In a previous post, I described my hospital experience following a brain enurysm – or, at least what I could remember. For the first several weeks I was comatose or semi-comatose most of the time, but I had awareness of family presence and support. My wife and children spent countless hours with me at the Vancouver General Hospital, where I was in intensive care. My family was initially told that my survival was questionable, and that if I did survive, I could have significant problems. but my family never gave up on me.

Thankfully, the doctors were wrong about my survival, and mostly wrong about problems. Damage to a pair of eye nerves had left me seeing double. I was fortunate to have been referred to an excellent neurosurgeon/ophthalmologist and one year later, my condition is greatly improved. The nerves have naturally regenerated to some extent, and the remaining visual issue has been corrected with prismatic lenses. I’m on the waiting list for surgery to fully correct the nerves.

So, a year after my aneurysm, I’m well, thriving and I’m back to playing pickleball. Returning to playing pickleball is thanks to two very kind people with the Cordova Bay 55+ pickleball group. I can’t drive due to my visual problem, and these ladies have provided transportation to CB 55+pickleball venues, over the past year. Another friend drives me to play at another venue on Fridays.

I was very fortunate. My final weeks in hospital was in the neuropsychological ward of the Victoria General Hospital. They do fantastic work in that unit and I met many people receiving excellent care and help to overcome significant disabilities. The bravery and tenacity of those patients was awe inspiring. One woman could neither speak nor walk but through dogged determination and excellent speech and physiotherapy, her progress after just a few weeks was amazing.

After release from the hospital, I entered a ‘recovery’ phase (my term) which means getting back to normal, actually a ‘new normal’ because the experience changed me. The biggest change was my feeling of gratitude towards my wife, children, and family and friends. I also felt incredibly fortunate that I had such excellent medical care, despite the fact that at the time of my aneurysm the covid epidemic COVID epidemic was in full bloom. Even when visiting restrictions were lifted, my wife could not visit. If she had contracted covid her hip replacement surgery would not proceed. Our children helped solve the problem. They got me a tablet, enabling my wife and I to communicate and see each other. That made a huge difference in my recovery.

When I was admitted to the neuro rehab unit, my physiotherapist asked me what my goals were. The very fact that she asked the question helped me focus on recovery. One of my goals was returning to playing pickleball. Before the enurysm, I was totally addicted to the game, but I had no idea if playing again would be possible. Although I needed a walker, my physiotherapist took me seriously and incorporated some basic pickleball footwork into my exercise routine. The difficulty was that the double vision affected my balance. A balance class was also part of my daily routine.

Pickleball has played an important part in my recovery. It’s a great game that can be enjoyed by all ages. It provides great exercise, promotes health, offers socialization, and a little friendly competition. It can be played indoors or outdoors, and the cost is minimal. Unfortunately, some folks living near pickleball courts find the game too noisy. In my opinion, this criticism is really overblown. The sound of pickleball is music to my ears.