– Gladys McGrane, at Aase Haugen
Gladys and her husband, Merle, raised their two children, Jason and Brenda, in Elma, Iowa. Together they enjoyed a very active lifestyle. Every Saturday night she said they would clean up, dress up, eat dinner and pick up friends to go dancing at The Inwood in Spillville. “We always loved to dance,” says Gladys. “We would dance till 1 or 2 in the morning and then have sandwiches before going home at about 3 am!” All this activity was followed by Gladys going to work as a CNA in New Hampton the next morning. “I wonder sometimes if I would have rested my body more maybe I wouldn’t have had a stroke,” Gladys added.
Her stroke happened while she was on the phone talking to her daughter more than 11 years ago. Her daughter asked her to call for Merle and when he got to her side, she fell before he could get her into bed.
“It was scary,” says Gladys. “I couldn’t move my body on my right side and all I wanted was to get to Mayo Clinic in Rochester to get help.” When she arrived in Rochester, they evaluated her and began formulating a plan for the future. “When something like this happens people need to get immediate attention,” Gladys advises. “My doctors told me that because I got immediate attention, my outcome was better – if it would have been any later, I could have been in a wheelchair for life.”
One thing people learn as they get to know Gladys, is that she is strong and independent. After her stroke, her husband passed away and she went home to live on her own. “I mowed the lawn and pulled the weeds and I even drove back then,” she says. “I had to find different ways to do the things I enjoy or needed to do – and that’s just what I did.” But over the course of the past three years she says she’s noticed her body getting stiffer and her ability to walk became a challenge. “That’s why I’m here,” she says. “I’m a person who has always wanted to get better, and you have to WANT to get better, because it’s hard work.”
After being in skilled care at Aase Haugen for three weeks, Gladys is feeling stronger and walking again. And she’s not just walking, she’s also able to open and close her right hand again. “I like walking on the treadmill,” she says. “A think the therapists are really good. They’ve made a difference in my life. After my meds in the morning, my hand is less stiff and I can even open it.”
Gladys has a goal to move in with her daughter in Rochester when she leaves Aase Haugen. “My daughter took a new job there and I’m so proud of her,” she says. “She works with cancer doctors to help identify cancer cells and care for cancer patients. She’s good to me and I look forward to moving in with her.”
When asked what she’d want to tell other people who experience strokes, she said, “You’ve got to want to get better, then you’ve got to work at it, and you’ll see that therapy really does make a difference and your life will
be good. Do not quit, keep going one step at a time, keep trying and you CAN do it!”