Lexy's Story
Lexy Galbreath assumed it was a pregnancy thing.
She was teaching a swim lesson in Nashville last November when everything went wonky.
It started with her vision — her eyeballs seemingly were bouncing out of their sockets.
“It’s like when a cartoon character gets bonked on the head and their eyes kind of wobble around in their heads,” Lexy said. “That’s kind of how I felt, but there were no bonks on the head.”
She stepped out of the pool, and a wave of nausea blanketed her. Nine weeks pregnant with her first child, Lexy had been warned about nasty side effects she may encounter. She figured she was overheated, dehydrated, had low-blood sugar or maybe a little of each. A lifeguard walked her to a locker room.
She sipped a soda and nibbled on crackers. She couldn’t sit up without bracing against a wall. Her hand went numb. She began panic crying. She needed to change into dry clothes, but couldn’t stand. She wriggled on the cold floor, shedding her wet bathing suit like snakeskin, one jerky movement at a time.
The pool manager wanted to call an ambulance, but Lexy declined. She’s 26, that magical age of working-world independence, but her part-time, swim-instructor job didn’t include health benefits. She had applied for an insurance program the day before, but didn’t know if she’d be approved.
Instead, she called her parents, whom she lived with in Dickson, Tennessee, about an hour southwest of Nashville. They drove her home and tried to get her to eat. A half a can of chicken and rice soup didn’t stay down long.
All she wanted to do was sleep; her parents wouldn’t let her. They told her not to worry about her lack of health insurance. Her parents would do what was necessary financially to make sure she received quality care. They rushed Lexy to an urgent care facility, which immediately directed them to the nearest hospital’s emergency room. There, a diagnosis was made.
This vibrant mother-to-be had somehow, some way, suffered a significant ischemic stroke.
No obvious reasons why
Strokes can occur in pregnant women, but rarely do — in 30 of every 100,000 pregnancies or .00003%, according to a 2017 study published by the National Library of Medicine.
There are warning signs, such as balance and vision issues, facial droops and hand and arm numbness, several of which Lexy experienced that Saturday morning.
Why the stroke happened remains a mystery.
Her heart looked good. Her blood pressure was normal. All genetic and behavioral factors checked out positively.
The type of stroke Lexy suffered — ischemic — occurs when the blood flow to the brain is blocked by a clot or piece of plaque. That at least explains how the stroke happened.
“There’s no good reason at all for why,” Lexy said. “Right now, the running theory is when you are pregnant, sometimes you throw clots. And pregnant women have twice as much blood in their bodies as normal people, so there is twice as much of a chance for clotting.”
Ischemic strokes can cause paralysis, brain damage, death. Besides left-side strength and mobility issues, Lexy is fine. Her boy, who is due in June, doesn’t appear to be affected at all.
“He is perfect. He has not missed a beat,” she said. “It’s like he has no idea the stroke happened. He is in all the perfect percentiles. He’s head down, ready to go.”
Lexy is now feeling more ready each day for her son’s birth. Thanks in part to her rehabilitation team at Select Physical Therapy’s Dickson Hillview center.
And a six-pound medicine ball.
Making progress and carrying ‘Ollie’
When Lexy arrived at the center in December, she had almost no control of her left side, walked with a cane and couldn’t pick up anything with her left hand.
“She was pretty debilitated,” said Occupational Therapist Jayne Hallock.
Jayne and Physical Therapist Hailey Holder have a combined 20 years of experience. They have treated stroke patients and pregnant women, but never both in one person.
Initial work focused on basics: balance, strength, fine-motor skills, walking without a cane. Three times a week for physical and occupational therapy, and, more recently, once a week with Speech-Language Pathologist Bonnie Wagner to work on swallowing difficulties such as preventing food and liquid from entering Lexy’s lungs.
At times, she has spent three long hours at the center. Pushing forward and never complaining. That drive — along with her unique, heartbreaking story — sets her apart.
“There are people I feel like are put into our lives to continue to light our fire, and I feel like she was that for me,” Hailey said. “In therapy, we see so many people who are victims, who have had a hard time with recovery, and she, from day one, was a survivor. She was positive, motivated, God-driven and appreciative of every moment and every turn of her path.”
One primary goal drives Lexy daily: To independently take care of her newborn. To hold him in either arm. To get on the floor and play with him. To stoop down and pick up his toys.
That desire became the focus of her therapy. Bending down, keeping her balance and grabbing cones off the floor with her left hand. Carrying a coffee cup with water while walking around the center without spilling a drop.
The therapists added a medicine ball — sometimes draped in a bedsheet and fastened like a sling — so Lexy can carry it with her arms or around her shoulder. She calls the ball “Ollie,” after the name of her expectant child, Oliver Maurice. “Ollie,” who started out as six pounds but has “grown” to eight as Lexy improves, is hip-adjacent whenever she completes tasks in the center.
