Podcasts about Stroke

Join me as I have a chat with Jan Burl, known as author jsburl, MA, is a hemorrhagic stroke survivor who lives in Northern NY. She loves family, crocheting, the mountains, dragons, gardening, writing poetry and stories, sketching and oil painting, dragons, and animals large and small. Did I mention she loves dragons? She lives with Tippy, the 4 legged star of Tippy's New Friend, a children's story series, the second being released next year. She recently finished her master's degree in Creative Writing and Poetry summa cum laude. She was inducted into Sigma Tau Delta International English Society, and The National Society of Leadership and Success. Jan is an international motivational speaker and will soon become a Life and Wellness Coach for Stroke and Traumatic Brain Injury Individuals, their Caregivers and loved ones. She has been a journalist winning state and US competitions. Her poetry has appeared in the Adirondack Center for Writing, Sunflower Poetry Review, Waverly Press Poetry Review, Spillwords, Prose-n-Poetry Anthology 2003, International Library of Poetry, American Poets Society, Theater of the Mind, plus more, and The BeZine, where she is an associate production editor. The stroke took her mobility, but not her creativity. Her favorite thing to tell people is, “Don't fight the journey, but sit back and enjoy the ride. Make every day an exceptional day..”

This episode features Are You Smarter Than A College Community Dropout, putting Mahoney head-to-head with a listener as they answer the same questions. Who's actually smarter… and who just thinks they are?It also features Redneck Report, with bizarre, wild, and sometimes unbelievable stories from Florida and beyond.Segments & Timestamps10:52 -Pop Trash17:23 -Are You Smarter Than A College Community Dropout32:13 -Redneck ReportFollow Dave & Mahoney everywhere:Instagram: @daveandmahoneyTikTok: @daveandmahoneyFacebook: @daveandmahoneyYouTube: @daveandmahoneyAgree? Disagree? Want to yell at us?Voicemail: 833-YO-DUMMY Additional Content: daveandmahoney.comSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Andy Southerland talks with Dr. Dipika Aggarwal as she shares her profound journey as both a physician and a patient. After battling stage four colon cancer, she faced a stroke that changed her life.  Disclosures can be found at Neurology.org. 

In this episode of It Happened To Me, we share a powerful story of resilience, creativity, and determination in the face of serious health challenges. We're honored to welcome Carolyn Routh, an award-winning musician, entrepreneur, and front-woman of the acclaimed bluegrass band Nu-Blu. With more than two decades on the road, multiple Billboard Top Ten albums, and appearances on platforms like CBS Sunday Morning, Carolyn has built an extraordinary career in music. What many don't see is the parallel journey she's been navigating behind the scenes—living with Type I diabetes and recovering from multiple strokes. Carolyn's health challenges reshaped not only her life, but her art. During her stroke recovery, she taught herself to play bass, reinventing her role in the band and reclaiming her place on stage with a renewed sense of purpose. In this conversation, we explore what it means to pursue a demanding creative career while managing chronic illness, how music can become part of healing, and what resilience really looks like when the unexpected changes everything.   In This Episode, We Discuss: Carolyn's early diagnosis with Type I diabetes and how it shaped her life before fame Surviving multiple strokes and the recovery process  Learning to play bass as part of rehabilitation and healing Returning to the stage after major health trauma Balancing touring, recording, and performance with ongoing health needs Making career accommodations without giving up on dreams How lived experience influences Nu-Blu's music  Navigating marriage, creativity, and entrepreneurship through serious illness The power of community, music, and perseverance Advice for anyone worried a diagnosis will limit their future    Resources:  Carolyn's Band Nu-Blu BlueGrass Ridge Syndicated TV Show hosted by Carolyn and Daniel Routh  FDA Drug Safety Communication: Updated information about the risk of blood clots in women taking birth control pills containing drospirenone (including Yasmin and Yaz)   Connect With Us:  Stay tuned for the next new episode of “It Happened To Me”! In the meantime, you can listen to our previous episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, streaming on the website, or any other podcast player by searching, “It Happened To Me”.    “It Happened To Me” is created and hosted by Cathy Gildenhorn and Beth Glassman. DNA Today's Kira Dineen is our executive producer and marketing lead. Amanda Andreoli is our associate producer. Ashlyn Enokian is our graphic designer.   See what else we are up to on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and our website, ItHappenedToMePod.com. Questions/inquiries can be sent to ItHappenedToMePod@gmail.com. 

One spring evening in 2024, science journalist Rachel Gross bombed at karaoke. The culprit was a bleed in a fist-sized clump of neurons tucked down in the back and bottom of her brain called the Cerebellum. A couple weeks later, her doctors took a piece of it out, assuring her it just did basic motor control - she might be a bit clumsy for a while, but she'd still be herself. But after that surgery Rachel did not feel quite like herself. So she dove into the dusty basement of the brain (and brain science)  to figure out why. What Rachel found was a new frontier in neuroscience. We learn what singing Shakira on stage has to do with reaching for a cup of coffee  — and why the surprising relationship between those two things means we may need to rethink what we think about thinking.Special thanks to Warzone Karaoke at Branded Saloon, the Computer History Museum for their archival interview with Henrietta Leiner, either the choir “Singing Together, Measure by Measure” or the Louis Armstrong Department of Music Therapy which houses it, Daniel A. Gross (... and Shakira?)EPISODE CREDITS: Reported by - Rachel GrossProduced by - Sindhu GnanasambandanEPISODE CITATIONS:Articles -“Ignoring the cerebellum is hindering progress in neuroscience.” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39934082/), by Wang et al, 2025“The cerebellum and cognition.” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29997061/), by Schmahmann JD. Neurosci Lett. 2019“How did brains evolve?” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11805823/), by Barton RA., Nature. 2002Books - Vagina Obscura (https://www.rachelegross.com/book), by Rachel E. GrossSign up for our newsletter!! It includes short essays, recommendations, and details about other ways to interact with the show. Signup (https://radiolab.org/newsletter)!Radiolab is supported by listeners like you. Support Radiolab by becoming a member of The Lab (https://members.radiolab.org/) today.Follow our show on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook @radiolab, and share your thoughts with us by emailing radiolab@wnyc.org.Leadership support for Radiolab's science programming is provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Science Sandbox, a Simons Foundation Initiative, and the John Templeton Foundation. Foundational support for Radiolab was provided by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Dr. Tesha Monteith and Dr. Michael Eller discuss the implications of CGRP therapies in migraine treatment, particularly for patients with vascular risk factors or a history of stroke.  Show citation: Eller MT, Schwarzová K, Gufler L, et al. CGRP-Targeted Migraine Therapies in Patients With Vascular Risk Factors or Stroke: A Review. Neurology. 2025;105(2):e213852. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000213852  Show transcript:  Dr. Tesha Monteith: Hi, this is Tesha Monteith with the Neurology Minute. I've just been speaking with Michael Eller from the Department of Neurology Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria on the neurology podcast on his paper, CGRP Targeted Migraine Therapies in Patients with Vascular Risk Factors or Stroke: A Review. Hi, Michael. Dr. Michael Eller: Hello. Dr. Tesha Monteith: Why don't you summarize your general approach to use of CGRP targeted therapies in patients that might be at risk for vascular events when considering safety? Dr. Michael Eller: Yeah. About acute vascular events, we should stop CGLP targeted drugs immediately. When we come to post-stroke, we should reassess the necessity of these targeted treatments after recovery. We suggest a minimum of three months pause after ischemic stroke to allow early recovery and remodeling, and then restart only after individualized benefit risk review. In high-risk primary prevention, so no stroke yet, but elevated risk, if the patients are 65 years or older with established cardiovascular disease, we should prefer traditional preventives. And if CGLP targeted therapy is essential, we should consider Gepants cautiously due to their shorter half lives. We should avoid CGLP targeted treatments in small vessel disease, distal stenosis, Raynaud's phenomenon, and uncontrolled hypertension. For acute migraine treatment, we can consider gepants or ditans as alternatives to triptans and NSAIDs in relevant stroke risk or post-stroke patients, individualized to comorbidities. Dr. Tesha Monteith: Great. And we should say that the label updates include hypertension and Raynaud's phenomenon as potential vascular complications. Otherwise, these are more theoretical risks based on what we know about CGRP. Dr. Michael Eller: Yes, I totally agree because large studies did not show any elevated cardiovascular risk signals. And for post-marketing databases, we did not see any elevated cardiovascular risk so far. However, in pre-clinical settings, studies showed large infarct size in pretreated mice. Dr. Tesha Monteith: Great. Well, thank you again for doing this work. It was a phenomenal read and congratulations. Dr. Michael Eller: Thank you. Dr. Tesha Monteith: This is Tesha Monteith. Thank you for listening to the Neurology Minute.

Show notes at pharmacyjoe.com/episode1100 In this episode, I'll discuss the safety of tenecteplase in patients with stroke mimics.

Dr. Tesha Monteith talks with Dr. Michael Eller about the implications of CGRP therapies in migraine treatment, particularly for patients with vascular risk factors or a history of stroke.  Read the related article in Neurology®. Disclosures can be found at Neurology.org. 

Ob jutrišnjem zvišanju zagotovljenih in invalidskih pokojnin ekonomisti opozarjajo, da gre le za kratkoročne popravke in ne sistemske rešitve, s čimer se nevarno približujemo izenačevanju v revščini. Kot dodaja Marko Jaklič, dolgoročno sistem ne bo vzdržen brez obljubljenih strukturnih reform. Drugi poudarki: - Zunanji ministri Unije znova o posojilu Ukrajini, pa tudi o nasilnem zatrtju protestov v Iranu. - Washington napoveduje začetek druge faze premirja v Gazi, ki predvideva razorožitev Hamasa. - Košarkarji Olimpije po napeti končnici izgubili v Benetkah, odbojkarji ACH-ja nemočni v Ankari.

Season 3, Episode 13 of The RUN TMC Podcast delivers a hyper-local update on Marin County high school basketball: midseason records, coach notes, standout players, and playoff implications for boys and girls teams across MCAL and the Bay Counties League. The episode also recaps the Run TMC community basketball appreciation event at The Hub on January 11 that featured speeches from local basketball luminaries that captured the county's basketball culture and history.  Show Notes Our friend and former guest Dave Albee is battling kidney disease and needs help. More about his battle here.  (G): Content is Mostly Global Interest Topics (M): Content is Mostly Inside Marin Topics (M!): Content is Entirely Inside Marin Topics Musical intro credit to Stroke 9//Logo credit to Katie Levine Content and opinions are those of Dave, Duffy and their guests and not of affiliated organizations or sponsors. email us at: theruntmcpodcast@gmail.com follow us on Instagram @theruntmcpodcast check out our website at: theruntmcpodcast.com thank you to our sponsors: The Hub in San Anselmo Encore Custom Apparel online and in downtown San Rafael  Batiste Rhum  The Social Klub in Sausalito San Domenico Nike Summer Basketball Camps

