Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Stroke Recovery: Bud Beucher’s Remarkable Return to Life
When you’ve spent your life working seven days a week, the idea of slowing down feels impossible until a stroke stops you in your tracks.
That’s what happened to Bud Beucher, a resort president from Florida whose drive, optimism, and leadership spirit suddenly met their toughest test yet: an ischemic stroke that left him unable to move or communicate clearly.
After 47 days in hospital and months of frustration, Bud found a path that reignited both his health and his personality hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) through Aviv Clinics.
A Life Devoted to Work and Service
Before his stroke, Bud was the president of the Michigan Resort and Club in Howey-in-the-Hills, Florida.
He managed more than 300 employees, ran a full-service property with golf courses, tennis courts, and restaurants, and thrived on being busy.
“I only worked on days that ended in ‘Y,’” Bud laughed. His passion for hospitality wasn’t just a job it was his identity.
Then at 64, everything changed.
The Day Everything Stopped
Bud went in for a routine colonoscopy after pausing his blood thinner for atrial fibrillation. A few hours later, his wife found him unresponsive on the couch.
He’d had a major ischemic stroke, followed by another two days later.
He woke in hospital unable to use his right side and barely able to speak. “I spent 47 days in hospital and came home 80 pounds lighter,” he recalled.
What kept him going? The same thing that drove his career his mindset.
“My glass has always been half full,” Bud said. “If you’ve got a victim mentality, recovery won’t be nearly as positive or complete.”
Discovering Aviv Clinics
Months into rehab, Bud’s son told him about a program in Florida combining advanced diagnostics, personalised rehabilitation, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
It was called Aviv Clinics, part of a global network using HBOT to enhance brain and body recovery.
Bud and his wife Jane toured the facility and were immediately impressed: world-class equipment, full medical oversight, and measurable before-and-after testing.
Unlike traditional rehab, every protocol at Aviv is guided by data MRI and CT scans, cognitive assessments, blood work, and fitness testing before treatment even begins.
The 12-Week HBOT Program
Bud enrolled in a 12-week program involving five sessions per week. Each “dive” placed him inside a large multi-person chamber one of the biggest outside the U.S. Navy breathing pure oxygen under pressure to stimulate the body’s natural healing mechanisms.
The idea behind HBOT is simple but powerful: increased oxygen levels encourage the brain to build new blood vessels and restore function in areas surrounding the dead tissue caused by stroke.
“They told me the damaged tissue in the center of my brain was gone forever but the surrounding areas still had hope,” Bud said.
During those sessions, Bud’s wife joined him side-by-side, supporting him through every stage. “If she hadn’t come, I wouldn’t have been as successful,” he said. “It’s exhausting, and having your partner there makes all the difference.”
A Holistic Approach to Recovery
Aviv Clinics didn’t just focus on oxygen therapy. Their program incorporated nutrition coaching, physical therapy, and psychological support to help clients rebuild from every angle.
Bud learned how diet could affect inflammation and recovery, began strength training with a specialist who understood stroke deficits, and embraced the full-time job of healing.
“It’s five days a week, twelve weeks straight,” he said. “You can’t miss a session. But when your health is on the line, you’d spend your last penny to get it back.”
Results That Spoke for Themselves
Halfway through the program, Bud noticed subtle but powerful changes. His energy returned. His confidence grew. Conversations that once felt foggy began flowing again.
By the end of 12 weeks, his doctors showed comparative brain images revealing increased activity in previously low-functioning areas.
More importantly, Bud felt like himself again.
“My personality came back to life,” he said. “Before, I’d sit quietly, thinking responses in my head but never saying them. Aviv gave me my voice back and it gave my wife her husband back.”
Life After Aviv
Today, at 68, Bud is stronger and busier than ever but this time, it’s on his own terms.
He works out with a personal trainer, travels with Jane, and spends time with their 11 grandchildren.
“I’m happy, but I’m not satisfied,” he said. “You only have two choices every day improve or decline. I choose to improve.”
Lessons for Other Stroke Survivors
Bud’s story offers more than just medical inspiration it’s a reminder that mindset, persistence, and the right support network are essential for recovery.
“Ants don’t give up and neither do I,” Bud said. “There’s no hill too steep for a mountain climber.”
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy isn’t a magic fix, but for some survivors like Bud, it’s been a key that unlocked new potential years after their stroke.
Watch or Listen to the Full Episode
🎧 Watch: [YouTube – Bill Gasiamis Channel]
🎧 Listen: Spotify and Apple Podcasts @ Recovery After Stroke
Learn more about Aviv Clinics at aviv-clinics.com and discover Bud’s full journey in this inspiring conversation.