“It’s delightfully quirky and incredibly practical,” Lexy said. “It meant so much to me that they were like, ‘We need to be practical. Let’s pretend you are carrying a baby. Do things.’”
Wearing heels and a smooth delivery
Lexy has other treatment goals. Recently, she made an unusual request. She wanted to wear a pair of three-inch heels to a close friend’s wedding — a stretch for someone who struggled to walk weeks before. Hailey and a pumped-up Lexy got to work, cruising around the center until Lexy was comfortable enough to wear heels to the wedding.
“I have been stuck in tennis shoes and Chacos and my boots when it’s rainy. And I just wanted to feel pretty, and that’s how I thought I could do that,” Lexy said. “I wasn’t about to do it myself and hope for the best. I wanted to make sure I was safe about it.”
Lexy’s attention is now focused on a new goal: A safe and smooth delivery.
Because of the stroke, she is much weaker on her left side than her right, which could be problematic in delivery. She is working with Hailey, a trained CoreVia Pelvic Health program specialist, to strengthen core and abdomen muscles and to incorporate breathing and relaxation exercises in hopes of avoiding a C-section, which would trigger more physical challenges.
“Keeping her healthy, from top to bottom before delivery, is so important on every level of her health, the baby’s health and recovery,” Hailey said. “We are doing everything we can to keep mind, body and soul healthy and ready to bring a new life into this world.”
A cut-up in the hospital
Lexy wasn’t worried about her own health or her baby’s while in the hospital. She was “so out of it,” that when doctors told her everything would be OK, she believed them fully.
She exhibited a strange calmness throughout, except when her order of blueberry pancakes was scrapped and the hospital replaced it with a mystery meat. That time, she cried hysterically.
Strokes can temporarily — sometimes permanently — alter patients’ personalities. Heightened anxiety, irritability, confusion and uncontrollable spurts of laughter and tears are common.
Overnight, Lexy became a lying-down, stand-up comedian with no filter and a bagful of dark and bawdy one-liners.
“We joked about me taking my gig on the road,” she said. “For whatever reason, nothing was too heavy.”
It served as her coping mechanism, but the entire experience was brutal for her fiancé, Zac Blanton. They weren’t yet engaged or living together. In one freak, tragic moment, he nearly lost his unborn son and his girlfriend. In recovery, she acted like a different person.
Lexy was accustomed to taking care of herself and caretaking others. Adjusting to the dependent patient role was “a very big learning curve for me.” So, she occasionally lashed out at Zac.
“I was pretty cold and very impatient with him,” Lexy said. “I really, truly thought we would separate because of all the awful things that I was feeling and all the things that were going on.”
As her brain and body recovered, she gradually started feeling and acting more like herself. Zac stood by her, although she said there were times when she could tell how frustrated and overwhelmed he was.
“A situation like this will really show someone’s character, and he never stopped showing up. Even now, he is so patient, and the empathy he has had for me this whole time is impressive,” she said. “This is a horrible thing, but I feel like it was almost a blessing in disguise because it made my faith stronger and my relationship more functional and stronger.”
The couple is now preparing as a team for Oliver. They became engaged in February — three months after her stroke — on the one-year anniversary of when and where they first met, a bookstore where she was a customer and he was her cashier.
Insuring a great attitude
Being pregnant is difficult. Add in the stroke, the grueling rehab and the inability to work and it could have overwhelmed her. Yet Lexy refuses to feel sorry for herself.
“The biggest thing with Lexy is her attitude. I can’t imagine if I was put in her shoes how I would act. I would hope I would act like her, but I really don’t know,” said Jayne, her occupational therapist. “She has never been, ‘Woe is me. Why did this happen to me?’ And I think that is a game-changer in her progress.”
Lexy’s faith has guided her during this ordeal. While she was in the intensive care unit, a caseworker mentioned her insurance. At first, Lexy was confused, but quickly learned it was activated on the afternoon she applied.
That was mere hours before her stroke occurred and her hospital bills mounted.
It was the incredible silver lining, the additional perspective, she craved.
“I had insurance coverage for this entire situation, which, religious or not, it’s still crazy,” Lexy said. “It’s like, ‘Wow, I’m so lucky.’”
It’s difficult to comprehend someone so young, facing such a difficult climb, could feel lucky. Lexy, however, said her life’s dream is to be a mother. Now, she’s weeks away from that reality.
Oliver is due June 9, precisely seven months after his life and his mother’s could have ended tragically. Instead, they’ll soon meet — in Lexy’s open arms, which are now strong enough to hold her baby boy.