Dr. Bruce Davidson joins Joanna Coles to explain why a single, easily overlooked detail — President Trump's reported daily dose of 325 milligrams of aspirin — convinced him the president likely suffered a prior stroke. Drawing on decades of clinical experience, Davidson walks through why that dosage is prescribed, what it signals medically, and how it aligns with Trump's public symptoms, from shuffling and garbled speech to sleep disruption, bruising, and what he describes as post-stroke “agitated depression.” As Coles presses on judgment, decision-making, and transparency, the conversation becomes a stark examination of presidential health, medical secrecy, and what it means for the country when warning signs appear in plain sight. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Heard a Pop in My Head: The Stroke Warning Sign Most People Ignore When Phat heard a pop in his head, it didn't feel dramatic. There was no collapse. No sirens. No panic. Just a strange sensation. A few minutes of numbness. Then… everything went back to normal. So he did what most people would do. He ignored it. Five days later, he was being rushed to the hospital with a hemorrhagic cerebellar stroke that nearly cost him his life. This is not a rare story. It's a dangerously misunderstood stroke warning sign and one that often gets dismissed because the symptoms disappear. When You Hear a Pop in Your Head, Your Brain Might Be Warning You “Hearing a pop in my head” isn't something doctors list neatly on posters in emergency rooms. But among stroke survivors, especially those who experienced hemorrhagic strokes, this phrase comes up more often than you'd expect. For Phat, the pop happened while stretching on a Sunday. Immediately after: His left side went numb The numbness lasted about five minutes Everything returned to “normal” No pain. No weakness. No emergency, at least that's how it felt. This is where the danger lies. Stroke Symptoms That Go Away Are Often the Most Misleading One of the most common secondary keywords people search after an experience like this is: “Stroke symptoms that go away” And for good reason. In Phat's case, the initial bleed didn't cause full collapse. It caused a slow haemorrhage, a bleed that worsened gradually over days. By Friday, the real symptoms arrived: Severe vertigo Vomiting and nausea Inability to walk Double vision after stroke onset By Sunday, his girlfriend called an ambulance despite Phat insisting he'd “sleep it off.” That delay nearly killed him. Cerebellar Stroke: Why the Symptoms Are Easy to Miss A cerebellar stroke affects balance, coordination, and vision more than speech or facial droop. That makes it harder to recognise. Common cerebellar stroke warning signs include: Sudden dizziness or vertigo Trouble walking or standing Nausea and vomiting Double vision Head pressure without sharp pain Unlike classic FAST symptoms, these can be brushed off as: Inner ear issues Migraine Muscle strain Fatigue or stress That's why “pop in head then stroke” is such a common post-diagnosis search. The Complication That Changed Everything Phat's stroke was classified as cryptogenic, meaning doctors couldn't determine the exact cause. But the consequences were severe. After repairing the bleeding vessel, his brain began to swell. Surgeons were forced to remove part of his cerebellum to relieve pressure and save his life. He woke up with: Partial paralysis Severe balance impairment Double vision Tremors Aphasia A completely altered sense of identity Recovery wasn't just physical. It was existential. The Invisible Disability No One Warns You About Today, if you met Phat, you might not realise he's a stroke survivor. That's one of the hardest parts. He still lives with: Fatigue Visual processing challenges Limited multitasking ability Balance limitations Cognitive overload This is the reality of invisible disability after stroke when you look fine, but your nervous system is working overtime just to keep up. Recovery Wasn't Linear — It Was Personal Phat describes himself as a problem solver. That mindset became his survival tool. Some of what helped: Self-directed rehabilitation (sometimes against advice) Meditation and breath-counting to calm the nervous system Vision therapy exercises to retrain eye coordination Strength and coordination training on his affected side He walked again after about a year. Returned to work after two. And continues to adapt more than four years later. Recovery didn't mean returning to the old version of himself. It meant integrating who he was with who he became. Why This Story Matters If You've Heard a Pop in Your Head This blog isn't here to scare you. It's here to clarify something crucial: If you hear a pop in your head followed by any neurological change, even if it goes away, get checked immediately. Especially if it's followed by: Numbness Vision changes Balance issues Confusion Head pressure or vertigo Stroke doesn't always announce itself loudly. Sometimes it whispers first. You're Not Alone — And Recovery Is Possible Phat now runs a platform called Hope for Stroke Survivors, sharing stories, tools, and reminders that recovery doesn't end when hospital rehab stops. If you're early in recovery, or terrified after a strange symptom, remember this: Stroke recovery is complex Timelines vary Healing continues for years You don't have to do it alone Learn more about recovery journeys and tools in Bill Gasiamis' book: The Unexpected Way That a Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened Support the podcast and community on Patreon: Patreon.com/Recoveryafterstroke “I heard a pop in my head… and because everything felt normal again, I ignored it.” Final Thought If this article helped you name something you couldn't explain before, share it with someone you love. Because sometimes, recognising a stroke doesn't start with fear. It starts with understanding. Disclaimer: This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your health or recovery plan. “I Heard a Pop in My Head” — Phat's Cerebellar Stroke Story A pop. Five minutes of numbness. Then everything felt “normal.” Days later, Phat collapsed with a cerebellar haemorrhage. Phat Cao’s Linktree Research shortcut I use (Turnto.ai) I used Turnto.ai to find relevant papers and sources in minutes instead of hours. If you want to try it, my affiliate LINK PDF Download The Present Moment Is All We Have: You survived the stroke. Now learn how to heal from it. Highlights: 00:00 Introduction and Life Before the Stroke 01:14 The Stroke Experience 09:05 Initial Diagnosis and Recovery 13:29 Rehabilitation Journey Begins 17:44 Mental Challenges of Recovery 22:40 Identity Transformation Post-Stroke 30:57 Mindset Shifts and Control 36:39 Breath Control Techniques for Stress Relief 42:04 Managing Tremors and Physical Recovery 48:09 Growing an Online Presence and Sharing Stories 01:01:01 Understanding Stroke Recovery Transcript: Phat (00:00) on a Sunday. And then it wasn’t until I felt like severe stroke symptoms on a Friday, which was about, what is it, four or five days. And then I didn’t think I was having a stroke because I didn’t realize the details of the stroke. And so I just went about my day on that Sunday and until Friday I started getting like some BEFAST symptoms and then, you know, I tried to sleep it off it was actually just me and my girlfriend at the house and then she didn’t feel, comfortable. So then she called the ambulance, even though I told her I’ll just sleep it off. It’s okay. Introduction and Life Before the Stroke Bill Gasiamis (00:37) today’s guest is Fat Kyle, a stroke survivor who experienced something most people would brush off. He heard a pop in his head. It went away, so he kept going. Days later, his brain was bleeding. Fat story isn’t traumatic for the sake of it. It’s honest, it’s thoughtful, and it speaks directly to anyone who’s ever ignored a symptom because it didn’t last. In this conversation, we talk about delayed stroke symptoms, cerebellar hemorrhage, identity loss, invisible disability, meditation, and what it really takes to rebuild a life when your old one disappears. And if you’ve ever had that moment where you thought, was that something or nothing? This conversation really matters. Now, before we get into it, I want to briefly mention something that fits naturally with this topic. When you’re dealing with stroke, whether you’re newly affected or years into recovery, finding clear relevant information can be exhausting. research opinions, patients, stories and updates constantly coming out. And most of it isn’t written. with stroke survivors in tool I personally use and find helpful is Turn2. I like it because it cuts down the time and energy it takes to stay informed. Instead of digging through endless articles, Turn2.ai pulls together all stroke-related research updates, expert insights, and patient discussions in one place based on what you actually care about. It’s not about replacing doctors, it’s about reducing noise. when your focus, energy and capacity are limited. You’ll find the link in the description. And just to be transparent, if you choose to use my link, it helps support the podcast at no extra cost to you. All right, let’s get into Fats story. Bill Gasiamis (02:23) Phat Cao Welcome to the Phat (02:26) Hey Bill, thank you. It’s an honor to meet you. Bill Gasiamis (02:29) pleasures all mine. I pronounce that correctly? Phat (02:32) Yeah, you know you did. It’s not that complicated. Fat Cal is right. I blame my parents. Bill Gasiamis (02:39) Fair enough. that a common name in Vietnam? Phat (02:42) You know, it’s not a common name. Actually, it’s not a common Vietnamese name. But a lot of people do have fat, the first name, and then the last name people do. Some people do have it. It just happens in America, it means something else, you know, in English. Bill Gasiamis (02:58) It totally does, it sounds like I’m being mean. Phat (03:01) Yeah, I get it all the time. I’ve had to grow up like this. It’s been kind of rough. Bill Gasiamis (03:08) I hear you. Have you ever considered making a change to one of the names just for the sake of ease? Phat (03:15) Phat’s so funny. You know what? Because I wasn’t born in the US, because I live in the US. And when I got my citizenship, that was something I thought about. But then after I thought about it, I’m like, well, this is the name that was given to me. Vietnamese, it means something else. And so then I decided to keep it. Bill Gasiamis (03:33) What does it mean in Vietnamese? Phat (03:34) Phat was kind of like, means prosperity and also like high prosperity. Bill Gasiamis (03:41) Dude, that’s a cool name. Phat (03:43) Thank you, yeah. Yeah, so yeah, when I tell people, they’re like, oh wow. Bill Gasiamis (03:47) I had, ⁓ my name is not Bill, it’s Vasili. Phat’s my Greek name. My parents gave me that name when I was born. And when I had, when I turned 18 and I got my driver’s license, they asked me, because my birth certificate says Vasili, what do you wanna have on your driver’s license? And I think I made the wrong decision then. I chose Bill for the sake of ease of use. And once it’s on your driver’s license, then it goes on pretty much every other document after that. And it’s really difficult to go back and change everything. I kind of, I don’t regret it, but I love the connection to your roots, you know, with the original name that you were given. Phat (04:23) Yeah. ⁓ yeah. I get, you know what, I had that decision too, because everyone pretty much in my family, they changed their names. So, you know, when I was at that point, I decided not to. And so, hey, it is what it is. You know, I had to go through some stuff, but I think it kind of set, it created me to, you know, to kind of not care so much and just embrace my roots. Bill Gasiamis (04:59) Yeah. And with a name like prosperity, it’s probably helpful in taking, that attitude to the rest of your life, especially after a stroke, man. Phat (05:11) Yeah, yeah, definitely I had to live it, you know, but yeah. I don’t know how prosperous or how much that is since I had a stroke, but I had to live it. Bill Gasiamis (05:25) You have to adapt it somehow. So what was life like before stroke? Anyway, how did you go about your day? Phat (05:32) You know, before the stroke, was active. You know, I like to do a lot of community service. I was involved with a lot of nonprofits. You know, I felt like I did various things. You know, I went through a lot of different stages in my life, but I’ll start off coming to America here. You know, I grew up in a trailer home. My parents escaped Vietnam, took us over here. And, you know, we grew up pretty poor and so you know he’s just growing up in the US my parents didn’t know a lot of English and so that was kind of my childhood. But just growing up and slowly you know learning how to adjust you know that was kind of my thing and I was trying to learn as much as I could so that way I can help my family and stuff and you know be the one to provide and stuff too and help them out for all their sacrifices. But yeah that was my life before the stroke in a nutshell. Bill Gasiamis (06:31) What kind of conditions did they escape? Phat (06:33) You know what, was towards, it was at the end of the war and so the communists had taken over. So they were fighting for the South, you know, which is allies with the U.S. and they wanted to bring us over here for freedom. Bill Gasiamis (06:48) Wow, pretty intense. old were you? Phat (06:49) Yeah. You know, I was one year, not even one years old when I got over here, but during when they escaped, they went to a refugee camp in the Philippines and that was where I was born. I also have two older sisters that were born in Vietnam, but I was the only one born in the Philippines at the refugee camp until they got, they got accepted to the U.S. and then they took our whole family over here. Bill Gasiamis (07:16) And what year was that? Phat (07:18) Phat was 1983. Bill Gasiamis (07:20) Dude, you don’t look like you were born like in 1983. You look like you were born only like in the 2000s. Phat (07:24) Hey, I appreciate it. No, I was born in 1983. So I’m 42 right now. Bill Gasiamis (07:34) Now you don’t look like you’re 42, but that’s great. Phat (07:38) I it. Yeah, you know, I had the stroke when I was 36. So it’s been about four years and seven months. I did a calculation. Bill Gasiamis (07:48) How did that come about? happened? How did you end up having a stroke? Phat (07:54) You know, as far as the stroke, I had a hemorrhagic stroke. It was actually a cerebellar stroke and the doctors could not determine exactly how it happened. And so, you know, they did some tests and stuff, but they couldn’t figure it out. So mine is considered cryptogenic. Bill Gasiamis (08:13) Defend the means. They found the bleeding blood vessel though, right? Phat (08:19) Yeah, they found a bleeding. ⁓ One of the arteries in the cerebellum was bleeding. And so it was like, I felt like a on a Sunday. And then it wasn’t until I felt like severe stroke symptoms on a Friday, which was about, what is it, four or five days. And then I didn’t think I was having a stroke because I didn’t realize the details of the stroke. Heard a Pop in My Head And so I just went about my day on that Sunday and until Friday I started getting like some BEFAST symptoms and then, you know, I tried to sleep it off and until, you know, it was actually just me and my girlfriend at the house and then she didn’t feel, you know, like comfortable. So then she called the ambulance, even though I told her I’ll just sleep it off. It’s okay. Bill Gasiamis (09:14) Did you actually hear a pop? Felt a pop? I’ve heard similar stories before. like, what was that like? Phat (09:22) Okay, you know, I did feel a pop. And then actually, when I was stretching at that time, which I don’t tell a lot of people because it sounds really funny, but I was stretching at that time and then I felt a pop. And so that’s when like part of my left side went numb. And then I was wondering if it was a stroke and I didn’t know much about strokes, right? You have your assumptions. what a stroke is and so I was like, well maybe it’s a stroke and at that time I waited about five, 10 minutes and I felt normal again. So then I just went about my day and at that time I was doing a lot of stuff so I kind of forgot about it. Which, you know, it doesn’t make sense but yeah, I forgot about it. Bill Gasiamis (10:13) Did the numbness hang around the entire five days before you got to the hospital? Phat (10:19) It did not. It only stayed for about five minutes and then it went back to normal. Bill Gasiamis (10:25) Wow. Phat would kind of distract you from thinking that there was something wrong, right? Because the numbness goes away. hear a pop, so what? Like everything’s fine. Phat (10:26) So then… Yeah. Yeah, then I should have went to the hospital and got it sort of looked into, but at that time I didn’t. And then I just continued with what I had to do and I went back to work and not realizing it was a slow bleed. You know, I think your body, now that I’m looking back, I think your body kind of fixes itself a little bit as much as it can. And then it was like, it turned into like a slow bleed until it got to a point where. Bill Gasiamis (10:50) realizing it ⁓ Phat (11:04) I was nauseous, I couldn’t walk my vertigo, I was throwing up. My eyes, I had double vision, and that’s when it really hit me. Bill Gasiamis (11:05) just being vicious. I could be little bit of wimp, I could be the longest three in the I know why. Friday would have been the worst day, was that kind of progressively getting worse as the days were passing or did it just sort of suddenly come on on Friday? Phat (11:15) Friday. It just suddenly came on on Friday. I had a lingering like small headache, but then it suddenly came on on Friday. Bill Gasiamis (11:27) Thank Hmm. And then from there, were you, let’s go to the hospital or were you trying to play it down again? Phat (11:40) I was trying to play it down until Sunday. So I was trying to sleep it off. And then, you know, by the time Sunday hit, you know, finally my girlfriend just called the ambulance and that’s when they came and then they checked me out and they found out I was having a stroke. Bill Gasiamis (11:58) I had a similar experience. I noticed, I didn’t hear anything, but I noticed numbness in my big toe, my left toe. And that was on a Friday. And then it was slowly, the numbness was spreading from my toe to my foot, to my ankle. And then by the Friday later, so seven days later, nearly eight days later, the numbness had gone down my entire left side. Phat (12:07) Mmm. Bill Gasiamis (12:27) So I was progressively getting worse every day. It was slowly creeping up as the blood vessel kept leaking. The blood clot got bigger and bigger. And my wife was telling me, you need to go to the hospital. You need to get a checked out, all that kind of stuff. I went to the chiropractor because I thought I’d done something to my back. And that’s why I had a pinched a nerve. I thought something like that. Chiropractor couldn’t find anything. I went back to the chiropractor the Friday. The chiropractor said, you need to go to the hospital because whatever’s happening to your left side is not happening because of your ⁓ back or your spine or any of that stuff. And instead of going to the hospital when he said so, I went home. My wife said, you what did he say? I told her, I told her that he said I should go to the hospital. She said, why are you at home? ⁓ I was reluctant the whole time. Like I didn’t wanna go because I had work to do, I was busy. Phat (13:13) Really? Rehabilitation Journey Begins Bill Gasiamis (13:26) It was really busy work week. We were helping out a whole bunch of clients. So yeah, it was insane, but what you’re describing that delay, the delay is very familiar. Phat (13:35) Phat’s insane. You know, that’s the first time I’ve heard someone that has a similar experience to mine and I can relate with you. You know, I was like, it’s okay. And there was a lot going on. didn’t want to, you know, delay certain things that was going on. I was in the process of closing on a house and stuff. So I’m like, okay, let’s just finish this up. You know, I didn’t want it to put me behind or nothing. Bill Gasiamis (14:01) Yeah. What kind of work were you doing? Phat (14:03) You know, I was doing engineering, so I’m an engineer for Boeing. Bill Gasiamis (14:08) Yeah, pretty intense job. Phat (14:11) Yeah, you know, I do see that, but it wasn’t because of stress. I don’t believe it was. Because I really did have a good, I feel like I did have a good balance of with my stress and also a balance of, you know, play and stuff like that too. And I felt like I was handling it okay. Bill Gasiamis (14:31) smoking, drinking, any of that kind of stuff. Phat (14:34) You know, before then I was smoking and drinking more, but I wasn’t smoking that much. Before the stroke, I probably had quit about a year before that, but I was smoking before that for about like 10 years, 15 years. Bill Gasiamis (14:41) Yeah. Yeah, again, familiar. I was 37 when I had my bleed the first time and I was also, yeah, yeah, that’s crazy. Like it happens around the same age for so many people I’ve interviewed between the age of 35 and 40 when they’ve had bleeds specifically. I don’t know why. And my, and I was smoking for, Phat (14:58) ⁓ we’re like the same age. joke, yeah. Bill Gasiamis (15:19) I was 37, so I was smoking from the age of 13 or 14 on and off. Um, I wasn’t drinking heavily, but it was drinking. But again, my thing was, um, something I was born with. was potentially going to bleed at some point. And, um, it’s just one of those things. Uh, but I think that my, uh, my lifestyle didn’t. Phat (15:36) all yours. Bill Gasiamis (15:44) It didn’t make things better. It sort of created the perfect storm for it to bleed. And that’s why since then I don’t drink and I don’t smoke 100%. You know, like I’ve just completely stopped. I have a drink maybe once a year. Phat (15:56) yeah, I’m the same way too, I just… Yeah, I get you. I was never like a heavy drinker maybe once a weekend, you know, but now I completely stop smoking or drinking. It just doesn’t interest me. Bill Gasiamis (16:09) Yeah, what were the early days like? Were you scared? Was it confusing? How do you deal with the initial diagnosis and your brain’s bleeding? Phat (16:21) Yeah, you know, in the beginning, it was a big shock. know, I think looking at me now, you know, you couldn’t tell. But, you know, I’ve built up to this point. But the biggest thing was I had complications when I had the stroke and, know, I had ⁓ my brain was swelling and so they had to do a second surgery on me to remove part of my brain. And so then that’s what left me with the, you know, disabilities and stuff, which, you know, I had most of the symptoms that most stroke survivors experience, spasticity, aphasia. I had tremors, know, partial paralysis, my balance, vision, things like that. But yeah, it was tough for sure, just coming home and at first you’re just so busy in the hospital working to regain, you know, yourself again, to rebuild yourself. But coming home, yeah, it’s just a… It hits you because you can’t do anything that you used to do. And everything changes, know, even your relationships change. Bill Gasiamis (17:22) Yeah. Which part of the brain did they take out man? And why did they need to take it out? Was it just a blood vessel that burst or? Mental Challenges of Recovery Phat (17:33) They took part of my cerebellum out and it was because after they repaired, since I had a hemorrhagic stroke, they repaired that vessel. It was, my brain started swelling and there was blood just filling up so then they had to remove part of my brain so they can allow space for it to swell up. Bill Gasiamis (17:59) Wow. Phat (18:00) Yeah, so I don’t know, you know, they decided to remove part of my brain, but it ended up working out. Actually before that, before they removed the second surgery, I was completely partially paralyzed. But in a way, since that happened, I had some movement. Bill Gasiamis (18:18) It’s just crazy, isn’t it? I had a recent brain scan where, because I’ve been having a lot of headaches and to throw caution into the wind, like they went and got me another brain scan literally about six months ago. And it was the first time I saw what my brain looks like after brain surgery. And there’s like a canal. Phat (18:37) they do. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (18:47) like a canal from my ear, that’s all, there’s like an entry wound and then there’s a line that goes in to the spot where they went and removed the blood vessel, like where the damage has caused my deficits, the ones that are still with me. And it’s just intense that you can have a little bit of your brain missing or gone or whatever removed and you’re still functioning. It is just amazing how far technology and how far Phat (19:04) Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (19:17) Medicine has come. Phat (19:18) Yeah, that’s so incredible. The human body too, it makes you think about it. You know, I hear different things about, and just knowing like parts of our brain is dead, you know, and it’s able to, you know, regain different things. Neuroplasticity, right? Bill Gasiamis (19:36) Yeah. How long did it take you to get back on your feet after you realized you can’t walk? Phat (19:42) It took me about a year, but at that time I was still using a walker. Yeah, so about a year. Bill Gasiamis (19:47) And then from a walker, it become, how do you take the first steps away from a walker? What happened to allow that progression? Phat (19:57) you You know, I was told to use a cane and it would have helped me big time. But what I did was I skipped the cane and and then I use I just did it without the walker and I slowly built up built up the confidence. You kind of adjust. think each each time you transition like from one one from wheelchair to walker, you know, and then without the walker, you have to. Re-adapt the whole time and so that’s what I kind of did and it was ugly, know I fell a lot and stuff, but that’s what I did. I just kind of went for it Bill Gasiamis (20:33) So for those of you watching on YouTube, you might’ve noticed the change in scenery. That’s because the first part of the interview was recorded more than a week ago. And we had some technical difficulties because fat was in the car and we couldn’t get a decent connection. So we’re reconvening with that fat at home. Phat (20:55) Yeah, this is is better better connection Bill Gasiamis (20:58) Way better. And we finished the discussion off by me asking you a question about what you had said about how you continued your rehabilitation alone, where you were meant to be walking with the the Walker and you ditched it. And I was wondering, did your team find out that you weren’t walking with a Walker? Did they kind of like suss out that you We’re being, what’s the word, maybe a little bit risky or unsafe in the way that you were going about your rehab. Phat (21:34) Yeah, you know, I didn’t, I kind of, didn’t mention it to them really, but there was one of them that I did mention it to and she recommended I use a cane to be safe. And, you know, I did, I did say, tell her that I was trying it without it because I noticed that when I like switch like from the wheelchair in the beginning to the walker, it just like every time you switch, I noticed that you would have to adjust. so That’s the reason why I just went from the walker just to walking without a cane. Bill Gasiamis (22:08) Is it so that there’s less of an adjustment period between one thing to the next thing to the next thing was a kind of like just bypass everything in between and go straight to walking. Phat (22:18) Yeah, it was me being risky too, because I know if you fall or something, it could cause a lot of damage. But yeah, it was kind of my risk and my therapist, she wasn’t too happy about it. But I didn’t talk about it that much either. So I kind of kept it a little private too. Identity Transformation Post-Stroke Bill Gasiamis (22:40) what would you say some of the toughest challenges that you faced early on? Phat (22:44) I would say the toughest for sure is the mental and getting used to my new identity. You you come home and everything’s completely different. It kind of hits you at once. And I think, you know, living a normal life and then all of a you’re, you have a disability and you know, you can’t do the same things, you know, you could do the independence. So I think it’s all that. Bill Gasiamis (23:14) Yeah, you know, the mental, what does that mean for you? Like what is the mental challenge? Like, can you describe it? Phat (23:24) Yeah, I would say sadness. think anxiousness, fear. You don’t know what’s going to happen in your future. I think the unknown. Low energy. think those are the things that pop up in my head. Bill Gasiamis (23:45) Does it make you kind of overthink in a negative way or are you just comparing your old self to your new self? Phat (23:51) I think comparing my old self to my new self. Bill Gasiamis (23:55) Hmm. Do you reckon, do you reckon you brought some of that old self with you or is there a pause on the old self and why you’re kind of trying to work out what’s happening moving forward? Because a lot of people will talk about how, you know, their identity gets impacted, especially early on. And then sometimes down the track, when I speak to stroke survivors who are many years down the track, they might talk about how They brought some of their identity with them and then, and they’ve integrated that old identity into the new way they go about their lives. Early on is the old identity kind of far away over there and then there’s something completely different here. How did you experience it? Phat (24:44) Yeah, I think initially there were a lot of things and I wasn’t sure how to handle it. But I think throughout this time, you know, part of me has learned how to process it and resolve it and also rebuild myself. And so I think now, if anything, I take that experience to my present day to learn from and grow from. I feel like I’ve invested in myself enough to ⁓ not feel the same way, the negative things that, you know, were coming in the beginning. But now I think I’ve processed it correctly. And so I think I’m a lot better now. Bill Gasiamis (25:27) A lot of stroke survivors always often ask me for a timeline, you how long before this happened? How long before that happened? And we’re all so different, so it doesn’t really apply. But do you have a sense of the time that it took for you to integrate old self with new self? ⁓ I know you ⁓ got a substantial amount of your movement and your function back. How did you integrate? Phat (25:52) Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (25:53) the two and how long did it take before you kind of felt okay with who you were. Phat (25:57) Yeah, that’s a that is a hard question to say it wasn’t like Suddenly everything was okay. It was kind of a process I think as you I mean I’m for over four and a half years now and so it was gradual but I would say initially about Two years, you know is when it took me two years to build myself up to when I could finally work again and Maybe about the two-year mark I felt like things were starting to come more together. But it was an evolution. feel like, you know, every year, every month or whatever, you learn different things. And so it’s kind of a process. Even today, you know, I’m still learning different things and, you know, it’s changing too in different ways, right? But that’s how was for me. Bill Gasiamis (26:48) Yeah. What kind of person are you? Are you like curious? Are you a problem solver? I’m very interested about kind of understanding how people come to be on my podcast. I know that there’s a portion of people who come on because they want to share their story and help connect to other people. Also share their story to help people through the early days of their own challenge. People also connect to meet me so that we can create a conversation and meet each other. Phat (26:55) You know. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (27:19) How do you go about your, what is your approach to stroke recovery about? What’s the fundamental thing that it’s about? Phat (27:29) Yeah, you know, that’s what I love about your podcast because it’s people from all walks of life. And I really like how you set it up. I mean, you say you don’t have to even prepare for it, but I think I’m the type of person. Yeah, I think I am ⁓ naturally a problem solver. think, know, in initially someone asked me if I cried and normally I, I don’t cry. And I remember when I had the stroke, once I got home, You know, I suddenly broke out in tears and you know, it was with my mom right there. And so it just hit me. know, initially I think, you know, we all get hit with that and our emotions and, you know, everything bottles up and has to come out or should come out. But, um, you know, I am a problem solver. I felt like after time, it gave me some time to process it. And I started thinking a bit like, okay, so how am I going to tackle this? So I tried to think of it like a problem that I had to solve and I slowly broke it down into pieces and started building myself up. know, I mean, when you look at me now, you you wouldn’t look at me and think like, okay, his stroke probably wasn’t that bad. But you know, it’s a lot different now than it was in the beginning. And so, you know, and that’s why with me, I figured it out. I started figuring out things and slowly improved until where I’m at now. Bill Gasiamis (28:53) That whole thing is that if you look at me now, you wouldn’t know that I had a stroke and I don’t come across as somebody who had a stroke, et cetera. And that’s a real challenge for me because I have had the worst week leading up to this interview again. Today’s probably the first day I felt really good, maybe for about four or five days. And I was struggling with fatigue and I was struggling with brain fog and I was struggling with sleep. And I was just a mess. Phat (29:04) Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (29:23) half the person that I was a week earlier. And it’s. I’m always conscious about the fact that I put off of this vibe on my podcast interviews, because I try and be the best version of myself, because you need to be the best version of yourself when you’re interviewing another person, even if you don’t feel the best. ⁓ But at the same time, you want to be, what’s the word like? Phat (29:38) That’s so good, yeah. Bill Gasiamis (29:45) you wanna be authentic. I mean, that’s the only word I can come up with. And that means that I need to tell people about how I’m feeling during a podcast. Like I might be tired, half asleep. I might even come across a little bit off, but then still, this is sometimes what stroke looks like and the part of stroke. After the interviews, you may not see, you may not see what it’s like. And I don’t want people comparing themselves to me just because I mostly look okay on a podcast interview. Phat (30:21) Yeah, I think that’s the frustrating thing. no matter whether you look like it or don’t, I think we still both experience different types of things in After Effects. And I understand your situation because it is frustrating because a lot of times we might not show it, but we’re still dealing with things that survivors still experience. Mindset Shifts and Control And, you know, we in front of the camera, we had to put on a face, right. And even sometimes like at work or in front of my family, they don’t realize I’m still dealing with things. And, you know, even my significant others, there’s things she doesn’t fully understand, and I’m still dealing with it. You know, or I might do something and she’s like, why are you doing that? But she doesn’t realize what I’m going through inside. And the external is one thing and the internal is another. Bill Gasiamis (31:12) Yeah, extremely difficult for me to even wrap my head around it still. And, you know, I’m nearly 14 years post first stroke, you know, and I’m 12 years post surgery and there’s so many things that have improved and so many things that are better. But you know, when I’m, my kids were over the other day and they don’t often hang around with me for a long amount of time. So they don’t often see what it’s like for me. Phat (31:23) Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (31:41) But everyone assumes that I am what’s wrong. Like everyone assumes there’s something wrong. And it’s like, I’m not cranky. There’s nothing wrong. I’m just having a stroke day. Like I can’t be better than what I am right now. And it’s not you, you know, it’s me. Phat (31:58) Yeah, big time. Yeah, I really feel like sometimes it’s hard for people to understand too if they haven’t had a stroke, but even for survivors to know that even people with, there are invisible disabilities out there, know, and each stroke is so complex and different. So we’re all, you know, having to deal with different things. And so that’s something to be aware of. And it’s good to be aware of that. Bill Gasiamis (32:25) What are some of the things that you still miss out on that you haven’t gone back to or you can’t do anymore or you choose not to do? Phat (32:36) Yeah, you know, I used to be a lot more active. I like, I love to snowboard before I can’t do that anymore because my balance is not at that point. And, plus I don’t want to take that risk in case something happens. Like, you know, I get some kind of traumatic brain injury or something or fall. ⁓ You know, my coordination, my fine manipulation isn’t good. My memory isn’t the best. I still have double vision, so I can’t do any type of like, like people are trying to invite me to play pickleball and I definitely can’t do that. You know, I can’t fall and track the ball, you know, plus my balance is horrible. Yeah. You know, I think my processing, I can only retain so much information or like Multitasking even though I think I believe multitasking isn’t the best but it’s like I can’t multitask, know, so you have to really focus in on one thing You know, I mean I built myself up to this point But it’s hard to do multiple things like if I’m really focused on something it’s hard for me to pay attention to something else Yeah, those are just some things Bill Gasiamis (33:52) You know with double vision, I don’t know anything about it. I’ve met so many stroke survivors who have double vision as a result of the stroke. Phat (34:00) Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (34:01) This might sound like a silly question. If you close one of your eyes, does the double vision go away? Phat (34:08) It does go away. So just to explain, it’s just your eyes aren’t… normally your eyes work together, but then one is kind of offset a little bit. So you’re seeing two pictures, but if you close one eye, then the double vision goes away. But in order for you to improve the double vision, you got to train it to work together. Bill Gasiamis (34:23) Okay. Is that some kind of training that you’ve done that you’re continuing to do? Phat (34:30) So there’s. ⁓ Yeah, know what I did initially, I saw a vision therapist that I was seeing them for about a year, but it got really expensive. So I stopped. But now I’m just taking what I learned and I’m practicing it on my own. There is an option for people to get surgery, but I am focused on just doing everything naturally. And so it’s still healing as long as I continue to practice it and exercises stay consistent. But just recently, since I’m doing a lot of things, I haven’t been as good at being consistent with my vision therapy exercises, so it’s actually getting worse. Bill Gasiamis (35:14) huh. So what does the surgery do? Does it change the position of the eye? Phat (35:16) Yeah. Yeah, the surgery does change the position and then it corrects it right away. Which there’s a lot of survivors that have done that. My double vision actually was really extreme, but it’s at the point now where it’s almost corrected. Bill Gasiamis (35:40) And is that a muscle issue? that like, you know how some strike survivors talk about weakness on their left side? It’s that the muscle activates or becomes deactivated in a particular way. And therefore it doesn’t respond in the same way that it used to. It doesn’t contract and release from the contraction in the same way that it used to. Is that a similar thing that’s happening to the eye? Breath Control Techniques for Stress Relief Phat (36:09) Yeah, it is kind of similar to that. And so what I’ve learned from talking to different therapists, it helps when you like isolate one side and you build that side and strengthen it. And so that’s the part where I’m missing because I’m working them together, but still the affected side is weaker. And so it’s just not strong enough to keep up. It’s kind of like our bodies, like, you know how one side is more affected. So we is good for us to isolate it and build it and that’s what I try to do with my effective side normally but with the eye it’s more difficult with the eye because you really have to like wear a patch or something you know Bill Gasiamis (36:50) Yeah, I hear you. Okay, so you wear a patch, you isolate the other eye, but then at the same time, you’re decreasing the strength of the other eye, or you might be interfering with that one by isolating it. Phat (37:02) Yeah, you’re right. Yeah, that’s exactly it. So you don’t want to patch it too much because you also want the eyes to work together. Bill Gasiamis (37:09) Yeah, that sounds like a task. I know going to the gym when I’m ⁓ pushing weights with the barbell, my left side might be pushing the same amount of weight, but it’s never going to become as big or as strong as my right side. It always seems to be just, you know, the few steps behind it, no matter what I do. it’s improving in strength, but it’s always the weakest link. It’s always the link that kind of makes the last few exercises not possible because it fatigues quicker than the right side. Phat (37:43) Yeah. Yeah, that’s what I deal with too. And a lot of times your dominant side does help it out a lot. Bill Gasiamis (37:58) kind of dominant side, my dominant side kind of over helps. And then it puts that side at risk. Phat (37:58) So yeah, sometimes. Yeah, it will help. Yeah, big time. You know, I’ve learned that there’s different ways to do it. You can build that affected side like with reps and then also sometimes doing a little bit heavier just a few times. I don’t know. I feel like it gets really in depth like how you want to do it. You know, sometimes even like holding a lightweight like up for a long time, it kind of gets heavy and it wants to like fatigue out real fast. So there’s different variations that I’ve learned throughout this process. Bill Gasiamis (38:40) Yeah. Was there a moment, would you say that you had a moment where your mindset shifted and you realized that you were kind of growing through this, even though you had all this challenge and difficulty that you had to overcome? Phat (38:58) Yeah, you know, I have to really think about it. It’s kind of just been a process and I’ve kind of accepted so much to happen, but I would say for the longest time over a year, you know, I would go down on myself and think about, ⁓ I miss the old ways. But I think as I’ve continued on this path and Maybe I don’t think about it as much because I keep myself busy and just trying to recover. so, yeah, but I think I’m trying to think of when it was like kind of like a light bulb moment, but I kind of knew that I couldn’t stay stuck in that because I couldn’t change anything about it. So I had to focus on what I could do or what I had control over. Bill Gasiamis (39:52) Yeah, that control part is really important. It seems like people who lose control of things ⁓ tend to, depends if you’re a control freak kind of person, right? Some people really like the illusion of control. They tend to feel good when things are predictable. I’m kind of that way, I lose, if I lose predictability, take control. I like to take a few steps back and see what I can control. can control the way I think about things, the way I respond to things, the way I act, the way I behave. It becomes about what then I can control on a micro scale. Whereas some people will do control on a macro scale. And some people will control like, Phat (40:16) Yeah. Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (40:44) their environment and if their environment is okay, then they’re okay within their environment. But I don’t try and control external things. I try to influence them in a positive way, but I won’t expect an outcome from something that I don’t have any influence over. ⁓ And then I kind of try and work on what do I need to do to feel better about that thing that I am out of control of that I cannot change. but I can change how I respond to it. That’s kind of where all the work has been. Like where’s the work for you been? Phat (41:21) Yeah, you know, I do know that I do practice meditation and even before I had a stroke, I did practice meditation and that is one of the big things from meditation that you just naturally have that mindset to do that and to understand. And so I feel like that practice has actually helped me to be more flexible and accept certain things and focus on what I can control more. But just to say with the benefits of meditation, a lot of the benefits are specifically for stroke survivors. So I feel like it has helped me tremendously. Managing Tremors and Physical Recovery Bill Gasiamis (42:04) Did it begin, was that kind of one of the tools that helped you to begin to feel hopeful again? Phat (42:10) Yeah, to feel hopeful, to be able to focus better, have better memory, I guess reduce the pain that I was feeling, the depression. Yeah, there’s a list of things, yeah, think that’s, those are the ones off the top of my head. Yeah, I know it’s like. Bill Gasiamis (42:32) Are you a guided meditation? Phat (42:35) You know, I don’t, I just do ⁓ the most simple breath counting meditation. Yeah. It’s kind of, I can explain it, but you just focus on your breathing and counting. So it helps you with your focus too. don’t know. A lot of survivors have a problem with their focus. I did. So, and I still do actually now it’s not like to where I was before the stroke, but it’s getting almost there. Bill Gasiamis (42:45) What’s your kid? Counting how many counts in, how many counts out do you do? Phat (43:10) So you do inhale and exhale is one, inhale, exhale two, all the way till ten, and then you start over again. If that makes sense, yeah. Bill Gasiamis (43:23) So you just basically trying to get even inhale and exhalations. Are they even? they one is longer than the other or shorter than the other? Like how does it go? Phat (43:36) You can do even. I tend to do a longer exhale. Maybe like a, well, cause now I’ve built up the endurance. do about five second in inhale and then like a eight second exhale. But I also put together a PDF. I can send it to anybody for free if they want to just reach out to me. Yeah. And I can, you can put my information on the show notes. Yeah. It’s a really basic thing I put together if anyone’s interested. And Navy SEALs, use this type of, I mean, it’s also called box breathing. It’s kind of box breathing or meditation. And, you know, I know they use it for like extreme stress and things like that too. Bill Gasiamis (43:59) Okay, cool. helps people calm their autonomic nervous system to go into a parasympathetic state, which is the relaxed state. That’s what the, yeah, the longer exhalation helps people go there. You can basically intervene in a ⁓ heightened anxious state or a stressed state or a upset state. And you can intervene within a few minutes and bring yourself into a calm state just by changing the way that you breathe. You know what’s really cool fat? Phat (44:29) That’s exactly it, yeah. Bill Gasiamis (44:53) my gosh, I learned this the other day on TikTok. think I saw it. I can’t remember who it was that showed it to me. So unfortunately I can’t credit them, but also people who do yoga or that kind of stuff probably already know this, but to me it was like the most brand new amazing thing that I’ve ever learned. And what it was, if you can see my fingers, right? They said that if you try this, if you press ⁓ your thumb onto the finger after Phat (44:54) Yeah. and Bill Gasiamis (45:22) your little finger, I don’t know what it’s called, finger. So these two, so not your thumb, your thumb and not the little finger, the next one over. When you breathe, what do you notice? And what I noticed, tell me if you noticed this, is I noticed that my breathing shifts from my belly to my chest. somehow my chest takes over the breathing. Somehow my breath moves to my chest and it feels like a labored more anxious breath, right? And then if you shift it from that to your thumb and your first finger, Phat (45:43) But, sorry, just need to focus. Thank Bill Gasiamis (46:06) your breath automatically shifts to the belly and your diaphragm expands and contracts. And I tried that and I had the most profound experience. The first finger, your first finger and your thumb, two fingers next to them. Phat (46:16) really? on. Bill Gasiamis (46:26) Yeah, those two, yeah, yeah. ⁓ I felt like my breath shifted automatically on its own when I did that. And I don’t know if everyone gets that experience. So then for fun, I tried it with my wife and I said to her, can you please do this with your fingers? The first one was the little finger. I wish I knew what they were called, but the finger next to the little finger and the thumb. Phat (46:26) this. really? Bill Gasiamis (46:54) I asked her to do that and I asked her to tell me how does that feel when you’re breathing and she said that feels really terrible, I feel anxious. And I said, okay, cool. Now just please change it to the other two fingers, the first finger and your thumb and then see what that feels like. And she said that feels far better and the anxiousness has gone away. Phat (47:17) Really? Wow. Bill Gasiamis (47:18) Yeah. So I reckon if you have a play with that and you pay attention, I think I’ve seen a lot of yogis or people who practice yoga or who meditate, think I’ve seen people hold their fingers like that. And as a result of that, perhaps they automatically instinctively activate the diaphragm and the belly breath instead of the chest breath, which is the more anxious breath. It was such an interesting little hack to experience literally by changing which two fingers you’re pressing together. And it kind of connects to that meditation side of it. And I think it would add for me, it would add something extra to meditation that I previously didn’t know about. So isn’t that fascinating? Growing an Online Presence and Sharing Stories Phat (48:09) Yeah, that is so fascinating. I actually don’t even normally sit like that. I just put my hands in my lap. But I did. If you notice, I still have tremors on this side, and that’s how I actually got my tremors to reduce is I would hold it like this sometimes and just meditate. And then it’s just like heels or something. But yeah, before it used to shake a lot. Now it’s a lot better. Bill Gasiamis (48:17) Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So do the meditation from now on. Phat (48:39) but sometimes just doing these finger taps. Bill Gasiamis (48:42) Yeah, right. That’s for coordination and that, right. Phat (48:44) Okay, you might try that. Yeah, yeah. Also you do use the pointer finger and the thumb. Bill Gasiamis (48:47) Yeah, try those first two fingers. Make a circle with it. That’s it, is that what it’s called, the pointer finger? Phat (48:55) Okay Bill Gasiamis (48:57) just connects to your belly. Phat (48:59) I’m off to the end. Bill Gasiamis (49:01) I have no idea how, but I love it. love that it does. It’s such a cool thing. Phat (49:05) Yeah, especially you feel that I’m gonna try it. Yeah Bill Gasiamis (49:10) So you know that tremor that you said about your hand, is that also in your leg? Phat (49:15) No, it’s only the hand. Bill Gasiamis (49:17) and it it gets worse when you are tired, I imagine. Phat (49:19) Yeah. Yeah, it does get worse under like pressure or if I’m tired. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (49:32) but you’ve found that it’s settled down a lot since the early days. Phat (49:37) Yeah, it has. So as I continue to build it, it has. Yeah, in the beginning it was really bad, but I continued to do different things. A lot of resistance training, like with rubber bands and stuff like that, yeah. I do different things. Bill Gasiamis (49:58) Do you remember what it was like in the early days? Is that the dominant hand that you use or? Phat (50:05) No, it’s not my dominant hand. Bill Gasiamis (50:08) Did they make you try and use it too? Okay. Phat (50:09) because I’m bright, dumb, and… Yeah, they said they want me to use it. Sometimes I do get lazy too. I try different things, like even for a time frame I’ll brush my teeth with my effective side, my non-dominant. But a lot of times I get lazy because it is a lot slower. So I just go to my dominant hand. I’m still guilty of it. Bill Gasiamis (50:39) just to get the job done quicker. Phat (50:41) Yeah, yeah. Bill Gasiamis (50:42) Tell me a little bit about your, ⁓ your Instagram page. Phat (50:49) Okay. Well, I started an Instagram page. It’s called Hope for Stroke Survivors. And initially, I just made it for myself to collect information on recovery. Because I felt like I was limited on the information out there. And I would find some stuff on social media. And so I started collecting it for myself and know, eventually I made it public and I started, people started following it and gravitating towards it. And so I decided to start sharing different like tips. And then I continued to do that and more people started following it until I think that was around a year after my stroke. And now I just continue to do that and it’s grown to this point now. And so I felt like a part of it was kind of my outlet. You know, you know, I’m passionate about strokes and I want to share and provide awareness. so, yeah, I started for myself, but now it’s grown to where it’s at now. And I feel like, you know, it’s, I want to provide hope and also share different people’s stories because I really enjoy, and I still enjoy seeing comeback stories. And so, you know, that’s what happened with that. And so now it’s been about, what is it? for four years or something. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (52:19) Hope for stroke survivors like 11.6K followers. Phat (52:23) Yes, call them. I’m sorry, what was that? Bill Gasiamis (52:26) It’s got 11.6K followers, 929 posts, and in the description it says, don’t fear change, trust the process. My goal is to spread hope while recovering from a severe stroke. Check out the stories from fellow stroke survivors too. Phat (52:45) Yeah, you know, after a while, I felt like, ⁓ I want to share survivor stories. feel like bring our community together. There’s a lot of survivors out there that are doing great things like yourself. You know, I found your stuff. And so, you know, I feel like it really gives a lot of us, you know, motivation, hope to believe what’s possible out there, because a lot of us have. you know, we get the wrong information, you know, I want to be able to show people what’s possible because a lot of times, you know, there’s like myths or whatever, and I just want to give people that hope. So I’ve expanded it to YouTube and also TikTok. And so, yeah, it’s grown tremendously on YouTube also. So it’s pretty cool. Bill Gasiamis (53:33) now. What kind of content you put out on YouTube? Phat (53:37) I, the same stuff, I pretty much just blast the same thing on. Well, now I’m starting to do more, I want to do more interviews, but recently I have kind of cut back on it because of time, but I want to do more interviews for like survivors and therapists and doctors on YouTube. I think that’s where I want to take it. Bill Gasiamis (54:00) Yeah. Yeah. To kind of share more information about the kind of ways that they help other people. Phat (54:08) Yeah, it’s exactly like, you know, what you’re doing. I think that’s amazing. I mean, you helped me out so much. remember yours is actually my top podcast and I would listen to it all the time. Bill Gasiamis (54:13) Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I really appreciate that. mean, you know what I love is that you’ve been doing this for four years. I’ve been doing this for 10. Somehow you’ve cracked the code. You’ve got 36.8k subscribers. I’ve barely got 8,000. So that’s very interesting to me. Like how that some channels that share pretty much the same type of content grow. And then mine has been going for 10 years and I can’t seem to get above 10,000 subscribers. What’s your trick? know, like how did you manage to get that many subscribers? Is there something that you do consistently? I’m also asking for me, but at the same time, there’ll be other stroke survivors who are thinking about starting a YouTube channel perhaps, or thinking about sharing some way or growing this type of a community. And they’re reluctant because they don’t know what they need to do and they don’t know what could happen. Now I’m not completely dissatisfied with 8,000 followers. I’m perfectly satisfied with that. But of course I wanna make sure I reach way more stroke survivors because that’s the whole point of this is to get out. Do you have any tips as to what it was that kind of helped the channel grow so fast? Phat (55:25) Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you know, I think a big one is consistency. You know that. But, you know, I have learned a lot of things. read a lot and a part of it is also. Initially, I would share other survivors stories and also it was ⁓ like even survivors in who have had like cancer or different types of sicknesses. And so initially I was just doing that for fun. so then I think it attracted more people because it was a variety of things. But then, you know, I know that I didn’t plan to do it. if it’s. If I was going to do that, I don’t want to share other people’s things, you know, like if I want to be more serious, I have to niche down or I got to share my own stuff because I don’t want to take stuff from people. But initially. I was sharing a bunch of stuff and not wanting, I wasn’t expecting it to grow like that and I was just doing it for my own reason, for my own purpose and I think that’s how it attracted so many people too. Bill Gasiamis (56:46) Yeah. Look, it’s, it’s very cool that, um, the people have subscribed. Absolutely. And what’s good about it, even though it’s not all your content, it doesn’t really matter because if you’re putting content out there that people, uh, I mean, you’re not stealing the content, you’re not changing the names or anything like that or repurposing it. All you’re doing is, um, uh, all you’re doing is kind of pointing people to the direction of somebody else’s content channel or whatever. you know what I mean? Phat (56:58) Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (57:17) ⁓ but I know what you’re saying. Phat (57:18) Yeah, yeah. mean, I would always put their contact or their credit. But that wasn’t my intent of doing it. And I’m not making any money off of it. But then I’m learning about, OK, what can I do to make this bigger and help more people? And now I’m trying to focus down or just come up with my own content so that way people can see that too. Bill Gasiamis (57:31) Yeah, yeah. Yeah. ⁓ I think there’s not enough voices in stroke recovery and awareness and support and why, you know, we need more. need every version of person, how they’re affected and different cultural backgrounds and that we need way more people kind of putting content out and sharing their version of the story. My story resonates with you, but it might not resonate with someone else, you know? So if, if we can have more people out there listening, who are curious about it. Phat (57:53) Yeah. You’re right, you’re right. Bill Gasiamis (58:17) ⁓ biting the bullet and doing it. It would be fantastic if that happened and then more people to collaborate with. Phat (58:21) You know, I think it’s Yeah, I think it’s easy to pay attention to the subscribers or the followers, but a lot of times too, the way how I did it is if it can just help one person, you know, that makes me happy and then it just grew like that. But that’s what I continue to do. You know, I mean, maybe there’s more subscribers. but maybe your content is connecting really deeply with more people, you know? So I feel like it can’t always be compared exactly to the followers. And if you’re a survivor, you know, I wouldn’t want to let you feel like demotivated because of that. you know, I think if you’re passionate about it, just do it. you know, I think there’s plenty of room for a bunch of people, right? Like you were saying. Bill Gasiamis (59:15) I what you said, like if you’re just passionate, just do it. That’s why I started, I didn’t start out to get a certain number of subscribers or anything like that. I just started out to share. What’s cool is that the subscribers have happened. What’s fascinating is to view like how other people have grown their channel. what, it’s a completely different version of what you’ve done and yours has grown and I’m just keen to learn about it. And I think it will encourage or help other people, you know, do the same thing. Phat (59:24) Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (59:45) ⁓ And that’s kind of why I raised it. What I love about what you said is if it helps one person, like I said the same thing, dude, it helps so many more than one person. You just don’t know it because very few people reach out. Not that you’re expecting them to, but people just get the help and then they move on and they go and do good stuff. And it’s like, even better. ⁓ But every so often I get people like you sending me messages going Thanks for that episode. That was a great interview. I really got a lot out of that Can you point me in this direction or can you connect me with that person? One of the things that I do best I think then better than anything is I can connect people from all around the world with people who Are ⁓ listening and they want to get information about the thing that you tried or that service that you ⁓ purchased or whatever, you that’s what I love about it the most is I can connect people and they could be on different continents. And I love that I can do that from Australia, you know, like it’s crazy. Understanding Stroke Recovery Phat (1:00:58) Yeah Yeah. And especially, yeah, it has affected me too. You know, like I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t be standing here like this if I didn’t hear your podcast. You know, I could literally say that, you know, so that’s pretty cool. Yeah. And you’re in Australia. I’m in Arizona. Bill Gasiamis (1:01:17) It’s fabulous, man. It’s so fascinating. That’s one of the things I love about technology is that with time, technology will improve and make things better for people. And hopefully it’ll help way more people than it’s helping at the moment. It’s definitely helped me with my mental health, having this podcast, this platform,