👉 For more stories of hope and recovery, explore:
- The Unexpected Way That a Stroke Became the Best Thing That Happened – Book
- Support Recovery After Stroke on Patreon
Before we dive in, a big thank you to Aviv Clinics for sponsoring this episode and for the incredible work they’re doing to support stroke survivors through advanced hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Disclaimer:
This blog is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult your doctor before making any changes to your health or recovery plan.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Stroke Recovery: How Bud Beucher Reclaimed His Voice and Life with Aviv Clinics
Resort president Bud Beucher lost his voice after a stroke, not physically, but mentally. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helped him speak his mind again.
Learn More About Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy – Dr. Amir Hadanny
Dr. Shai Efrati on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: A Game-Changer for Stroke Recovery
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Improves Stroke Deficits
Highlights:
00:00 Introduction and Acknowledgments
01:06 Bud Beucher’s Background
04:37 Life Before the Stroke
09:32 The Stroke and Initial Recovery
16:07 Bud Beucher: Remembering Through the Fog of Stroke Recovery
24:25 Redefining Purpose After a Lifetime of Work
32:19 Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Aviv Clinics
45:19 Healing the Brain, One Breath at a Time
57:00 Progress and Support During Recovery
1:12:22 Post-Recovery Life and Travel
1:21:18 Final Thoughts and Advice
Transcript:
Introduction and Acknowledgments
Bill Gasiamis 0:00
Before we dive in today’s episode, I want to take a moment to thank the incredible people who make this podcast possible. First, a massive thank you to my Patreon supporters. Your contributions help me cover the costs of hosting, editing and producing this show for 10 years. I did this entirely on my own, but your support allows me to continue bringing these stories of hope and recovery to stroke survivors who need them most. If you’d like to support the podcast, head over to patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke.
Bill Gasiamis 0:32
I also want to shout out to those of you who leave comments on YouTube, your insights and encouragement mean the world to me and to other stroke survivors who read them, to everyone who leaves reviews on Spotify and Apple podcasts, thank you for helping others find this show. To those of you who have purchased my book, thank you for supporting this mission and to everyone who watches without skipping the ads. You’re helping this podcast reach more people who need hope now today’s episode is special because it’s sponsored by Aviv clinics.
Bud Beucher’s Background
Bill Gasiamis 1:06
I first learnt about Aviv when I interviewed two of their doctors for the podcast. The links of those interviews will be in the show notes. I wanted to understand how hyperbaric oxygen therapy works and bring that information to you the stroke survivors. Listening, those interviews were so valuable that we’ve come full circle. Aviv is supporting this episode, which allows me to keep creating this content for our community.
Bill Gasiamis 1:33
So today, I’m speaking with Bud Beucher, who experienced two ischemic strokes at the age of 64 Bud was the president of a major resort, managing 325 employees, living life at full throttle. After his strokes, he spent 47 days in hospital and lost over 100 pounds. But the most devastating loss wasn’t physical. It was his personality. Bud could speak, but the conversations happening in his head wouldn’t come out, that is until he discovered Aviv clinics and their 12 week hyperbaric oxygen therapy protocol.
Bill Gasiamis 2:08
What happened next is a testament to the power of innovative treatment, unwavering mindset and the support of a devoted partner. Let’s dive in. Bud Beucher, welcome to the podcast.
Bud Beucher 2:19
Thank you, Bill. I appreciate it being here with you today.
Bill Gasiamis 2:23
Likewise. Thank you so much for joining me. I wanted to get a bit of a sense of what life was like for you before stroke.
Bud Beucher 2:34
Well, I was the president of Michigan resort and club in Howie and the hills, Florida. I had 325 employees that worked for me, and life was a blur. I had four children, and I was 64 years old when I had the stroke, and as my dad would say, I was busier than a one handed paper hanger, and I only worked in days that ended in why.
Bill Gasiamis 3:03
And Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
Bud Beucher 3:11
Only those that ended in why. My wife is very supportive, and we’ve had a great life together. And you know it my job wasn’t work. It was my passion. And so we we have a hotel, or we had a hotel, we sold it in March or December of 22 and so it was already in the works when I had the stroke, and so that was that was bittersweet. You know, I spent my whole life working here. I was seven years old when we came here to Florida, and my brother Bob and my dad acquired what was then just a golf course.
Bud Beucher 4:01
And we ended up 176 rooms, two championship golf courses, eight tennis courts, 52 slip marina. We had 1000s and 1000s, like 30,000 square feet of public space. We had a Spa Fitness Center. We have ski and trap range. So it was, it was really a full service resort, and like I said, it was my passion.
Bill Gasiamis 4:29
Were you a workaholic?
Life Before the Stroke and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Stroke Recovery
Bud Beucher 4:37
It depends upon who you ask, not from my perspective, I love to get up early and go to work. I just enjoyed it so much. And on Saturdays and Sundays, it gave me the quiet time to sit by my desk and kind of think of things, think of things that we could have done. Better, so forensic. So we always looked at holidays and things like that, and we drove a lot of business in that day.
