I look back over the past five years and I realized that I have made tremendous progress. Even know I have made progress I still feel depressed and lonely and a burden to my husband and my family. Although I can walk and talk and do most things on the assistant I still need help with some things my children are 1512 and five years old and it is hard for them to understand why I need so much help around the house. I used to be a very independent person and now I have to depend on people to drive for me sometimes to help me walk and to help me tend to the things that I used to enjoy such as my gardening my horses and various other things that I can no longer do by myself. My strokes occurred on or about February 10 of 2008 I was two weeks postpartum when I began having headaches and I went to the emergency room several times before they transferred me to a different hospital on arriving at the different hospital they then realized that I was having strokes not postpartum depression I suffered to massive strokes one on each side of the brain anyway scheming strokes not hemorrhagic strokes and I was lucky for that I spent three weeks in the critical care unit and three months in inpatient rehab. Once I arrived home in late May 2008 I had a baby that I had not really had contact with for the first 4 1/2 months of her life that was depressing to me. At first when I got home there were plenty of people who were willing to help with anything that was needed around the house from cooking cleaning tending to the children anything that I needed personal care My husband and my family and friends were very supportive and eager to help. As the years have gone by people that were so eager to help have now distanced themselves from the situation even though I still need a lot of help around the house and I cannot drive so I cannot get my children to the places that they need to be for afterschool activities As well as my doctors appointments and physical therapy appointments. Those aspects have solely fallen on my husband and my mother. At first glance I look like a typical young woman but looks can be very deceiving I still get very confused when too many things are happening at one time and having three children all school-age now that tends to happen a lot. I tried to stay as positive as I can and as happy as I can but with so much going on around me I feel like I'm slowing my family down and that saddens me. All in all I am extremely blessed to be here still and I am very happy that I'm still here to be a part of my children's lives because that was not expected the doctors expected for me to either be in a vegetative state or not make it at all. I feel that I have a lot to share with you young people about strokes especially young women because if I can help prevent someone from being in the state that I am in I will feel that I have made a difference in someone's life.