AVM of the Brain Recovery: Lorenzo Price’s Story of Survival, Vision Loss & Redemption
When you hear Lorenzo Price’s voice, you might not immediately realize how much he’s endured. A talented tattoo artist and musician with a deep love for family, Lorenzo had his life turned upside down by something he didn’t even know was inside his head — an arteriovenous malformation (AVM) in his brain.
His AVM ruptured. But not before years of misdiagnosis, disbelief, and emotional trauma.
Misdiagnosed for Years: “They Told Me It Was All in My Head”
Lorenzo’s symptoms didn’t start overnight. He’d been struggling with episodes of vision loss, migraines, and intense fatigue. Each time, doctors would send him home. Sometimes with nothing more than a pat on the back and a suggestion to drink more water. Other times, with medications that made things worse.
And then came the stroke. A major one.
By the time they found the AVM — hidden deep within his brain — the damage was done. He’d lost much of his vision. His ability to work was gone. And his home, relationship, and sense of self-worth began to unravel.
The AVM Was Finally Found — But at a Cost
What makes Lorenzo’s story so powerful is that he kept going. When everything in his world fell apart, he leaned into his faith and started looking inward. That’s where the recovery truly began.
He underwent radiation therapy to shrink the AVM, knowing it might take years to fully work. Along the way, he battled seizures, financial collapse, and the emotional grief of not being able to do what he loved — tattooing and visual art.
But his creative spark didn’t fade. It just found a new outlet.
Finding Purpose Through Pain
Despite left homonymous hemianopsia (a type of vision loss), Lorenzo began reclaiming parts of his life. Music became his therapy. Storytelling became his service. And showing up for his daughter became his mission.
Lorenzo reminds us that stroke recovery isn’t linear. It’s a deeply emotional and spiritual journey, especially when you’re recovering from something as misunderstood and complex as a brain AVM.
He still lives with limitations but he’s not defined by them.
For Anyone Who’s Been Dismissed or Overlooked
This conversation isn’t just for those recovering from AVM. It’s for anyone who has felt dismissed by the medical system… who’s been told “its all in your head”… who’s lost more than they thought they could handle and still managed to keep going.
You’ll hear Lorenzo speak openly about:
- Losing his vision — and what that taught him about seeing life differently
- Rebuilding from rock bottom — emotionally, financially, and spiritually
- What radiation therapy for AVM is really like
- Why having faith (in any form) helped him find a new path
- The power of being heard, and why he’s now telling his story to help others
If you’re looking for hope, clarity, and connection, especially during a hard stretch of your stroke recovery, this episode will speak to you.
AVM of the Brain Recovery: Lorenzo Price’s Journey Through Stroke, Vision Loss, and Redemption
From musician to stroke survivor, Lorenzo Price shares his powerful AVM of the brain recovery story and how he rebuilt life after loss.
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Highlights:
00:00 Lorenzo Price’s Introduction and Background
03:15 Transition to Tattooing and Music
08:03 Health Issues and Initial Diagnosis
15:36 Medical Journey and Diagnosis Confirmation
20:18 Finding Relief in Diagnosis and Facing Relationship Loss
32:36 Impact on Personal and Professional Life
40:32 Lorenzo’s Extreme Acceptance: Choosing Strength After Stroke
52:45 Faith and Community Support
57:56 Challenges and Coping Mechanisms
59:11 Future Plans and Aspirations
59:37 Advice for Stroke Survivors
1:00:25 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Transcript:
Lorenzo Price’s Introduction and Background
Bill Gasiamis 0:00
Welcome everyone before we dive into today’s powerful conversation, I want to thank you for being a part of this incredible Recovery After Stroke Community. Your support, whether it’s by sharing the podcast, leaving a review or simply tuning in each week, makes a huge difference. Together, we’re creating a space where stroke survivors, caregivers and allies can feel seen, heard and supported. Since 2015 I’ve been personally covering all the costs of producing the podcast to make sure stroke survivors and their loved ones can access helpful and free recovery resources.
Bill Gasiamis 0:36
And last year, I opened up the doors for those who want to support the show through Patreon. If you found value in these episodes and you want to support what I do, head to patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke. Also a quick reminder about my book, The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened, it is available on Amazon. It’s become a helpful guide for many stroke survivors and families, especially during the harder parts of recovery.
Bill Gasiamis 1:07
You can find it by searching my name, Bill Gasiamis or going to recoveryafterstroke.com/book. Now, I’m really excited to introduce today’s guest, Lorenzo Price. Lorenzo is a musician, a former tattoo artist and a stroke survivor whose story is as raw as it is inspiring. After an AVM rupture caused vision loss and delayed diagnosis, he’s been rebuilding his life through faith community and resilience.
Bill Gasiamis 1:37
In this conversation, Lorenzo opens up about navigating tough emotions, adapting to new challenges, and holding on to creativity and hope even when things got dark. Let’s jump in. Lorenzo Price, welcome to the podcast.
Lorenzo Price 1:53
Thank you very much for having me.
Bill Gasiamis 1:55
My pleasure. Thank you for being here. I wanted to get a bit of a sense of what life was like before stroke. Tell me about Lorenzo, what he got up to, how he went about life before stroke.
Lorenzo Price 2:09
Yes, before my stroke, I was a body piercer and a tattoo artist and a musician full time, that’s what I did. So I heavily relied on my vision and my sense is that way I worked downtown in Cartersville, where I live, for a really great tattoo shop. Things were going awesome, things were going really well, and then boom, all of a sudden, I woke up. There’s really, like, no kind of lead up to it. It just sort of happened.
Bill Gasiamis 2:41
Wow. How old were you?
Lorenzo Price 2:44
I’m 34 when it happened, I was 34, I’m 36 now.
Bill Gasiamis 2:49
So that’s a pretty unique combination of things to be employed in or to be doing. So how did that all fit into your daily life? Tattoo artist, piercer, which I imagine happens at the same place, roughly at the same time of day, and then musician were tell me about like, how one of your days would unfold, or one of your weeks.
Transition to Tattooing and Music
Lorenzo Price 3:15
Well, mostly I’d go check into the tattoo piercing shop, you know, around 11, and I’d be there until eight o’clock at night most days. Um, on my off times on if I didn’t have anything to do on the weekend, I would be on a gig playing music. I actually did that for a lot longer than I did the tattooing and piercing. I was a musician for the majority of my life. The tattooing and piercing thing came later after COVID.
Bill Gasiamis 3:44
What kind of instrument do you play?
Lorenzo Price 3:49
I play guitar and piano and bass and drums.
Bill Gasiamis 3:57
Fair enough. You’re a little prolific when it comes to music, by the sound of it.
Lorenzo Price 4:01
I love it.
Bill Gasiamis 4:04
So your tattoo work? Did you find that you were very skillful in being a tattoo artist, out of the blue. How did you come into that? Why did you move into that part of the role?