Bud Beucher 5:11
We had like 120 weddings a year. We did like 1600 covers on Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Sunday, Mother’s Day. And I always, always worked those holidays, and so I was up close with the staff and up close with the customers.
Bill Gasiamis 5:34
What were your family’s responses to the fact that you’re always somewhere else for the holidays. You were never available, so to speak.
Bud Beucher 5:47
For Well, my oldest daughter, so my second child is Morgan, and she was 11 or 12 years old, but she before she realized that Thanksgiving did not come on Saturday. So we always, we always had a big Thanksgiving meal. We invited all my brothers and sisters, the kids, cousins. We threw footballs in the backyard. We watched football games. We did all the traditional Thanksgiving meal prep and food. But it just wasn’t on Thursday. It was on Saturday, and that was fine with them. That was fine with me.
Bud Beucher 6:27
And for Christmas, the same way, on Christmas day, I’d set the alarm at four o’clock in the morning. We’d wake the kids up when they were little, and we would tear into presents, and about 730 or eight o’clock, I’d get up and say, Well, I’m going to go to work. Is there anybody that like to give up playing with their toys and come to work with dad? And of course, you know what? The answer was, No. But as as the kids got older, they had responsibilities to the resort.
Bud Beucher 7:02
Yeah, all of all of them, all of my nieces and nephews, at some point in their lives, all worked at the resort. So I’m not painting my children out to be special, although my children are special, yeah.
Bill Gasiamis 7:14
How would you describe yourself? There’s the word driven. Is that appropriate? Is there another word that will kind of describe you in a nutshell? I know it’s a big ask.
Bud Beucher 7:30
Driven would be one word positive would be another word. Optimistic would be another word. Hard working would be another word. My glass is always half full. I’ve got a very positive attitude, even before the stroke, and since the stroke, even more.
Bill Gasiamis 7:51
Great attributes to bring to stroke recovery for sure.
Bud Beucher 7:55
Absolutely, you cannot recover, in my, my opinion, from a stroke, if you are a half empty guy or gal.
Bill Gasiamis 8:05
I mean, yeah, you can benefit from the medical system. You could get the life saving treatment, you could get rehabilitation, you could get all sorts of things. But if the attitude stinks, well, it’s not going to be the best outcome.
Bud Beucher 8:20
What is, what does my sister say? The fish stinks from the head. So if you have a thinking thinking, and you have a victim mentality, your recovery won’t be nearly as positive and robust and complete as if you are working hard to achieve the next goal. And so early on in my recovery, you know, I’m a bit of a hard head. And so my wife and I were walking.
Bud Beucher 9:05
And we were walking on one of the streets here at the resort, and she said, Bud, you’re in the middle of the road. I said, No, I’m not budge. You’re in the middle road. No, I’m not, Bud. You’re in the middle of the road. No, I’m not. And she finally, out of frustration, said, You’re a hard head. And I turned to her, and I looked at her, and I said, You’re damn right, and if I weren’t a hard hit, I wouldn’t be recovering as well as I am today.
The Stroke and Initial Recovery
Bud Beucher 9:32
So I spent 47 days in the hospital. I had an ischemic stroke, and my wife was amazing. My son in law was unbelievable. He’s a doctor, so he responded to my wife’s call and came to the condo and I was non responsive.
Bill Gasiamis 9:52
And what was it leading up, up to the stroke? What was it like? Were was there any sense that something was off, wrong? Thing. Did you notice anything before that? That, in hindsight, you can say, I think that was the stroke.
Bud Beucher 10:10
There were no external pressures beyond the normal routine that I had. Now. I will tell you that my wife believes that as a function of my getting the covid shot and the booster that that that aided in my stroke and I there was I went in that day for colonoscopy, because my mother died from colon cancer, and so I’m very aware of that. And the doctor I’m also have AFib So, and I’m on Eliquis.
Bill Gasiamis 11:00
So, the doctor atrial fibrillation, so an arrhythmia of the heart.
Bud Beucher 11:06
Yes, sir. And so there was no reason for me to be bridged. So I went to the heart doctor, and I said, I’m going in, you know, on this day for colonoscopy, what do you think about me coming off my office, and he’s he green lighted it. He said, Fine. And so my last dose was like on a Monday, and I went in for the colonoscopy on March 31 so I’ll make this shit up. That would have been Wednesday, and I had the colonoscopy at one o’clock, and I came home with my wife. She was the Uber driver, if you will.
Bud Beucher 11:48
And, you know, like all great colonoscopies, you’re full of air and you don’t feel real good, and you’re tired, and I just wanted to lay down on the couch and watch a little TV. And my wife needed to stretch her legs, so she said, I’ll go for a walk. I said, Great, I’ll be right here. And you know, her boss called me because he had a reservation at the resort and was going to need to cancel it because something came up. And I said, not a problem, Casey, I’ll go ahead and cancel for you. So I called Henry and canceled this reservation.