Cardiologist Bob Harrington talks to Mitch Elkind, chief science officer for Brain Health and Stroke at the AHA, about the heart-brain connection and why what's good for the brain is good for the heart. This podcast is intended for healthcare professionals only. To read a transcript or to comment, visit https://www.medscape.com/author/bob-harrington Life's Essential 8: Updating and Enhancing the American Heart Association's Construct of Cardiovascular Health: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association  https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001078 Migraine Headache: An Under-Appreciated Risk Factor for Cardiovascular Disease in Women https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.119.014546 Cardiovascular disease patients have increased risk for comorbidity: A cross-sectional study in the Netherlands https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2017.1398318 Characteristics and treatment of midlife-onset epilepsy: A 24-year single-center, retrospective study https://doi.org/10.1002/epd2.20253 Traumatic Brain Injury and Risk of Neurodegenerative Disorder https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2021.05.025 Cardiac Changes in Parkinson's Disease: Lessons from Clinical and Experimental Evidence https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms222413488 The neuropathological diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease https://doi.org/10.1186/s13024-019-0333-5 Failed Semaglutide for Early Alzheimer's Not the End of the Road? https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/failed-semaglutide-early-alzheimers-not-end-road-2025a1000y4l Atrial Fibrillation and Dementia: A Report From the AF-SCREEN International Collaboration https://doi.org/10.1161/circulationaha.121.055018 Reduced regional cerebral blood flow in patients with heart failure https://doi.org/10.1002/ejhf.874 Heart-brain Interactions in Heart Failure https://doi.org/10.15420/cfr.2018.14.2 While You Were Sleeping, the Brain's 'Waste Disposal System' Was at Work https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/while-you-were-sleeping-brains-waste-disposal-system-was-2025a1000mbb Repurposing Semaglutide and Liraglutide for Alcohol Use Disorder https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2024.3599 2025 AHA/ACC/AANP/AAPA/ABC/ACCP/ACPM/AGS/AMA/ASPC/NMA/PCNA/SGIM Guideline for the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation and Management of High Blood Pressure in Adults: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000001356 "VOODOO" Death https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/full/10.2105/AJPH.92.10.1593 Longitudinal brain ageing after stroke: a marker for neurodegeneration and its relevance for upper limb motor outcome https://doi.org/10.1093/braincomms/fcaf299 Unlocking Longevity: Aging Reimagined  https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/1002241 You may also like: Hear John Mandrola, MD's summary and perspective on the top cardiology news each week, on This Week in Cardiology https://www.medscape.com/twic Questions or feedback, please contact news@medscape.net

This episode of BTS is particularly personal. As usual I am speaking honestly and from the deepest root of my vulnerability. For anyone who has gone/is going thru this experience I see you and send you the power and peace of patience on your journey.Watch “Views from AmandaLand” Wed 10a EST at Youtube.com/AmandaSealesTV!Listen to the podcast streaming on all podcast platforms.Keep up with my releases and appearances!Subscribe to my newsletter for free at AmandaSeales.comThis is a Smart Funny & Black Production

The idea might seem like something out of a fantasy, but “Foreign Accent Syndrome” is a genuine, albeit very rare, neurological condition! It sees a person begin to speak with an accent different to the one they had prior to having a stroke; one which makes them sound like they come from an entirely different country! Since the first case was discovered in France in 1907, there have only been about 100 documented cases worldwide, according to the Cleveland Clinic. But certain cases have attracted the attention of the media and scientific researchers alike. One dates back to 1941 in Oslo, Norway, during a period of German occupation.  What is the foreign accent syndrom? What exactly happens in the brain in such cases? How serious can the syndrome be? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: ⁠⁠⁠How to spot, prevent and treat heatstroke ?⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠What are the strangest reactions caused by an orgasm?⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠How can I learn 1000 words in a new language?⁠⁠⁠ A podcast written and realised by Amber Minogue. First Broadcast: 10/1/2025 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Imagine being 21 years old, trapped in a two-week coma, completely unable to move or speak, while your sister leans over your bed and confesses her deepest darkest secret to you, and you hear the whole thing.This week, we sit down with Melanie, who at 21 years old, went from a "parking lot" migraine on the 401 to a life-saving brain surgery that left her in a two-week coma . But Melanie wasn't just "asleep"—she describes a vivid, "locked-in" experience where she heard every secret her friends whispered and saw her aunt's birthday wishes in brushstrokes of pink and purple. Melanie shares her "heritage moment" journey of proving every ableist professor wrong by becoming the first legally blind person to graduate from teachers' college in Ontario, despite the system betting she wouldn't make it to Christmas. Melanie's story is a masterclass in why you should never tell a "determined" woman what she can't do.Check out the incredible work Melanie does: https://connect4life.ca/Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN

Imagine being 21 years old, trapped in a two-week coma, completely unable to move or speak, while your sister leans over your bed and confesses her deepest darkest secret to you, and you hear the whole thing.This week, we sit down with Melanie, who at 21 years old, went from a "parking lot" migraine on the 401 to a life-saving brain surgery that left her in a two-week coma . But Melanie wasn't just "asleep"—she describes a vivid, "locked-in" experience where she heard every secret her friends whispered and saw her aunt's birthday wishes in brushstrokes of pink and purple. Melanie shares her "heritage moment" journey of proving every ableist professor wrong by becoming the first legally blind person to graduate from teachers' college in Ontario, despite the system betting she wouldn't make it to Christmas. Melanie's story is a masterclass in why you should never tell a "determined" woman what she can't do.Check out the incredible work Melanie does: https://connect4life.ca/Follow Sickboy: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sickboypodcastTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sickboypodcastDiscord: https://discord.gg/expeUDN

this year is full of possibilities!