Lorenzo Price 4:23
I was always an artist my whole life. Since I was a little kid I was into drawing. And when COVID happened and I moved up, back up here to Georgia I’m from Fort Myers, Florida, where I was gigging most of the time, I happen to know some people, and he needs somebody to help, and I just happened to be that help, I started piercing. After a while, I needed a tattoo, and I asked him for one. When he asked me for the image that I want to tattoo, I gave him an image, and it was a drawing of mine.
Lorenzo Price 5:03
And he asked me, he said “Who drew this?” I said “Oh, I did.” And he was like “Wait a second” like, you know he’s known me sometimes, like 13. He’s like “You’ve been able to draw this whole time?” And I was like, yeah. He said “Why need a new tattoo artist?” He’s like “Would you like to apprentice for that?” And so I did, and it came pretty naturally, pretty easy. It was great. I really, really loved doing it. Loved piercing, loved working on tattoos. Loved music, too.
Bill Gasiamis 5:38
What’s it like going from a paper drawing, and then using the ink and the tattoo gun to put the image on a skin. How do you transition to that? Is it easy?
Lorenzo Price 5:51
It was pretty easy, honestly, but you know it was easy because I guess I came from a musical background, so I knew how to practice. So I would practice, like, 10 hours a day, every day, until I just got it down. But when it’s on, on regular skin, it’s just a matter of having to stretch the skin versus a piece of paper that’s always static.
Bill Gasiamis 6:18
Are there people who you’ve tattooed to have a not so good tattoo, that had to be a guinea pig.
Lorenzo Price 6:26
Yes, most of that, most of that is me. My legs are totally covered in Guinea Pig tattoos, and a couple of friends my mom included.
Bill Gasiamis 6:38
Wow, that’s a lot of trust in somebody who isn’t expert at tattooing it.
Lorenzo Price 6:44
Yeah, exactly.
Bill Gasiamis 6:46
Fair enough. Tell me a little bit about that transition from working as a two tattoo artist a musician on the daily like, what happened when you finish your eight hour shift and then go and play a gig.
Lorenzo Price 7:02
Yeah. So it would, it was a mixture of things, I also taught music. So sometimes I would teach early in the day, so I could, you know, I might be teaching in the morning, and then do my piercing stuff or tattooing stuff in the afternoon, or an afternoon gig, and then go to a late night gig. So my days were very full. For most of my life, I just kind of woke up and got going right away and didn’t stop until I didn’t have any gas left.
Bill Gasiamis 7:31
Well, you are properly busy, man. What kind of genre of music did you guys play?
Lorenzo Price 7:37
Honestly? Like, I know you probably hear this a lot, but all genres, I love jazz and funk and rock and blues, and I love it all. I went to the Atlanta Institute of Music. I studied music there and got my Associates there, and I just learned to love all styles and music.
Bill Gasiamis 8:00
So was it a band that you filed?
Health Issues and Initial AVM of the Brain Diagnosis
Lorenzo Price 8:03
Some of them were I had a bunch of different bands. Majority of them were covered bands. That’s where the money was. I had a family to take care of this. So, but yeah, a lot of the couple of the bands are mine. Then I would join a lot of other people’s bands and just be like, utility guy for them.
Bill Gasiamis 8:26
Hence why it was really good to have that ability to play multiple instruments.
Lorenzo Price 8:33
Yes, and like, have a knowledge for the different genres and like, how they work together.
Bill Gasiamis 8:38
Yeah, fantastic, man. Can you describe the moment when you started to realize there was something wrong with your health?
Lorenzo Price 8:49
Yeah, I can.
Bill Gasiamis 8:50
Lorenzo story is a reminder that resilience doesn’t mean being fearless. It means moving forward, even when it’s hard. Let’s take a quick pause, and if you’ve been finding value in these kinds of conversations, here’s how you can help keep them going. The podcast exists to create a space for stroke survivors and their families to feel heard, encouraged and uplifted.
Bill Gasiamis 9:16
If it’s been helpful to you, consider supporting it through Patreon, you’ll be joining a group of people who believe in the power of lived experience and recovery. You can learn more at patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke. Now, let’s get back to Lorenzo as he shares more about rebuilding identity, leaning into faith and finding new purpose after stroke.
Lorenzo Price 9:41
So in 2000 it actually the moment I realized there was something wrong with me was in 2015 which was years before my hemorrhage happened. I was on a cruise line shift with my family, and I went to go dancing, and the next thing I know, I woke up with the nurses and paramedics that were on the shift line, like they told me they know what happened, that I just, like, kind of freaked out.
Lorenzo Price 10:22
And they had no explanation for it, but they said that they had, they had given me a shot to put me to sleep becausethey couldn’t, didn’t understand what was happening.
Lorenzo Price 10:32
My family didn’t either, needed to die like I don’t even remember this incident, but I just remember waking up and having no idea how I got where I was or what had happened, or where my family was, or anything. And then they just told me what happened. They told me that the night prior, I came knocking on my dad’s room, and he said that he thought that I had a nervous breakdown, so that was screaming and yelling and like, totally like that. He couldn’t understand what I was saying.
Lorenzo Price 11:11
And that’s when they called the people, and they gave me a shot and put me to sleep that night. But after that, when we got back home, I started having these really weird waves, I guess I would call them. That was happening on my right side of my face, waves on it was like, I don’t know how to describe it. It kind of like the way it culture would feel, but more internal, and it would it sort of like pulse this right side of my temple, and then it would vibrate, and then have this wave that would go down my whole body.
Lorenzo Price 11:55
And that kind of got worse and worse over years and years and years when I got to the neurologist here in Georgia, it was at Kaiser Permanente. They gave me an MRI and a CT and but, you know, not just like a regular CT and MRI no contrast or anything, no angiogram, and they just said that there was nothing wrong with me. And so that turned into them sending me to a psychiatrist because they thought I had psychological issues, that this was all something I was making up in my mind. But I knew it, and I went to the doctors over and over and over again.
Lorenzo Price 12:39
I went to what doctors in Cape Coral, doctors in Woodstock, Georgia. I went to doctors in Kennesaw in Atlanta. And time and time and time again, I was turned away. Like they would always say basically the same thing to me, we can give you something for your anxiety, but like, there’s nothing wrong with you, they would say. But I could feel it. I knew that there was something wrong with me, like and I kept requesting a neurologist over and over and over again, and they kept sending me to different doctors. You know, first it was the psychiatrist.
Lorenzo Price 13:21
Then the psychiatrist sent me to the neck and spine specialist. The neck and spine specialist sent me back to the psychiatrist who saw me have an episode in her office, and she got me hooked up with the neurologist. And that was in September of September of 2021, I saw a neurologist finally. So it took like six years from the to get me to one. That was like taking me seriously. His name was Doctor Pearlstein, and he told me if there’s that he believed there was something that had some kind of mass in my head that I was having.
Lorenzo Price 14:07
He saw the videos and saw me having episodes, and said that I was having seizures. And that’s somebody my age with no history. Shouldn’t be that we need that. We need to go get these tests run at Emory in Atlanta. But shortly after finally seeing him and getting these tests set up for me, unfortunately, my wife at the time, she with me at the doctor, and found out, and kind of just threw me out of my home and canceled my bank account and canceled my health insurance so I couldn’t go back to the doctor.