Bud Beucher 12:25
She came in about five minutes later. She was talking to our oldest son, Nicholas, and when she hung up, I was on the couch, and my glasses were off and the TV was on rather loudly, and she said, Bud, what are you doing? And I didn’t respond. And then she went around the little pass through, and she looked at me. She said, This isn’t funny.
Bill Gasiamis 12:51
We’ll be back with more of Bud’s remarkable story in just a moment. But first, I want to thank Aviv clinics for sponsoring this episode. Bud’s journey with hyperbaric oxygen therapy opened my eyes to what’s possible when you combine cutting edge treatment with comprehensive rehabilitation. VIBs, 12 week protocol isn’t just about sitting in a chamber, it’s physical therapy, cognitive training, nutritional counseling and personalized care, all working together. If you’ve been wondering whether hyperbaric oxygen therapy might be right for you.
Bill Gasiamis 13:23
Aviv clinics offers a diagnostic testing upfront to determine if you’re a candidate. That transparency and thoroughness is what impressed me when I first interviewed their doctors, and it’s why I’m proud to have them supporting this episode. You can learn more about Aviv clinics and their approach to stroke recovery @ aviv-clinics.com. Link will be in the show notes. Now let’s get back to bud and hear how he went from Silent dinners with his wife to traveling the world and reclaiming his life.
Bud Beucher 13:55
And I didn’t respond, but my eyes were moving, and that’s when she called 911, and our son in law, Alex, is a surgeon general surgeon, and so he has privileges at the hospital group here in Orlando or MC, and he came up before he got there, before the paramedics came and the ambulance. And so you know, between him and his wife, him and my wife, they made the decision that ormc had a level one trauma center, and that’s where we should go. And so the ambulance came. And I don’t remember any of this.
Bill Gasiamis 14:39
This all stuff that you’ve been told by the wife and the people who are around.
Bud Beucher 14:44
Yeah, and so they told my wife, because they would have airlifted me, but there were storms in the area, so it wasn’t safe to fly the helicopter. So the ambulance driver said, don’t try to keep up with us. It won’t be safe. So we’re maybe 35 – 40 minutes from downtown Orlando, and of course, Alex knew that there was a three hour limit, or real close to three or four hour limit.
Bill Gasiamis 15:13
So he’s seen, to be seen for a strokes, potentially give you the blood clot busting treatment.
Bud Beucher 15:21
Yeah. And when I got down there to ormc, they were very good. They communicated with my wife, and, you know, doctors speak in their own language, so thank God we had Alex, because he was able to interpret what they were saying, Yeah, and so I got the I got the TPA and the thrombectomy. So it was a blood clot and got lodged in the center of my brain. And you could see it through the Aviv pictures that they took as I was being onboarded in February of 23.
Bud Beucher: Remembering Through the Fog of Stroke Recovery
Bill Gasiamis 16:07
Yeah. Now let’s go back a little bit. So when was the first moment that you became aware that there was something wrong with you? Not Do you know you’ve missed the opportunity to understand what was happening to you. The stroke kind of put your brain offline. Most of the stuff you’ve told me was through stories that other people have told you, but in in the process, did you become aware that you’re unwell at some stage?
Bud Beucher 16:35
No, I did not. I was, they were concerned about me living. So it was I spent 47 days in the hospital, and maybe a half a dozen of them was in ICU, and so I can remember being wheeled down the hospital. So I had a second stroke, actually, on April the second, and I can remember being wheeled down the hallway in the middle of the night, and I kept thinking to myself, remember this, remember this.
Bud Beucher 17:12
And I can remember seeing the fluorescent lights in the ceiling going by me, and I was going down somewhere in the hospital for tests. And, yeah, that that, and, you know, little bit here and a little bit there. But in terms of continuity, it really wasn’t until probably two weeks into my stay.
Bill Gasiamis 17:39
How long after the first stroke was the second one?
Bud Beucher 17:43
I had the first stroke on March 31 and the second stroke on April the second.
Bill Gasiamis 17:48
Was that gaming stroke? Again? Was that another clock? What was it?
Bud Beucher 17:53
Yeah, so the what? And of course, nobody ever knows. That’s why it’s practicing medicine. They thought that a little piece of the first clock broke off and traveled through the brain until it got into such a narrow spot that it it couldn’t travel anymore. But they had given me blood thinners at that time, clockbusters and things like that. So, you know, it didn’t have any effect on me.
Bill Gasiamis 18:25
Okay, so you’re around two weeks in, you’ve had two strokes, and you start to realize that there’s something going on. What were the deficits that you had to deal with? What did you notice that was wrong with you your body?
Bud Beucher 18:37
Well, I couldn’t use my right side and my left side was very weak. And, and, and I was pushing 280 pounds.
Bill Gasiamis 18:53
You were overweight.
Bud Beucher 18:55
Well, I don’t like the way you said that. You sound like my wife.
