Stroke Patient REBOOTS

Prayers Help Stroke Survivor “REBOOT”

Rev. Steve Albert is the former leader of the Alpine Unity Church in Alpine CA and has been an invited guest speaker at New Though Churches across the country since 1991. He is the author of the book TALK ZONES, TALK ZONES In The Classroom as well as the 12-audiocassetteTALK ZONE Tape Series. He was a teacher/leader at Church of Today in San Diego California from 1990 until he became Associate Minister of Child Centered Church now in Poway California.

Last April I suffered a stroke which completely paralyzed my left side, and I never dreamed I would be climbing an extension ladder and putting up Christmas lights on my home 8 months later. Within the first 24 hours of my stroke, which occurred in the afternoon after my Palm Sunday message, my wife Rev. Gail Albert began emailing friends asking for prayer support. Within two days, Silent Unity and hundreds of people who I did not even know had been contacted and were praying for my swift recovery.

I had no idea what was happening to me because I really did not know what a stroke was. Friends had suffered from heart attacks, stomach operations, even cancer. There had been pain and there were obvious symptoms. With my stroke, I laid in the emergency room thinking I had a pinched nerve in my neck causing some tingling down my arm. Then, in a split second, 80 pounds of my body, all on the left side went numb. There was no pain; there was nothing. I believe my accelerated recovery came from my belief in God’s ability to heal me, Gail’s daily attention, my attitude of “I WILL RECOVER 100%” and the incredible amount of prayer support I received.

After two days of tests in the regular Hospital, I was transferred to a rehab hospital for three weeks. It was there I learned my New Thought training would come to be of vital importance. I saw the good in everything and everyone, the doctors, nurses and even the other patients. My hectic rehab schedule was interlaced with times for prayer and meditation and I used every minute to reinforce my beliefs that God had a purpose for this happening. Fortunately the blood clot, which caused the stroke, was in the lower brain stem and I didn’t lose any of my higher functions. I continued to make humorous comments, find the good in every silly incident and make fun of myself as I lay there without any left side body movement. I took on new challenges with a determination to get back to a “normal” life. Things like learning to strengthen my muscles so I could squeeze toothpaste out of a tube, hold a tissue to blow my nose and lift my leg over a quarter inch high door threshold had to be relearned.

When I awoke each day in the rehab hospital, my mind believed I was able to be as physically active as I always had been. My dreams the night before had been of moving and doing and enjoying life. However, it took only the mere gesture of trying to move in the bed to bring me back to my new limited reality. It was humbling. I would be dishonest if I were to say this did not bother me. Being human I had enjoyed the freedom of movement without considering what life would be like without it. Each morning I had to first overcome the mental and emotional aspects of my stroke before I could start my physical therapy. Feeling sorry for myself was NOT a viable option in my mind. My body began to respond and Gail and I witnessed miracles every other day.

Five weeks out of the rehab hospital in my out-patient rehab program my physical therapist asked me to try a leg lift exercise to strengthen my left hamstring muscle which would help me raise my knee when I walked. Simple exercise it seemed – lie on my belly and bend at the knee pulling my left heel to my buttocks. Simple? No way! I struggled to raise my lower leg and only with great effort was I able to get my leg half up in the air; and it was wobbling uncontrollably all over the place. I tried again and again only to become tired and I began reducing the height I was raising my leg. “Work on it at home, it’s important” the therapist said. The next day Gail was on the couch reading and I was exercising on the living room floor. I asked her to watch as I tried the leg lift exercise again. I was becoming red in the face as I mentally as well as physically pulled my heel up in the air ten times. I lay EXHAUSTED on the floor. All of a sudden, without my knowledge, my brain made a new pathway, connection, to the muscle I wanted to move. I tried another leg lift and my leg lifted in a controlled manner almost effortlessly for 80 of the 90 degrees it had to bend. I looked at Gail and Gail looked at me; both our mouths were open. I said, “Did you see that!” Gail yelled with excitement, “I did, do it again!” And I began to almost effortlessly raise and lower my leg 10 more times in a controlled manner. This was God’s miracle to us, SEEING the brain–leg connection being made in front of our eyes. We were astonished! Thank you God.

“Five months after the stroke I attended the Association for Global New Thought’s conference in Palm Springs where Gail and I had met four years earlier. People I didn’t know came up to me asking how I was doing and telling me how they had brought and shared Gail’s daily email messages entitled “Steve’s Update” to their various meetings, nail appointments, yoga classes and so on. I was overwhelmed to tears learning how the request for healing had traveled so far and learning how well prayer works. The real tears flowed after I was offered the chance to carry flags in the Peace ceremony at the close of the conference. I climbed the stair up to the stage, walked across the stage and then climbed down at the other side THREE TIMES. It was another miracle for everyone to witness God’s Grace.

A week before I was to go home from the hospital, at 3:00 in the morning, God woke me up telling me to write a book about my stroke experience. I was given the name “REBOOT” as the title and, over the next two months with only the fingers of my right hand working, I typed out and completed the manuscript. I knew this was a “God-thing” because when I went to edit the material, it required very little attention. This new self-published book is now helping people who are going through all types of life traumas. “REBOOT” is the story of how I turned rehabilitation therapy techniques into life tools to get through my healing, and how those same tools can be used when you have Business Problems, Relationship Issues, Financial Setbacks as well as Physical Challenges. Gail wrote the reflections part of the book to help the families of “patients” get through the initial trauma and be a powerful support for a patient whose system has failed in some way.

As the Associate Minister of the Child Centered Church in Poway, California. I assist my wife, Gail, helping parents, grandparents, and children celebrate God’s love together. “REBOOTING” plays a large part in spiritual worship too. Knowing God loves us and we had been given the stroke experience to become an example to others about how WE CAN BEAT THE ODDS became very important. I was told by the doctors 1/3 of all stroke patients die and, since I had a stoke, I had a 10% chance of having another one. I remember looking at the doctor and saying “then you are telling me I have a 90% chance of never having another stroke again, right?”

I know how blessed I am to have recovered so quickly and I believe all things happen for good no matter what the initial appearance. I can now be a more effective teacher, minister and human being recognizing how this stroke experience has changed me for the better.

* * *

Steve’s self-published book “REBOOT” can be ordered for $14.95 (add 7.75% tax in California only) plus $2.00 for shipping and handling, through his email at reboot@san.rr.com. You can learn more about the Child Centered Church by going to their website at www.childcenteredchurch.org