Lorenzo Price 14:51
And like, it was madness, and, you know, I tried to go back afterwards, but didn’t have an insurance that. More so like they wouldn’t take me. But yeah, so it was kind of a really exhausting situation. Right before I had my hemorrhage, I finally got set up for all the scans that was supposed to get set up for my family was going to pay for it. My mom was and it was just like, too late that point, dude.
Medical Journey and AVM of the Brain Diagnosis Confirmation
Bill Gasiamis 15:36
Okay, let’s unpack this a little bit. You know there’s something wrong, you’re feeling it. You’re experiencing it, they tell you to go and see a psychiatrist. What is it like to be at a psychiatrist when you know there is something wrong physically in your body, and they’re trying to do the psychiatric thing? What is that like? That experience like, what the hell happens in a consultation of that nature, when you are certain that there’s something wrong with you and they’re telling you, it’s all imagined.
Lorenzo Price 16:20
You know, it feels like the ultimate dismissal, like, just like I’m being betrayed by the doctor and medical system. That’s what it felt like, because I knew it like, I knew it so hard, like, and I can never quite explained what I was feeling to people or what was happening, but like, they always boiled it down to that I was anxious, and I would tell them again and again, I saw four or five different psychiatrists that kept getting the arguments with them, you know, and I would tell them the same thing, like, there’s something wrong with me, like I need to see a neurologist.
Lorenzo Price 17:01
And again, I guess maybe my demeanor, because I was getting upset, maybe they agreed with them. I’m not sure why, but it was the most frustrating experience of my life and and it led you know it never the answers never got solved, until catastrophe happened. And actually spoke to my vascular neurologist recently about this, because he wanted me to do a testimony at Sea Time Memorial Hospital, who I’ve heard, one of the people on your podcast, I think he was getting her what happened? He had, like, a steroid issue or something, and gave him a stroke.
Lorenzo Price 17:41
Yes, I believe he so it says same hospital and Dr. Thomas Devlin up there is incredible, because after years and years and years and years and emergency room visit after doctor visit of different doctors like I can’t even explain to you how many doctors I saw to try to figure out what was wrong with me. He literally just did what you’re doing right now. He just listened to me. I told him what was going on, how it happened, and he said, you’re 34 years old.
Lorenzo Price 18:15
And he said “Don’t lie to me.” He said “Do you do drugs?” I said “Dr. Devlin, on my children, I do not, I’ve never done any drugs” I said “Except for marijuana.” And he said, marijuana didn’t do this to you. He said, a 34-year-old with no history of drug use or any head trauma, anything. He said, there has to be. He said “You have an AVM.” He said, that’s what you have, and you need to get an arteriogram done. Has anybody given you an arteriogram ever?
Lorenzo Price 18:48
I said “No” and he said, that’s what you need. He said “Because I’m telling you, that’s what you have.” And they gave me an arteriogram and that’s what I have.
Bill Gasiamis 18:58
Wow, man.
Lorenzo Price 18:59
Like, he was like Dr. House, the way he just, like, listened and like, just put the puzzle together. And just told me, before anybody ran another test on me, just told me exactly what it was he knew.
Bill Gasiamis 19:14
Perfect episode of Dr. House.
Lorenzo Price 19:16
Amazing, yeah.
Bill Gasiamis 19:19
Come in, weird guy presenting with all this stuff. Everyone thinks he’s crazy. I know. Let’s just ask some strange questions. Yep, it’s definitely that solve the problem. 30 minutes, we’re done, go home. Everyone’s happy.
Lorenzo Price 19:32
Yeah, it was wild. Dr. Thomas Devlin, like, he saved my life. I love him. Like, yeah, I couldn’t believe that. Like, he just put it together that quickly after, like, all of these years and all like, you wouldn’t believe the losses that have come from this.
Bill Gasiamis 19:49
So when you got the result, when Dr. Devlin kind of said what he said, and then it was confirmed. Was that a blow to you, or was it a relief? Or some kind of.
Lorenzo Price 20:01
It was the absolute biggest relief of my life. It was the biggest relief of my life because I have lost my family and friends and my home and everything over nobody believing me.
Finding Relief in AVM of the Brain Diagnosis and Facing Relationship Loss
Bill Gasiamis 20:18
But you’ve got a serious health issue, your life is at risk. You’ve got a blood vessel in your brain that could burst any time. And you reckon that was a relief getting that news. That’s insane.
Lorenzo Price 20:30
It was a relief. It was an absolute relief, kind of like you always say it a stroke. I was one of the best things that’s ever happened to you, right? Like knowing like this happening to me, and knowing that I wasn’t contained, that there really was something wrong, and that they were able to find it like it was, it just felt like the weight of the world came off my shoulders.
Bill Gasiamis 20:54
That would have been heavy, and that whole other people not believing you would be what I just imagined myself going through would be crippling, like not being able to convince somebody that you’re completely right would be crippling your emotionally, mentally, and it will be impacting negatively on you physically, and it wouldn’t be helping the AVM. It would be making matters worse in your brain as well, right?
Bill Gasiamis 21:23
So absolutely, what if you can, if you’re happy to talk about and comfortable talk about it, what was the catalyst that meant that your relationship with your wife ended? How did that come about? Was this stuff before stroke that was sort of still bubbling away that led it to end, or was it something else?
Lorenzo Price 21:45
It was, ever since that first seizure I explained to you in 2015 we just sort of had a steady but slow decline from there, like she just didn’t, she wouldn’t believe me, and I couldn’t trust her anymore. I couldn’t trust somebody who couldn’t believe me like, I was her husband, and just that’s coming together. And when she told me to leave my home, I was just absolutely wrecked like I couldn’t. I just couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t take like this is how far nobody trusted me.
Lorenzo Price 22:29
Nobody would give me the benefit of the doubt. Even my wife at that time, my family members, some of them you know me and my dad, have had a tough time because of it, you know, my little brother’s the best, and but it’s caused a lot of tension. Yeah, it sounds like.
Bill Gasiamis 22:53
Now, it sounds like a betrayal of something. Can you pinpoint the betrayal. What it was that you felt isn’t even the right word betrayal. Is it something else? How would you describe that situation? Because I have deficits that are not visible, which sounds like you might have two. That means that people don’t know that I’ve had a stroke. They don’t know how serious my condition is, and they’re not betraying my relationship with them, their trust, their belief in me and my story, what I’m saying, but they can’t connect the dots. You know, stroke doesn’t look normal.
Bill Gasiamis 23:36
You look normal, bro. I kind of have this feeling of forever, feeling the real word is misunderstood, but it goes a bit deeper to your core, like it feels like I’m also, you know, not believed, even though that’s not really true. So how was it for you? Was it betrayal? Was there another word that you would describe that kind of breakdown in those relationships?