Bill Gasiamis 19:01
Wow, maybe that’s the problem. You don’t like the way it sounds.
Bud Beucher 19:06
You know, I’m just not tall enough for my weight.
Bill Gasiamis 19:09
I hear you. Okay, makes sense then.
Bud Beucher 19:14
So as I was withering away in the bed, I ended up coming home at just like 80 pounds lighter than I went in the hospital, and then subsequently I got down to 180 pounds so like 110 pounds I lost. And now I’ve I’ve been able to put weight on. It’s very difficult for me to put weight on, and I’m almost up to 198 pounds.
Bill Gasiamis 19:49
Okay, so the risk factors for stroke is age, weight. What? Smoking, drinking, any of that stuff.
Bud Beucher 20:03
I only drank in days ahead. Why? Okay, understood.
Bill Gasiamis 20:08
So then only about high blood pressure. Did you have high blood pressure? Yeah, I have them all. You had them all, wow, high blood pressure, just now smoking, and you had atrial fibrillation, yeah, yeah, so it was a cocktail storm. Yeah, perfect, perfect storm for potential stroke. So when you woke up, you couldn’t move your right side. And then what, how do you, how do you kind of deal with that? You, get the news, or do you realize that it’s not working? How did your brain wrap its self around that information, that news.
Bud Beucher 20:57
You know, and I say, Thank God. Thank God. I have four children, and they’re very dedicated to me. My wife is extremely dedicated to me, and so and my son in laws and daughter in laws are very dedicated to me. So I didn’t have a lot of alone time in the hospital. And so my son in law, Alex, He’s the doctor. He got me going right away. He bought any toy he could find on Amazon as a rehab toy, and he convinced me. Wasn’t hard to convince, but I did, if I didn’t use my extremities, they’d atrophy, the muscles would atrophy.
Bud Beucher 21:47
So he got me these squeeze balls that had little spikes on them and things like that. He got me bands. And so I still couldn’t use my right side, and at one point, this doctor who saved my life came in, and he went to shake my right hand, and I moved my right arm. And so he said, aha. So he knew that the connection between my brain and my right side was still good. And so, you know, I would tell my wife, I’m happy, but I’m not satisfied.
Bud Beucher 22:32
So going back to the story about me walking in the middle of the road, me insisting that I wasn’t she said to me, You’re not very happy. I said, Yes, I am. I’m really happy, but I’m not satisfied. So what that means, Bill is, every time you set a goal, that’s a goal in the future, right? And then when you achieve that, you have to set another goal, and if you don’t, you’re complacent.
Bill Gasiamis 23:07
Yeah, there’s no less resting on your laurels. You need to just continue the journey towards improvement, becoming better, more efficient, whatever the words are, stronger, stronger, yep, more wise.
Bud Beucher 23:28
Other than last night, I virtually given up all drinking, and I’ve lost, you know, maybe 90 pounds at this point.
Bill Gasiamis 23:38
I mean, great, you had a deficit with your hand, but also was the deficit with your leg? Was there an issue with walking?
Bud Beucher 23:45
Yeah, I had a very hard time. They sent me home in a wheelchair with a walker and a leg brace. And I was living at that time in a in the second floor of a walk up condominium, and so my wife and I had to figure out how I would get my fat ass up the stairs, and it probably took me, you could convince me, 20 or 30 minutes, with her help, to walk up the stairs. And I’ve seen the videos of me in the rehab room at the hospital, and, boy, I’ve come such a long way.
Redefining Purpose After a Lifetime of Work
Bill Gasiamis 24:25
Yeah, that’s great. So how do you come to terms with what’s happened to you? So seven day a week at work, probably, I don’t know, maybe 90 100 hours of work a week at least, yeah, and then all of a sudden that stops entirely, and you have a completely different task. You’ve been doing that for decades and decades and decades. Your identity is all abou the work, the way that you go about work, the people, the amount of work that you’re doing.
Bill Gasiamis 24:59
All of your identity is built around how you how you interacted with the world for the majority of your life, and now it’s completely different. How do you come to terms with that? Do you have to come to terms with it? What’s the adjustment?
Bud Beucher 25:16
The adjustment was easier for me than it was for my wife. I’ll be very honest with you. I say it wasn’t easy for me. It wasn’t easy for me, per se, but you know, so I’m the youngest of six children, and the difference between my oldest, my only brother, Bob, and myself is 16 years. So he’s now in his middle, early 80s. And then I have four sisters, and the difference between myself and my youngest sister is four years.
Bud Beucher 25:57
And so on April the first they asked my sister, Michelle, who’s the number three girl? Actually, they probably volunteer you get to take over the resort. So she ran the resort, and she did it very well. I give her a lot of credit. It’s not an easy job. And you know, we all, we all do things differently, and her style was much different than mine. But you know what? It’s okay. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.
