After a serious injury or illness, having a strong support system is important. 45-year-old Andy Rosendahl is learning that firsthand as he recovers from a stroke in the right side of his brain. An entrepreneur and owner of his own trucking company, AR Trucking, in Pipestone, Minnesota, Andy says he thinks his lifestyle as a workaholic caused his stroke. It slowed him down physically, but he says that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
When she couldn’t get a hold of him, Andy’s wife Melissa came home from work early on January 6 to find her husband on the floor, having a hemorrhagic stroke.
“Initially, it was just shock because I haven’t been around anyone who has had a stroke, so I didn’t really know what to expect,” Melissa said. “Shock, and then came fear of the unknown. I mean, when he wakes up from surgery, can he talk? Can he walk? Will he know who we are?”
Andy had emergency surgery, spent a week in the intensive care unit at Sanford USD Medical Center in Sioux Falls, then another in critical care before coming to Madonna Rehabilitation Hospitals’ specialized stroke program. In addition to being unable to move the left side of his body, Andy was dealing with extreme back pain, something he’s dealt with for years.
“He was very high assist and had very low motivation,” Hannah Lutz, PT, DPT, Andy’s physical therapist, said. “His transition here was pretty hard, so we made weekly and even in-session goals. When he first got here, our first session’s goal was, ‘Let’s just try to stand three times in this half hour.’”
As his body healed, Andy’s brain was also undergoing a recovery process. Since the stroke affected the right side of his brain, it impacted his ability to filter and regulate his thoughts and emotions. For the first two weeks of his stay, he was reluctant to participate in therapy. However, even when he felt like giving up, his strong support system refused to let him quit. Throughout his 54 days at Madonna, Andy had someone by his side to cheer him on.
“When you have a life-changing stroke, it can be really tough because it changes everything that you do,” Matt Hanna, MOT, OTR/L, Andy’s occupational therapist, said. “Having family and friends always there just telling you how much progress you’re making, as well as telling you, ‘Hey, you can do this. You got this. Look at where you are now compared to where you were a couple of weeks ago.’ It can make all the difference.”
Slowly, Andy began to establish trust with his care team and began to participate in therapy more consistently. That effort paid off, and he began to see progress in his recovery. His friends and family encouraged him every step of the way.
“He even had friends drive through a blizzard to come see him,” Lutz remembers. “It was so important to him to see this community because he’s so involved with it back home. We knew to help him be motivated and progress, we needed to create a community here with his therapists.”
Having members of Andy’s family participate in caregiver training helped propel his progress because it gave him a renewed sense of independence.
“What was super important to him was his autonomy, so we just had to listen to him and address his needs and wants right then and there,” Lutz said. “I think that showing him and his family how to do things independently built a trusting relationship with him and his therapists. It allowed us to work together toward his goals.”
Trusting his care team allowed Andy to open up and show off his true personality. A jokester, he was quick with a funny story or a witty comment. He motivated other patients, and even challenged his daughter to a friendly competition in vision therapy.
“I had two people tell me that there will be Andy stories here after I leave,” Andy said. “For years, people will be talking about the Andy stories and laughing. I said, ‘I sure hope so.’”
While at Madonna, Andy also used several pieces of specialized technology to get him up and walking. He used the Lokomat robotic gait training to start, and his care team says it helped his back pain because of the bodyweight support. Once he was able to start moving his left leg on his own, he progressed to the Andago bodyweight support gait training system to take steps independently. He also used a lot of resources, like vestibular treatments for his vertigo and the empowered relief pain course to help with his back pain.
“With that, our treatment sessions could focus on walking and stairs, and he could work on his chronic back pain on his own,” Lutz said.
Andy also started keeping a journal to help with his memory. He wrote down what he did in therapy, what he’s grateful for, who came to visit him, and included funny stories. While he says he doesn’t remember a lot about the first few weeks of his time at Madonna, he’s most grateful his care team didn’t give up on him when he didn’t feel like trying.
“I just can’t believe how patient they are and how caring they are,” he said. “Every single day, it’s just unbelievable. They could just say, ‘phooey with you,’ and walk away. It takes a special heart. Those are special people, those nurses and therapists.”
Andy and Melissa spent both Valentine’s Day and their 19th wedding anniversary at Madonna. They say this has been one of the most challenging things they’ve experienced in their marriage, but they’re taking life lessons from it.
“She’s been super awesome through this whole deal,” Andy said. “I didn’t know she liked me so much, but she’s put up with a lot of stuff.”
Melissa agreed.
“I didn’t know I had the patience to do some of the stuff I’ve done,” she said. “I didn’t know that this unconditional love really shows up when you have to help someone do every task of their day and every task is difficult.”
Because Andy’s movement was limited, at first, it was difficult for him to sit still. Now, he and his wife are taking the time to slow down and focus on what’s most important in life.
“Less work, more important stuff, that’s for sure,” Andy said.
As he transitions to the next phase of his recovery journey, Andy is looking forward to putting that new outlook to use.
“It’ll slow us down, but in a good way,” Melissa said. “It puts a new perspective on life. We’re grateful for life, and we’re grateful for our Madonna team. There are a lot of physical and mental ups and downs, and they were with us through all of that. My family will be very grateful to all the staff because they made us all feel really comfortable while still pushing him to do his best and use his time here to get the most help and get back to living independently again.”