Lorenzo Price 24:05
You know, for me, honestly, betrayal feels like the only right word, because, like I’ve done, I’m not a Turkish person. Nobody is, but I’ve done my best to be the best that I can to everybody in my life, my whole life. So when these things started happening to me, and when Doctor Pearlstein finally said “Yeah, you’re having seizures.” I think there’s something in your mind, in your brain, and still, nobody believed me.
Lorenzo Price 24:35
I just felt like I deserve the benefit of the doubt, like I’ve been good, like I haven’t harmed anyone, and nothing I’m doing is harming anybody. Like, why won’t any my family believe me? My own dad wouldn’t believe me, my own wife wouldn’t believe me that there was something wrong. They both thought that I was losing my mind, that I was that had some sort of serious psychiatric condition going on, yeah, man, to me, it betrayal seems like the only right word.
Bill Gasiamis 25:11
Yeah. I’m sorry that you had to go through that, honestly am. I feel like it should have never have happened. But I think it stems from ignorance more than anything else, and people’s inability to grasp a concept that they can’t see. I mean, it’s almost like being an atheist. You can kind of understand why an atheist is an atheist?
Bill Gasiamis 25:42
Well, you telling me about God and all those kind of things, but I can’t see, touch it, feel it, whatever, and therefore I choose not to believe in a being that I can’t touch, see or feel, that is supposedly controlling my life and making my life better or making somebody else’s life worse or whatever.
Bill Gasiamis 25:59
Like you kind of get the atheist discussion, and this kind of feels like similar they can’t touch, feel, see, they just see you. They judging you, on your behavior, on your attitude, on your frustration, on the way that you’re interacting with them. And they’re making a call, and they’re feeling like, perhaps you’re deceiving them, and they’re going, This dude’s being deceitful, and he’s doing all that kind of stuff, when at the same time, you’re feeling that you can see how quickly and easily a wedge can be brought between two people.
Lorenzo Price 26:39
Absolutely like it was, it impressed me, and I was living it like I feel like I couldn’t believe it, like I was people my family are calling me to drug addicts. All of a sudden, you’re on drugs. I know you’re on drugs, and I’m not, and it, yeah, it is ignorant. You’re absolutely right about that.
Bill Gasiamis 27:08
And then you’ve received a diagnosis. Does what’s the next step? So what happens after that? Now you know what the what’s going on, the medical intervention starts to kick in. What happens after the diagnosis?
Lorenzo Price 27:22
So after the diagnosis, which was a year after my hemorrhage, after that, Dr. Devlin set me up to go and meet a guy named Dr. Cleary at Erlanger. He’s a radiation oncologist, and they performed an SRS on the AVM itself to try to SRS, a cyber knife radiation treatment, basically, like a targeted X rays, like super high dose X rays. I think I’m not exactly, I’m not 100% sure, but it’s something along the lines of that, yeah.
Bill Gasiamis 27:57
It’s laser, it’s a laser radiation therapy that’s designed to change the DNA of the AVM to kind of make it like dissolve or dissipate or stop working and disappear.
Lorenzo Price 28:13
That’s the whole idea, that was in last August. So it’s been almost a year since I had the SRS done.
Bill Gasiamis 28:27
And then what happened? How did that continue to evolve?
Lorenzo Price 28:34
So since then, things have, actually have kind of gotten a little better. You know, my doctor, Dr. Devlin, put together a great team of doctors for me. So I’ve got a great epilepsy Doctor who takes care of my seizures, to my seizures of like, I’ve had one now since May. So, I’m like, that’s a long time for me. Like I’ve had a seizure at least May. So is it May? June, July, August. So, yeah, like 10 months now, because I’ve had a seizure, and I feel like I’ve been doing great since then. Yeah, I’m still in physical therapy for my legs that fallen a couple of times.
Lorenzo Price 29:22
And I still do some speech therapy for, like, the way that I read out loud, I read out loud kind of funny. There’s like, some kind of weird connection there, I feel like I can hold, like, a fair conversation, but kind of a little bit of an issue reading things out loud. They told me back in that, but it’s just been your follow up, follow up scans, follow up with the doctor, and it’s just been kind of that, like every three months or so. So I see Dr. Devlin, and then I see Dr. Gaski, who actually did the arteriogram on me, who’s also an incredible man and doctor.
Lorenzo Price 30:12
He explained it to me the best way that I think anybody could have, because he came to me after my arteriogram with a giant iPad to show me what the AVM looks like. And he said, you have an AVM in your brain. And I just told him, so you got to go tell my mom. You got to let her know like she’s downstairs worried that he said I saw her hours ago, but then we started talking about it. And I said, so what, you know, what is this thing? He explained how it’s a congenital malformation, something you’re born with.
Lorenzo Price 30:50
And I was like “No” I told him. I was like, you know, I exercise like I eat fairly well. I don’t understand. And he said “Lorenzo, no matter where you were, no matter what you were doing at that moment in time, this is always going to happen to you, had you not had some intervention prior.” And like, I don’t know that made me feel better. For some reason.
Bill Gasiamis 31:15
It’s a small consolation because you weren’t responsible for causing it. I like that, that’s a good thing, man. I mean, I was partly responsible for making the environment around my AVM worse. So I smoked, I drank, I worked too many hours, you know, it’s just stress head, all sorts of things, and I kind of created the perfect storm for it to pop, you know, or to bleed, or whatever. But the reality is that an AVM, for a lot of people, and often, this is what’s weird. They can occur anywhere in your body.
Bill Gasiamis 31:54
They don’t just occur in the head. But I’ve never come across, or heard of anyone having had an AVM that bled in a different part of the body, skin, muscles. You know it’s possible for them to occur anywhere so and most of the time they’re benign. They just sit back, chill out, do nothing. Most people who have them won’t know they have them unless they play up, and they tend to play up at middle age between, say, 35 and 45 the amount of people who I’ve interviewed whose AVM has played up somewhere around the age of 40 it’s ridiculous.
Impact of AVM of the Brain on Personal and Professional Life
Bill Gasiamis 32:36
It’s a pattern that continues to evolve. And then there are a few people who have met whose AVM caused problems way earlier than that. So it’s a small consolation prize, when somebody says you didn’t do this to yourself. It would have happened anyway. It’s random.
Lorenzo Price 32:59
Yeah, you know, it like all the bad news felt like good news, yeah.
Bill Gasiamis 33:04
To me, everything’s upside down and all over the place. So what was life like after stroke? So before stroke, everything’s busy. Jobs, you know, morning to the end of the day, gigs, tattooing, piercing, the works.
Lorenzo Price 33:23
Yep. I’ve been with my children.
Bill Gasiamis 33:25
Yeah, your children, your wife. And then the contrast begins with the relationship breakdown. How did your interaction with your kids change?
Lorenzo Price 33:42
Changed immensely. I’m not as capable as I was like, so I can’t drive to go and pick them up like I used to be able to. There’s a lot of things that I’m being held back on that, unfortunately I’m not getting help. On the other side, like they’re their mother told them that I don’t have seizures, that I am not partially blind, and then they believe that, they believe that, that was the reason why I wasn’t coming to see them.