Bill Gasiamis 26:36
That’s my favorite saying. Were you somebody who was sort of happy to pass the mantle on. Was it a relief?
Bud Beucher 26:50
It came with some anxiety, a little bit, because I would see Michelle, and I’d see her doing things with the staff that I wouldn’t do, but I couldn’t say anything to her, because I didn’t want to get between her and her employees. And you know, I had to focus on my recovery. So, you know, it’s about a mile from my condo at that time to the lobby. So I’d get dressed, I’d walk down, I’d work in quotes, I’d go back up for lunch. I’d lay down and take a nap for a couple hours. I’d walk back, I’d work and then I’d walk home. So I was incorporating that commute, if you will, with my rehab.
Bill Gasiamis 27:51
Okay, so you went back to work after the stroke, after coming home, how long did it take for you to come home and get back to work?
Bud Beucher 28:03
I was released from the hospital on May the 17th, and I probably came back to work early June.
Bill Gasiamis 28:10
Okay. Was it too soon?
Bud Beucher 28:14
It depends upon how you ask.
Bill Gasiamis 28:16
I’m asking you clearly not. Okay. I asked your doctor, your doctor son.
Bud Beucher 28:25
He would probably say no, okay. He thinks that I needed to have a purpose, yes, and that purpose for me was the resort and my employees and it was good for me to see my staff, even though they weren’t my staff any longer, and it was good for me to hear those accolades and support. It was it was good.
Bill Gasiamis 28:59
I imagine there’d be some satisfaction, definitely in getting back to where you were before, even in a different capacity. But then also the encouragement from other people, so people that you interacted with, the lovely faces or that type of thing that would be amazing, all right, relate to that. That’s perfectly fine. And also going back to work, I do consider to be a therapeutic thing, both emotionally, mentally and physically. And I think it’s part of recovery.
Bill Gasiamis 29:29
And if you’ve got a great employer for people who are not self employed, for example, if you’re got a great employer who understands the extra needs that a stroke survivor might have to ease up on the work and to have a little bit more downtime, then they could play a massive role in supporting people to get back.
Bud Beucher 29:50
Yeah, you in my opinion only, you can’t stay at home and. Look at four walls, and yet, in the same respect, you can’t go back to work and go at the same pace that you had done before the stroke, at least not in my case. Now there are all different kinds of strokes.
Bill Gasiamis 30:15
I would say, in nobody’s case, I would say everyone needs to attend to healing more than attend to their work, even if it’s just a short amount of time or an extended amount of time, whatever it is, the brain healing journey takes a while, so it’s really important to perhaps incorporate work, but not make it the main goal. And anyway, Stroke Recovery doesn’t allow people to go back to work the same way that they went back before, especially in the early days. It’s so hard.
Bud Beucher 30:47
No, it truly is. And I’d be lying to you if I said that I had the stamina today at 68 that I had at the stroke when I was 64 first of all, I was in that groove, you know what I mean, and I didn’t know any better.
Bill Gasiamis 31:06
How much did your right side come back online in the early days, in that time where you were walking back to work and up and down and all that type of thing, how much did your right side come back online. Were there still areas of improvement that needed to happen?
Bud Beucher 31:25
Yeah, in fact, there’s still areas of improvement. I go to the gym probably two to three days a week, and I have a personal trainer, and his day job is in home physical therapist. So he’s got both the gym experience as well as the, you know, the deficit care. And so Corey is his name, and I was there this morning. And, you know, I would say that I am 75% back.
Bill Gasiamis 32:16
How about then?
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Stroke Recovery and Aviv Clinics
Bud Beucher 32:19
No, I could hardly walk. Like I said, they sent me home with a wheelchair and a walker and leg brace. And if I was able to walk down the stairs and of the condo and get through the condo parking lot, I was exhausted.
Bill Gasiamis 32:36
Okay, so I was exhausted. So what kind of rehabilitation. Did they throw at you when you were in rehab?
Bud Beucher 32:45
Well, so when I was at the hospital, they gave me speech therapy, occupational therapy and physical therapy, and what I got was three, one hour sessions for each of those disciplines, and literally, I would sit in my wheelchair at the edge of my door and I checked my watch, and if the physical therapist, who was great, by the way, showed up five minutes late, I said, You owe me five minutes.
Bill Gasiamis 33:20
Fair enough.
Bud Beucher 33:21
And when we got done, she wanted to take me back, and it was five minutes before we were due to get out, I’d say, no, no, no, you owe me five minutes, and we’d walk up and down the stairs. Now it wasn’t pretty, and I mean, I was, I was huffing and puffing, but I wanted, I wanted every minute that I could get, because I just, I just needed to recover. I’ve got 11 grandkids. I want to get on the ground and play with him, yeah? I want to hold him in my arms.
