'Recovery is a really slow process': Charity organiser and Cricket WAG Lynette Waugh reveals her health battle after suffering two strokes
Lynette Waugh has opened up about the terrifying moment she experienced two strokes at two separate times.
The charity organiser and wife of Cricket star Steve Waugh, 56, recalled the details in an interview with Nine Honey this week, in a bid to raise awareness.
Lynette, 55, suffered her first stroke back in 2006 at the age of 40. She had arrived home from taking her kids to school and began to get a painful headache.
Heartbreaking: Charity organiser and Cricket WAG Lynette Waugh shared her experience suffering two strokes and revealed a startling fact about her symptoms
'I didn't even know it was a stroke, or what stroke symptoms were,' she admitted, adding she thought they just 'affected older people'.
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Lynette thought she was just dealing with a migraine and took up to six painkillers at the time.
Steve was away on a book tour in Geelong at the time, so Lynette's father and sister, who is a nurse, arrived at the house to help as Lynette's symptoms grew worse.
The charity owner began to stagger, mishear her sister as she tried to understand her condition, and before long Lynette was being stretchered out to an ambulance and taken to hospital, forgetting parts of her ordeal.
'I didn't even know it was a stroke, or what stroke symptoms were': Lynette suffered her first stroke back in 2006 at the age of 40. She had arrived home from taking her kids to school and began to get a painful headache, but she was unaware she was having a stroke
Her husband Steve received a call from a friend and neurosurgeon, who was looking over Lynette at the time, and grimly told the cricketer to 'prepare for the worst.'
It turned out that Lynette had suffered an AVM, known as an arteriovenous malformation. The condition is caused by an abnormal connection of arteries and veins in the brain, which had ruptured and was bleeding.
Lynette underwent surgery successfully, but came out on the other end with memory loss and confusion. Her vision was disrupted and she had to re-learn the 'basics' including how to walk, talk, read and drive.
After seven years on the mend, and being aided by her husband, Lynette made significant steps in her recovery.
A couple and team: After seven years on the mend, and aided by her husband Steve, Lynette made significant steps in her recovery
It was only last year when Lynette suffered her second stroke, this time recognising the symptoms much quicker.
But her second stroke was much worse, attacking all the nerves in her body. She was placed in ICU for 10 days and couldn't be operated on due to the extremity of the bleeding in her brain.
Now almost a year and a half later, Lynette is in recovery and claims she is 'good' and in a 'happy' place.
'Recovery from a stroke is a really slow process,' she said.
'It takes a long time and everyone will have different problems. There are good days and bad days, and Steve has been my carer.'
Lynette and Steve have been married since 1990. They share three children: Rosie, 25, Austin, 21, and Lilli, 18.
'There are good days and bad days, and Steve has been my carer': After suffering a second stroke in early 2020, Lynette is currently on the mend again, but she has a hopeful outlook of her recovery
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