Bill Gasiamis 34:21
Okay, I hate it when they do that to kids. Such a terrible thing to split kids from their parents in any way. Like, it’s ridiculous.
Lorenzo Price 34:35
It’s horrible, like, it’s absolutely horrible. They don’t, children don’t deserve that.
Bill Gasiamis 34:40
No.
Lorenzo Price 34:41
I’ve done my best to like, remedy as much of that as I can. And when I have them like we I basically play like, speech therapy games with them and brain games with them to keep them occupied and have fun. So like and I try to teach them how to use, so I gotta walk with a walking stick, almost I can’t really see, I have this thing, it’s called left, this is big. It’s called left homonymous hemianopsia is what it’s called from the damage to my right occipital parietal lobe region.
Lorenzo Price 35:20
So, all the information that’s coming into my eyes, you know, left doesn’t keep you like, so it’s like there’s nothing. It’s not black. It’s just like there’s nothing there and it’s really strange. But I’ve just kind of, when I have them now I give them their own little sticks. So here, use the stick. Come walk with me, and I try to make it fun so, like, I don’t want this to be like a tragedy to them.
Lorenzo Price 35:46
I try to make it so, like, hey, let’s learn something, you know, that I’ve talked to them all about seizures. I’ve taught them all about blindness, I taught them all about strokes. And I try to keep them, you know, as informed as possible, but not scared.
Bill Gasiamis 36:01
I like that. Yeah, that’s cool, man, and work situation is totally different than what it was before.
Lorenzo Price 36:08
Now, yeah, I used to work 18 – 20 hours a day. Now, I’m at home. I’m disabled, like, can’t drive, I can’t do, I can’t really do it anymore. The vision deficit is the absolute worst of it. It just makes things incredibly challenging. Like even centering myself on this panel was difficult, like, it’s that with the seizures, and it’s just, it’s been a lot.
Bill Gasiamis 36:45
Yeah, is your vision blurry? How is it other than the area, other than that part that’s missing that you don’t have anymore, the areas that you do have? What’s that vision like?
Lorenzo Price 36:57
It’s blurry, like, I’ve got some lenses that help a little bit, but not great. I’m supposed to get prisms soon. Prism lenses soon, from a neuro optometrist up in Chattanooga, so I’ll be doing that soon, and they think that might help some of that. I’m not really sure how they work, yeah, but it’s might help some of this left stuff, but the center, even what I can see is still blurry. It’s not sharp. It’s kind of like you’re like, I can see, like, the silhouette of your face right now. Like no like, no details.
Bill Gasiamis 37:42
I’m a good looking guy, mate.
Lorenzo Price 37:44
I’m sure.
Bill Gasiamis 37:48
You wouldn’t know if I wasn’t, but I am, I really am.
Lorenzo Price 37:52
I believe you. Yeah, I’ve got my eyes are blurry because not only do they have this brain damage in the occipital region, and my optic nerves from the intrathenial pressure got squeezed, yeah, and then this eye hemorrhaged also. So I had a hemorrhage in my right eye, and my optic nerves got damage, and then sorted my lobes back here. So just, but it’s like you said, it’s kind of I carry myself in a way that, like nobody really knows, unless I tell them, yeah.
Bill Gasiamis 38:33
I just love that about you. I love that about you, but it doesn’t sound like you’re doing the I’m holding it all in and not talking about a thing which is different. You know, some people don’t share, don’t say so that they appear normal, or whatever that means, you know, to people, so that no one knows. Whereas you’re kind of like, I’m just going to go about doing things the way I need to do things to get things done, and then if the situation necessitates it.
Bill Gasiamis 39:03
Well then I’ll elaborate on what’s going on for me, why I carry a cane, and why I’m struggling with my vision or something. I love that approach. It’s kind of just getting on with business, by the sound of it.
Lorenzo Price 39:15
Yes, thank you. That’s exactly what it is. Like my mom always tells me, like, what else are you going to do? You got to do it.
Bill Gasiamis 39:22
I mean, that’s so true. There’s nothing else you can do, I did. But did you ever have this is not happening moment? What were the internal battles like? How did you comprehend what was happening to you? And then you know what you had to deal with, the sudden changes of all the things that you had to deal with.
Lorenzo Price 39:49
So, I don’t know if this is healthy or not, but I have just you. I almost immediately accepted it like it was, like I had this moment where this nurse woke me up from the coma in the hospital. Her name was Chloe. I went back and met her so and she woke me up in the hospital and told me that I had been in a coma and where I was, and I just had like, this immediate thought in my head and like, instead of, like, panic, or like, oh my god, like, what is like, what’s happening?
Lorenzo’s Extreme Acceptance: Choosing Strength After Stroke
Lorenzo Price 40:32
I just had this moment of clarity, like, wow, I’ve wasted a lot of time in my life being upset, you know, being mad. I just like I and ever since I that moment, ever since I came home, I’ve just maintained this, like it’s all good. I accept this and I can, I can do this. And I think that a lot of people don’t have that kind of mindset.
Bill Gasiamis 41:02
Extreme acceptance.
Lorenzo Price 41:04
Yeah, I guess it’s extreme, but it’s, I just also know that it could crush me if I let it. And it seems there’s really only two options, I either let this thing like crush me, or I do the best I can, to be as good as I can with my life the way it is now.
Bill Gasiamis 41:25
I love that man, extreme acceptance is probably my word. I don’t know if it’s totally your word and 100% appropriate, but you said you’re not sure if it’s healthy or not. I mean, it’s properly healthy to accept something and then move on with it and find solutions to problems, then focus on problems without looking for the solutions, you know.
Lorenzo Price 41:51
Yeah, and that’s, yeah, you’re absolutely right. I just don’t feel like there’s time to dwell on the things that can make me sad I can’t do anything about that, because I can do, I could do right now. I can reach out to you and ask you about your podcast. I can take an Uber to see a friend, you know, I can. I can hang out with my kids on Friday night and Saturday and like, and I just look forward to those things instead of pushing it all in which I think a lot of people are afraid that I’m doing, but I’m not like, I honestly don’t feel depressed or upset or anxious or sad.
Lorenzo Price 42:34
If I get in the mood where I do feel like, you know, this kind of sucks, I’ll sit down and I’ll write something like a journal entry with all on my phone or my iPad, or I’ll write some music and, just kind of channel it that way. But I don’t like, I don’t know. I just don’t want to. I got to be a really good example for my children.
Bill Gasiamis 42:59
I love that.
Lorenzo Price 43:00
I don’t want them to look at their dad and see, you know, this disabled guy who can’t do anything, who’s let this beat him. I want them to see me and have an example for themselves. So when they grow up, if something ever does happen to them or someone they love, like they know there’s like, they could do better, and I’m going to keep doing better because of it.