Bill Gasiamis 33:58
Yeah, fair enough. That’s great motivation. So this episode is sponsored by Aviv clinics. They those guys I discovered oxygen hyperbaric oxygen therapy a little while ago, just through just trying to work out what types of information and tools that I could tell stroke survivors about regularly, that hopefully some people might be able to benefit from, that they didn’t know about, right and the Aviv clinics, I’ve done three interviews with the guys from Aviv clinics before now, because I wanted to share what hyperbaric can do.
Bill Gasiamis 34:39
I found in my mind, I found the right type of people to join me on the podcast to share that information, and one of the things that I liked about it was that they they had the diagnostic tools before the. Somebody committing to their protocol to determine whether or not somebody was a candidate, which is something you don’t get a lot in other kind of avenues of recovery, whether it’s stem cells, whether it’s etanercept or whatever the other options are, you very rarely get the diagnostic part is somebody a candidate, right?
Bill Gasiamis 35:24
So it was really lovely to share that bit of information and not to and and to do it just willingly, without requiring sponsorship or anything like that. What’s cool is that now we’ve come full circle, and the guys are supporting me, as I felt I’ve supported them, and it was just brilliant. And when they said, you know, would you consider another episode? I thought absolutely I would. And a sponsored episode is amazing, because that helps the podcast keep going, helps me grow community, share stories, hopefully get to 1000 interviews.
Bill Gasiamis 36:03
So I want to be transparent about that. Firstly, for the people listening, I’ve already, at the beginning of this episode, announced that this is a sponsored episode, that it is about Aviv clinics and your journey and and now I want to talk about Aviv. I want to understand how you stumbled or came across the hyperbaric oxygen therapy as this is something that you might want to consider. How does that happen for you? Where? Where did that happen?
Bud Beucher 36:32
Our oldest son, Nicholas, is the CO-CEO of a company called Tavistock, and they are in Orlando, or actually they’re worldwide, but they have a very large presence in Central Florida. They are the founders, the creators, the developers of Medical City, so that’s where the VA hospital lives, and you know the new Moores clinic, and you know, all those great organizations, and they’ve got houses and everything, so anyway, long story short, they called on Nicholas, or Nicholas called on them to see if Aviv would open up a satellite office down at Lake Nona.
Bud Beucher 37:19
Because he is committed to the Aviv concept. And so when I had the stroke, he spoke to his mother, maybe in the fall of the year, and said, you know, you all should take a look at the Aviv program. It’s fascinating. I’ve been there. Dave, at the time, was the president of Aviv, and so he came down to Lake Nona, met with my son and our son, and so we went up and toured the facilities. And they are world class, without account. And they are obviously, in retrospect, they’re not snake oil salesmen.
Bud Beucher 38:06
There’s always somebody who’s got, as you said, and you didn’t say it in these words, they’re trying to pull the wool over your eyes some way or another, and it’s always data driven. So when I found out that they were and you correct me if I’m wrong, in Israel and Dubai and then Brownwood, which is 3540 minutes up the road from where we live, I thought to myself, Wow, this has got to be great for me. Now, don’t get me wrong, it is a full time job, and it’s 12 weeks, 12 weeks long, and it’s a week or 10 days of onboarding.
Bud Beucher 38:57
And they go through a battery of tests, both physical emotional and, you know, cognitive and and then on the way out the door, they repeat the test, so they compare the before and the after. Now the after test, maybe is six months after, but they do do that comparison, and then they they present that work to you. And so they have nutritionists, they have psychologists, they have MD doctors, and, my God, the the hyperbaric chambers. They’re like, they’re like, first class airplane seats, you know?
Bill Gasiamis 39:42
I mean, it’s really cool, and it’s a room you walk into it, don’t you?
Bud Beucher 39:46
Yeah, you stand up and and there’s, I don’t know, clients, I guess is what they call them. So I was one of their clients, and my wife came with me because I knew. If she didn’t come with me, I would, I would tend to be less successful. We’ve been married for 43 years, and we met at the University of Arizona in the fall of 1976 so I’ve been with this lady. She’s been with this man since 1976 the fall.
Bill Gasiamis 40:20
Wow, let’s go back a little bit. We’ll talk about that in a minute as well. Okay, I found that comment interesting that if she wasn’t there, you would have tended to do have a less successful recovery. Let’s go back though before we talk about that. I’m very interested in that, because you told me at the beginning that your mindset, you alluded to your mindset being a completely different thing compared to what you just said now.
Bill Gasiamis 40:47
So I’m going to dig into that in a little bit. Tell me about the onboarding so you discover a VIV and then you say, I think I might want to access your services. Yes, and then what happens? What do they do?
Bud Beucher 41:04
Then they make arrangements for you to go right in the same building and get a series of tests through Lake imaging. So Lake imaging has a facility right there in that same complex, and so you do CT scans and MRIs, etc, etc, blood work and things like that. And then they give you this huge report. I happen to have it here. And they give you this huge report, and it’s got color imaging of my brain. I don’t know if you can see it.
