Her speech therapist, who later became a close friend, suggested Wolf consider speech language therapy as her next career. Intrigued, Wolf talked it over with her family and soon after enrolled in school to earn her second bachelor’s degree.

Katherine Wolf’s Long, Winding and Ultimately Triumphant Road to Being an SLP

By Christina Eichelkraut

“Life is what happens when you’re making other plans” is a quote often misattributed to John Lennon but was actually written by Allan Saunders for a 1957 issue of Reader’s Digest.

No matter who said it first, it’s a sentiment Katherine Wolf, a speech pathologist, stroke survivor (and that’s dozens of strokes, both “mini-strokes” and full-on strokes), and mother of two children, deeply understands.

Katherine was a 25-year-old middle school teacher happily expecting her first born child when she was diagnosed with an extremely rare brain condition. That wasn’t her first major health challenge, and it wouldn’t be her last. But Wolf didn’t let anything it stop her from becoming a speech language pathologist and helping people with disabilities

The Unexpected Complication Within a Complication

It started with her complicated, high-risk pregnancy.

Wolf, who had Type 1 diabetes and preeclampsia throughout her pregnancy, was put on a bed rest only 12 weeks into her pregnancy. Her son was born early at 35 weeks but, after spending some time in the NICU, Wolf and her newborn returned home.

Except Wolf started having numbness in her right arm. Concerned, she went to the hospital, where doctors instructed her to slow down the ramping down of her blood pressure medications and get some rest.

But by the time she got home from the doctor’s office she was unable to walk fully. Her condition continued to worsen until, around 2 a.m., Wolf found herself completely paralyzed on her right side.

She went back to the hospital where physicians said although she was presenting with all the symptoms of a stroke their imaging showed nothing. Wolf was transferred to a larger hospital where, several days later, she received her diagnosis: Moyamoya disease.

The extremely rare disease causes the main artery in the skull to become narrow and blocked, reducing blood flow to the brain and “mini strokes,” or transient ischemic attacks (TIA).

Or, as Wolf puts it, “It’s like your brain goes from a five-lane highway to a one-lane highway really fast and there’s nowhere for the blood to go.”

Most people who do have Moyama disease are diagnosed in infancy or, alternately, in middle age around their 40s.

Wolf was neither of those.

“Here I was, a happy, healthy 25-year-old, and it turns out I was having strokes because I have a brain disease,” Wolf said.

Rehab Plus Baby

In 2018, after a number of strokes that Wolf said blurred into what felt like “one big stroke,” she underwent emergency brain surgery.

“[The strokes] were just innumerable because of what was going on,” Wolf said.

The surgery was an indirect bypass, meaning surgeons took part of her internal carotid artery and sewed it to the top of her brain.

“It would be kind of like a tree where the roots would take hold into my brain,” Wolf explained.

It takes about six to eight weeks for that cardiovascular re-plumbing to take root, a time during which Wolf underwent rehabilitation therapy…and another seven or eight full strokes, not the “mini” strokes she had been having.

That meant Wolf was in and out of the hospital, going to rehabilitation appointments, and focused on re-learning how to walk, talk, read, write…all with an infant son to care for.

Fortunately, Wolf’s rehabilitation team and family stepped up to the challenge, adapting her therapy to suit her practical life situation.

“My rehab team was incredible because during my PT sessions, when I was working on walking, she would have me carry a 10-pound weight almost like a baby so I could practice walking with a baby,” Wolf said. “During my [occupational therapy] sessions, my OT would have me working on changing a diaper, dressing myself and dressing a baby.”

Her therapists would have her family bring in her son when possible and practice tending her baby while doing other tasks like cooking or working on the computer.

“Just trying to do some of those basic mom things that you don’t think about as someone who is going through rehab,” Wolf said.

A New Calling…and New Blessings and Challenges

As she advanced in her recovery, Wolf knew she couldn’t return to teaching, despite regaining her basic living skills.

“My deficits were too big, specifically in the multi-tasking and the processing and things like that, to handle a classroom of 30 or more kids,” Wolf said.

