Stroke-like symptoms send local woman to hospital

Jennifer Bjornstad is a mom of two little boys, Carter, three, and Cooper, six months. She is also a business owner and has been for 17 years as she and her mom, Heather Bjornstad, operate Tastebuds, a lunch/catering company in Whitecourt. On January 12, 2019 her world suddenly and inexplicably changed. She wasn’t sick that day and said the sharp stomach pain caught her off-guard, as did the sudden vomiting.

She went to the bathroom and sat down. Within moments she was unable to feel anything from her collar bone down. “It was like when I had an epidural with my baby. I tried to call out for help, but my voice was like a lisp. My boyfriend, Matt Savoie, ran to me and thought I was having a stroke.” Her brother, Jarred, arrived before emergency services and began first aid with 911 on the phone. Once they arrived on scene, they tried getting her to respond. “They were pinching me to see if I would respond to pain and it hurt really bad, but I couldn’t tell them or show them. I could only blink.”

Bjornstad said that her head and lower back were screaming with pain. She said she realized things were bad when she arrived at the hospital and was unable to stop throwing up and couldn’t control her bowels. “I kept thinking about how my son and my mom were crying in the hallway.” She said doctors thought it might be a blood clot or a stroke and that they had to get her to the University of Alberta hospital immediately.   

Her uncle, Les Reed, lives in the city and was able to be by her side the moment she arrived. “I was so grateful he was there to comfort me because I was scared and didn’t want to die alone. I really thought that I might not make it. I have two beautiful children I thought I would never see again, and my mom is my best friend and I didn’t think I was going to get to say goodbye to her,” she said.

Following a barrage of tests, the doctors couldn’t determine what was causing the sudden onset of her debilitating stroke-like symptoms. With a shortage of available beds, they decided to airlift her back to Whitecourt the next morning. Over the next while she gained back the ability to speak athough she still speaks with a slur, and she has regained mobility on her right side. Her left side remains in a state of paralysis.

“If you were to pinch my left side, I wouldn’t feel it. I can feel the pain from it but it’s numb. If I try to pick up something, I must look at my hand and focus on it because I can’t feel it. If I didn’t have my right side like I do, then I would still be in the hospital.” The pain is constant with muscle spasms throughout her arms and legs, but she pushes herself to move, both at home and at physio, because she wants so desperately to regain her mobility. “I can’t feed myself or wash myself or go to the bathroom by myself. I need help for all of that and I still don’t have any answers.”

Doctors are hopeful she will recover but have no idea on how long the symptoms and pain will remain. During a recent visit to her son’s pediatrician the doctor inquired about her condition and provided another possible lead in her recovery. “He wants me to push for a test for Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM). It sounds exactly like what I have but it’s hard to diagnose and difficult to treat because they don’t know enough about it yet.”

Financially, the situation has left the Bjornstad’s in a tough spot as their savings have been exhausted. Her catering business, Tastebuds, is still open and but she cannot be there at the reigns. Her mom is there, however, and she said she would hire staff if needed. “People maybe don’t want to bother us, or they think we can’t do it. Lots of people will just call someone else for their needs so we don’t know what that means for our business.” Bjornstad knows lots of people are struggling financially these days and that makes it even harder for her to ask for help. “I don’t want to lose my business so we’ve been selling everything we can.”

Her best friend, Joleen Bartsch, recently started a GoFundMe to get financial support for the family. Bjornstad acknowledged that had her friend not done that for her she would not have felt comfortable asking for help herself. She is used to helping others and being in the position herself has been hard. “I’ve told people in the past not to be embarrassed asking for help, but I guess I just don’t want to swallow my pride and say that I need help. This money we are asking for is for helping us pay our bills. I don’t know how long this is going to be or how soon I can go back to work. I really need help at home and it’s very expensive.”  

She said every penny donated will in some way be repaid. “I don’t know how yet but every penny that people help me with I want to be able to do something good when I am better. I don’t take it lightly.” Community members can donate to the worthwhile cause by searching “Jenn’s Rough Road to Recovery” on the GoFundMe website. Those interested in hiring TasteBuds and supporting the family in that way can contact them at 780-779-4494. She can also be reached on Facebook by searching Jennifer Bjornstad.  

“She is always there to help somebody out. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are from. They used to do the Meals on Wheels program and she has supported her family without asking for anything in return. Help is hard to ask for and hard to take but they desperately need it,” said Bartsch.