BIOGRAPHY:
Rose
Mary Buchanan
My name is
Rose Mary Buchanan. I was born October 19th, 1974 in Santa Clara CA. Despite my
parent's concern that I would "get old before my time", I started school
a month before my 5th birthday, and graduated from High School just before I
turned 18. I entered a Registered Nurse program at DeAnza Community College
when I was 18, and graduated a few months after my 20th birthday. My nursing
career began at Valley Medical Center in San Jose CA where I was promoted to
Assistant Director of Nursing for the Neurology Unit.
To pursue my
dream of becoming a Med Flight Nurse, I transferred to the Santa Clara County
Fire Department since there were no volunteer Fire Departments nearby for me to
gain the 2 years EMT experience to qualify for the Med Flight nurse. There I
met my future husband, a fellow fire fighter. We married on November 28th,
1998.
Our dream of
a lifelong honeymoon was cut short on New Year's Eve 1999, when I went to the
ER because I couldn't hold anything in my left hand. After extensive testing,
it was determined that I had a clot in my brain and was in the process of
having a stroke. Although I was given Tpa, I still have no muscle tone or functional
use of my left arm and hand, visual problems, some memory and swallowing
problems. And despite my parent's best efforts to prevent me becoming "old
before my time", I had a stroke at the ripe old age of 25.
Slowly but
surely, I’m adjusting, and exploring options on how to make the most of my
life. My husband has stood by me every step of the way. Oddly, once the shock
of my diagnosis wore off, my first fear was that he would leave me. I had none
of the usual risk factors for stroke. The doctors are guessing that my use of
birth control pills and exposure to smoke (fire fighting gear doesn't prevent
100%) and some chronic dehydration from a physically strenuous job all combined
to cause my stroke. Only one month before my stroke, I ran in a fundraiser for
MS research and had been contacted by a recruiter for the US Olympic Women's
track team. I'm still amazed by how everything in life can change in a single
moment.
Copyright © April 2002
The Stroke Network, Inc.
P.O. Box 492 Abingdon,
Maryland 21009
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