Season 3 Episode 12 of The Run TMC podcast features a lively coaches' roundtable at The Hub with Archie Williams' Mikey Clagett, San Marin's Chris Lavdiotis and Branson's Demetrius Roquemore. Hosts Duffy and Big Brain Dave open with an MLK quote and then dive into a three-point range of topics with their guests which include scouting, practice drills, game‑day routines and player leadership . Show Notes Our friend and former guest Dave Albee is battling kidney disease and needs help. More about his battle here.  (G): Content is Mostly Global Interest Topics (M): Content is Mostly Inside Mrin Topics Musical intro credit to Stroke 9//Logo credit to Katie Levine Content and opinions are those of Dave, Duffy and their guests and not of affiliated organizations or sponsors. email us at: theruntmcpodcast@gmail.com follow us on Instagram @theruntmcpodcast check out our website at: theruntmcpodcast.com thank you to our sponsors: The Hub in San Anselmo Encore Custom Apparel online and in downtown San Rafael  The Social Klub in Sausalito San Domenico Nike Summer Basketball Camps The Marin County Free Throw Championship returns on Jan. 25 — at Archie Williams High from 8:30-11:30 a.m. — with proceeds from the event going to help the needy in the community through the St. Vincent de Paul Society. There are competitions and prizes in several categories for individuals and teams, as well as a raffle. For more information, email saintvincentdepaul@strita.edu or call 415-454-6420.  

This week Dan has been to a small wedding and managed to cause his ankle to double in size. Gavin has been hanging out with his canine friends and really enjoyed a film. Dan has a quiz to celebrate MLK day and it's not as offensive as it could have been. Gavin shares the story of a drunk man and a tiger and how Hartlepool United got massive interest in a tweet. Oh and let us know if you want a t-shirt!   This weeks recommendations : Gilfoyle : Gavin Belson 2026 : Gbnga Raspberry Fair : Tom Basden, Carey Mulligan To Have And To Have Not : Billy Bragg   Talk to us here : Email : betherewithbelson@gmail.com X : @therewithbelson Instagram : @betherewithbelson TikTok : @betherewithbelson  

Breaking: Devendra Fadnavis Finishes Shiv Sena with One Final Stroke | BMC Mayor | Eknath Shinde

Dr. Dee Trudeau Poskas, founder of Blue Egg Leadership, a leadership development company that helps growth-minded leaders and entrepreneurs think bigger, communicate with confidence, and lead with clarity.Through transformational programs like Stroke of Genius Masterminds and Mindshift Labs, Dee blends neuroscience, strategy, and practical tools to help clients elevate emotional intelligence, break through limiting patterns, and create lasting impact.Now, Dee's journey of expanding her business into new directions - embracing both wins and setbacks - demonstrates the power of resilience and experimentation in leadership.And while preparing to launch her upcoming book on the hidden power of disappointment, she's helping high achievers turn challenges into opportunities for growth, presence, and influence.Here's where to find more:Website: www.blueeggleadership.comLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drdenisetrudeauposkasFacebook: facebook.com/blueeggleadership________________________________________________Welcome to The Unforget Yourself Show where we use the power of woo and the proof of science to help you identify your blind spots, and get over your own bullshit so that you can do the fucking thing you ACTUALLY want to do!We're Mark and Katie, the founders of Unforget Yourself and the creators of the Unforget Yourself System and on this podcast, we're here to share REAL conversations about what goes on inside the heart and minds of those brave and crazy enough to start their own business. From the accidental entrepreneur to the laser-focused CEO, we find out how they got to where they are today, not by hearing the go-to story of their success, but talking about how we all have our own BS to deal with and it's through facing ourselves that we find a way to do the fucking thing.Along the way, we hope to show you that YOU are the most important asset in your business (and your life - duh!). Being a business owner is tough! With vulnerability and humor, we get to the real story behind their success and show you that you're not alone._____________________Find all our links to all the things like the socials, how to work with us and how to apply to be on the podcast here: https://linktr.ee/unforgetyourself

Riley Bender has been dubbed “Riley The Kid”, hard enduro son to The Hard Enduro GOAT, Cody Webb. After the Factory 1 Sherco USA team closed shop, Riley found a new home with Webb and his RMATV/Yamaha team. They thought the YZ two stroke could be the ultimate hard enduro weapon. As it turns out, they're both riding YZ 250F's for the 2026 US Hard Enduro Season.These King of the Motos preview interviews are to try and build hype around the 2026 King of the Motos and the US Hard Enduro Series. Share with your riding buddies so they can enjoy the good times while listening or watching. Sponsor Links:Motorcycles & CoffeeSeat Time exists to keep you stoked on two wheels! We create entertaining and educational content to get your prepared for the single track, and keep you riding longer once on the bike.

Longevity, Success, Healthy Living, and Nutrition Made Simple Join Our Health Club Community FREE https://www.drasa.com/health-club   Visit Us At Our Health Club Retreats https://www.drasa.com/retreats/ It's Dr. Asa Here... Ask Me Your Question! Text Me: 407-255-7076 Call Me: 888-283-7272

On Episode 60 of the Stroke Alert Podcast, host Dr. Negar Asdaghi highlights two articles from the January 2026 issue of Stroke: "Impaired Perfusion and Early Ischemic Stroke Recurrence in Symptomatic Intracranial Atherosclerosis: BIORISK ICAS Study" and "Systematic Genetic Assessment in Young Patients With Cryptogenic Stroke: The ES-EASY project." She also interviews Dr. Fabiano Cavalcante and Prof. Charles Majoie about their article "Acute Carotid Stenting for Tandem Lesions in Patients Randomized to Endovascular Treatment With or Without Thrombolysis: Results From the IRIS Individual Participant Data Meta-Analysis." For the episode transcript, visit: https://www.ahajournals.org/do/10.1161/podcast.20260114.701495

In this powerful episode of Walk and Roll Live – Disability Stories, host Doug Vincent welcomes Mike Kent, a stroke survivor whose life changed in an instant after a routine surgery in Paris went catastrophically wrong. What was meant to be a simple nose operation in 2019 resulted in a massive hemorrhagic stroke, an induced coma, and doctors giving Mike just 90 minutes to live. Eight weeks later, he woke up unable to move the right side of his body, unable to recognize his own life, and uncertain whether he wanted to go on. Spending six months in a wheelchair, Mike began the slow, painful, and deeply human process of rebuilding—learning to walk again, write again, think again, and ultimately believe again. Today, Mike helps disabled professionals break free from anxiety and reclaim their sense of purpose after medical trauma. In this raw and honest conversation, he shares the emotional realities of stroke recovery, identity loss, mental health, and what it truly means to rebuild a life from the inside out. This episode is a must-listen for anyone navigating disability, recovery, medical trauma, or searching for hope without sugarcoating the journey. Walk and Roll Live 

Wedgitative State, Blocking the Disease Slot, The Dictatormocracy, Ethical Gun, Sheath the Beatht, Star Wars Sphincter Doors, Gifting Coffin, Kevlard Body Armour, Burial VanYou can now purchase A Listener hats by emailing twointhethinktank@gmail.comCatch up on the 500th episode hereCheck out the sketch spreadsheet by Will Runt hereAnd visit the Think Tank Institute website:Check out our comics on instagram with Peader Thomas at Pants IllustratedOrder Gustav & Henri from Andy and Pete's very own online shopYou can support the pod by chipping in to our patreon here (thank you!)Join the other TITTT scholars on the TITTT discord server hereHey, why not listen to Al's meditation/comedy podcast ShusherAlasdair Tremblay-Birchall: @alasdairtb and instaAnd you can find us on the Facebook right here(Oh, and we love you) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why do we struggle to talk about grief? Why that matters and what we can do about it, is the subject of this episode.SummaryGrief is something almost all of us will experience, and yet something we still struggle to talk about openly. Not because it's rare, but because it makes us uncomfortable. We lack a shared language for it, feel uneasy about how long it lasts, and often don't know how to sit with people who don't simply “move on”. On this episode, I'm joined by Amy Kean, founder of Good Shout, for a deeply human conversation about grief, work, identity, and what it really means to give people space to be themselves.Amy has been on the podcast before. Since first encountering her work, I have been consistently inspired by her willingness to be unashamedly herself: thoughtful, curious, and open about experiences many of us keep hidden. When she recently shared reflections on grief on LinkedIn, it sparked a desire to invite her back; not for a tightly structured discussion, but for a conversation that could explore the wider dynamics around loss. What follows is an unusual episode. It begins with grief, but moves into related territory: compassionate leave versus compassionate return, what actually helps when someone is struggling, why workplaces are often so bad at dealing with loss, and why talking about difficult things might be one of the most important human skills we have.Rather than offering neat frameworks or tidy conclusions, this conversation creates space; for reflection, for discomfort, and for honesty. If you've experienced loss, this episode may offer comfort or recognition. If you haven't, it may give you insight into how to show up better for others when the time comes. And above all, it helps normalise the idea that grief is not something to be hidden or hurried past, but something we should be able to talk about.The episode is dedicated to Amy's dad, Lord Terence Kean.Relevant LinksGood Shout, Amy's company — https://goodshoutcommunity.com/Amy on LinkedIn — https://www.linkedin.com/in/amycharlottekean/Amy's previous appearance on the show talking aboiut Communicating Effectively —https://www.humanriskpodcast.com/amy-kean-on-communicating-effectively/Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry —https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/60324067-death-of-an-ordinary-manAI-Generated Timestamp Summary01:05 – Why Amy, why now03:40 – Remembering Amy's dad08:30 – Double grief and anticipatory loss10:40 – Stroke, hope, and uncertainty14:40 – Grief, work, and performance17:35 – Naming emotions out loud22:05 – Talking about grief on LinkedIn27:40 – Compassionate return 30:05 – The cognitive cost of grief33:05 – Why we don't talk about death35:05 – How to help someone who's grieving 41:05 – Creativity, curiosity, and grief49:05 – AI, voice, and being human53:05 – Shameless and deathbed economics01:02:00 – Final reflections and dedication

Understanding Stroke Medications and Personalized Recovery In this essential episode, host Rosa Hart, BSN, RN, SCRN sits down with Dr. Bryan Eckerle to demystify one of the most overwhelming aspects of stroke recovery: medications. If you or a loved one has ever left the hospital clutching a bag of pill bottles and wondering "Why am I taking all of these?" - this episode is for you. Dr. Eckerle, with his expertise in stroke care and patient-centered treatment, breaks down the critical medications prescribed after stroke, explaining not just what they do, but why they matter for your recovery and long-term health. From blood thinners to cholesterol medications, we cover the science, the side effects, and the strategies for staying on track. Want more inspiring stories and real-life resources? Subscribe and share "Stronger After Stroke" with someone who needs a little extra support navigating life after stroke. For more support after stroke, check out the programs available online and in person through  Norton Neuroscience Institute Resource Centers: https://nortonhealthcare.com/services-and-conditions/neurosciences/patient-resources/resource-center/ If you enjoyed this podcast, listen to Norton Healthcare's "MedChat" podcast, available in your favorite podcast app. "MedChat" provides continuing medical education on the go and is targeted toward physicians and clinicians.  Norton Healthcare, a not-for-profit health care system, is a leader in serving adult and pediatric patients throughout Greater Louisville, Southern Indiana, the commonwealth of Kentucky and beyond. A strong research program provides access to clinical trials in a multitude of areas. More information about Norton Healthcare is available at NortonHealthcare.com.   Date of original release: January 12, 2025

Season 3, Episode 11 features some of the really best moments from Run TMC's 2025 interviews and roundtables — coaching insights, player perspectives, expert conversations and more... Our guests provide practical teaching methods—layup progressions, finishing through contact, small-sided constraint drills, and how to use practice film to build confidence and decision-making. We also explores defensive identity (presses and the 1-3-1), in-game coaching styles, pregame routines, NIL/transfer-era impacts, and simple mental routines for players and coaches. This is the Run TMC year in review and it chock full of useful basketball nuggets  Our friend and former guest Dave Albee is battling kidney disease and needs help. More about his battle here.  Show Notes:  (G): Content is Mostly Global Interest Topics (M): Content is Mostly Inside Marin Topics Musical intro credit to Stroke 9//Logo credit to Katie Levine Content and opinions are those of Dave, Duffy and their guests and not of affiliated organizations or sponsors. email us at: theruntmcpodcast@gmail.com follow us on Instagram @theruntmcpodcast check out our website at: theruntmcpodcast.com thank you to our sponsors: The Hub in San Anselmo Encore Custom Apparel online and in downtown San Rafael  The Social Klub in Sausalito San Domenico Nike Summer Basketball Camps    

This is the world's first entire arm exoskeleton, giving stroke patients more ‘independence' Contact the Show: coolstuffdailypodcast@gmail.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Office Hours is back in business for 2026 and business is good on the first and last day of Jaynuary with our good friend comedian Jay Weingarten (Jay's LA) and 19-year old musician/alcoholic with degenerative conditions Jim E. Brown performing "I Know I'm Going To Die of A Stroke." Jay shared his 2026 mood board, Jim shared his salad cream butties, music legend Gary Wilson surprised us on Zoom, and the trinity shared advice with some callers.Support Office Hours, watch another hour of today's episode with another song from Jim, Vic's full Kennedy Center Honors coverage and tons more every week with OFFICE HOURS+ - get a FREE seven-day trial at patreon.com/officehoursliveSupport Jay's passion by becoming a Patreon of Jay's LA at patreon.com/jayslaRest in peace to our friend Devin Jorgenson. Support his family at gofundme.com/f/support-sonnys-bright-futureF*ck ICE. Rest in power Renee Good. Support her family at gofund.me/33e0e4063 Shop our new merch items now at officehours.merchtable.comWatch the latest season of On Cinema at the Cinema and get tickets to The Certified Five Bags of Popcorn tour now at heinetwork.tv See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stuck in the same gear? Not happy with your race speed? It might mean you need more work on being responsive. How do you build another gear? Glad you asked. Today, we get into why triathletes often feel stuck at the same speed and how to break the cycle. We look at swimming, biking, and running and give some thought on how to create more of a range, especially when you need it. Going fast can feel good and fun, but sometimes our Zone 4 effort equals our Zone 2 speed in a race. Today, we look at solid and proven ways to break out of being a one-speed wonder, but note, it's not always easy. Topics: Last week on C26 Coming at you consistently We're the podcast version of an age-grouper that outlasts everyone to qualify for Kona New Orleans 70.3 memories Swim rant? One speed wonders Turnover vs. Stroke length in swimming Natural cadence vs. being uncomfortable Hill sprints Something needs to be a priority Increasing FTP vs. Losing weight Swimming more or strength work? Trying to change everything at once Focus on one thing Swim form Hard 25's and 50's What about your base? Not thinking in the water Building another gear Being Responsive One speed Without ranges we tend to not be present RPE - Bodymind Fitness vs. Form We can't skip steps Focus on moving correctly When Zone 4 effort equals Zone 2 speed   Mike Tarrolly - mike@c26triathlon.com Robbie Bruce - robbie@c26triathlon.com

INterview with Moma Begum, MD, and Ron Miller, MD

Demetrius Jelatis can be reached at info@mnpoolbootcamp.com and details of his training are available at www.mnpoolbootcamp.com. If you enjoy the show and want to support the future of the show, consider joining Cue It Up Networks Patreon program here. https://www.patreon.com/cueitup   If you would like to become a sponsor to the show.... Email cueituppodcast@gmail.com

This podcast is brought to you by Outcomes Rocket, your exclusive healthcare marketing agency. Learn how to accelerate your growth by going to⁠ outcomesrocket.com Nurses are at the forefront of healthcare innovation, yet their voices are often overlooked. In this episode, Rosa Hart, a nurse, media consultant, and author recognized globally for advancing health communication, digital engagement, and nursing innovation, discusses her journey of hosting podcasts to educate stroke survivors and caregivers, as well as exploring the role of AI in healthcare. She shares how she created Stronger After Stroke and Nurse Rose's Insights to provide guidance and ask bold questions about improving healthcare. Rosa discusses the challenges women face in stroke outcomes, the burdens on caregivers, and the importance of neuroplasticity and timely treatment. She also reflects on her experiences learning about AI and the importance of empowering nurses in technology adoption. Tune in to hear Rosa's insights on transforming healthcare through education, innovation, and advocacy! Resources Connect with and follow Rosa Hart on LinkedIn. Follow Rosa Hart Media Consulting on LinkedIn and discover their website! Check out Rosa Hart's podcasts here!

