Pete Strom was the last person his friends and loved ones expected would have a stroke. The Centennial, Colorado resident is a lifelong skier who works out almost daily, eats whole foods, keeps his mind sharp with his acoustic guitar, and has no family history of stroke or personal risk factors. But on Super Bowl Sunday 2023, Strom looked at his family and found himself physically unable to speak.
“I remember turning to look at my granddaughter, and I couldn’t talk — I couldn’t get any words out,” Strom said. “I looked over to my wife and tried to say, ‘I can’t talk,’ and she said, ‘What?’”
With no forewarning, the stroke Strom survived that day blew up his plans for the future like “a roadside bomb,” derailing his career, his hobbies, and even his ability to speak. In the three years since, with the help of the team at CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, an occupational therapist, and a speech therapist, Strom has been walking a new, unexpected road — a path of recovery.
‘Outstanding Care’ Through the Unexpected: Colorado Stroke Treatment
Strom and his family had just arrived in Breckenridge to enjoy a week of skiing. A husband, father of four, and grandfather of six, Strom is also an avid skier who has been on the slopes since he was 10.
As the family sat down to a pizza dinner, Strom and his wife noticed that he was having trouble speaking. The family took Strom to CommonSpirit St. Anthony Summit Hospital in nearby Frisco, from where Strom was eventually flown via Flight for Life helicopter to St. Anthony Hospital in Lakewood, where CommonSpirit offers a state-of-the-art Comprehensive Stroke Center.
“Being a lifelong skier, I had looked forward to a helicopter ski tour sometime. It wasn’t quite exactly what I’d been looking forward to,” Strom recalled.
“Comprehensive Stroke Center” isn’t just a name for a cutting-edge stroke care unit; it’s the most demanding certification a hospital can earn from the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association’s certification programs, and it signals that a hospital can handle the most complex stroke patients.
Strom received three days and two nights of inpatient care at the center, where an MRI confirmed that he had indeed suffered a stroke. While his stay at St. Anthony was just the beginning of Strom’s long recovery, he fondly remembers the people who cared for him.
Despite being woken regularly throughout the night to take cognitive tests, Strom befriended his overnight nurse, with whom he could joke and laugh. During the day, Strom’s nurse, Josie, was “the biggest sweetheart,” offering him “just fantastic” care. And since his discharge, Strom has worked with Nurse Practitioner Kellie Costanza, who has served as his neurology caregiver and has “been such a blessing” to him.
“The care I got in that stroke ICU was outstanding — I can’t say enough good things about them,” Strom said.
‘It’s Going to Be a Long Road’: Stroke Rehabilitation in Colorado
After discharge from St. Anthony Hospital, Strom had plenty of work to do. In the hours after his stroke, Strom’s ability to speak went in and out. By the time he woke up the morning after the event, the singer, guitarist, and former software executive found that the stroke’s impact on his speech was “quite profound.”
“That was pretty crushing the next morning when I woke up and found out that it had settled in and was there for good,” said Strom, who has sung in a band, led worship at his church, and even recorded an album in the past.
Strom found that his tongue and lips were no longer working together correctly, meaning it took a great effort to form any words. When he went to brush his teeth after his hospital discharge, Strom also discovered a loss of coordination in his right hand, which serves as an important tool for the guitarist of 35 years.
Apart from his close family and his wife of nearly 46 years, Strom has found music and skiing among the most important and defining parts of his life.
Within a few weeks of his stroke, Strom realized that his career was gone — with his speech so impacted by the stroke, the future retirement he’d planned for had to happen immediately (while he left his job, Strom did have time to take advantage of his employer’s Long Term Disability policy, a benefit he now recommends to everyone). But he couldn’t lose his singing, strumming, or skiing.
In the three years since the stroke, Strom has worked hard to recover his voice and his dexterity in his right hand, which started with six months of speech therapy and three months of occupational therapy, respectively. He’s invested in guitar lessons with a teacher who’s guiding him through music theory and technique, and he’s rediscovered how much singing means to him.
“I’ve been working on recovering [the singing], because historically it’s been such a point of joy in my life,” Strom said.
Strom has also been on the slopes as much as he can since his stroke. He resumed skiing a month after the event and skied 38 days last season.
Still, the recovery has been a challenge for a man who’s always wanted to push ahead. Strom is the type of person who will get injured, get assigned to six weeks of physical therapy, and push to complete his recovery in four weeks instead. But a major neurological event will defy a person’s desired healing timeline.
“You can’t work harder and make the neurons grow back faster around the impacted area. Sorry to say it, but it’s going to be a long road,” Strom said. “...You have to come to grips with the fact that you’re never going to be the same.”
Strom is still on that road of acceptance, he said. While he once planned to do some sort of software sales consulting or teaching after officially retiring, the stroke and recovery have largely taken away that desire. For now, he’s staying open to future possibilities.
In the aftermath of his own stroke, Strom didn’t have people around him who knew, firsthand, what a stroke and recovery felt like. Strom recommends that other stroke survivors utilize a stroke support group like the ones at St. Anthony Hospital that meet monthly both in person and via Zoom.
“Comiserating with others to get a perspective on the range of impacts from something like a stroke, as well as having people that understand, or they’re further down the road, and they can tell you, this is what three years look like — those kind of things really are valuable,” Strom said.
Seeking Stroke Care in Colorado?
If you or a loved one are experiencing stroke symptoms, or if you're looking for advanced stroke rehabilitation and support, learn more about the comprehensive stroke care services offered at CommonSpirit.
