Bling Bling Costumes Yeppoon owner Ren Roby recovers from brain bleed

Ren Roby was at home about to cook dinner when she suddenly felt excruciating pain. It was a bleed on her brain. Read about her recovery.

Ren Roby at her Yeppoon business, Bling Bling Costumes.

A Yeppoon businesswoman who survived a brain bleed and was in an induced coma is back to running her shop, all with the help of her customers.

Bling Bling Costumes owner Ren Roby said she has been undergoing intensive rehabilitation every week; learning to read, speak and calculate after the incident in April last year.

“If I try to read and speak it out, I sound like a two year old,” Ren said.

“It’s incredibly frustrating, I was always an avid reader… I couldn’t even remember the letters… there’s been a lot of tears, why am I not the way I was?”

Last April Ren was at home about to start cooking dinner when all of a sudden she felt overwhelming pain in her head.

“The pain just shot so intensely I was screaming with agony,” she said.

Ren was flown by Angel Flight to Brisbane where she spent three weeks in hospital as a bleed was discovered on her brain.

She then had to go back for surgery.

After a four-hour surgery on her brain, she spent a week in an induced coma and another couple of weeks in hospital.

“It ended up being a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be,” she said.

Coming home from the hospital from a big shock.

“I didn’t know where I was, my husband had to hang onto me the whole way home in the airport so I wouldn’t get lost… I couldn’t read anything or add any maths up,” Ren said.

Halloween is Ren’s favourite time and it is inspiring her to push through.

“It is my most exciting time of the year,” she said.

“I don’t know how I am going to get through it but I’m going to do it, I’m very determined.”

As she recovers, the Yeppoon community is rallying behind her.

“I’m very lucky to have survived, very lucky to have the people around me,” Ren said.

“My customers have been really supportive, the first day I came back to work I only survived two hours.

“The customers have even helped me add up the maths and read things… people have been really supportive.”

ANGEL FLIGHT

Angel Flights has conducted 800 flights in the Rockhampton region in the past 18 months and approximately 5,000 in the 20 years of operation.

Angel Flight operates at no cost to the passenger and does not receive government funding.