When Wendy Abbott of Pittsford felt dizzy after finishing the Finger Lakes Triathlon in Canandaigua on Sept. 11, 2011, she and her husband, Todd Vallie thought little of it. It was the fit marathon runner’s first Triathlon, and she had completed the full Olympic distance in about three hours. Of course she was a little dehydrated.
Or so they thought.
Wendy felt better after sitting for a few minutes, but when she and Todd got to their car, she realized she had forgotten her flip flops. She got dizzy again on her walk back to get them and collapsed in front of the medical tent, hitting her head on the ground.
The medical staff, worried Abbott received a concussion in the fall, suggested she visit the emergency room. She resisted, but they were insistent. ER doctors gave her fluids. She felt better.
Wendy was almost ready to leave the hospital when she was stricken with what she called “the most unbelievable, intense headache you’ve ever felt,” but only on half her head. Her right arm and right leg went numb. The doctor asked her to touch her nose —a test she passed minutes earlier— and she couldn’t control her arm to do it.
Todd said it was one of the scariest things he’d ever seen.
At 37 years old, Wendy suffered a stroke in the emergency room at Thompson Hospital.
Now, Wendy hopes to raise awareness about young people having strokes by fundraising and running for the National Stroke Association in the upcoming New York City Marathon. Her goal is to raise $3,000 by the Nov. 4 marathon date.
“I had never known anyone young and healthy like that who had a stroke,” Wendy said. “I didn't understand how it could happen, and I didn't know what was going to happen to me.”
She was in the Neurological Intensive Care Unit at Strong for three days, in the hospital for nearly a week, and out of work for months.
“I didn't know if I'd be able to run again,” Wendy said. “It was so scary.”
Seven months later she completed the Boston Marathon. This September, she returned, triumphant, to the Finger Lakes Triathlon. On Nov. 4, she will run in the New York City Marathon for the National Stroke Association.
“You cannot stop this woman,” Todd said in an email before this year’s Finger Lakes Triathlon. “Don't even try to get in her way, because she'll run right over you.”
When Wendy Abbott of Pittsford felt dizzy after finishing the Finger Lakes Triathlon in Canandaigua on Sept. 11, 2011, she and her husband, Todd Vallie thought little of it. It was the fit marathon runner’s first Triathlon, and she had completed the full Olympic distance in about three hours. Of course she was a little dehydrated.
Or so they thought.
Wendy felt better after sitting for a few minutes, but when she and Todd got to their car, she realized she had forgotten her flip flops. She got dizzy again on her walk back to get them and collapsed in front of the medical tent, hitting her head on the ground.
The medical staff, worried Abbott received a concussion in the fall, suggested she visit the emergency room. She resisted, but they were insistent. ER doctors gave her fluids. She felt better.
Wendy was almost ready to leave the hospital when she was stricken with what she called “the most unbelievable, intense headache you’ve ever felt,” but only on half her head. Her right arm and right leg went numb. The doctor asked her to touch her nose —a test she passed minutes earlier— and she couldn’t control her arm to do it.
Todd said it was one of the scariest things he’d ever seen.
At 37 years old, Wendy suffered a stroke in the emergency room at Thompson Hospital.
Now, Wendy hopes to raise awareness about young people having strokes by fundraising and running for the National Stroke Association in the upcoming New York City Marathon. Her goal is to raise $3,000 by the Nov. 4 marathon date.
“I had never known anyone young and healthy like that who had a stroke,” Wendy said. “I didn't understand how it could happen, and I didn't know what was going to happen to me.”
She was in the Neurological Intensive Care Unit at Strong for three days, in the hospital for nearly a week, and out of work for months.
“I didn't know if I'd be able to run again,” Wendy said. “It was so scary.”
Seven months later she completed the Boston Marathon. This September, she returned, triumphant, to the Finger Lakes Triathlon. On Nov. 4, she will run in the New York City Marathon for the National Stroke Association.
“You cannot stop this woman,” Todd said in an email before this year’s Finger Lakes Triathlon. “Don't even try to get in her way, because she'll run right over you.”
A ticking time bomb
Doctors’ tests revealed the cause of Wendy’s stroke: a torn vertebral artery. A healthy person has two such arteries running from their spine to their cerebellum, the lower part of the brain responsible for motor control and balance. Though it’s impossible to know exactly how her injury occurred, Wendy said she suspected it happened when she pulled her neck while training on her bike in the weeks leading up to the Triathlon.