Bill Gasiamis 43:19
I love it. I love it, that’s meaning as well. Like I always thought about the kids, and how do I go about presenting the after a serious you know, medical issue occurs, how do you present that to them so that they can touch wood in their time when they come across some difficulties with health or whatever that they’ve got an example to model or to lean on or to use as one way to go about it, when they’ve if they saw the other version the one, they’re losing my shit, where I can’t cope with everything, and when I haven’t come to terms with what I’m dealing with, it’s like, you know, why?
Bill Gasiamis 44:10
Why show them that version of it? Not that I didn’t have bad days, tough times and intermittent issues. I did, I let them play out, and then I moved on from them, so they saw me cry, get frustrated, angry, mad, all of those things. But then they saw me bounce back, overcome, and then transform it into a podcast, into a book, into all those things. And it’s like, it’s amazing what you’ve done. Yeah, it’s very different than just sort of sitting back and letting it take over my entire life. It does live with me every day like it’s the gift that keeps on giving.
Bill Gasiamis 44:48
For sure, you know, numbness, wake up in the middle of the night, balance issues, checking, you know whether my foot’s on the ground, muscle tightness never. Feeling comfortable in my body, you know, on the left side and all that type of thing, needing constant massages, needing therapy and all sorts of things. But I kind of also did that well. This is what I’ve got to deal with. I’ve got to find a way to live with it, adjust, modify the way I go about life and and just sort of this is going to sound weird, like, appreciate the opportunity to view life from a completely different perspective and lens.
Lorenzo Price 45:36
Absolutely.
Bill Gasiamis 45:37
You know, I don’t know if that’s hard for people to hear. Some stroke survivors may not resonate with that, and I get it totally cool, but it’s like, I don’t know it’s offered. It’s more depth if I can’t give it a better word, a different, more amazing word, unless offered more depth in how I viewed life, or how I experience life, I don’t know if some people are not comfortable about it.
Lorenzo Price 46:09
I feel, yeah, I do like things taste better, things smell better. I’ve had this I talked to Doctor Michael David. He’s the guy who actually did my craniotomy and literally saved my life that day. But he and I talk a lot. I see him often, and I’ve got this thing that we talked about where, like, I have this get to attitude a lot, even when I know I gotta go and kill my legs in therapy, like I don’t have to do it, like I get to do it and like that.
Lorenzo Price 46:45
That kind of perspective helps me a lot, because I might have, like, for a whole day ahead of me, that’s just a nightmare. Like I get to do this instead of having to, and it makes it makes my outlook a little bit better. Get to just think of things that way, like I don’t have to do anything, like I get to do it all.
Bill Gasiamis 47:07
That’s pretty cool. How old are the kids now?
Lorenzo Price 47:11
They’re 5 and 8.
Bill Gasiamis 47:13
They’re very little.
Lorenzo Price 47:15
They’re very little, yeah, so when this happened, they were 2, almost 3 and 5.
Bill Gasiamis 47:24
Yeah, right. Well, that’s really cool that you can still have them in your life, and they can be part of your, you know, Fridays and Saturdays and whatever comes later, because that will evolve and emerge as well, and that might pick up and improve, and they’re kind of lucky to have you around, but also lucky to have this version of you, which is so curious about how to go about this new way of life, and you’re discovering things that you never knew before. You’ve let go of a lot of things, though.
Bill Gasiamis 48:01
So what is it like? How did you go about, kind of getting your head around, having to let go of tattooing and to let go of the other things that you were doing that were important and interesting?
Lorenzo Price 48:15
Those things took a little bit longer for sure. You know, I was in love with my job. I was, I loved what I did. So having to get used to not doing that again, it felt like I lost the whole part of my identity. Like, just like strips from me. I don’t know if that makes any sense, like, yeah, that was like me, like I was the tattoo artist, piercing musician. That was who, that’s who I was professionally, like, coming waking up from a coma, and, you know, my apartment’s gone, my job’s gone, and, like, just like, now I’m living at home again and all that’s behind me.
Lorenzo Price 49:00
It just was a struggle, that was a struggle for a while, to like, accept the fact, like, I’m not gonna be able to do this anymore, I can’t tattoo. I can’t see enough to tattoo. And it’s just like it killed me a little bit on the inside. It really did, because drawing is what I’ve always done since I’m a little little kid, and not being able to draw it just, it just took a huge part of me away. But I’ve channeled that into writing. You know, I always like to write, so now, since I can’t draw like I just, I try to write a lot.
Bill Gasiamis 49:42
And that’s been really helpful. What do you like to write about? At the moment.
Lorenzo Price 49:47
I’ve been writing all about my experiences. I’ve been posting them on my Facebook for like, the last like eight months or so. So they’re just, you know, just stories or or freestyle poetry. Just audio, just all about this whole thing, all about my stroke and strokes in general, and what it was like to be in a coma, you know, and types of questions people ask me. It’s all about that stuff.
Bill Gasiamis 50:13
Do you see this body of work getting compiled in some way, shape or form in the future, becoming a book.
Lorenzo Price 50:20
I think it could, I think maybe it could be one day. You’re not the first person to ask me. I think that, with some help organizing it, maybe it could be, yeah, I think the materials good. I think that it’s, I just try to, you know, I’m not good at, like, A A B B, rhyme, this or rhyme that.
Bill Gasiamis 50:52
Your bitter life never happened.
Lorenzo Price 50:55
Yes, like, I just kind of, like, write it like a letter.
Bill Gasiamis 50:58
Almost, I hear you, but not to anybody. Yeah, it could be a memoir to yourself. You know, the days that you wrote individual stories or feelings or expressions, that could be fine, too. There’s no such thing as the perfect format book, you know, like, I think it’s more interesting and more raw to have a blow by blow, day by day, kind of linear experience of what somebody who’s going through, what you’re going through, might have experienced.
Bill Gasiamis 51:32
You know, or had happened to them, and the thoughts and the things you overcome, and all that, Like it could work really well. Yeah, I was just curious about that.
Lorenzo Price 51:45
I’ve definitely been considering it, because I’ve been asked multiple times. I just got to organize it all, I guess, and get to get to an editor, I don’t know, like I can write, and I have my friends like “Hey, check this out. Will you help me edit it?” I’ll have them help me that way. But yeah, like, I think getting it into a book format could be really, hopefully, maybe inspiring for people. It would be, at least for my kids one day.
Bill Gasiamis 52:14
Absolutely, man, yeah, I would love that. I would love to see that that happened or that it didn’t happen. It doesn’t matter, but it’s a great idea to sort of contemplate and think about, because if you’re writing and you’re putting it somewhere like online, there’s no reason why you can’t transfer that onto paper and just bind it and turn it into something with a little bit of support help, a little bit of tweaking, you know, a little bit of refining whatever it is. There’ll be plenty of people that might be able to advise you on that and support you with that, just when the time comes.
Faith and Community Support
Lorenzo Price 52:45
Yeah, I’m sure, yeah. I’m really fortunate with like, the support that I have, like the people that are around me are all my mom, my brother, my sister, my dad, everybody, even my neurosurgeon, yeah, formed a really great relationship with him. He, you know, like you spoke earlier, I believe about your sort of comparing, an atheist, yeah, before the stroke happened, I was the total atheist. I was like I didn’t believe in God. I didn’t see any room for it at all. And then this brilliant Catholic Surgeon named Dr. David McCaleb, like, saved my life.
