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Stroke survivor to be keynote speaker at Mother/ Daughter Walk GALAXY CINEMAS, THE BAY, ZELLERS, ZEHes, WINNERS, SPORT CHEK MON-FRt9:30AM-9PM ISATQBOAM-OPM I SUN12NoC)N-5PM SSO KING STREET NORTH. WATERLOO, ON NIL SW6 l TEL (519188675500 COtttiirrOtiiitt mnu Legends of the Fall Fall Fashion Shows September 7th, 6:30 & 7230mm seemed to be doing every thing right. _ - She never touched a drink or a cigarette She passed on red meat. And she attended fitness classes three times a week. Ellis was the model mid die-aged woman. _ That is, until the Easter weekend of 2000 when the unthinkable happened while she was visiting her parents in Ottawa, Ellis had a stroke. "I remember waking up and feeling fine," explained, the survivor. "My father and I decided to drive to Sears, and I remember feeling real- ly hot in the car, and asking him to turn the heat down." By the time they reached their destination. Ellis said everything around her was lost in a sea of colours. "I came down with this really bizarre headache and l was very dizzy," she explained. "Soon I couldn't walk or talk." Still in a state of disilhr sion, Ellis, with the help of her father, managed to make her way outside. “If you didn't know the symptoms of stroke, you would have thought 1 was drunk," she said. Her parents immediately contacted Ellis' brother-ire law, who is a doctor. His diagnosis concluded she September 8th, 1:00 & 3:00PM had just suffered her first stroke. "There were no warning signs, and not a strong histo- ry of stroke in my family," she explained. "My mother had \mild stroke a few years ago, but it was believed to be caused by high blood pres- sure and high cholesterol. I had neither of those things." Stroke survivor Kathleen Ellis will be a keynote speaker at the Kitchener-Waterloo chapter of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario‘s Mother/Daughter Walk Sept. 23. Ellis was then rushed to an Ottawa hospital, where she was given a drug to elim- inate a clot in her brain, and reduce any neurological damage. She also underwent a variety of tests, which revealed the cause of the stroke - two small holes found on both the right and left atriums of her heart. Ellis spent the next month in the hospital, slow- ly progressing from the use of a wheelchair to a walker. and then to a cane. All the while doctors were monitoring her status to see if a recurrence seemed likely. After the month, Ellis was given the green light to return to her Breslau home, as long as she monitored her health closely and didn't take any chances. She was also forced to take a one-year leave from her job as a home child care case worker for the Region of Waterloo. Her recovery seemed to be going smoothly with no major set-backs, until late June. "I had another stroke." she said. "I realized what was happening, but it was strange because I really never thought it would hap- pen again." After Ellis was taken to the hospital. and things seemed to be under control, two days later she suffered her third major stroke. "After that one I was told that if the holes in my heart weren't fixed. Iwas not going to survive another stroke," Ellis said. Ellis underwent heart surgery at the end of September; a procedure which saw doctors surgically implant a device in her heart to seal the holes and close the defect. "I still have some mild derrcits," she said. "I (an! close my right hand all the way, and I have some mem- ory lapses as well. For instance, when I'm making tea I do things backwards, I put the tea bag and the sugar into the pot instead of the cup." Since then, Ellis and hvr' health has been fairly stahle. giving her time to work on her recovery. Ellis said she is still in therapy to overcome the side effects of the stroke, but added the effects are a pnrr she is more than willing in pay, realizing she is lush" In he alive "I feel like I'm kind of miracle," she said, "I have Continued on page