A clot formed as the torn artery healed, blocking blood flow through that channel. The body can compensate through the remaining artery, so the major risk is that the clot, if dislodged, may travel to the brain, causing a stroke or worse.
“It was probably like a ticking time bomb,” Wendy said. “The exertion of the Triathlon could have put it over the edge, or it could have happened that way if I'd stayed on the couch all day.”
If her stroke did occur while she was on the couch at home, Wendy’s story may have a very different ending. One of the most important factors in stroke treatment is getting immediate medical attention. Wendy’s stroke came when she was on a hospital emergency room bed with doctors right around the corner.
“To be honest, I feel so incredibly fortunate that things happened that way,” Wendy said. “If I hadn't gone to the hospital with this dizziness that I thought was nothing, it could have been much worse.”
Today, Wendy credits the Finger Lakes Triathlon medical tent staff — the people who convinced her to go to the hospital when all she wanted to do was drive home — with saving her life.
Everyone was there
The morning after her stroke, Wendy surprised her neurologist by being able to get out of bed and walk. Despite this show of strength, scans revealed another clot forming in her artery — a clot she half-fondly remembers the doctors calling “impressive.”
Because of the risk of a repeat event, they were protective of her, recommending she not lift over 5 pounds, drive, or exert herself until they could run follow-up tests three months later.
But a different deadline loomed over her five-day hospital stay.
Wendy had qualified for the Boston Marathon weeks before, and the registration date fell less than a week after the Finger Lakes Triathlon.
On Sept. 16, five days after suffering a stroke, Wendy signed on to run the nearly 27-mile race in April.
She registered from the hospital.
“It's the most historic, most prestigious marathon in America,” Wendy said. “To have that to look forward to gave me the drive to really push myself to get back.”
Unable to run, she started training for the impending marathon by walking. She made it four blocks total on her first day.
“I went from running 20 miles on a training run to walking four blocks and being exhausted,” Wendy said. “That was heartbreaking.”
If a stroke wasn’t going to stop her, neither was a broken heart. With help from a group of runner friends she met through Fleet Feet in Brighton, she built up her strength. When she was unable to cook or drive, they brought her meals and good company. Todd’s parents, who live in North Carolina, drove up the day after the stroke to offer their support.
“It's very difficult to ask for help when you need it, and we needed it,” Todd said. “We didn't even have to ask. Everyone was there.”
Internal drive
About three weeks before her scheduled three-month checkup, Wendy noticed a tingling in her hand and strange localized headaches. Frightened, she returned to the emergency room, where doctors discovered not only that she was fine, but also that her clot had dissolved and her artery had healed.
It was a best-case scenario. Wendy was cleared to run again.
“Living through that stroke, just remembering what it felt like those few minutes, that's one of the hardest things, even just thinking about it,” Wendy said, nervously rubbing her right hand. “That fear that it could happen again was just such a dark cloud hanging over us for those months.”
She and Todd high-fived in the hospital.
With only a few months left to train for one of the biggest marathons in the world, Wendy still had a lot of work ahead of her. Professionals, amateurs, and everyone in between (but only those who can qualify) run side-by-side in the Boston Marathon, and she had a lot of running to do if she wanted to keep up.
Wendy was determined.
“I started running just to get in shape, but I found the only sport I've ever been good at,” she said. “It's such a great feeling. I love being fit. I love the effort, the exertion, that good tired feeling when you're done.”
At the end of the Boston Marathon, when Wendy turned the last corner onto the historic Boylston Street and saw the finish line, tears filled her eyes. She thought about how grateful she was to be healthy, to be doing what she loved, and to be alive.
Emotional, she called it an “amazing, special moment.”
“Not everyone who has a stroke can go back to doing everything that they love to do, and I feel like I'm so fortunate that I can,” Wendy said. “I just want to do whatever I can to help out, and maybe inspire people who have recently had a stroke who want to be able to go do whatever it is that they love to do again.”
Wendy credits her unexpectedly quick recovery to her physical fitness before her stroke and to a strong network of supportive friends and family after. Todd has a different explanation.
“She has some type of internal drive to just go and kick something’s butt,” he said. “She's relentless, and she's awesome.”