Lorenzo Price 53:40
Like, and then offered me some room in his, like, get to know him, and a way to play some music, because he plays music. So, like, now I can go to his house and he’ll hop on the piano, and I can play some music with him, and he was really, really helped me. And after getting to know him and I made a decision one day, I went to his office, and I’ve just went there to thank him. I asked my mom to drive me up there, like, can we? I want to thank Doctor Michael? And I said, Doctor McCaleb, thank you.
Lorenzo Price 54:16
Like you saved my life. I feel like the luckiest man on the face of the earth, like there couldn’t possibly be anybody luckier than me. And he said to me, he said, Lorenzo, he said you weren’t just lucky that you’re that this worked out. He said you were lucky to have me as your surgeon, he said, because most other surgeons would have let you go, because I had to fight for you, with you. I guess the higher ups you keep me on. I guess the medication is very expensive. I guess it’s expensive to keep somebody in like Him.
Lorenzo Price 54:59
So, and he told me, and he said, by the way, he said “There’s no such thing as luck.” I said “What do you mean?” He said, well, he said, when he was younger, as a surgeon, that a nurse told him that there was no such thing as luck, that there was only God’s grace and God’s mercy. And that just resonated with me so heavy. And like, I went from like this non-believing atheist to Doctor McCaleb. Would you confirm me?
Lorenzo Price 55:25
So like this man saved my life twice. He took me to the Catholic Church, and I went to the RCIA, basically, like an adult catholicisms, and he’s my sponsor for it. And it was, it’s just cool. It’s really cool. He’s been an amazing person to have gained in my life. So I might have lost some people, like I’ve gained some really great people.
Bill Gasiamis 56:09
Now you definitely have. And when people go through an existential crisis, often times they go one way or another. They find God, religion, whatever, or they move away from it. And it doesn’t really matter which way you go or why you go that way. What I love is that what you found is some what’s the words, something positive out of it, some strength, you know, some deeper meaning. And that’s what’s really good about it. That’s, you know that’s useful and helpful in recovery and helping somebody get through.
Bill Gasiamis 56:44
You know, the idea of faith, wherever that comes from, is like a faith in a surgeon who’s going to open up your head, faith in a hospital system, faith that everything will be okay, faith, even if you don’t associate it and attach it back to God. Faith in God, it’s a really powerful thing to experience, to be able to fully have faith in something working out, even if you can’t see the way forward, even if you can’t understand how it’s going to be okay, you have to start with faith.
Bill Gasiamis 57:19
If you don’t have faith in something well, then the path forward is going to be a lot harder to unfold and see and develop and walk and walk, you know.
Lorenzo Price 57:31
Absolutely it’s honestly coming into the church, bringing this into my life, has been a wonderful experience too. Like I never thought that I could embrace it the way I had, like, it’s been great for me. And there’s a stroke support group at the church too that I attend.
Bill Gasiamis 57:54
Bonus.
AVM of the Brain Challenges and Coping Mechanisms
Lorenzo Price 57:56
And, you know, they’re all very nice people, you know, varying ages, found my age all the way up till, it’s my grandparent’s ages, all different stories. And it’s been really nice for me. It’s been making me feel better, like I said, I don’t. I’ve been letting this thing beat me up. Not gonna let it beat me. And I haven’t been letting it.
Bill Gasiamis 58:20
Yeah, what was the hardest? Was it physically, emotionally? Was it mental? What was the hardest part for you do you feel?
Lorenzo Price 58:30
The vision is still and what was the hardest part, especially in the beginning, for like, the first year in this right eye over here, there was a big black spot in it from the retina hemorrhage that happened, and noticing it was way worse than it is now, like, now, I can’t tell you where I’m missing, the spot I know just from knowing, but like it feels normal for me, but where, when I first came home from the hospital.
Lorenzo Price 59:11
And for like, that first year, probably like it was just black on this side, just a big black, like a broken Television. And having to adjust my vision, and getting used to not being able to see, like, that’s still the worst part, but it’s, you know, it could be 10 times worse than it is. So, like, it’s not that bad.
Advice for Stroke Survivors
Bill Gasiamis 59:37
I love that you’re such a positive guy. Like, everything is half glass full, but there would have been dark moments, a couple of dark moments. One, maybe, was there any dark moments, and how did you get through them?
Lorenzo Price 59:50
I think that this is why I say I’m not sure if it’s healthy or not, because I just haven’t had that moment for, it’s good. I haven’t had that moment where I broke down, like, and I don’t know if I’m going to, I don’t like, I know that like people around me, like my dad or like my friends. Like “Are you okay?” Yeah, totally fine, you know. And like, I honestly feel like that’s the truth. Like, I don’t know, I don’t think I’m gonna break down and I haven’t.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Bill Gasiamis 1:00:25
And beautiful man, I love that. It’s the true answer as well. You know, you come across people “How you doing?” and they always say “I’m good, I’m fine.” And they’re not really. That’s just their default response, if you’re truly good and fine, and that’s the answer, that’s brilliant. I love that. That is, why not? I mean, it’s a skill to teach people and to master. And if I could model that version of a stroke survivors mindset, like bottle that and then just hand it out in droves, and people just took that and then that’s what they had. I mean, wow, you’ve been through so much, and it’s still like that.
Bill Gasiamis 1:01:06
It is the ultimate stoic philosophy in practice. I’m not sure if you know much about the Stoics, but it’s like, what’s good about this? Or what can I learn from this? Or how can I evolve from this? It’s always your questions always seem to be about how to transform whatever it is that you’ve experienced into something more meaningful. Something just popped into my head. Tell me what you think about this idea.
Bill Gasiamis 1:01:33
You know how tattoos are a trend, and all these kind of different styles and all these things are a trend, and you see them happen. What if you become the first visually impaired tattoo artist, and you get some brave souls to allow you to tattoo them visually impaired?
Lorenzo Price 1:01:49
It might not be a bad idea. There might be a market out there for that.
Bill Gasiamis 1:01:55
I reckon there is. I’ve often come across artists, people who draw, etc, and one of the things that kind of, you know breaks my heart a little bit is when they say I can’t paint draw anymore because of my vision or my hand. And I’m like, dude, like you should be painting and drawing with the skills that you have, the way that your brain artistically works, which is the the that doesn’t go away in this new version of yourself, with this new way that you see the world and express the world.
Bill Gasiamis 1:02:37
I figured that what that would do is kind of give a deeper insight and create a unique perspective into things that visually, quote, unquote, normal people can’t see or comprehend. Do you know what I mean? And it doesn’t matter what you that it doesn’t look traditional or whatever. It just matters that what you’re doing is still applying your technical knowledge in this new visual way because of the way that you’ve been impacted.