Debra Meyerson and the “Slow Fall Off a Cliff”: Aphasia After Stroke, Identity, and What Recovery Really Means There are stroke stories that arrive like lightning. And then there are the ones that feel like a quiet, terrifying slide hour by hour until you wake up and everything is different. For Debra Meyerson (also known as Deborah), that difference had a name: “the slow fall off a cliff.” Her husband Steve describes watching the change unfold overnight in the hospital, neurological tests every hour, skills fading, the unknown getting heavier with each check-in. And the scariest part? Not knowing where the bottom was. This episode isn't only about what Debra lost. It's about what she rebuilt with aphasia, with grief, with a fierce independence that made asking for help its own mountain, and with a new definition of recovery that doesn't depend on going back in time. When Stroke Doesn't “Hit”… It Develops One of the most jarring elements of Debra's experience was the way the stroke revealed itself. Steve shares that Debra left the emergency room still talking, slurring a little, but still planning. Still believing she'd be back teaching soon. Then the overnight monitoring began, and the decline became visible. From midnight to morning, her movement and speech changed dramatically. By morning, she couldn't move her right side. And she couldn't make a sound. That's what makes Debra's phrase so powerful: it captures the reality many survivors and families live through, watching ability disappear in stages, not all at once. It's not just a medical event. It's an emotional one. And it changes how you experience time. The mind starts bargaining. The heart starts bracing. The body is suddenly not predictable anymore. The Hidden Clue: Dissection, Headaches, and Near-Misses Debra's stroke was ischemic, but the cause wasn't a typical blood clot. Steve explains that it was due to a dissection, a tear in the inner wall of an artery. In the months leading up to the stroke, there were warning signs: severe headaches episodes where she nearly lost consciousness a moment where she told their son, “I think I'm having a stroke,” but the symptoms resolved before EMS arrived Steve describes a likely “opening and closing” pattern of temporary interruptions to blood flow that didn't show up clearly during exams because, in the moment, she appeared okay. This is one reason caregivers can feel so haunted after the fact: you did the right things, you sought help, you went to specialists… and the stroke still happened. That's not failure. That's reality. 20230922-GSE headshots at CERAS building in Stanford, CA Aphasia After Stroke: When Words Don't Do What You Want Aphasia isn't one experience. It's a spectrum, and Debra's challenge is word-finding, both in speaking and writing. When Bill asks whether writing is easier than speaking, Debra's answer is simple and blunt: it's hard either way. She also notes that dictation isn't a shortcut. What makes Debra's story especially moving is how Steve describes the long arc of speech returning: weeks before she could even form sounds a month or two before repeating words then, months later, the first original word that made it out unprompted, not as an exercise It happened during a normal moment at a table with family, searching for the name of the pig from a movie no one could remember. And Debra suddenly blurted out: “Babe.” It might sound small to someone who's never experienced aphasia. But for anyone who has, or for anyone who's loved someone through it, that moment is enormous. It's proof that the brain is still reaching for language. Proof that the person is still in there, still trying to connect. And yes, Steve mentions melodic intonation therapy, a method that attempts to engage the brain's musical/singing pathways to support speech. Debra's improvement, even years later, is described as gradual marginal gains that add up over time. The Identity Problem Nobody Prepares You For When Bill asks what part of her old identity was hardest to let go, Debra points to the heart of it: Stanford professor athlete fiercely independent skiing (a love that mattered deeply) the ability to do life without needing so much help This is the part many survivors don't see coming: you're not only recovering movement or speech. You're grieving a version of yourself that once felt automatic. And that grief can be complicated, because you might still look like you. Inside, everything is renegotiated. This is where Debra and Steve offer something that can change the trajectory of recovery: adaptation instead of abandonment. Debra couldn't ride a single bike anymore, but they began riding a tandem, and it became the thing they could do together vigorously, something athletic, meaningful, and shared. Not the same. But real. Cycles of Grief: Joy Can Trigger Loss Debra describes grief as something that shows up constantly, “every day… every hour.” Steve offers a powerful example: becoming grandparents. Debra was ecstatic. Over the moon. And then, the next morning, she was furious, spring-loaded into a bad mood, snapping at everything. Why? Because beneath the joy was a private inventory of what she couldn't do: hold the baby safely change a diaper be alone with their grandson the way she wanted to be chase a toddler the way she imagined This is what “cycles of grief” looks like. Not sadness replacing joy. Sadness sitting next to joy. And if survivors don't understand that's normal, they can interpret it as brokenness or failure. It's not. It's grief doing what grief does: reminding you of what mattered. The Care Partner Trap: Guilt, Burnout, and the “Fix It” Reflex Care partners often disappear inside the role. Steve names a different approach, one supported early by friends who told him plainly: if you don't take care of yourself, you're no use to Deb. So he set priorities: exercise eating well sleeping well He also acknowledges how support made that possible: family help, flexible work, and friends showing up. Then comes a line that many couples will recognize immediately: toxic positivity. Steve admits he struggles with sadness; he tends to solve problems, cheer people up, and push toward the bright side. But Debra doesn't always want to be talked out of it. Sometimes she needs space to grieve without being “fixed.” That's the lesson: Support isn't always uplifting someone. Sometimes support is staying present while they feel what they feel. “True Recovery Is Creating a Life of Meaning” Debra's philosophy shows up in the opening of her book and in the arc of this conversation: “True recovery is creating a life of meaning.” At first, recovery was about returning to who she used to be, therapy, effort, pushing hard. Then something shifted: writing a book became a turning point. It helped her stop using her old identity as the measuring stick and start asking a new question: “How do I rebuild a life I can feel good about with the cards I've been dealt?” That idea is the bridge for so many survivors: You don't have to pretend you're fine. You don't have to deny what you lost. But you also don't have to wait for a full return to start living again. Debra Meyerson: Aphasia After Stroke Interview Debra Meyerson's “slow fall off a cliff” stroke led to aphasia, grief, and a new definition of recovery: rebuilding identity with meaning. Stroke Onward: InstagramX.COMFacebookLinkedInYouTubeTikTokVimeo Debra Meyerson X.COMLinkedInFacebookInstagramSteve:LinkedIn Highlights: 00:00 Introduction and Background06:11 The Experience of a Stroke: A Slow Fall Off a Cliff22:45 Navigating Caregiving: Balancing Needs and Support32:01 Understanding Aphasia: A Spectrum of Experiences43:05 The Importance of Sadness in Healing50:08 Finding Purpose Through Advocacy53:31 Building the Stroke Onward Foundation57:12 Advice for New Stroke Survivors Transcript: Introduction and Background –  Steve Zuckerman and Debra Meyerson Bill Gasiamis (00:00)Welcome to the recovery after stroke podcast. name is Bill. And if you’re a stroke survivor or you love someone who is you’re in the right place before we begin a genuine thank you to my Patreon supporters. After more than 10 years of hosting this show solo, your support helps cover the costs of keeping it online and helps me keep showing up for stroke survivors who need hope and direction. And thank you to everyone who supports the show in the simple ways to YouTube comments, Spotify, Apple reviews. people who’ve grabbed my book, and even those who stick around and don’t skip the ads. It all matters more than you know. Today you’re going to meet Deborah Meyerson and her husband, Steve Zuckerman. Deborah describes her stroke as a slow fall off a cliff. And that phrase captures something so many stroke survivors experience but struggle to explain. We talk about aphasia after stroke, word finding. The moment a single word returned and what happens when recovery stops meaning going back and starts meaning rebuilding a life you can actually feel proud of. Deborah and Steve Myerson. Welcome to the podcast. Debra and Steve (01:08)Steve Zuckerman That’s okay. I don’t mind being Mr. Meyerson from time to time. Bill Gasiamis (01:17)Steve Zuckerman, of course. I mean, I’ve seen it on every email. I’ve seen it on every conversation we’ve had, but that’s okay. I mean, you’ve probably been called worst, Steve. Debra and Steve (01:29)Absolutely, much worse. Bill Gasiamis (01:32)Debra, before the stroke, how would you have described yourself professionally, socially and personally? Debra and Steve (01:39)Outgoing, social, comfortable, no time to to to other’s time. Not taking up other people’s time? Yes. In contrast to me. Bill Gasiamis (01:59)Yes, David, you’re very needy. Debra and Steve (02:02)Yeah, and ⁓ yeah, it’s really outgoing. Bill Gasiamis (02:09)Outgoing, yeah, fantastic. Debra and Steve (02:11)I’ll add, because you didn’t say it, a incredibly hardworking, self-demanding professional for whom good was never good enough. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. Bill Gasiamis (02:23)perfectionist. Fair enough Steve. What roles defined you back then? you’re a partner, you’re a father. How did you go about your day? Debra and Steve (02:37)I mean, I think, you know, very similar to Deb, we were both hard driving professionals who had serious careers. We had three kids that we were raising together and both took parenting very seriously. So worked really hard, you know, to not travel at the same time, to be home for dinner, ⁓ to be at sports games. And we were both very athletic. So both things we did together and things we did separately. I think, you know, before Deb’s stroke, most of our time and attention was focused on career and family and, you know, sort of friends were a third, but, ⁓ staying healthy and staying fit. So those were kind of all parts of, I think, who we both were. met mother, ⁓ athletic sailor, biker, ⁓ ⁓ family is first in academics. Bill Gasiamis (03:44)and academic and what field were you guys working in? Debra and Steve (03:48)No, am a, Steve is not academic. I am an academic. ⁓ Deb was, you know, immediately before the stroke. Deb was a tenured professor at Stanford. She had had lots of other academic jobs before that. ⁓ We met when I was in grad school for an MBA and Deb was getting her PhD. ⁓ So, you know, she is lot smarter than I am and was willing to work a lot harder academically than I ever was. ⁓ I’ve bounced back and forth between kind of nonprofit roles, nonprofit management roles, and a career in finance and business. So I sort of… have moved back and forth between for-profit and not-for-profit, but always sort of on the business side of things. Bill Gasiamis (04:50)often say when people meet my wife, Christine, for the first time and we talk about what we do and the things that we say. I always say to people that between me and my wife, we have four degrees. And then I qualify that. say, she has four and I have zero. And ⁓ she has a master’s in psychology, but ⁓ I never went to university. I never did any of that stuff. Debra and Steve (05:10)Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (05:19)So it’s very interesting to meet somebody who’s very academic and to be a part of her life when she’s in the study zone. my gosh, like I have never studied that much, that intensely, that hard for anything. And it’s a sight to behold. And I’m not sure how people go through all the academic side, all the requirements. And then also Deb, being a mom, being a friend. being active in your community and doing all the things that you do. I just don’t know how people fit it in. So it’s a fascinating thing to experience and then to observe other people go through. Debra and Steve (05:57)It’s really that we had really a lot of time to talk. It was a full life. Debra Meyerson – The Experience of a Stroke: A Slow Fall Off a Cliff Bill Gasiamis (06:11)Yeah, fantastic. What you did, Deb has described the ⁓ stroke as a slow fall off a cliff. What did it actually feel like in the first moments that the stroke happened? Debra and Steve (06:28)Two weeks after my stroke, I am going to the, back to the classroom. I am really not aware of the damage. So right at the outset, Deb was kind of in denial. As the symptoms were first starting to set in, she was still talking about you know, okay, this is annoying, but in three weeks I’m starting the semester ⁓ and genuinely believed she would. actually the slow fall off a cliff was really how I described the first full night in the hospital. This was in Reno, Nevada. ⁓ And Deb sort of left the emergency room talking. slurring her words a little bit, but talking about how she was going to be back in the classroom. And then over the course of that night, from midnight to eight in the morning, they woke her every hour to do a neurological test, you move your arm, move your leg, point to this, you know, say this word and just her skills got worse and worse and worse. And in the morning, She couldn’t move her right side at all and couldn’t make a sound. And that was the, that’s what we called the slow fall off the cliff because we knew at midnight that there was significant brain damage, but we didn’t see the ramifications of that damage. sort of happened over that eight hour period. ⁓ that Deb really wasn’t aware of any of that. was. you know, kind of her brain was in survival mode. ⁓ But for myself and our oldest son, Danny, you know, that was sort of a feeling of helplessness. was watching the person you love kind of fade away or the capabilities fade away. And we didn’t know how low the bottom would be ⁓ without being able to do anything. Bill Gasiamis (08:53)Is there an explanation for that? Now, obviously Deb had a stroke, so that’s the overarching issue, the problem. But I’ve had a lot of stroke survivors explain their symptoms in that slow onset ⁓ situation, whereas mine were just there. I had a blade in my brain, the symptoms were there. Another person ⁓ had an ischemic stroke, bang, the symptoms were there. So why does it take so long for some people to, for the symptoms to develop? Debra and Steve (09:25)I had a dissection five months ago for this stroke. I had really bad headaches. Yeah, so five, six months before Deb’s stroke, she was having bad headaches. She had two episodes where she kind of almost lost consciousness. And one of them, she actually said to our son, call dad, I think I’m having a stroke. And by the time the EMS got there, she was fine. ⁓ Her stroke, it turned out was caused by a dissection, which is a tear. in the inner wall of the artery. So in some ways it’s like a blood clot. It is an ischemic stroke because it’s the blockage of blood flow. But unlike most ischemic strokes, it’s not because of a blood clot. It’s because of this flap of, it’s not biologically skin, but it’s like a flap of skin coming across and blocking off the blood flow. And what they think happened, and it’s really just educated guessing, is that for that six month period, the flap was there, but it kind of kept opening, closing, opening, closing. So she’d have temporary loss of blood flow to the brain, but not permanent loss. Bill Gasiamis (11:04)We’ll be back with more of Deborah Meyers’ remarkable story in just a moment, but I wanna pause here because what Deborah and Steve are describing is something a lot of us live with quietly. That feeling, you can be having a good moment and then grief shows up out of nowhere, or you’re working so hard to stay positive and it starts to feel like pressure instead of support. In the second half, we’ll go deeper into the cycles of grief. the trap of toxic positivity and the shift that changed everything for Deborah when she stopped measuring recovery by who she used to be and started rebuilding identity with meaning. If this podcast has helped you feel less alone, you can support it by sharing this episode with one person who needs it, leaving a comment or subscribing wherever you’re watching or listening. All right, back to Deborah and Steve. Debra and Steve (11:58)And when she had those two events, it was probably stayed closed a little bit longer, but then opened up. But she had a scan, she went to neurologists and because every time she was examined, it was okay. They didn’t find the problem. And then when she had the stroke, it was a permanent blockage that just didn’t open back up again. And Your question is a great one that I’ve never asked. I don’t know why, because what they told us was we can see the damage to the brain. The brain has been damaged. They can tell that on the scan, but that the impact of that damage, how it will affect your motion and your speech will play out over time. And I don’t know why that was true for Deb, whereas, as you say, for some people, it seems like the impact is immediate. And that’s a, that’s a good one. I’m going to, I’m going to Try to research that a little bit. Bill Gasiamis (12:58)That’s just a curious thing, isn’t it? to sort of understand the difference between one and the other. I’m not sure whether if we find out what the difference is, whether there’s say something that a stroke survivor listening can do or a caregiver can do in that situation, like what can be done? How can it be resolved? Maybe different steps that we need to take. I don’t know, but I’d love to know if there was a doctor or a neurologist or somebody who might be able to answer that. Maybe we need to find someone. Debra and Steve (13:29)The doctor and the neurologist didn’t see it. Yeah, in the period before the stroke, they didn’t see it. While we were in the hospital when the stroke was happening, what they told us was at that point, there really wasn’t anything that could be done. The damage was done. So no intervention. would lessen the damage. ⁓ again, we are far from doctors. So there’s a lot about that that we don’t know. Bill Gasiamis (14:08)understood. Deb, what part of your old identity was the hardest to let go? Debra and Steve (14:14)The Stanford professor, athlete, had really a lot of… One hand is so difficult and independent person. Bill Gasiamis (14:33)Yeah. Debra and Steve (14:34)I am, skiing is so, I really love to ski and I am not, I am really not able to ski. Bill Gasiamis (14:52)understood so you were a professor, you were independent, you were physically active and all that stuff has had to stop happening at this point in time. Debra and Steve (15:03)I am the…striking…crossing…cycling…we are the…the…Sieve and I… Bill Gasiamis (15:19)You guys used to do something tandem. Debra and Steve (15:21)Yes, a lot of time in the stroke across America. Well, so I think we’re sort of answering a couple of different questions at the same time. I think what Deb was saying was early on, kind of in that first three or four years, she really, you know, was giving up her role as a Stanford professor, giving up skiing, cycling, sailing, and just the… not being a fully independent person needing so much help. That was really a lot of the struggle early on. Deb did return to a lot of those things. And that was a big part of the recovery process was realizing that she may not be able to do them the same way she used to, but there were a lot of different things. And then the cycling, Deb can’t ride a single bike, but we started riding a tandem. And that adaptation has proven really important for us because it’s, it’s the thing we can now do together vigorously for long periods of time. That is really a, a sport that we can do together, ⁓ and love. And so that that’s really been a, an adaptive way to get back to something, not exactly the same way as she used to do it before the stroke, but in a way that is very meaningful. Bill Gasiamis (16:46)A lot of stroke survivors tend to have trouble with letting go of their old identity in that they feel like they need to completely pause it and put the whole identity aside rather than adapt it and change it so that you bring over the parts that you can and you make the most of them, know. And adaptive sport is the perfect way. You see a lot of people in the Paralympics becoming gold medalists after they’ve been injured. a sports person before their injury and now all of a sudden they’re champion gold medal winning athletes because they decided to adapt and find another way to participate. And that’s what I love about what you guys just said. That’s still able to meet the needs of that identity, but in a slightly different way. What about you, Steve? Like when Deb goes through a difficult time and she has a stroke and then you guys come home from hospital, you’re dealing with, ⁓ well, all the changes in your life as well because you become a care, while you guys describe it as a care partner, we’ll talk about that in a moment. But as a care partner, ⁓ how do you go about doing that without, and also at the same time, protecting a little bit of your needs and making sure that your needs are met? Because a lot of caregivers, care partners, put all their needs aside and then they make it about the person who is ⁓ recovering from stroke. And then it leads to two people becoming unwell in different ways. One potentially emotionally, mentally, and the other person physically and all the other things that stroke does. Debra and Steve (18:36)Yeah, I mean, I think, um, Kyle was lucky in a couple of ways. One, a very close friend very early on who had been through similar situations said, you know, don’t forget, you’ve got to take care of yourself. If you don’t, you’re of no use to Deb. And so from the very beginning, I had people reminding me. I also had a ton of support in supporting Deb. Deb’s mom, you know, came up and lived with us for six months. ⁓ So I could go back to work a lot sooner than I otherwise would have been able to go back to work. And I was fortunate that my job was fairly flexible. ⁓ But, you know, I loved my work and it meant I wasn’t focused on the caregiving or care partnering aspects of my role 24 seven. I got to go do something else independently. ⁓ We also had a lot of friends lend support as well. So, you know, I think I basically said, I’ve got to organize around supporting Deb, no question about it. But with guidance from friends, I sort of said, okay, my three priorities are going to be exercising, eating well, and sleeping well. And I really just set those out as my goals and I created ways to do that. wall and that was sort of my physical health but also my mental health. And so, you know, sort of a problem solver and compartmentalizer by nature. So I guess maybe I was lucky that dividing up those roles was a little more natural to me than maybe it is for others. But it also took, you know, took deliberate choice to make sure not to let myself get sucked so far into the caring piece. that I got in healthy and was lucky enough to have support so that I was able to not let that happen. Bill Gasiamis (20:42)Yeah, a lot of people feel guilt like this unnecessary guilt that, I can’t leave that person alone or I can’t ⁓ look after myself or take some time to myself because the other person needs me more than I need me. And that’s an interesting thing to experience people talk about in the caregiver role where they become so overwhelmed with the need to help support the other person that they… ⁓ that they have guilt any time that they step away and allocate some care to themselves. They see caring as a role that they play, not as a thing that they also need to practice. Debra and Steve (21:29)Yeah, yeah. Well, I think I was also lucky because Deb is so fiercely independent that she wanted as little help as she could possibly get away with. So ⁓ she was not the kind of stroke survivor that was sort of getting mad when I walked out of the room. It was like she was trying to kick me out of the room at times that I shouldn’t leave the room. And so, you know, again, ⁓ Deb was not a demanding, again, she just wanted as little help as she could possibly survive with. And that probably made it easier for me to not feel guilty because it’s like, well, that’s what she wants. She wants me to get out of here as long as she was safe. Navigating Caregiving: Balancing Needs and Support Bill Gasiamis (22:16)That mindset is a really useful one. It makes it possible for people to activate neural plasticity in the most ⁓ positive way. Because some people don’t realize that when it’s hard to do something and then the easier thing is to say, Steve, can you go get me that or can you do this for me? That neural plasticity is also activated, but in a negative way. ⁓ How does your recovery or your definition of recovery evolve over time? How did it change over time? Debra and Steve (22:57)⁓ How did how you think about recovery change over time? The realizing I had to build realizing I had the of my identity and my life. The same past and writing a book. ⁓ Three, four years ago, four years after my stroke, really, well, ⁓ I am really, I am so committed to doing the best. No. I mean, you know, the first three or four years after Deb’s stroke, it really was all about trying to get back to who she used to be. Therapy, therapy, therapy, therapy, therapy, work hard, we’ll get back to life as we do it. And when Deb said, when she lost tenure and said she wanted to write a book, I thought she was nuts. was like, you know, her speech wasn’t as good then as it is now. you I was at her side when she wrote her first academic book and that was brutal and she didn’t have aphasia. So I was like, I really thought she was nuts. But in hindsight, it really was that process of writing a book that got her to turn her knowledge about identity onto herself. that really changed her view of what recovery meant. She sort of started to let go of recovery means getting back to everything I used to be doing and recovery means how do I rebuild an identity that I can feel good about? May not be the one I’d ideally want, but in the face of my disabilities, how do I rebuild that identity so that I can rebuild a good and purposeful and meaningful life? that really was an evolution for both of us. over the five-year book writing period. I sometimes say it was the longest, cheapest therapy session we could have gotten because it really was that kind of therapeutic journey for us. And really a lot of the 25 people are in the book and the friends and colleagues are in the book, really a lot of the colleagues. Deb was a social scientist and a researcher and she didn’t want to write a memoir. She wanted to write a research book. It has elements of a memoir because her story and our story is threaded throughout. But, you know, we learned so much from the interviews Deb did and and I was not involved in the interviewing process, but having that diversity of stories and understanding some of the things that were very common for stroke survivors and other things that were so different from survivor to survivor helped her, helped us on our journey. So that book writing process had so many benefits. Bill Gasiamis (26:49)Very therapeutic, isn’t it? I went on a similar journey with my book when I wrote it and it was about, again, sharing other people’s stories, a little bit about mine, but sharing what we had in common, know, how did we all kind of work down this path of being able to say later on that stroke was the best thing that happened. Clearly not from a health perspective or from a ⁓ life, ⁓ you know. the risk of life perspective, from a growth perspective, from this ability to be able to ⁓ look at the situation and try and work out like, is there any silver linings? What are the silver linings? And I get a sense that you guys are, your idea of the book was in a similar nature. Do you guys happen to have a copy of the book there? Debra and Steve (27:39)Yes. Of course. Don’t we have it everywhere? Bill Gasiamis (27:42)Yeah, I hope so. Identity theft, yep. I’ve got my copy here somewhere as well. Now, how come I didn’t bring it to the desk? One second, let me bring mine. Yes. There you go, there’s mine as well. I’ve got it here as well. So it’s a really lovely book. ⁓ Hard copy. ⁓ Debra and Steve (27:52)Yeah. You must have the first edition not the second edition. Because we didn’t print the second edition in hard copy so it’s not a white cover can’t tell in the photo. Bill Gasiamis (28:07)okay, that’s why. That is a blue cover. Debra and Steve (28:17)⁓ No, the paper cover on the front. Bill Gasiamis (28:20)The paper cover is a white cover. Debra and Steve (28:22)Yeah. So that’s actually the first edition of the book that came out in 2019. And then the second edition just came out about two months ago. ⁓ And they are largely the same. But the second edition has a new preface that sort of, because we wrote that in 2019 and then had five years of working on Stroke Onward and learning more, we kind of brought our story up to 2020. 2024 and then two chapters at the end, one with some of the insights we’ve learned ⁓ kind of since writing the first book and a final chapter about what we think might need to change in the US healthcare system to better support stroke survivors. So we’ll have to get you a copy of the new one. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (29:13)Yeah, why not? Signed copy, thank you very much. ⁓ Debra and Steve (29:15)Yeah, and the Julia Wieland. ⁓ It’s available on audiobook as well via, we were fortunate to be able to work with a great narrator named Julia Wieland, who’s an award winning audiobook narrator and actually has a business called Audio Brary that she started to really honor narrators and help promote the narrating of audio. the narrators of audio books. ⁓ well, make sure you send us an email with the right mailing address and we’ll get you new copy. Bill Gasiamis (29:55)Yeah, that’d be lovely. So what I’ll do also is on the show notes, there’ll be all the links for where people can buy the book, right? We won’t need to talk about that. We’ll just ensure that they’re included on the show notes. I love the opening page in the book. ⁓ It’s written, I imagine, I believe that’s Deborah’s writing. Debra and Steve (30:14)⁓ yeah, yeah. yes, we have a signed copy of the first edition. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (30:20)So it says true recovery is creating a life of meaning. Deborah Meyerson. Yeah, you guys sent me that quite a while ago. By the time we actually connected, so much time had passed. There was a lot of people involved in getting us together. And you know, I’m a stroke survivor too. So things slipped my mind and we began this conversation to try and get together literally, I think about a year earlier. So I love that I have this. this copy and I’m looking forward to the updated one. ⁓ And it’s just great that one of the first things that Deb decided to do was write a book after all the troubles. Now your particular aphasia Deb, I’m wondering is that also, does that make it difficult for you to get words out of your head in your writing as well and typing? Debra and Steve (31:13)Yes, dictation is my dictation. It’s so hard. Speaking and writing isn’t the same. Bill Gasiamis (31:31)Speaking and writing is the same kind of level of difficulty. Understanding Aphasia: A Spectrum of Experiences Debra and Steve (31:35)Yeah, and the ⁓ other survivors in aphasia didn’t, Michael is. Want me to help? Yeah. Yeah, just that, and I think you know that there are so many different ways aphasia manifests itself and word finding is Deb’s challenge and it’s true whether she’s speaking or writing. other people and a guy who rode cross country with us, Michael Obellomiya, he has fluent aphasia. So he speaks very fluently, but sometimes the words that come out aren’t what he means them to be. So the meaning of what he says, even though he says it very fluently, and he also has, I think, some degree of receptive aphasia so that he hears what people are saying, but sometimes the instruction or the detail doesn’t. register for him and so aphasia can be very very different for different people. Bill Gasiamis (32:37)Yeah, there’s definitely a spectrum of aphasia. then sometimes I get to interview people really early on in their journey with aphasia and, ⁓ and speech is extremely difficult. And then later on, if I meet them again, a few years down the track, they have ⁓ an improvement somewhat. ⁓ perhaps there’s still some difficulty there, but they can often improve. ⁓ how much different was the Debra and Steve (33:08)15 years ago? I don’t know speech at all. Bill Gasiamis (33:23)No speech at all. Debra and Steve (33:24)Yeah. So Deb, it took several weeks for her to even be able to create sounds, maybe a month or two before she was sort of repeating words. ⁓ We have a great story of the first time Deb actually produced a word out of her brain. So it wasn’t an answer to a question or a therapy exercise. but we were sitting around a table and a bunch of people who hadn’t had strokes were saying, what’s that? No, my family. Yeah, with your brother. No, our family. Yeah. Danny and… Okay, anyway. We were talking about, what was that movie where the guy trained a pig to… do a dog show and what was the pig’s name and none of us could remember it and Deb just blurted out, babe. And it was like we started screaming and shouting because it was the first time that something that started as an original thought in her head actually got out. And that was like four months after her stroke. ⁓ A year after her stroke, it was really just isolated words. ⁓ She then did a clinical trial with something called melodic intonation, a kind of speech therapy that tries to tap into the other side of the brain, the singing side of the brain. And then I would say, you know, it’s been, mean, Deb’s speech is still getting better. So it’s just marginal improvement ⁓ over time. Bill Gasiamis (35:10)Yeah, Deb, what parts of Professor Deborah Meyerson remain and what’s entirely new now? Debra and Steve (35:19)⁓ The sharing knowledge and trading knowledge is the same. The new is how I do it. More constraints, I need help. really help and I am so bad at asking. Really bad at asking. I have really a lot of phases of classes and Ballroom classes, you know ballroom dancing. Yeah, no In the work we do Deb’s favorite thing to do is to teach so we’ve been invited, you know ⁓ Quite a few speech therapists in the United States are using identity theft as part of the curriculum in their aphasia course in the speech language pathology programs Bill Gasiamis (36:28)So speaker-2 (36:28)I’ll be. Debra and Steve (36:48)⁓ and we’ve been invited to visit and talk in classes. And Deb just loves that because it’s back to sharing knowledge. It’s a different kind of knowledge. It’s not about the work she did before her stroke, but it’s about the work and the life experience since. that is still, Professor Deb is still very much with us. Bill Gasiamis (37:14)Yeah, Professor Deb, fiercely independent, ⁓ doesn’t like to ask for help, ⁓ still prefers to kind of battle on and get things done as much as possible and suffer through the difficulty of that and then eventually ask for help. Do you kind of eventually? Debra and Steve (37:32)Yeah, yeah, you skipped the part about correcting everything her husband says. That’s not quite exactly right. Bill Gasiamis (37:40)Well, that’s part of the course there, Steve. That’s exactly how it’s meant to be. And you should be better at being more accurate with what you have to say. Debra and Steve (37:49)I thought we’d be on the same side on this one. Bill Gasiamis (37:53)Sometimes, sometimes as a host, you know, I have to pick my hero and as a husband, I truly and totally get you. Deb, you describe experiencing cycles of grief. ⁓ What does that actually look like in a day-to-day life now? And I kind of get a sense of what cycles of grief would mean, but I’d love to hear your thoughts, your version of what that means. Debra and Steve (38:22)Every day, hour every day, small ways and big ways. Like one year ago, Well, grandmothers. Can I correct you? It was 16 months ago. I’m going to get her back. Yeah. That’s what she does to me all the time. I am really happy. Make sure you explain. don’t know if they would have caught what it was that made you so happy. Grandmother. Sarah, Danny and Vivian. I know, you don’t have to tell me. Just that we became grandparents for the first time. And Deb was ecstatic. I am so happy and also really frustrated. And I don’t… crawling… no. You want me to help? I mean, you know, it’s sort of the day we got there, the day after the baby was born in New York and Deb was over the moon and the next morning… We were walking back to the hospital and Deb was just spring-loaded to the pissed off position. She was getting mad at me for everything and anything and she was clearly in an unbelievably bad mood. And when I could finally get her to say what was wrong, it was that she had been playing all night and all morning all the ways in which she couldn’t be the grandmother she wanted to be. She couldn’t hold the baby. She couldn’t change a diaper. She couldn’t, you know, spell the kids later on to give them a break by herself because she wouldn’t be able to chase no one is our grandson around. And so she had had really kind of gone into grieving about what she had lost just in the moment when she was experiencing the greatest joy in her life. And that’s an extreme example of a cycle of grief. And but it happens, as Deb was saying, it happens. every hour, maybe three times an hour where you’re doing something that’s good, but then it reminds you of how you used to do that same thing. so, you know, when we talk about and write about cycles of grief, it’s the importance of giving yourself that space to grieve because it’s human. You lost something important and it’s human to let yourself acknowledge that. But then how do you get through that and get back to the good part and not let that grief trap you? And that story from 16 months ago in New York is sort of the, that’s the poster child, but it happens in big ways and small ways every day, 10 times a day. Bill Gasiamis (42:00)Sadness is a thing that happens to people all the time and it’s about knowing how to navigate it. And I think people generally lack the tools to navigate sadness. They lack the tools to ⁓ deal with it, to know what to do with it. But I think there needs to be some kind of information put out there. Like you’re sad. Okay. So what does it mean? What can it mean? What can you do with it? How can you transform it? Is it okay to sit in it? ⁓ What have you guys learned about the need for sadness in healing? Debra and Steve (42:35)grief and sadness is so important and through the really once it’s an hour. The Importance of Sadness in Healing From my perspective, I have learned a ton about sadness because I don’t have a good relationship with sadness. In most cases, it’s a great thing. just, you know, I’m a cup is nine tenths full person all the time and I tend to see the positive and that’s often very good. But it makes it really hard for me to live with other people’s sadness without trying to solve the problem. Bill Gasiamis (43:12)Hmm. Debra and Steve (43:35)And we actually came up with a phrase because sometimes if I get positive when Deb is sad, it just pisses her off. She doesn’t want to be talked out of it. And so we now talk about that dynamic as toxic positivity because, you know, most people think of positivity as such a positive thing. And yet If someone needs to just live in sadness for a little while, positivity can be really toxic. And I think that’s been my greatest learning, maybe growth is sort of understanding that better. I still fall into the trap all the time. devil tell you there are way too many times when, you know, my attempts to cheer her up are not welcomed. but at least I’m aware of it now. ⁓ And a little less likely to go there quite as quickly. Bill Gasiamis (44:38)Hmm. What I, what I noticed when people were coming to see me is that it was about them. They would come to see me about them. It wasn’t about me and what they made them do. What made what their instinct was, was to, if I felt better, they felt better and all they wanted to do was feel better and not be uncomfortable and not be struggling in their own ⁓ mind about what it’s like. to visit Bill who’s unwell. And that was the interesting part. It’s like, no, no, I am feeling unwell. I am going to remain feeling unwell. And your problem with it is your problem with it. You need to deal with how you feel about me feeling unwell. And I appreciate the empathy, the sympathy, the care I do. But actually, when you visit me, it shouldn’t be about you. It shouldn’t be, I’m gonna go and visit Bill. and I hope he’s well because I don’t want to experience him being unwell. It should be about you’re just gonna go visit Bill however you find him, whatever state he’s in, whatever condition he’s in, and therefore ⁓ that I think creates an opportunity for growth and that person needs to consider how they need to grow to adapt to this new relationship that they have with Bill. ⁓ which is based now around Bill’s challenges, Bill’s problems, Bill’s surgery, Bill’s pos- the possibility that Bill won’t be around in a few months or whatever. Do you know what I mean? So it’s like, ⁓ all, all the, ⁓ the well-meaning part of it is well received, but then it’s about everyone has a, has to step up and experience growth in this new relationship that we have. And some people are not willing to do it and then they don’t come at all. They’re the people who I find other most interesting and maybe ⁓ the most follow their instincts better than everybody where they might go, well, I’m going to go and say, Bill, he’s all messed up. ⁓ I don’t know how I’m going to deal with that. can’t cope with that. And rather than going there and being a party pooper or not knowing what to say or saying the wrong thing, maybe I won’t go at all. And they kind of create space. Debra and Steve (46:58)So. Bill Gasiamis (47:01)for your recovery to happen without you having to experience their version of it. Debra and Steve (47:09)Yeah, that’s it. That’s really interesting to hear you talk about it that way. And I would say very generous to hear you talk about it that way, because most of the time when we’ve heard people talk about it’s that because people talk about the fact that because other people don’t know what to say, they don’t say anything or they don’t come. But that then creates an isolation that’s unwanted. You’re talking about it as a, maybe that’s a good thing. They’re giving me space, given their skill or willingness to deal with it. Whereas I think a lot of people feel that when people just disappear because they don’t know what to say, that’s a lack of caring and a lack of engagement. ⁓ interesting to hear your take on it. think there’s a close cousin to this that Deb felt very intensely is that some people in the attempt to be understanding and supportive really took on an air of pity. And that there were some people that that we had to ask not to come if they couldn’t change how they were relating to Deb because it was such a like, ⁓ you poor thing that was incredibly disempowering. Whereas there were other people who had the skill to be empathetic in a supportive way. And so, I mean, in some ways, I think we’ve learned a lot, not that we necessarily do it right all the time, but we’ve learned a lot about how to try to support other people by what has and hasn’t worked in supporting us. Bill Gasiamis (49:20)Yeah, it’s a deeply interesting conversation because people get offended when they need people the most that don’t turn up. And I, and I understand that part of it as well. And then in, in time, ⁓ I was, I was like that at the beginning, but then in time, I kind of realized that, okay, this is actually not about me. It’s about them. They’re the ones struggling with my condition. They don’t know how to be. And maybe it’s okay for them. not to be around me because I wouldn’t be able to deal with their energy anyway. ⁓ yeah. So Deb, what made you turn to advocacy? What made you decide that you’re gonna be an advocate in this space? Finding Purpose Through Advocacy Debra and Steve (50:08)⁓ Feeling purpose and meaning. Survivors? Yes. And caregivers? Yes. Really a lot of risky is really… ⁓ medical, medical. Yeah. I mean, I I, I know what Deb is trying to say, which is, you know, once she got past the life threatening part and kind of on her way and was relatively independent, she was drawn back to saying, I want to live a life that has meaning and purpose. And so how in this new state, can I do that? And Deb, as I’m sure you know by now, doesn’t think small, she thinks big. And so what she’s saying is, yes, I want to help other people, other survivors, other care partners, but really we need a better system. Like I can only help so many people by myself, but if we can actually advocate for a better healthcare system in the United States that treats stroke differently. then maybe we can make a difference for a lot of people. that’s kind of the journey we’re on now. the survivors and caregivers, advocacy is so important to California or even the state. Building the Stroke Onward Foundation Bill Gasiamis (52:05)Yeah, advocacy is very important ⁓ and I love that I Love that you become an advocate and then you find your purpose and your meaning you don’t set out to Find your purpose and your meaning and then think what should I do to find my purpose of my meaning it tends to catch Catch go around the other way. I’m gonna go and help other people and then all of a sudden it’s like, ⁓ this is really meaningful I’m enjoying doing this and raising awareness about that condition that we’ve experienced and the challenges that we are facing. And wow, why don’t we make a change on a as big a scale as possible? Why don’t we try to influence the system to take a different approach because it’s maybe missing something that we see because we’re in a different, we have a different perspective than the people who are providing the healthcare, even though they’ve got a very big kind of, you know, their purpose is to help people as well. their perspective comes from a different angle and lived experience, I think is tremendously important and ⁓ missed and it’s a big missed opportunity if ⁓ lived experience is not part of that defining of how to offer services to people experiencing or recovering a stroke or how to support people after they’ve experienced or recovering from a stroke. ⁓ I love that. So that led you guys to develop the foundation, stroke onward. it a foundation? it a, tell us a little bit about stroke onward. Debra and Steve (53:42)In US jargon, we’d call it a nonprofit. Generally, foundations are entities that have a big endowment and give money away. We wish we had a big endowment, but we don’t. We need to find people who want to support our work and make donations to our nonprofit. And yeah, we now have a small team. ⁓ Deb and I given our age, given that we’re grandparents, we were hoping not to be 24 sevens. So needed people who were good at building nonprofits who were a little earlier in their careers. And we’ve got a small team, a CEO, a program manager and a couple of part-time people ⁓ who are running a bunch of programs. We’re trying to stay focused. We’re trying to build community with stroke survivors, care partners, medical professionals. We’ve got an online community called the Stroke Onward Community Circle that we just launched earlier this year. We’re hosting events, ⁓ some in medical settings that we call Stroke Care Onward to really talk with both ⁓ a diverse group of medical professionals, as well as survivors and care partners about what’s missing in the system and how it can be improved. ⁓ And then a program that we call the Stroke Monologues, which is sort of a a TEDx for stroke survivors where survivors, care partners, medical professionals can really tell their story of the emotional journey in recovery. And we want to use all of that to sort of build a platform to drive system change. That’s kind of what we’re trying to build with Stroke Onward. Bill Gasiamis (55:32)I love that. I love that TEDx component of it. ⁓ People actually get to talk about it and put out stories and content in that way as well. Debra and Steve (55:35)Yeah. ⁓ Yeah. Denver, Pittsburgh, ⁓ Boston, and Oakland and San Francisco. We’ve now done six shows of the stroke monologues and a big part about our work in the coming year. is really trying to think about how that might scale. can we, you know, it’s a very time consuming and therefore expensive to host events all the time. So how we can work with other organizations and leverage the idea ⁓ so that more people can get on stage and tell their story. ⁓ Also how we capture those stories on video and how we can do it virtually. So that’s a big part of what the team is thinking about is, you know, how do we Cause you know, at the end of the day, we can only do as much as we can raise the money to hire the people to do. So, that, that developing a strategy that hopefully can scale and track the resources that it takes to make more impact. That’s kind of job one for 2026. Bill Gasiamis (57:05)Yeah, I love it. Lucky you haven’t got enough jobs. That’s a good job to have though, right? ⁓ So if you were sitting, if you guys were both sitting with a couple just beginning this journey, what would you want them to know? What’s the first thing that you would want them to know? Debra Meyerson – Advice for New Stroke Survivors Debra and Steve (57:12)Yeah. Don’t have a stroke. Bill Gasiamis (57:28)Profound. Debra and Steve (57:29)Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, it’s a journey and think of it as a journey and try to get as much as much of your capabilities back as you can. But don’t think of recovery as just that. It’s a much broader journey than that. It’s rebuilding identity. It’s finding ways to adapt. to do the things you love to do, to do the things that bring you meaning and purpose and create that journey for yourself. Nobody else’s journey is gonna be the right model for yours. So give yourself the time, space, learn from others, but learn from what’s in your heart as to the life you wanna build with the cards you’ve been dealt. Bill Gasiamis (58:25)Yeah. What are some of the practices or habits that have helped you guys as a couple, as partners stay connected? Debra and Steve (58:34)⁓ It’s, it’s hard. mean, and we’ve gone through phases, ⁓ where I think, you know, in some ways early on after the stroke, we may have been as close or closer than we’ve ever been. as Deb got better ironically and wanted to do more. Bill Gasiamis (58:39)You Debra and Steve (59:01)that created a different kind of stress for us. ⁓ stress is the key. No, stress is not the beauty. I had so much stress. Yeah. And sometimes I say stress is a function of the gap between aspiration and capability and while Deb’s capabilities keep growing, I think maybe her aspirations grow faster. And the question then says, how do you fill that gap? And so I think Deb struggles with that. And then for me, a big struggle is, so how much do I change my life to support Deb in filling that gap versus the things I might want to do that I still can do? So. You know, when Deb decided to write a book, I really wasn’t willing to give up my other nonprofit career, which was very meaningful to me. And I felt like I was midstream, but we had to find other ways in addition to my help nights and weekends to get Deb help so she could write the book she wanted to write. Whereas when the book came out and we decided to create Stroke Onward, that was a different point in time. And I was sort of willing to. cut back from that career to come build something with Deb. So I think again, we hate to give advice because everybody’s journey is different, but things change and go with that change. Don’t get locked into a view of what the balance in relationship should be. Recognize that that’s gonna be a never ending process of creating and recreating and recreating a balance that works for both of us. Bill Gasiamis (1:01:04)Hmm. What’s interesting. Some of the things that I’ve gone through with my wife is that I’ve kind of understood that she can’t be all things that I needed to be for me. And I can’t be all things that she needs me to be for her. And we need to seek that things where we lack the ability to deal to provide those things for the other person. The other person needs to find a way to accomplish those tasks needs, have those needs met, whatever with in some other way. for example, my whole thing was feeling sad and I needed someone to talk me through it and my wife wasn’t skilled enough to talk me through it, well, it would be necessary for me to seek that support from somebody else, a counselor, a coach, whomever, rather than trying to get blood out of a stone, somebody who doesn’t have the capability to support me in that way. Why would I expect that person to… all of a sudden step up while they’re doing all these other things to get through the difficult time that we were going on to that we’re dealing with. So that was kind of my learning. was like, I can’t expect my wife to be everything I need from her. There’ll be other people who can do that. Who are they? And that’s why the podcast happened because I’ve been talking about this since 2012 and since 2012 and ⁓ well, yeah, that’s 2012 as well. 2012 anyhow. ⁓ I’ve been talking about it since. Debra and Steve (1:02:41)You’re both our roles. You’re saying it and then correcting yourself. Bill Gasiamis (1:02:45)Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I have a part of me that corrects me as I go along in life. Yeah. Sometimes I don’t listen to it. ⁓ but today was a good one. The thing about it is I have a need, a deep need to talk about it all the time. That’s why I’ve done nearly 400 episodes and those 400 episodes are therapy sessions. Every time I sit down and have a conversation with somebody and I, and even though my wife has a I, ⁓ masters in psychology. I wouldn’t put her through 400 conversations about my stroke every single day or every second day. You know, it’s not fair because it’s not her role. I, ⁓ I talked to her about the things that we can discuss that are important, for the relationship and for how we go about our business as a couple. But then there’s those other things that. she can’t offer her perspective because only stroke survivors know how to do that. And I would never want her to know how to ⁓ relate to me having had a stroke and having the deficits that I have and how it feels to be in my body. I would never want her to be able to relate to me. So ⁓ it’s, that’s kind of how I see, you know, the couple dynamic has to play out. have to just honor the things that each of us can bring to the table and then go elsewhere to ⁓ have our needs met if there’s needs that are left unmet. Debra and Steve (1:04:23)Yeah. Really. Well, it’s good to know that if this is a ⁓ helpful therapy session for you, you won’t mind if we send you a bill. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (1:04:32)Yeah. Yeah. Send it along with the book. Just put it in the front cover and then, and then I’ll make a payment. ⁓ Well guys, it’s really lovely to meet you in person and have a conversation with you. Have the opportunity to share your mission as well. Raise awareness about the book, raise awareness about stroke onward. I love your work. ⁓ And I wish you all the best with all of your endeavors, personal, professional, not for profit. And yeah, I just love the way that this is another example of how you can respond to stroke as individuals and then also as a couple. Debra and Steve (1:05:18)Yeah, thank you. Well, and we hope you’ll join our online community and that includes the opportunity to do live events. yes. And maybe there are some additional therapy sessions. Yes. On our platform and chat with people and well, all over the place. So yeah, please join us. Bill Gasiamis (1:05:43)That sounds like a plan. Well, that’s a wrap on my conversation with Deborah and Steve. If Deborah’s slow fall off a cliff description resonated with you, leave a comment and tell me what part of your recovery has been the hardest to explain to other people. And if you’re a care partner, I’d love to hear what you needed most early on. You’ll find the links to Deborah and Steve’s work, their book, identity theft and their nonprofit stroke onward in the show notes. And if you’d like to go deeper with me, grab my book, The Unexpected Way That a Stroke Became the Best Thing That Happened via recoveryafterstroke.com/book. Also, you can support the podcast on Patreon by going to patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke. Thank you for being here. And remember, you’re not alone in this journey. Importantly, we present many podcasts designed to give you an insight and understanding into the experiences of other individuals. Opinions and treatment protocols discussed during any podcast are the individual’s own experience, and we do not necessarily share the same opinion, nor do we recommend any treatment protocol discussed. All content on this website and any linked blog, podcast or video material controlled this website or content is created and produced for informational purposes only and is largely based on the personal experience of Bill Gassiamus. Content is intended to complement your medical treatment and support healing. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health advice. The information is general and may not be suitable for your personal injuries, circumstances or health objectives. Do not use our content as a standalone resource to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease for therapeutic purposes or as a substitute for the advice of a health professional. Never delay seeking advice or disregard the advice of a medical professional, your doctor or your rehabilitator. program based on our content. you have any questions or concerns about your health or medical condition, please seek guidance from a doctor or other medical professional. If you are experiencing a health emergency or think you might be, call 000 if in Australia or your local emergency number immediately for emergency assistance or go to the nearest hospital emergency department. Medical information changes constantly. While we aim to provide current quality information in our content, we do not provide any guarantees and assume no legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, currency or completeness of the content. If you choose to rely on any information within our content, you do so solely at your own risk. We are careful with links we provide. However, third party links from our website are followed at your own risk and we are not responsible for any information you find there.   The post Debra Meyerson and the “Slow Fall Off a Cliff”: Aphasia After Stroke, Identity, and What Recovery Really Means appeared first on Recovery After Stroke.

