King‘s partner, Abby Holliday, 27, told the Herald his memory of the day things unravelled remained fuzzy.
“It was Valentine’s Day that he came home from work with a bit of a headache, and we headed out for the night to go camping, just sort of thinking nothing of it,” she said.
By midday the next day, the headache became “pretty gnarly”.
After a sleepless night in pain, the pair thought he was suffering from a migraine and sought advice from Healthline.
King’s fingers began to tingle, so the pair rushed to a 24-hour care clinic.
After getting some fresh air, King collapsed and was later struck with a seizure-like episode because of the pressure buildup in his head.
King was stiff, muddled and agitated.
King‘s partner, Abby Holliday, told the Herald Joel's memory of the days things unravelled remained fuzzy. Photo / Supplied
‘If they don’t do something about it, Joel will die’
King was taken in an ambulance to hospital where a CT scan showed his ventricles were full of fluid.
“Your ventricles make the spinal fluid that drains naturally through the body, and they were full and incredibly enlarged.”
Holliday said medical staff did not know why they were enlarged.
“All they knew at that point is if they don’t do something about it, Joel will die,” Holliday said.
King was then taken for an emergency external ventricular drain procedure.
The morning after the surgery, an MRI revealeda colloid cyst was blocking King’s ventricle drainage.
Joel King, 28, was diagnosed with a colloid cyst, a benign tumour in his brain, which led to a stroke. Photo / Supplied
Diagnosis and vision problems
Holliday said she understands many people who have a colloid cyst are not aware of it until they have a knock on the head or find it by chance during a CT.
“Joel’s was never known about, had sudden symptoms, and then ended up [needing] life-saving surgery out of the blue,” she said.
After a successful surgery to remove the cyst, he was moved to the neuro progressive care unit.
It was discovered something was “really wrong” with King’s vision because he wasn’t opening his eyes.
Doctors looked back over a previous MRI, and they found he had a stroke.
“It’s the first time that we found out Joel had a stroke... like six days later.
“It was so much pressure on the brain it sort of stopped the blood flow to the optical lobe, so where his vision box is in his brain, for long enough obviously to cause some damage,” she said.
A couple of weeks later, King moved to Burwood in the Stroke Care unit in Canterbury, where he recovered well.
A young builder had his life turned on its head when he was struck by a severe headache that quickly spiralled into a life-threatening condition. Photo / Supplied
‘You’ll never drive again’: Road to a new normal
King was told the damage from the stroke was significant. After weeks in rehabilitation, he was finally discharged on April 1.
Holliday said an eye specialist told them he would never drive again and the chances of him returning to his job would be “super slim”.
King said he’s struggling to come to terms with everything.
“Finding the new norm ... I still want to be like normal ... I want to be able to do everything that everyone else can,” he said.
Before the stroke, Joel was working as a builder and loved hunting every chance he got. Photo / Supplied
Holliday said King used to hunt every minute he wasn’t working, and they are working towards finding a new way for him to do this.
“We can still do that eventually, but it is going to look very different.”
Since his diagnosis, King’s friends have stepped up and taken him to do “normal bloke stuff”.
Joel King said he had lost all of his independence. Photo / Supplied
“Your life literally gets completely turned upside down and some things taken away from you, and you really do have to fight and work to get them back,” Holliday said.
The funds donated to the Givealittle will go towards specialised rehabilitation through the Laura Fergusson Brain Injury Trust.
