Jeff, AZ

stroke - right side paralyzed

In 2011, Jeff and his wife at the time were driving home from Flagstaff, AZ pulling a thirty-foot RV with their truck. Suddenly, Jeff could not grab his can of coke. His wife noticed that his face was drooping, and his speech was slurring. The next thing he knew, the entire left side of his body was paralyzed. They were in the middle of nowhere, but not too far from home. By the grace of God, they made it home safely and immediately rushed to the hospital. The doctors confirmed that he had a stroke. “They took a CAT scan and they saw that I had a tiny white spot on the left side of my brain.” This stroke in the left side of the brain affected the right side of his body.

“I was totally paralyzed… when we got home, I came crashing into the doors, running into the walls, and falling.” He went through intense physical and occupational therapy after the stroke and continued his exercises as he adjusted to his new reality. He uses multiple assistive devices: a power wheelchair, a custom scooter, a walker, and a cane. Jeff also had to re-learn how to write. “I had to learn how to write with my left hand... I was a righty for sixty years…” He learned how to be patient with himself as he climbed the learning curve of his new limitations.

Jeff mentioned that he slowly began to realize the many obstacles that he never knew existed. Some of the biggest ones he faces are doors, location of curb cuts and ramps, access to his apartment laundry room, and small grocery aisles / lanes. Doors can be difficult for Jeff. “If they do not have the blue accessibility button that opens the doors, you have to open the door yourself… it is hard to open the door and still hold on to your walker.” He has noticed that at his apartment he has venture far out of his way to get to the curb cut or ramp to the parking lot. When he is using his walker, that extra distance can cause him to tire easily. In his apartment, the laundry room is right off the kitchen, but one of the two doors to access the laundry room is blocked by the refrigerator so it is extremely difficult to enter. He manages, but he is considering discussing alterations to that area of his apartment with the building.

There have been a couple instances where people temporarily park a golfcart or other items on the ramp / curb cut and he has no way of getting down in his scooter or wheelchair. This frustrates Jeff because it shows that people who are able-bodied can be oblivious to how their actions affect those who rely on the accommodations provided for them. In grocery stores, he also runs into shoppers leaving their cart in the middle of the aisle and he cannot get past. One of his biggest complaints about grocery stores is the size of the checkout lanes and the inability to comfortably navigate through the clothing racks / aisles.

Jeff hopes that people can become more aware of their surroundings and understand how their actions can affect those who are disabled. He appreciates his daughter and other family members for their support, “she [daughter] is so sweet in doing everything she possibly can to assist me when I am going out with her to lunch… she is an angel.”