This issue will review: 1.     Evolocumab in Patients without a Previous Myocardial Infarction or Stroke 2.     SGLT2 Inhibitors and Kidney Outcomes by Glomerular Filtration Rate and Albuminuria 3.     Continuous SGLT-2, GLIP-1RA and Frailty Progression in Older Adults with Type 2 Diabetes   4.     Effects of Sodium Glucose Cotransporter 2 Inhibitors by Diabetes Status and Level of Albuminuria 5.     Tirzepatide in Adults With Type 1 Diabetes: A Phase 2 Randomized Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial 6.     Listening to Hypoglycemia: Voice as a Biomarker for Detection of a Medical Emergency Using Machine Learning Diabetes Core Update is a monthly podcast that presents and discusses the latest clinically relevant articles from the American Diabetes Association's four science and medical journals – Diabetes, Diabetes Care, Clinical Diabetes, and Diabetes Spectrum. Each episode is approximately 25 minutes long and presents 5-6 recently published articles from ADA journals. Intended for practicing physicians and health care professionals, Diabetes Core Update   discusses how the latest research and information published in journals of the American Diabetes Association are relevant to clinical practice and can be applied in a treatment setting. For more information about each of ADA's science and medical journals, please visit Diabetesjournals.org. Hosts: Neil Skolnik, M.D., Professor of Family and Community Medicine, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University; Associate Director, Family Medicine Residency Program, Abington Jefferson Health John J. Russell, M.D., Professor of Family and Community Medicine, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University; Chair-Department of Family Medicine, Abington Jefferson Health

S3E10, A late breaking podcast right before 2026. Dave gives us a comprehensive update from the Bambauer tournament and other post Christmas tourneys.  Happy New Year Run TMC!  Show Notes:  (G): Content is Mostly Global Interest Topics (M): Content is Mostly Inside Marin Topics Musical intro credit to Stroke 9//Logo credit to Katie Levine Content and opinions are those of Dave, Duffy and their guests and not of affiliated organizations or sponsors. email us at: theruntmcpodcast@gmail.com follow us on Instagram @theruntmcpodcast check out our website at: theruntmcpodcast.com thank you to our sponsors: The Hub in San Anselmo Encore Custom Apparel online and in downtown San Rafael  San Domenico Nike Fall and Summer Basketball Camps

Join us live at cre8tive con in february! http://www.cre8tivecon.com “A Stroke of Love” — Nancy Spano's Near-Death Experience and Her Journey Back to Life In this heartfelt episode of Get Obsessed, host Julie Lokun sits down with Nancy Spano, the inspiring author of Stroke of Love. Nancy shares the day her life changed forever when she suffered a massive stroke at age 46 and the profound near-death experience that followed. Nancy's story is raw, emotional, and filled with hope. She takes listeners through the moments leading up to her stroke, describing the changes in her vision, behavior, and thinking that she didn't realize were warning signs. She also opens up about her remarkable recovery and the lessons she learned about resilience, faith, and finding purpose in the aftermath. In this episode, you'll hear:• The subtle symptoms Nancy noticed before her stroke and how she nearly ignored them• What her near-death experience felt like and the spiritual moment that brought her back• How her husband and family supported her through recovery• The life lessons that gave her a renewed sense of purpose and gratitude Recognizing the Warning Signs of Stroke Nancy's experience is a reminder that strokes can happen at any age and that early recognition saves lives. Symptoms Nancy experienced include:• Vision loss on one side• Sudden irritability and mood changes• Confusion and short-term memory loss• Trouble completing simple tasks• Weakness or paralysis on one side of the body• Panic attacks and disorientation Her stroke was linked to high blood pressure worsened by medication, something she had not been warned to monitor. Now, Nancy is dedicated to raising awareness so others can recognize early warning signs and take quick action. If you or someone you know experiences sudden numbness, confusion, slurred speech, vision loss, or loss of balance, call 911 immediately. Time is critical. About Nancy Spano Nancy Spano is a stroke and cancer survivor, wife, mother, and advocate who turned her near-death experience into a message of hope. Her book, Stroke of Love, tells her story of survival, healing, and the strength of the human spirit. Learn more at: www.strokeoflovebook.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Send Zorba a message!Dr. Zorba digs into new research that shows heavy drinking can lead to an increased stroke risk. Zorba helps out a caller (another Karl Christenson) with Barrett's Esophagus. The caller suggests that Zorba should bottle and prescribe his laugh as medicine. Zorba also helps a listener who has extremely itchy skin, we hear a Mom Joke, and we learn about glasses from the 1980s that were purported to help folks lose weight.Support the showProduction, edit, and music by Karl Christenson Send your question to Dr. Zorba (he loves to help!): Phone: 608-492-9292 (call anytime) Email: askdoctorzorba@gmail.com Web: www.doctorzorba.org Stay well!

