Even then, I was struggling to sit. My left side was slumped
and I felt incredibly tired and kept asking to lie down. Gym
staff laid me down on a mat and put a foil blanket on me to
help warm me up. My speech was slurred and the left side
of my face had drooped. But I wasn’t aware of
any of this. I wanted to drive home but again –
thankfully – they wouldn’t let me go. They called
my partner, Jodie, and, against my will, phoned
an ambulance. I really didn’t feel I needed one.
They explained that I was showing symptoms
of a stroke, but it didn’t make sense to me at
the time. I remember feeling embarrassed and
uncomfortable with all the attention, alongside an
unnatural and heightened level of vulnerability.
I was taken to the hospital, where a scan
showed a huge blood clot in my neck and brain.
I was immediately given an injection to break
down the clot, but was told it was so large the
anticoagulant probably wasn’t effective or
fast-acting enough to prevent damage. I was taken in an
ambulance to another hospital about 40 miles away, which
had more specialists. After another scan, I was rushed into
the operating theatre.By this point I felt very poorly and was
frightened. Under local anesthetic, they
went into my groin with a tube, fed it all
the way up to my brain and literally poked
out and removed the clots. Being conscious
through this operation was horrendous.
It felt like there was pressure building
in my head, and the pain would increase
as the clot was broken down. The worst
of it was when they injected dye that is
used to see if the blood is f lowing to the
starved areas of the brain. Every time
the dye was injected, it felt as if it was
burning the back of my right eye, an intense
smouldering sensation that also caused me
to see shooting stars.
One of the doctors urged me not to move
my head at all, not even to swallow, open my
eyes or talk, which was the most terrifying
part. I think the fear made the pain worse
and it took all my focus to not panic.
Throughout the experience, it seemed as
if I was watching myself from a few metres
above my right shoulder. I became aware
of the bleeping of the monitors hooked up
to my heart, so I focused on keeping that
thing bleeping – I knew it meant I was alive.
I’ve never wanted to live more.
The procedure worked. I went in
paralysed on my left side, and immediately
afterwards I could move my left arm and
leg again as blood returned to the right
side of my brain.THE ROAD BACK
MY RECOVERY HAS BEEN HARD: I’VE GONE
through periods where it’s difficult to be
in public spaces because my brain can’t shut out background
noise to focus on what I want. Rather, it’s drawn to everything
going on in the room. This results in overload and actually
knocks me off balance. And the fatigue I’ve experienced has
been all-consuming – I spent the first two months
sleeping lots as part of recovery. However, by just
over eight weeks post-stroke, I was nearly back
to 100 per cent in day-to-day life.
At first, doctors didn’t know what had caused
the stroke and I could not exercise, as I was still
considered a stroke risk. The latest tests show
there is a hole in my heart. This may or may not
have been the cause of the stroke, so things still
aren’t totally clear. But I am on blood thinners to
help prevent future blood clots forming. The great
news is that when they diagnosed the hole in my
heart – even though that sounds bad – I could
immediately return to running. I went home that
day and ran three miles after the appointment.
I also began practising t’ai chi and yoga to help me get
reacquainted with the subtle movements of my body. It has
become evident I do have some paralysis resulting from brain
damage caused by the stroke, especially through my left048 RUNNERSWORLD.COM/UK SEPTEMBER 2019
ABOVE Staton hopes
to run across Ireland
in the next few years- a 370-mile route.
RIGHT Staton and his
partner, Jodie, have
three children – Elliot,
Indy and Astrid