Her speech therapist, who later became a close friend, suggested Wolf consider speech language therapy as her next career. Intrigued, Wolf talked it over with her family and soon after enrolled in school to earn her second bachelor’s degree.

It was a new start in more ways than one. Around this time, Wolf became pregnant with her daughter.

Again, it was a high-risk pregnancy. But this time the preeclampsia and diabetes complications were compounded by her inability to be on certain medications used to treat her brain disease.

“But I made it through the pregnancy, and she was born at 34 weeks, for all intents and purposes a very happy and healthy baby,” Wolf said.

The day after her daughter was born, Wolf – still recovering from a C-section – had another stroke.

“I remember standing at her bedside in the NICU and looking at the nurse and saying, ‘I think I’m having a stroke right now. I need to go back to the room,'” Wolf said.

Fortunately, she was already in the hospital and was able to receive imaging and treatment. Even better, after that stroke, Wolf spent the next few months stroke free, raising her children and completing her bachelor’s degree.

The family moved to Utah so Wolf could begin work on her master’s degree.

Then, she began to have mild stroke symptoms again.

“I didn’t have any full-on strokes but I had some weakness here and there, some dizziness here and there,” Wolf said.

Doctors wanted to do another surgery, on the other side of her brain. This time it was a direct bypass that took effect immediately because surgeons attached parts of her her carotid artery directly into her brain, as opposed to just on top of her brain as the first surgery had done.

So there Wolf was, six weeks into her graduate degree program and facing the prospect of having to be out of class for at least the next six weeks.

Despite the bumpy start, the experience gave Wolf an even more clear focus on just why she was pursuing her new vocation.

“Because I knew what it was like to be on the patient’s side of the table, and I was learning to be on the clinician’s side of the table.”

“And through all of those experiences…it gives me a level of understanding and empathy that I think sometimes therapists are missing because they haven’t been through what patients have gone through,” Wolf said.

And that, in turn, helped to motivate her to finish her degree with a clear and specific aim in mind.

“It really helped me direct my goals and dreams as a new clinician,” Wolf said. “My dream was to work with other stroke survivors and help, specifically younger stroke survivors, help them get back to where their life was before.”

It took a lot of planning, intentionality and support, but Wolf finally graduated with her master’s degree and became an SLP.

New Chapter

After graduating, Wolf spent a little over a year working at a rehabilitation facility, moving from there to an acute care position.

But then she found her new work home at the Maryland School for the Blind.

“I just love it,” Wolf said. “I always told my family I am not interested in working in a school unless it’s a specialty school for kids who have complex bodies, complex communication and complex needs.”

Of course, things haven’t turned out exactly as planned, but that, too, has been a blessing in disguise.

She originally wanted to work with young adults, but Wolf said her students range in age 3- to 21-years-old, with some of those students having terminal conditions.

Many students have several conditions or disabilities in addition to vision impairments, and they hail from all over the region. They attend the Maryland school because it offers support regional public schools may not be able to.

She’s able to relate to the students in a unique way, too.

“I get it,” Wolf said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, nobody knows what you have? Me either,'” she laughed.

Still, it’s hasn’t always been easy to have a sunny disposition.

Wolf said that if someone had told her “everything happens for a reason” when she was in the midst of going through the worst of her health challenges she probably would have derisively dismissed that as “bull-crap.”

“But, looking back, if I hadn’t experience what I experienced I wouldn’t be where I am today,” Wolf said. “And so, I’ve really had to allow myself to be resilient, and I’ve had to learn how to accept things that come because you never know where you’ll end up.”

ABOUT BRAIN INJURY ASSOCIATION OF ARIZONA

The Brain Injury Association of Arizona (BIAAZ) is the only statewide nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of adults and children with all types of brain injuries through prevention, advocacy, awareness and education. BIAAZ also houses the Arizona Brain Health Resource Center, a collection of educational information and neuro-specific resources for brain injury survivors, caregivers, family members and professionals.

What began in 1983 as a grassroots effort has grown into a strong statewide presence, providing valuable life-long resources and community support for individuals with all types of brain trauma at no charge.