Send Zorba a message!Dr. Zorba digs into new research that shows heavy drinking can lead to an increased stroke risk. Zorba helps out a caller (another Karl Christenson) with Barrett's Esophagus. The caller suggests that Zorba should bottle and prescribe his laugh as medicine. Zorba also helps a listener who has extremely itchy skin, we hear a Mom Joke, and we learn about glasses from the 1980s that were purported to help folks lose weight.Support the showProduction, edit, and music by Karl Christenson Send your question to Dr. Zorba (he loves to help!): Phone: 608-492-9292 (call anytime) Email: askdoctorzorba@gmail.com Web: www.doctorzorba.org Stay well!

AD FREE DOPEY at www.patreon.com/dopeypodcast This week on Dopey! We start wrapping up 2025 with a candid check-in: feeling under the weather amid a family stomach virus, craving a Sopranos binge, and doubting plans for "Five Days of Dopey" in January (Wednesday/Thursday shows likely intermittent—send opinions to dopeypodcast@gmail.com). We share the ultimate post-Christmas blues remedy: a trip to Elizabeth A. Morton National Wildlife Refuge in Sag Harbor, NY, where chickadees, titmice, and woodpeckers eat seeds straight from your hand in the snowy quiet—described as magical, healing, and the true "opposite of addiction."Dave addresses backlash from replaying Nick Reiner episodes (including harsh comments like "Narcissist Grifter" and "Exploitative Jew"), explains his intent to share old conversations without commentary, notes new listeners discovered Dopey through them, and mentions turning down media interviews. He plugs ad-free listening on Patreon (patreon.com/dopeypodcast) and urges positive iTunes reviews.Listener Emails (Oldies Read Aloud)Wendy: Proposes a dedicated recovery-focused social media platform to avoid bans for "junky" content.James D. Hart: Highlights interracial bands like Prince and the Revolution (inspired by Sly & the Family Stone), Jimi Hendrix Experience, and Smashing Pumpkins.Christy Adams: Celebrates 3 years clean, praises an older neuroscience/meth/GLP-1 episode, and misses the original Dave/Chris dynamic.Stickers or socks for anyone whose email/voicemail gets read—email dopeypodcast@gmail.com.Main Feature: Classic Darrell Hammond Interview Replay (2017) The legendary SNL cast member (longest-tenured before Keenan) gets raw about:SNL highs/lows, iconic impressions (Clinton, Connery), working with Lorne Michaels, and celebrity encounters.Childhood trauma and abuse, flashbacks, and blaming himself to protect the idea of parental love.Alcoholism starting at 14 (first beers felt like "the world turning from black-and-white to color").Self-harm as a "problem solver" and crisis creator during prolific periods.Wild Harlem crack house story (mistaken for a cop, defended as "that motherfucker old TV," spotting the St. Francis Prayer on the wall).Multiple relapses, including after a sponsor's suicide.Stroke-ward epiphany that finally led to lasting sobriety—seeing patients struggle to speak inspired desperation for change.Recovery tools: St. Francis (11th Step) Prayer, connection with others, cognitive therapy, yoga, meetings, and the "law of threes" (expect ⅓ great days, ⅓ okay, ⅓ rough).Wrap-Up Dave re-reads old Spotify comments on the Hammond episode (debates over "This or That," therapy questions, possum facts, etc.) and closes with his heartfelt acoustic cover of "Good So Bad"—the song from the first Dopey episode he heard that inspired him to get clean.All that and more on this weeks installment of that good old Dopey Replay Show! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dr. Dee Trudeau Poskas's BIO:  Dr. Denise Adele Trudeau Poskas—known widely as Dr. Dee—is a scientist at heart, a coach by craft, and a catalyst by nature. With a background in biological sciences and neuroscience, paired with advanced degrees in leadership and team empowerment, Dr. Dee has spent her career decoding what truly drives human potential—especially in high achievers, entrepreneurs, and visionary leaders. She is the co-founder of Blue Egg Leadership, a certified ICF coach, and the architect behind breakthrough methodologies including EQ-Edge©, SynoVation Valley Leadership Academy, Stroke of Genius©, +Mind Framing+©, and Brilliant Teams©. As a member of the Forbes Coaches Council, she contributes expert insight to global conversations on leadership, neuroscience, and emotional intelligence. In this episode, Virginia and Dr. Dee talked about: Dr. Dee's passion for science & coaching Self-leadership vs. self-management Why you get stuck and how to get out of a rut Takeaways: Thoughts create emotions — control your thoughts. Your brain only does what you tell it to do. Stop thinking the same old thoughts. Treat your network as an extension of your marketing team.   Connect with Dr. Dee on her LinkedIn account to learn more about her work and insights into networking effectively: LinkedIn URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drtrudeau/    Connect with Virginia: https://www.bbrpodcast.com/

