Rehabilitation

My name is Asha Prasad. I currently live in a small rural town in the Waikato, called Otorohanga. I live in our family home with my brother, 30, and sister, 18. Both of my parents have sadly passed away now. They were my pillars of strength and support, and very much played vital, advocacy roles in my recovery.

My story begins in Sydney, Australia. I was 26 years old, I was living in Sydney then. I was a new graduate. I completed a Business Degree-majoring in International Business and Advertising. Very career focussed, I started a new job in a Marketing agency. It was my first "real" job, and I had high hopes of climbing the corporate ladder. About 5 months later, I had a routine work massage available to all employees. Tragic events followed. I had a few days of dizzy spells, loss of balance and vomiting. After that, one night I had violent seizures and I woke up paralysed. I was trapped and became a prisoner, in my own body, known as “Locked-in Syndrome”. Doctor's believe the massage triggered a massive stroke leaving me unable to walk, talk, eat, or move. My mind was still sharp. Doctors gave me no hope of surviving, and only 1 week to live. If I did survive I would become a quadriplegic for life.

It has been a very long, gruelling, frustrating fight, to recover to where I am today. I would never have progressed without support of my friends and family, and most importantly a positive, motivating attitude to strive for the best I can be in my unfortunate circumstances.

Ten years on I can eat, talk and move all my limbs. I have defied all medical odds.

I am still wheelchair bound, I still talk slurry, I can’t walk yet, my left side is weak and my left toes still do not move but, I believe I can rehabilitate further.

I have great potential, determination and drive to

reach my goals; in order to achieve a better quality of life.

Given a chance, I will accomplish my rehabilitation goals and sustain a life of fulfilment.

I attended an intense rehab gym for 6 years, whereby I gained significant progress. I had rehabilitated to the point where I was re-learning to walk! However, abruptly my insurance company cut my funding for this rehab and basically implied that I was making no progress. Clearly upset, I pleaded for re-consideration, however their decision was final. My insurance company offered a home based physiotherapy program to maintain gains I had made. Sadly I have lost a lot of gains and have deteriorated considerably. I am not gaining anything! My physio does not see me consistently and my home based rehab has suffered considerably. I have done home rehab for 3 years and when I can, in between dealing with a very close uncle dying, dealing with the loss of both parents, grief, dealing with a change of home-life adjustments and constant medical battle after battle.

I feel like I’m not, growing or achieving any rehab progression.

Home based physio programs sound fantastic in theory, but in reality it’s a dysfunctional program.

This is all highly frustrating and it saddens me.

With all that said, I am seeking similar intense rehabilitation that I was doing for 6 years, to get to where I was, and beyond. The rehab place I was going to is no longer operating sadly. There is no intense rehabilitation place in NZ, or currently not one that can offer what I’m looking for.

However, there is an intense rehabilitation facility in Sydney called, NeuroMoves. I checked this facility out last year, to see whether they meet my needs. I had a physical assessment with them, and they also see potential to help me gain a better quality of life. They do meet all my rehabilitation needs. I’m very excited and motivated to commence! They have proposed 8x 2 hourly sessions. Where they will write up a program of what I can do at home and return for more sessions in a few months time. I want to continue future rehabilitation with them. I want to start my first block of 8 sessions in October 2016, staying for 3 weeks.

I am not under ACC, and they have declined my case. (I lived away from NZ too long, 3 years, even though I am a NZ citizen!) So, I am under an Australian Insurance company who have declined my submissions of furthering my rehabilitation requests of funding for me to go to NeuroMoves in Sydney. They don’t see any beneficial progress for me and would rather “maintain my injury” I do not want this, I want to progress to the best I can be!

Unfortunately, I have been declined 3x by, my insurance company.

Rehabilitation and disability expenses are costly.

Any dollars you can spare will be most appreciated.

100% of your money will go towards airfares, cost of care givers services, extra luggage expenses, medical supplies, accommodation expenses, injury equipment costs and cost of the rehab programmes.

You can follow my rehab progress on facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/rehab4asha/

I will leave you with one of my favourite quotes by

Frank L. Gains:

“Only he who can see the invisible can do the impossible!”

Asha Prasad