Pride, humour and positivity have enabled Toula Michalakis to rebuild life from brain aneurisms

TWO brain aneurisms left Toula Michalakis spending five days drifting in and out of consciousness in 2008. She was told by hospital doctors that she would’t be going home. But seven years spent reinventing herself, she’s battling to regain her life clearly.

17/6/15 -Toula Michalakis in her home in Brooklyn Park. Toula has been nominated in the courage section of the Pride of Australia awards. Photo Naomi Jellicoe

TOULA Michalakis doesn’t remember the five days she spent lying on her floor in the autumn of 2008, drifting in and out of consciousness.

Nor does she remember the three months in the Royal Adelaide Hospital, when doctors made predictions about what the rest of her life would be like.

But seven years on, living independently and reinventing who she was, Ms Michalakis, now 45, sees her battle to regain her life clearly.

Nominated for a Courage Award in the Pride of Australia, Ms Michalakis said doctors told her and her loved ones that the two brain aneurisms that felled her meant she would never go home again, never be able to live life on her terms.

“They only said bad things to me, nothing good,” she said. “They told me I would never go home again, you don’t tell someone that.

“The first thing I remember is being in Hampstead. I couldn’t speak for six months and then I had aphasia for a year when everything would come out jumbled.”

It would be 15 months before Ms Michalakis would leave Hampstead and finally head home.

The year before the brain aneurisms that took so much from her is hazy, just glimpses of that time — painting, laughing with friends, visiting clients she’d worked with for years to cut and style their hair — remain.

She has had to give up her work and step away from her studies as she concentrates on regaining the use of her body and learning to read again.

“I was having a lot of headaches for about three months but I thought it was the stress of studying,’’ she said.

“I had to learn everything again. You just have to get through it, you don’t have a choice.”

Today — although life looks different to how it used to be — Ms Michalakis said she is “excellent now”, that humour and positivity have helped her through.

“My left hand doesn’t work anymore and I was left-handed,’’ she said.

“I call him a boy now because he just looks good. When he worked he was a girl. Now he expects everything handed to him on a platter.

“This hasn’t changed who I am at all. I have had days where I get a bit upset about things I can’t do but that’s life, you just have to be thankful for what you’ve got.

“I tried to go back to art school but my paintings didn’t look the same anymore. But I still draw, I do my mosaics. I take my wheelchair to the shops or down to the beach. I was always a positive person but this has shown me how important that is and to try and see the struggles of others too. I don’t think anyone can tell you what you can and can’t do. It’s up to you. It’s all your choice.”

If you know someone with an inspiring story like Toula’s, then nominate them here