ROCKLIN, Calif. _ The headaches were excruciating and wouldn't go away. Her doctor said they were migraines. Then, one morning a few weeks later, Jamie Hancock stood up from the couch and discovered she couldn't move the right side of her body. When she spoke, her speech was slurred.
At the hospital, doctors told her she was having a stroke. The 32-year-old Hancock, whose children were just 1 and 3, had a sobering epiphany: "My whole life is changed forever."
Now, six years later, no one would know she is a stroke survivor. A lifelong dancer, she is fit and muscular. She speaks clearly and walks quickly as she shuttles her kids around, runs errands and teaches dance classes.
But the effects _ for her and other young stroke victims _ linger just below the surface. They are there when she gets mad at her family, when she can't remember what she needs at the grocery store, when she tires after working for a few hours. The noise and light can be unbearable, forcing her to escape to a dark room.
Some days Hancock tries to be the energetic and sociable working mom she was before the stroke. Then she crashes.
"I sort of forget I have a disability and I think I can do everything anyone else my age can do," she said. "But I can't."
