrifying day, which she is speaking about publicly for the first time. Soon, her calm dissipated and she made a frantic call to her mother who urged her to go to the hospital.
“Not wanting to make a fuss, I was like, ‘No, I’m fine,’” Jolene recalls. “I was crying and I don’t know if I was slurring my words. But I went to the local doctor and she took one look at me and said to go to the hospital.”
Arriving at emergency wearing “cut-off denim shorts with a bikini, wet hair and sand everywhere,” Jolene spent nine hours sitting alone while tests were conducted.
“I still thought maybe it was a tick until I heard people say TIA – transient ischaemic attack – which is what they call a mini stroke,” she recounts.
Similar to a stroke, a TIA is caused when there is a temporary block in the blood supply to the brain. And while symptoms generally dissipate within 24 hours – in Jolene’s case, it had passed by the time she arrived at the hospital – it can be a warning of a more major stroke or heart attack to follow days later.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 2019-Ausgabe von The Australian Women's Weekly.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent ? Anmelden
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der October 2019-Ausgabe von The Australian Women's Weekly.
Starten Sie Ihre 7-tägige kostenlose Testversion von Magzter GOLD, um auf Tausende kuratierte Premium-Storys sowie über 8.000 Zeitschriften und Zeitungen zuzugreifen.
Bereits Abonnent? Anmelden
Hitting a nerve
Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes - could aid physical and mental wellbeing.
Take me to the river
With a slew of new schedules and excursions to explore, the latest river cruises promise to give you experiences and sights you won’t see on the ocean.
The last act
When family patriarch Tom Edwards passes away, his children must come together to build his coffin in four days, otherwise they will lose their inheritance. Can they put their sibling rivalry aside?
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.
The wines and lines mums
Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.
Jenny Liddle-Bob.Lucy McDonald.Sasha Green - Why don't you know their names?
Indigenous women are being murdered at frightening rates, their deaths often left uninvestigated and widely unreported. Here The Weekly meets families who are battling grief and desperate for solutions.
Growing happiness
Through drought flood and heartbreak, Jenny Jennr's sunflowers bloom with hope, sunshine and joy
"Thank God we make each other laugh"
A shared sense of humour has seen Aussie comedy couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall conquer the world. But what does life look like when the cameras go down:
Winter baking with apples and pears
Celebrate the season of Australian apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the midwinter blues away.
Budget dinner winners
Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of low-cost recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.