She was 38 years old when she suddenly suffered a stroke.
"I was at preschool to pick up my daughter when it suddenly started ringing in my ears. Then I collapsed and fell unconscious.
Annika was lucky in the bad luck. Her friend quickly understood what she had been suffering from and raised the alarm. An ambulance was nearby and the hospital was just minutes away.
Lived in the United States
At the time, the family lived in the United States. Nowadays they live in an adapted villa in Gislaved. When SVT visits, the four children are in full swing installing nets on the new trampoline in the garden.
"Children are good at adapting. I don't think they think about the fact that it's weird that my mother is in a wheelchair. That's just the way it is," says Annika's husband, Anders Gaardsdal.
For the first few years, Annika received good rehabilitation, although she felt that she needed more. Now the visits to a speech therapist have been thinned out and she has, among other things, applied to a rehabilitation center in Blekinge, but the region says no.
Getting better
"The region says that there is no evidence that intensive rehabilitation is of any benefit so long after the injury. But we can see that I'm getting better and better," she says, and Anders agrees:
"Every time we can remove an aid, it's a victory.
In the clip, Annika and Anders talk about the struggle after the stroke