Stroke etanercept injection 18 months on: what lasted, what changed, and what Andrew learned after the PESTO trial Some stroke survivors are told a version of the same sentence in hospital: “After three months, what you have is what you'll have.” Andrew Stops didn't buy it, not because he was naïve, but because he needed a reason to keep showing up for rehab when nobody could give him a straight answer about what “recovery” would look like. Four years after his ischemic stroke, and 18 months after a stroke etanercept injection, Andrew is back to share what improved quickly, what continued to evolve, and how he made peace with research results that didn't match his lived experience. The question so many survivors are really asking When people reach out about perispinal etanercept (often discussed as “etanercept after stroke”), they're rarely asking for a science lecture. They're asking: Will this help me get my life back? Will I be the person it works for… or the person it doesn't? How do I decide without being misled by hype, fear, or my own desperation? Those questions are valid. They're also heavy, because the stakes are high: the treatment is expensive, travel can be intense, and the emotional cost of hoping—then not getting results—can be brutal. Andrew's baseline: what his stroke took at the start Andrew's stroke most impacted his right side. Early on, he had: No use of his right arm or hand A weaker right leg Right foot drop A slight speech impediment He worked hard to walk again quickly, using practical supports early (including an elastic extension on his shoe to help keep his foot up). But his bigger mission was clear: find ways to complement rehab—because medical staff couldn't give him a timeline, and he felt a “lack of hope” from their perspective. That's a common moment for survivors: you're doing the work, but you also want a map. The “complement” phase: why hyperbaric helped, even without perfect measurement Before etanercept entered the picture, Andrew leaned on what had helped him before: hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). He had a history of a brain tumor and had used hyperbaric previously for healing, so he rented a soft-shell chamber at home for three months and went in daily for 90 minutes. Andrew was careful with his claims: he couldn't measure physiological changes in real time at home. But he could measure something important, his ability to cope. HBOT became a daily “warm cocoon” where he could breathe oxygen-rich air and calm his nervous system. For him, that mental-health benefit wasn't a side note. It was fuel. And when you're rebuilding your life after stroke, fuel matters. The etanercept decision: hope, uncertainty, and the reality of the “roll the dice” problem Andrew discovered perispinal etanercept through a media story about Dr. Tobinick's clinic, and after about a year, decided he needed to know he'd tried everything he reasonably could. He crowdfunded to afford the trip and treatment. That detail matters because it introduces the single biggest ethical challenge around treatments like this: Even if you try to stay balanced, it's hard not to hang hope on something that costs time, money, energy, and pride. Andrew doesn't tell people to go. In fact, when people contact him now (he's spoken to more than 50), he's careful: He explains it worked for him, but might not work for them He encourages going without expectation He frames it as “knowing you tried everything,” not a guaranteed fix That's responsible guidance from someone who understands how fragile hope can become when it's under financial pressure. What changed fast (and what stayed improved 18 months later) Andrew's report of early changes is striking not because it proves causality, but because it describes specific, functional shifts: Cognitive fatigue and sensory overload He noticed cognitive fatigue dial down immediately. He still experiences it, but it takes far more to trigger now. The most vivid example: on the way to the clinic, he used an eye mask, noise-cancelling headphones, and had medication ready for overload. On the return flight 24 hours later, he didn't need any of it. He stood in the airport like any other traveler. Pain and cramping A persistent cramp in his right calf eased significantly. Emotional regulation He noticed improvement in emotional control, something many stroke survivors quietly struggle with and often feel ashamed about. Hand function and fine motor control His right hand went from feeling like it moved “in molasses” to loosening up. And here's where the “18 months on” part becomes powerful: Andrew recently discovered he could play scales on his clarinet again, covering holes with independent finger movement, something he hadn't been able to do since the stroke. That's not framed as: “etanercept did this.” It's framed as: recovery kept unfolding. “Your stroke recovery doesn't stop. There's no end date.” The PESTO trial: when research challenges your story Then came the PESTO trial results, which (as discussed in your episode) reported that etanercept was not more effective than placebo in the studied group. This is where Andrew's story gets even more human. He didn't just shrug it off. He described feeling guilt, even fraudulence, because he couldn't reconcile the research headline with his lived experience. That response is deeply relatable: when something helps you, and others don't get the same outcome, it can feel like survivor's guilt, especially when people have spent enormous money and emotional energy. A careful theory: the blood–brain barrier question In your conversation, Bill raises a hypothesis, not a proven conclusion that deserves careful attention: If etanercept struggles to cross the blood–brain barrier in general, could certain people have a more permeable barrier due to factors like stroke, surgery, or radiation therapy (which Andrew had)? Andrew himself wonders if radiation could be part of his “why.” This isn't a sales pitch. It's a research direction, a possible explanation for why outcomes might vary so dramatically between people. If that line of thinking ever becomes clinically actionable, it could change the whole decision-making process for survivors, because the question would shift from “roll the dice” to “are you likely to be a candidate?” What a stroke survivor can take from this without being sold to If you're reading this because you're considering a stroke etanercept injection, here are the grounded takeaways from Andrew's 18-month update: Recovery can continue for years. Don't let a timeline kill your momentum. Treatments don't have to be “proven” to feel meaningful, but meaning isn't the same as certainty. Hope needs guardrails. Don't stake your whole future on one intervention. If you pursue something controversial, protect your mindset. Go in informed, realistic, and supported. You deserve respect, not ridicule, for wanting your life back. If you want ongoing encouragement and tools to navigate recovery (and the emotional complexity that comes with it), Bill's work is built for that: Book: recoveryafterstroke.com/book Patreon: patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please consult your doctor before making any changes to your health or recovery plan. Andrew's 18-Month Etanercept Update: Fatigue, Function, and What the Research Says 18 months later, Andrew shares what improved after etanercept fatigue, function, and the tough questions raised by the PESTO trial. Highlights: 00:00 Introduction and Background 06:15 Exploring Treatment Options 08:59 Stroke Etanercept Injection And It’s Impact 12:14 Research Findings and Controversies 17:59 Conversations with Other Survivors 23:26 Reflections on Treatment and Guilt Transcript: Stroke Etanercept Injection – Introduction and Background Bill Gasiamis (00:00) Hey again there everyone. Welcome back to the Recovery After Stroke podcast. Before we get started, a quick thank you to everyone who supports this podcast on Patreon. Your support helps cover hosting costs and after more than 10 years of doing this largely solo, it’s what helps me keep showing up for stroke survivors who need hope and real conversations. A huge shout out to everyone who comments on YouTube, leaves reviews on Spotify and Apple podcasts. has bought my book, The Unexpected Way That a Stroke Became the Best Thing That Happened, and even the folks who don’t skip the ads, thank you. All of it helps this podcast reach the people who are searching for answers late at night when recovery feels heavy. Now today’s episode is a follow-up many of you have asked for. Andrew Stopps is back, and we’re talking about stroke and etanusept injections 18 months on. We’ll unpack what changed for him, what’s continued to improve and how he processed the PESTO trial results that found Etanercapt wasn’t more effective than the placebo. If you’re considering this treatment or you’re trying to make sense of conflicting stories and research, this conversation will help you think more clearly without hype and without fear. All right, let’s get into it. Bill Gasiamis (01:17) Andrew stops. Welcome back. Andrew (01:20) Thank you for having me. It’s good to back. Bill Gasiamis (01:22) It is so good to have you back. The last time we spoke, was March 26, 2024. At least that’s the date that I uploaded the podcast Andrew (01:30) it would have been before that even, probably a couple of weeks before that. Bill Gasiamis (01:34) Yeah, something like that. So a good 18 months since we last spoke. And the original reason why you reached out and kind of we connected was I think because you had found my podcast, I had maybe had a couple of conversations about Etanercept like, and I had no idea what it was, how it worked, if it worked. And then you reached out and said, hey, I’ve had this injection. I’ve tried it. Why don’t connect about it? Andrew (01:36) So a good 18 months. Bill Gasiamis (02:03) And then we connected and we had a really great conversation and that interview has had like 19 and a half thousand views since then. And then what’s been happening a lot about that interview is heaps of people have reached out to me to say, can I speak with Andrew? Can you connect me with Andrew? Andrew (02:23) And he’s people reached out to me because of that. And also they found me on the interwebs somehow and contacted me that way. So I’ve probably been spoken now, well over 50 people. Bill Gasiamis (02:40) Wow, man, that is fascinating. So and what I love about it is that we put out information. What we hope is we hope people make a more informed decision. Right. That’s kind of the idea is like, how do I help people make people make a more informed decision, especially when I haven’t experienced something and I’m trying to get across the benefits or the pitfalls or, you know, what to avoid on a product. It’s just impossible. But You were very gracious as well as you. I’ve interviewed, by the way, a bunch of other about Etanercept. And one of them was Dwayne Simple. Dwayne also gets a few people who I sent to him that are in Canada because Dwayne is in Canada. He’s had Etanercept and it worked out for And then I’ve spoken to another lady from Australia, Karen. who also a shot or two of Etanercept and had positive results. But of course, Etanercept is extremely controversial. And one of the challenges with it is that it doesn’t work for everybody. And there’s only one way of knowing if it’s going to work is to go and get the injection to pay the money and then to kind of roll the dice and see what happens. Now, that’s what we’re going to talk about today. But before we talk about the new Andrew (03:37) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Bill Gasiamis (03:58) research that has come out, the PESTO trial research. Before we talk about that, we’ll briefly talk about your condition, where you started. We’ll have a real short version of that, where you started, what happened, and then how you ended up overseas experiencing Dr. Tobinick’s procedure, and then update us on what happened in the last 18 months. Andrew (04:17) Okay, so I had my stroke exactly four years ago last Thursday. So I’m a four year old stroke survivor now. And my most damage was done to my right side. So I had no use of my right arm or hand at all. My right leg was weak, but it was okay. But my right foot just fell. I had a slight speech impediment. But otherwise physically that was really it for the stroke. And I worked really hard to get myself walking again as quickly as I could. And so when I got home I could walk but I’d had an elastic extension on my shoe to help keep my foot up. And I… From that moment, I was looking for ways to complement my rehab to help me recover fully from the stroke because the doctors and people in the hospital, no one could say to me like how long, how I was going to be, how much recovery, what I could expect, like anything. was just everyone’s unique. And I understand that, but there was a ⁓ lack of like hope from their perspective. So the first thing we did when we got me home was I’d heard, well, I knew that hyperbaric chambers helped healing. And I knew that because I had a, previously had a brain tumor and I used hyperbaric to help me heal from that. It was really, really good. So we hired one, we rented one for three months and had a soft shell chamber at home, which I went in every day. for 90 minutes and it was fantastic. I can’t say how, if that physiologically helped because I don’t have access to an MRI at home or anything. Yeah, I can’t measure it, but it did wonders for my mental health. Like it was brilliant because for an hour and half every day, I got to sit in this nice warm cocoon shell, they do not over me. Bill Gasiamis (06:01) You can’t measure it. Exploring Treatment Options Andrew (06:15) and listen to really nice music and breathe in almost, you know, pure, very heavily oxygenated air. And so it was like meditation for an hour and half. And the hour and a half went just like that. It was so quick. And I was really sad to have to, you know, give it up after three months. But yeah, it very much helped with my mental health during that time. And I mean, It’s hard to say if it helped me physically, but I certainly got back my ability to move my foot. My arm was another beast though, and that took a long time. That took about two months before it even moved slightly before I could just, you know, move it up and down. So getting back the function of my arm was a longer process. So I kept researching online and finding, you know, other ways that I could help myself to recover. That’s when came across the 60 minutes interview with Dr. Tobinick and the clinic and the lady from Australia. Bill Gasiamis (07:17) Which by the way, 60 minutes has taken down. You can only find that on Dr. Tobinick’s YouTube channel now. Yeah, right. So that’s interesting just as a thing that I observed that people might find interesting as well to hear. It doesn’t mean anything perhaps. Andrew (07:24) really? Interesting. Yeah, I mean, yeah, can be anything anyway, so I found that I watched it. I was really really inspired and I thought well I’ve got to know that I have tried everything like if this is how I’m going to be and this was After one year and I was told that you know after three months or That pretty much what I had after three months was was how I was going to be so I figured after one year, I’ve got to try everything. And so I crowdfunded and had about 30 or 1000. Bill Gasiamis (08:13) You raised how much? US, New Zealand dollars. Andrew (08:22) Yes, so that was to that was to fly that was for the flights accommodation the shots like the whole the whole package And yeah, and we flew out in in February Last last year 2025 Was it last year? can’t remember Bill Gasiamis (08:37) I did 20, 24, 18 months ago. Stroke Etanercept Injection And It’s Impact Andrew (08:40) 2024. And yeah, had the shot and it was it was amazing how fast I found things start to to wake up and recover. By then I had had more movement in my arm, but my hand was very sluggish. And I really didn’t have any fine motor control at all. ⁓ So yeah, that was the 32nd story of Andrew’s stroke recovery. Bill Gasiamis (09:04) Yeah, that’s a cool story. So we did a full deeper dive interview for Andrew’s story, an hour and 18 minutes worth of conversation. And the link to the original interview with Andrew about Etanercept will be available in the show notes, right, and in the YouTube description of this video. So anyone who wants to go back and watch that can do that as well. Now, like I said, it’s had 19,000 views. It’s 521 likes and it has just a ton of comments, just a ton, a ton of comments. Now, one other thing that has happened since then is I haven’t been able to find people who are willing to talk about Etanercept who did not have positive results when they went to Dr. Tobinick’s clinic. just, people don’t want to be interviewed if it’s about that. It seems as though it’s been really hard, right? So. I can’t give this balanced view of here’s somebody who has had good results, here’s somebody who hasn’t had results. They comment on the YouTube comments and they send me emails about it, but they don’t really tell me whether or not they will join me on the podcast to discuss it properly. recently the Griffith University study came out about Perispinal Etanercept and it had some positive results. It didn’t find that it was able to help restore certain functions, et cetera, but it did have an impact on pain relief for some people. Now, after that, the highly anticipated study was the one from the Flory Institute here in Australia called the PESTO trial. I’ll share my screen and I’ll put it on the screen while we chat about it, right? We’re gonna chat about what if. what it found, Andrew, just so that we can bring people up to speed so they can just hear a conversation about it. Bill Gasiamis (10:50) We’ll be back with more of Andrew’s story in just a moment, but if you’re listening right now and you feel stuck, want you to hear this clearly. Recovery isn’t a three month window. It’s not even a one year window. Your brain can keep adapting for a long time. And the real challenge is learning how to keep hope without putting all your hope in one thing. In the second half of this episode, Andrew shares what actually lasted 18 months on. What still improved over the time. And we’ll talk about the biggest question. If the PESTO trial says the Etanercept shouldn’t work better than the placebo, then why do some people still report a night and day difference? Bill Gasiamis (11:30) OK, so this is the PESO trial. Now, I interviewed recently ⁓ Vincent Thijs the doctor who headed the study. but the Flory Institute is basically reporting on his findings. He has presented these findings at stroke conferences around the world. And what was interesting was that this study started in, I think, 2018. And then because of COVID had to be paused, amongst other things. And then finally, all the research was reviewed and it became available at the beginning of 2025. And then it’s been out probably for about seven or eight months now. Stroke Etanercept Injection Research Findings and Controversies And what they found was that the, and they’re being a little bit provocative here calling it a miracle cure, but what they found was that a perispinal etanusept, the arthritis drug, ⁓ was not effective in treating people that were experiencing symptoms because of a stroke anymore. than the placebo. So what they found was that the people on the placebo who ⁓ received the placebo, 56 % of them had a positive result from the placebo as opposed to less than 56 % of people who were actually using the Etanusept. And the reason being, they say, is because the drug doesn’t have the capability of crossing the blood-brain barrier to get to where the ⁓ inflammation is and to actually ⁓ decrease the inflammation. In arthritis, for example, the inflammation is in the joints, which are not part of the brain. There is no blood-brain barrier or some barrier that stops the atanasip from going there. And therefore, when people get injected to experience relief from ⁓ the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, they do experience that relief sometimes almost immediately, et cetera. And ⁓ as a result of that, the guys published the study and basically concluded that it is not effective and more research needs to be done to understand why or why not it works for some people and why it doesn’t for others. And I’ve had a couple of kind of ideas since then. And I’ll stop sharing my screen now because we can go back to just you and I, Andrew. And I’ve had some ideas as to how do I then talk to people about that, right? So I know I’ve interviewed Andrew, five other people that I’ve interviewed at least who said they had a positive result. And I should tell people there’s people who had a positive result, right? And then there’s the other people on the other side of the spectrum, which are really hostile saying like, it’s snake oil. My idea is that even if you go there and you receive Etanercept and it works when it’s not meant to and it’s just a placebo working because you’ve got high expectations of it working. You need it to work. You’ve invested $30,000. You you’ve traveled half a way across the world. Even if it works and it didn’t cross your blood brain barrier, to me, that’s a tick, right? That’s like. It worked fantastic. People improve their function. They got their life back. The body is very powerful. It can achieve amazing things. Who cares how it did that? A B, your blood brain barrier might be compromised. So there is a thing called leaky gut. We’ve heard about leaky gut. It is a compromised gut barrier which allows toxins to escape the gut and get into the blood. and causes a lot of autoimmune conditions. The same thing is possible for the blood brain barrier. If you’ve got a really compromised blood brain barrier because you’ve had a stroke or you’ve had brain surgery or something like that, it’s possible. Andrew (15:47) we’ve had radiation therapy, which I have. Bill Gasiamis (15:50) or you’ve had radiation therapy because of previous medical conditions, et cetera, then there could be a more permeable blood brain barrier, which enables the Etanercept to actually penetrate it and get to the root cause of the stroke inflammation or the root location of the stroke inflammation. And therefore, some people through no… ⁓ you know, through no fault of their own, I either have a really healthy blood brain barrier and Etanercept can’t cross it or have a compromised blood brain barrier and Etanercept can cross it. And therefore they experience positive results. But the issue then is how do we know? How can we work that out for people, you know, before they go and drop 30 grand on a treatment that they may not get a result for. Now. That’s my thinking about it, right? But I still send people to you and I still send you these studies as they come up, just so that I can say, Andrew, I need your feedback. I need you to talk to me. I need you to tell me something. Like, where do you stand on all of this? I’m going to keep sending people to you who reach out to me to speak to Andrew because they’re interested. So like, how does that conversation go in your head and then with the people that you connect with? Andrew (17:09) Okay, so having having been a teacher, career teacher, I’m really careful of what I advise people like I would be really careful what I advise my students. So I never say to people, yes, you’ve to do it because it worked for me. God, do do it, do drop it again. I never ever say that I tried to give them the balance for you. And and even though it worked for me, I make sure it’s I’m very clear that they understand that it worked for me, but it might not work for you. Conversations with Other Survivors So you’ve got to go like I did and don’t go with any expectations. Just go, just know that you’ve tried everything you can to help your recovery. That’s all. And so that’s how that conversation usually goes. They ask me lots of questions about what it feels like, what the place is like, what Dr. Tobinick was like. just all the sort of the mechanical questions around it. But generally, it’s, I don’t know whether I should go. And it’s also, I want to go, but my family don’t want to go. And I can’t go because they don’t support me, because they think it’s snake oil. Bill Gasiamis (18:18) Okay, that’s an interesting conversation. So I often try and advise stroke survivors to be careful who they share information with. Not saying that you shouldn’t share information with your loved ones and your family members after a stroke. What I’m saying is like, even in situations where things are not that critical, where you’re not talking about spending 30 grand, I’m just talking about people who have the experience sometimes Andrew where they say, oh, I wanna try this meditation thing, you know, and. somebody hasn’t meditated before, thinks it’s woo woo and says, don’t worry about that stuff. What do you wanna be? Like a hippie or something? There’s those types of people who hang out in our world who do intervene with things that we’re curious about and we wanna kind of shift away from perhaps old habits to new habits, especially around alcohol as well. I found that people would go, aren’t you gonna have one drink? Like what’s the point of going out if we can’t have a drink? It’s like, dude, like I’m a completely different version of myself. I’ve had a stroke, I can’t drink. But understanding how to deal with people like that is a bit of an issue. So then you’ve spoken to about 50 people who have either gone or not gone. Like have some people gone and contacted you and said it worked and some people gone and contacted you and said it hasn’t worked. Andrew (19:40) Yes. Yep. And I’ve. The contact normally starts to go quiet once they actually go, whether it works or doesn’t work. And I usually just get a quick message saying, hey, I went and it worked and that’s great. And, you know, have a good life. You know, I don’t want to keep bugging them. But the people that it didn’t work for have been pretty gutted. Bill Gasiamis (20:03) Right. Andrew (20:04) Because I’ve, you know, even though I’ve tried not to make it something they hang all their hopes on, you know, they still do to a certain extent. And so they come back pretty, not bitter or angry at me, just at the situation, that it didn’t work. And they don’t know where to turn next. Bill Gasiamis (20:22) So they might’ve had all their hopes kind of set on this working, all their eggs in one basket, so to speak, didn’t work and now they feel like maybe they’ve lost hope or they haven’t got another alternative or option. Andrew (20:35) Yeah, yeah. And what I’ve learned in the last 18 months is that your stroke recovery doesn’t stop. There’s no end date. So when you’re told in hospital that after three months that’s what you’ve got, no, no. doesn’t, like your brain is constantly evolving and working and learning and repending itself. If you want to work something and exercise something and rehab part of your body, eventually it’s going to improve. Even if it’s only by a little bit and it’s really slow, it’s going to improve. Bill Gasiamis (21:09) Yeah. So you’ve been 18 months down the track. One of the questions I got asked recently was, does the procedure need to be repeated every couple of years? Does it last? What have you found about how you have changed or experienced your body in the last 18 months? ⁓ Tell us first what you got back and how quickly and then what that led to, what you were able to achieve as a result of what you got back. Andrew (21:34) Yeah, okay. So, um, immediately the things that came back is is that my cognitive fatigue like just just lowered like straight away. Um, and I was when I had the shot, I was exhausted because they take it through a battery of tests. So I like was an hour and a half of tests. And so I was I was done. I was ready to go lie down. Um, And that just lifted like straight away and it didn’t come back. I still get cognitive fatigue now, but I really have to be doing stuff that that really taxes my brain to do it. And or I have to be really tired. But before I had the injection, I would get I would be on the verge of fatigue all the time. So it wouldn’t take much to push me over into it. So that was gone. I had a ⁓ really nasty cramp in my right calf that never went away. That went away. That literally just dialed down as I was sitting there after the shot. the emotional control also came back. Bill Gasiamis (22:42) Uh-huh. Andrew (22:43) which was good. Now, for me, I was, for the first shot, I was only in Florida for 24 hours. So we flew down from Memphis and I had the shot the next day and then we flew back that afternoon. So when we flew down, because of my cognitive fatigue and sensory overload, I had eye mask, had noise-canceling headphones, had like, lorazepam in my pocket. Like, you know, I had all the, you know, all this stuff to, you know, save my senses. When we flew back, I didn’t need any of it, and that was 24 hours later. So I just stood in the airport like any other traveler. And that was… Reflections on Stroke Etanercept Injection Treatment and Guilt Bill Gasiamis (23:26) Yeah. Andrew (23:28) That was the biggest sign that something profound had happened. Bill Gasiamis (23:33) Yeah. Andrew (23:34) The other thing was that my hand, my right hand went from feeling like it was sort of like moving in molasses really slow to loosening up and being more independent. And I found only a month ago that I was able to start to play scales on my clarinet again. So I can move my fingers independently. I could cover the holes with my clarinet here. Bill Gasiamis (23:52) Wow, man. Andrew (23:57) I can the holes in my fingers. It’s something that I haven’t been able to do since the stroke. To be able to play the thing, to be able to just play a scale, just says to me, at some point in the future, you’re gonna be able to play the thing again. Bill Gasiamis (24:11) So things are still improving. Your function is changing still. you, being able to play the clarinet, would you can attribute that to a tenor sept that long ago or just things getting better? Andrew (24:26) I think because it was if I come home and was able to play the clarinet then I would have a definite causality you know so I would rather say the definite yeah it was a tenor step that did it because before I went away I couldn’t even you know I couldn’t pick up things one more right hand so but because it’s been 18 months I think it’s because that that skill has come back Bill Gasiamis (24:50) Yeah, okay. What about work wise? Were you working or not working before the injection? Andrew (24:57) No, no. So I was able to go back to relief teaching. The classroom as a music teacher is ⁓ in a high school is too busy and there’s too many moving parts. So that’s not something I’ll be able to do again, at least not in the foreseeable future. And I don’t know if I want to now. Bill Gasiamis (25:11) Wow. Andrew (25:20) I have done some relief teaching. There are days where I’m in a school and I just feel that it’s a bit too much. And that could be because I had a bad night the night before or it was hot and I couldn’t sleep. And that wasn’t like that before the stroke. yeah, coming up with a new career now has been an interesting journey itself. Bill Gasiamis (25:41) Yeah. So there isn’t a need for another injection or anything like that. Nobody ever told you about another injection or what will happen in two years or anything like that. Andrew (25:51) No, If I can go there and get one, if I think it’s going to make even more improvement, because I had improvement from, you know, from the first. But yeah, there was no compelling sort of needs to go back. And I’m thinking that I probably would like maybe to have a second one, a second trip there and have. having the shot but ⁓ I don’t know I’ll see how my improvement goes. Bill Gasiamis (26:20) Yeah, okay. Andrew (26:22) It’s so hard to One of the things I did do, I had an MRI about two months ago. And it was an MRI to check the status of my tumor and to see where it was. And obviously they also had a look at the stroke site. And comparing the stroke site now to when it was taken when I had the stroke. there’s a day and night difference. Whereas I had a hole in my brain after the stroke, all I had was a little bit of glial, called glial scar tissue. So scar tissue of the brain cells, a little white line in my brain. ⁓ Bill Gasiamis (27:08) as opposed to a round circle of what appeared to be offline or dead brain cells. Yeah, which, you know, it sounds like to me, it’s like where the inflammation was, that area they usually call, they often call, sometimes called the penumbra, which is the area that’s able to be rehabilitated, which is around the site of the stroke, which is offline but not dead, which HBOT targets, the right kind of, Andrew (27:15) Yes. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (27:38) hyperbaric oxygen therapy can target those as well and try and reduce them. So day and night, like a proper difference between one and the other. Andrew (27:47) Yeah, I was expecting to see when I saw the scan, know, where my brain tumor was and also the big hole and the hole was gone and there was just this like, this is a little, a little line there with scar tissue. Bill Gasiamis (28:01) Yeah, fabulous. How long has the brain tumor been there for? Andrew (28:05) 20 years. Bill Gasiamis (28:07) Okay, and what does it do just sort of sit around and ⁓ Andrew (28:10) Yeah, so ⁓ what happened is it just gradually grows bigger and bigger and bigger and then eventually if you don’t get it treated, it crushes your brain stem and that kills you. So I had mine irradiated 20 years ago and it’s got growing and it’s just started dying off and now it’s just like a… dead mess in there and they check every four years to make sure it hasn’t done anything naughty and It hasn’t so they actually said of this last scan look it hasn’t changed in the last 12 years, so no more scans Bill Gasiamis (28:41) I hear you, okay. So it’s benign now. Andrew (28:46) Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (28:47) Yeah, okay. So you’ve through the rigor, mate. You’ve had an interesting neurological experience, Andrew (28:54) Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, feels like my brain’s out to get me. Bill Gasiamis (29:00) Yeah. Well, seems like the interventions have been really helpful in prolonging your life and then your life experience, like how you go about life. So as far as you’re concerned, like it’s all it’s all. You know, it’s been a good outcome, both both interventions. Andrew (29:19) Yes. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I mean, my biggest challenge this year has actually not been the stroke or the brain tumor, but it’s been the medications for stroke to prevent another one. So my stroke was caused by an overactive adrenal or adrenal glands producing too much aldosterone. Bill Gasiamis (29:31) What man which man say you want? Andrew (29:43) And that was only diagnosed and found last year. So What was happening is that my body was? Was was keeping salt it was it was send my blood pressure sky-high and then crash it down And for 10 years we thought that was anxiety. But what it was was that because my blood pressure wasn’t consistently high, I could go to the doctors and I could be normal. And then my other doctors didn’t have high blood pressure. It was not consistent. So I was just treated for anxiety and given a sort of a low dose blood pressure medication. But actually what it was is both glands like over producing this hormone and that’s what gave me the stroke. So they’ve they’ve given me a hormone suppressant which helps, but they’ve been trying to. to juggle multiple types of blood pressure medication to also bring my blood pressure down to a consistent normal. And so up until about three weeks ago, my blood pressure was still all over the place. And they had me on a really nasty cocktail at one point this year where I literally could not function. I couldn’t even get up. It suppressed my whole system so much. that every time I stood my blood pressure would drop 50 points and I would almost pass out. So I was like a zombie. ⁓ It was just the combination of too many blood pressure medications at once. And finally, I’ve seen a different specialist and he changed my medication and I’ve just got one little pill at the minimum dose and it’s actually stabilized my blood pressure to normal. Bill Gasiamis (30:51) All right. Righto, that’s good. Andrew (31:18) So like when I took it today, was 122 over 72. So it hasn’t been like that for I don’t even know how long. Bill Gasiamis (31:25) Yeah. Fantastic, what kind of stroke did it cause? Andrew (31:31) are ischemic, so a clot. Bill Gasiamis (31:34) ⁓ huh, okay. Wow, man. What an interesting journey you’ve been on. And this insight into Etanercept and how and why it might work for some people and not for others is probably helpful for it again, for a whole bunch of people to hear and kind of get a better understanding about scientifically speaking, Etanercept is not a viable solution for people who have had stroke and there will be some people who will become all, what’s the word? Like they will, they’ll be all, this is snake oil stuff. And then there will be people who brag about it as being the best thing they’ve ever done, which seems to be kind of the camp that you’re in. I think, no, no, no, no. I mean, it’s one of the best things you’ve ever done with regards to your stroke recovery, right? Andrew (32:18) I don’t feel like complaining about it though. Yeah, yeah, and I found that when I got the results for the for the pesto test I really had to do a lot of soul searching because because I couldn’t explain to myself Why it seemed to have worked for me and yet the study was saying hey, doesn’t really have any effect and and I had to to Bill Gasiamis (32:36) Wow. Did you feel remorse or guilt about that? Wow, Wow. Andrew (32:47) Yes, very much. I felt like a fraud. Because why? I couldn’t explain how I had such a huge night and day difference. And that couldn’t be placebo and it’d be still working 18 months later. Bill Gasiamis (33:08) Yeah, I think our hunch about the blood brain barrier is where the research needs to go. And I don’t know how you investigate the blood brain barrier. But if you can go there and investigate the blood brain barrier and if you can understand who has a compromised blood brain barrier and therefore. Andrew (33:15) Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (33:31) due to a compromised blood-barrier barrier, a candidate for a Etanercept I think that’s kind of where it needs to go. Because the biggest issue that people have with clinics who offer a Etanercept perispinally, like Dr. Tobinick’s, the biggest issue that people have that makes it hard for them to make a decision is will I be the right candidate? Will I be the one who will it work for? Or will I be the one that it doesn’t, you know? But I… I find it very fascinating that you would respond that way, that you would feel guilty and remorseful that it worked for you and the pesto child says it shouldn’t have. Andrew (34:10) I feel guilty that it worked for me and didn’t work for someone else. You know, as well. Yeah, yeah, I mean, it’s like survivor’s guilt in a way. Yeah, that’s that and that’s how I felt. so the way I’ve thought of it is, well, OK, if it was placebo, it worked for me. Bill Gasiamis (34:14) Yeah. just wishing for the best for everybody. Yeah, I can relate to that. Yeah. Andrew (34:37) like it just it worked for me whatever it was it worked for me so and that’s that’s that’s all I can all I can say but I think this blood brain theory is is a good one and I would like to I would like to research and understand what what makes the brain leaky like what what events can make your brain Bill Gasiamis (34:41) Yeah. Yeah. Andrew (35:00) ⁓ better suited to receiving Etanercept Like for me, probably the main cause could have been the fact that I had radiation on my brain years ago. Bill Gasiamis (35:05) Yeah. Andrew (35:13) Or it could be that I have a high blood pressure for 10 years. Or it could be I have my appendix out when I’m 17. But I would like to do some research into what it is, what factors make people more likely to have a leaky brain. Bill Gasiamis (35:17) Who knows? Yeah, I think that’s a great thing. I want to research that too, because I have known about it. I’ve understood it. I appreciated that I might be somebody who has had a leaky brain because of the strokes that I experienced, the brain surgery and all the stuff that I went through. And I know that if you restore the blood brain barrier, you can really decrease the fatigue that happens to people after a stroke. And you can make it impenetrable again to toxins. and heavy metals and all that kind of stuff, which is often the cause of real chronic neurological fatigue, even in people who haven’t had a stroke, who are, quote unquote, normal. So that’s fascinating. I really appreciate your continued willingness to have conversations about this topic and sharing your story more than once with me. And then also being being an ear to the people who are curious about whether or not they should go down this path and then kind of just like, you know, being honest about your story, sharing what happened to you, what you experienced and even your own reservations because I don’t think you have anything to, and you probably know this cognitively anyway, right? You don’t have anything to be guilty about or feel bad about or. anything like that. But I understand why emotionally you might go down that path because you’re a guy that cares deeply for other people. You appreciate how hard it is for people to go through stroke and you wish them the same solution or other solutions that you had so that we don’t have to suffer. I know exactly what’s behind it. Andrew (37:08) Yeah, yeah, that’s exactly right. Yeah. Bill Gasiamis (37:12) Yeah. Well, hopefully this continues the conversations to give people more things to think about. Leave us a comment in the YouTube comments section. Reach out via email. Yeah, drop us a comment. Reach out to us and we’d be happy to continue the conversation, support you, guide you. Just being here and I don’t know, help you make a more informed decision. That’s all we can do. We’re not going to suggest. Andrew (37:35) Yeah, definitely. Bill Gasiamis (37:41) that you should or should not go and experience Perispinal Etanercept one way or another. Bill Gasiamis (37:46) Well, that was Andrew Stopps again. What a fascinating conversation. If today’s episode connected with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the YouTube comments, especially if you’ve looked into Etanercept Try it. I decided not to. Your experience can help someone else make a more informed decision. And if you found this helpful, please subscribe on YouTube and follow the podcast on Spotify or Apple podcasts. Reviews and comments genuinely help more. stroke survivors find these conversations. If you want to go deeper, you can grab my book at recoveryafterstroke.com slash book. And if you’d like to support the podcast and help keep it going, you can join us on Patreon at patreon.com slash recovery after stroke. Thanks again for being here. You’re not alone in this recovery journey and I’ll see you in the next episode. The post Stroke etanercept injection 18 months on: Andrew's update after the PESTO trial appeared first on Recovery After Stroke.

Two Largest COVID Vax Studies- Horrifying, White Community Poured TRILLIONS into Black Community, Teaching People to Hate Each Other, Islam's Beginnings.   Nicolas Hulscher, MPH. The two largest COVID-19 “vaccine” safety studies ever conducted (n=184 MILLION) confirm they are NOT SAFE FOR HUMAN USE the white community has already poured TRILLIONS of dollars of resources into the black community. you don't build a future by teaching people to hate themselves—or each other—based on myths. This Video Will Change How You See Islam   Post Nicolas Hulscher, MPH @NicHulscher The two largest COVID-19 “vaccine” safety studies ever conducted (n=184 MILLION) confirm they are NOT SAFE FOR HUMAN USE: Heart Attack (+286%, dose 2) Stroke (+240%, dose 1) Brain/Spinal Cord Inflammation (+278%, dose 1) Myocarditis (+510%, dose 2) Brain Clots (+223%, dose 1) Coronary Artery Disease (+244%, dose 2) Cardiac Arrhythmia (+199%, dose 1) Guillain-Barré Syndrome (+149%, dose 1) 5:50 AM · Dec 24, 2025 173.7K Views   Post Andrew Branca Show @TheBrancaShow The American black community keeps whining for "reparations," when in fact the white community has already poured TRILLIONS of dollars of resources into the black community. And what do we have to show for it? More crime? More degeneracy? More multi-generation poverty? There are things you cannot fix with money. 1:03 PM · Dec 19, 2025 37.3K Views   Post Andrew Branca Show @TheBrancaShow This is how propaganda works: repeat a false historical claim until it becomes moral dogma. Polling result exposes the problem—not to attack people, but to show how misinformation about slavery is used to assign collective guilt to people who had nothing to do with it. History is clear: slavery existed across civilizations for millennia, and it was Western legal institutions that formally abolished it where they held power. Turning history into a blame narrative isn't education—it's dehumanization, the same tool every regime uses before justifying coercion. You don't fix the past by lying about it. And you don't build a future by teaching people to hate themselves—or each other—based on myths. 3:27 AM · Dec 25, 2025 27.7K Views       This Video Will Change How You See Islam Most Muslims and even non-muslims grow up hearing a perfect, polished version of Muhammad's life. But the original Islamic sources tell a very different story. In this critical biography, I break down Muhammad's life chronologically - his upbringing, his rise to power and political scandals you've never heard of before. It's Islam's own earliest history retold, examined through a secular lens. Created for Ex-Muslim Awareness Month, this video is for anyone questioning the story they were taught, or for non-muslims who've never really heard the full story of Muhammad. Most Asked Question: Why do you wear a mask Because as an ex-muslim, I get extremely peaceful threats from peaceful followers of a particularly peaceful faith. https://youtu.be/6zp6i6e7e3U?si=6VyWcNKCi8nafRKA The Cyberpunk Dingo 125K subscribers 108,841 views Dec 9, 2025 ✪ Members first on December 9, 2025 #Islam #muhammad Get upto 60% off ProtonVPN here: https://go.getproton.me/SH1lv Exclusive Content + Support the channel here: Patreon:   / thecyberpunkdingo   The Cyberpunk Dingo Theme Song:    • The Cyberpunk Dingo Theme - As Seen On Outros   Get in Touch: X: https://x.com/cyberpunkdingo Discord:   / discord   #Islam #muhammad  

People with both gum disease and cavities have nearly double the risk of suffering an ischemic stroke compared to those with healthy teeth and gums Chronic oral inflammation allows harmful bacteria and toxins to enter your bloodstream, damaging arteries and increasing blood clot formation that blocks blood flow to your brain MRI brain scans show that gum disease alone causes silent brain injuries known as white matter lesions, which are early signs of stroke and cognitive decline Regular cleanings, good oral hygiene, and biological dental care dramatically reduce stroke risk by preventing infection, lowering inflammation, and protecting the health of blood vessels Healing your mouth through better nutrition, natural oral care, and toxin-free dentistry strengthens your gums, restores circulation, and supports long-term brain and heart health