Bill Gasiamis 1:03:14
And I often reflect back on one of the most famous female artists, Frida Kahlo from Mexico, who started painting when she became injured and expressed her challenges and all that kind of stuff in the most unique way. And as a result of that, her work has become renowned across the world for 100 years. I don’t know. I just feel like that’s something that people should explore, people who have previously been, quote, unquote, normal and now visually impaired or physically impaired. I think that should be something that people explore. What do you reckon of that idea?
Lorenzo Price 1:04:00
You know what if I can get some people who want me to do it, I’ll do it. I’ll give it a shot, you know, like, why not?
Bill Gasiamis 1:04:09
Yeah, even if it’s not tattooing. But I think that would be a cool story to share that first, you know, visually impaired tattoo artist has their first client or victim, or whatever you want to call them. And then if you did art. I mean, you can imagine how simple it would be to transfer that onto a canvas, for example, and have that as part of the entire journey you know, your life, where you came from, where you ended up, and how you transformed that from being a disability to an ability and one of the most.
Bill Gasiamis 1:04:59
Best examples for that is a young girl who I interviewed on the podcast who had a stroke when she was a very little child, and her parents have supported her to find a way to raise some money. And her name is Clara. Clara Woods. I interviewed her mum and her stepdad and the entire family, they’re crazy. She had a perinatal stroke, and that was episode 265, and let me tell you, she has like 200,000 subscribers or followers on Instagram or socials or whatever. And she’s a teenager now. She’s probably just turned 18, something like that.
Bill Gasiamis 1:05:59
And she paints man. She paints the most unbelievable. I would call it abstract work. And she sells canvases because she has become known as the young stroke survivor who has developed she’s non verbal, and she has some, I think, physical deficits as well, the way her muscles work, etc, make it a little bit difficult for her to get around. She’s had a lot of therapy and stuff, but she expresses herself in really vibrant colors. There’s a lot of hearts in her art. She does little canvases.
Bill Gasiamis 1:06:40
She does massive ones, and it’s just been a real joy to follow this story about how they’re, they have the whole family has the same attitude as you, and they’ve just come together, and they’re just running with everything that they possibly can to not miss out, to not miss out on anything, and not to kind of step back and be kind of one of the many people who are not seen after they have such a thing happen to them.
Bill Gasiamis 1:07:07
I know I just get really passionate about hearing people saying, I can’t paint anymore. I can’t express myself anymore because this thing happened to me. I don’t know if that’s real. I don’t know if it’s true.
Lorenzo Price 1:07:20
You know that’s I like, I like that. Maybe it’s not true.
Bill Gasiamis 1:07:25
Yeah, I think I might send you that link, just so you can have a bit of a look at it. It’s just, it’s heartwarming, and it’s great to see this person express themselves, and it’s great to see that they’re turning it into a career, or making a few bucks out of it and helping cover the costs, because the costs are pretty huge, you know, as you know, and it’s something different. I’d like to throw that out there and just challenge people to think about.
Lorenzo Price 1:07:59
Yeah, please send me the link.
Bill Gasiamis 1:08:01
Yeah, I will. I’ll send it to you. I’ll also put it on the show notes. So anyone who’s interested in having a look at Clara’s story, they can have a they can have a bit of a look and get inspired by her and her family. They’re just the most amazing. Never Say Die, never quit, kind of people, and we need more examples of that.
Lorenzo Price 1:08:22
People gotta have that attitude. Like, I think that a majority of my whole recovery has been like, just having positivity and like being positive about it.
Bill Gasiamis 1:08:34
I reckon if I was near you and I wasn’t in Australia, like 12,000 miles away or something like that, I don’t know how far away we are, I reckon I might be. Might have been your first tattoo client after stroke, because I’ve never had a tattoo before, and what a perfect way that would have been to.
Lorenzo Price 1:08:55
Well, then I guess I’m going to have to come while we out there, and we’ll test it out on you.
Bill Gasiamis 1:08:59
Absolutely, man, come and do it. What we’ll do is to make it safe so you don’t cover my entire arm. What we do is, like, would create, like, a perimeter out of, like, some kind of a thing, right, where you could just start drawing and whatever comes out of it, comes out of it. I think it’d be the best way to do it. I’m totally into it. And then you can feel your way around that perimeter. You know where the edges are. So you could, you could maybe create in your mind and in your eyes, you know, some kind of thing that starts with the perimeter. You start on the outside and you work your way in.
Bill Gasiamis 1:09:34
I don’t know what like I’m just running with it. I don’t even know if it’s appropriate, but.
Lorenzo Price 1:09:39
These are already good ideas.
Bill Gasiamis 1:09:40
Good, good. Well, I hope so, man, I just, I don’t know. I get passionate about it, you could tell, and I could over-talk about it, so I’ll just move on now.
Lorenzo Price 1:09:51
I think it’s great. I don’t have any issue hearing about it.
Bill Gasiamis 1:09:54
Yeah, good. I’m glad. I just wanted to ask you, so there’s a lot of people listening now, who are being in your situation, my situation, our situation, they might be early on in the process. They’re looking for a little bit of wisdom. They’ve definitely picked up on heaps of it through the podcast. But is this something that you specifically would like to share with the people watching and listening?
Lorenzo Price 1:10:19
Yeah, no matter what, no matter what is, you’ve survived this thing, like this, like, life is so good post stroke. You might, might have had a miserable experience prior to stroke, and think that things are going to be worse after but like, you’ve survived it and you’ve lived it, and you should focus on that, because that’s what I did, like, the gratuity of just being alive and keeping that attitude, no matter what’s come my way, no matter what I’ve had a bad seizure and ended up in hospital again.
Lorenzo Price 1:10:56
No matter if I’ve fallen or whatever’s happened to me, I just keep up no matter what. I think everybody who goes through things like this needs to keep that attitude, even if it’s hard, like, I know it’s difficult, it’s been not like, it’s just been easy for me to do. It’s been a challenge. But I’ve made sure that I’ve maintained that no matter what, like, I can do this, and so can they.
Bill Gasiamis 1:11:22
Yeah, that’s great advice, man. I really appreciate you reaching out to be on the podcast. It is fantastic meeting you and getting to hear your story and to learn from you. I really appreciate the you’re telling me what I needed to hear about the way that we should approach recovery, or that’s beneficial to approach recovery. It’s just been an absolute pleasure, man. Thank you so much.
Lorenzo Price 1:11:53
Thank you so much. It’s been a pleasure for me as well. I really appreciate it.
Bill Gasiamis 1:11:57
And that wraps up today’s episode with Lorenzo Price from surviving an AVM rupture to coping with vision loss, delayed diagnosis and redefining his path forward. Lorenzo story is a powerful reminder that healing is possible and that creativity, faith and community can be anchors during recovery. If this episode resonated with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave a comment, like and subscribe on YouTube, and if you’re listening on Spotify or Apple podcasts.
Bill Gasiamis 1:12:28
A five star rating or review really helps more stroke survivors find the show. Remember my book, The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened, is now available. Just search my name on Amazon or head to recoveryafterstroke.com/book. Thanks again for being here. I’ll catch you in the next episode.
Intro 1:12:50
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