Vim & Vigor - Spring 2010 - North Mississippi - (Page 51)

getting by hen Peggy Markley’s stroke virtually knocked her off her feet in January 2006, it did the same for her husband, Bruce. “We were in Vancouver, British Columbia, about to depart for an Alaskan cruise when Peggy complained of a headache and felt sick,” Bruce says. Moments later she was rushed to a hospital and treated for a massive hemorraghic stroke. She underwent brain surgery and spent 22 days recovering in a hospital. The stroke left Peggy, who was 60 at the time, with left-side paralysis, vision problems and cognitive deficits. It dealt quite a blow to this active couple who owned their own hospital furnishings company in Biloxi. “She could no longer walk, stand or transfer by herself,” Bruce says. “She had difficulty thinking and speaking, among other problems.” from friends W support at home with a little help After she returned to the United States, Peggy went through many weeks of both inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation. Bruce sold their company and moved from Biloxi to Tupelo to be near their children, who live in Saltillo, Oxford and Starkville. “I made adjustments to our house to make it handicap-accessible. I was determined that Peggy was going to stay at home,” Bruce says, “but eventually it just became more than I could handle alone.” Their daughter found out about a Stroke Support Group in Memphis, so she and Bruce went together the first time, and Bruce went back several times by himself. Last year he met Stacy Scruggs, a certified occupational therapy assistant with North Mississippi Medical Center’s Rehabilitation Institute in Tupelo, and “started bugging her about starting a support group here.” In September 2008, Scruggs did just that. Each month Bruce brings Peggy from The Greenhouses at Traceway Manor to NMMC for the meeting. “We have learned some things at the meetings,” Bruce says, “but I think the biggest thing you learn is that you are not alone—that there are other people who have suffered similar types of tragedies. There is great moral support in knowing other people who have been impacted by such a life-changing event.” The group meets on the third Tuesday of each month at 5 p.m. in Room 21 on the first floor of NMMC’s East Tower, 830 S. Gloster St., Tupelo. For more information, visit Bruce and Peggy Markley of Tupelo were among the first to join NMMC’s Stroke Support Group and have found the education and fellowship quite beneficial. www.nmhs.net/support_groups. vim & vigor • s p ri ng 2010 http://www.nmhs.net/support_groups

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Spring 2010 - North Mississippi

Vim & Vigor - Spring 2010- North Mississippi
Contents
Opening Thoughts
Weight-loss Success Stories
Come See Us
Hit the Links
Excuses, Excuses
Easing the Pressure
Prostate Predicament
On Mended Knees
Imaging IQ
Will Power
Caregiving: A Survival Guide
Form Factors
Wake-Up Call
Stroke of Luck
Weight Matters
History Lesson
Catch the Spirit

Vim & Vigor - Spring 2010 - North Mississippi