Bill Gasiamis 41:38
I can.
Bud Beucher 41:40
And the black box are where the stroke was right down the middle of my head and on basically the, I guess the left side, because my right side is affected. And they were very honest that tissue is dead and will never come back, not in a million years. It doesn’t matter what I do. But the reason for the hyperbaric chamber is, the theory is that you go for two hour dive, 20 minutes on pure oxygen, and then I think it’s five or 10 minutes on just whatever the makeup of the air is in your in your body is kind of freaking out, and it’s saying we don’t have enough oxygen.
Bud Beucher 42:31
So your your body is growing, not just stem cells and but it’s regrowing vessels and so the theory is it’s like a nuclear bomb. You get closer to the epicenter and it’s dead. Never come back. But the further you go out, out of the epicenter, you’ve got hope. So in arrears, you know, we did we I had a comparative report, and it showed my brain activity colored, and it was much improved.
Bill Gasiamis 43:11
So, but the onboarding goes for how long? Two or three days. Okay, so they’re determining your your baseline, for example, there, yes, your deficits. They’re checking your brain activity. They’re checking to see what is recoverable, what isn’t recoverable. And then they determine the protocol and what you’re going to experience after that. In that in those early days.
Bud Beucher 43:42
They’re very honest with you. They’re very honest with you. They said it very clear expectation.
Bill Gasiamis 43:48
And what do they say? They say you might not get this back. This might happen. That might happen. How does that conversation go?
Bud Beucher 43:54
They never limit you. You limit yourself. Okay, so as we went through, I would say, about halfway through the 12 week program, both my wife and I realized I was coming out of my shell. So I’m typically a very gregarious person, and I think of myself as pretty funny, and I was pretty silent. I was, I was playing all of these conversations in my mind, but I wasn’t verbalizing. So if we were in a room and you were talking to my wife, I was playing my participation in my head. I just wasn’t verbalizing.
Bill Gasiamis 44:35
It okay? So when you’re in the hyperbaric chamber, you walk in one, is it one session a day? Is it multiple sessions?
Bud Beucher 44:45
One session of days, one session per day. And you, you, you’re supposed to pick a dive time that you’d like. So either seven in the morning as an example, and they have four chambers, all told. Seven, 911, one, I think maybe one is the last time. But it could change, since I was there in the fall of the spring weather of 22 – 23.
Bill Gasiamis 45:13
And you pick your time and you walk in, do you sit down?
Healing the Brain, One Breath at a Time with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Stroke Recovery
Bud Beucher 45:19
And there’s probably 14 client seats in that chamber. It’s the largest hyperbaric chamber outside the US Navy. Wow. In the world. They have these chambers built for them in Australia.
Bill Gasiamis 45:36
In Australia, and we don’t have that opportunity to access that type of care here at all. So you’re in Australia right now. Yeah, we’re in Australia. So we have access to hyperbaric chambers, but you have to go to like a health club or a some kind of other like organization that has facilities that you might access Yoga, you might access all those other things there, and then they may have a chamber.
Bill Gasiamis 46:08
But it is a individual based, yeah, and it’s not just one person chamber, yes, and it’s not and there’s no medical person on site. There’s no way to determine whether you’re a candidate, whether you should be in there, what the risks are. There’s nothing like that. So you’re kind of going in a little bit, I suppose, you’re going in for a like, a bit of a treatment that’s not medically based. It’s more of a idea that you go into the chamber and it’s benefiting from you, but there’s no protocol. There’s no understanding.
Bud Beucher 46:48
So when you sit in these chairs, and again, I use the term airplane seats, very first class, you have a arm that an iPad gets attached to, and you’re supposed to play games with them. Excuse me. And so it’s golly, I can’t even think of name it.
Bud Beucher 47:16
Anyway, they have all these games, and they get harder and harder, faster and faster as time goes on. HQ, brain, I think. Ah, brain. HQ, yeah, yes, that’s it. And and so they they decide what you’re going to play while you’re in the chamber based on your interactions with the staff. So whatever your deficits are, they’re going to play the games that deal with that deficit. Yeah, so, so if memory is your deficit, guess what? You’re going to play memory games.
Bill Gasiamis 47:59
So the memory games are designed by Brain HQ. Brain HQ was, I think, in part, developed or started by, or founded by a gentleman called Michael Mirza Nick, somebody who I’ve interviewed, who is considered the godfather of Neuroplasticity, because in the 90s, he was the one and and the teams that he worked in, the scientific teams that he worked in, that kind of break broke through and developed the first cochlear implant for people who had lost their Hearing and and brain. HQ is designed to encourage Neuroplasticity.
Bill Gasiamis 48:43
That’s the entire point of it, right? And from my understanding, when you’re in a hyperbaric chamber receiving the benefits of the hype of the oxygen therapy, as well as being in the dive that the brain is trying to support, itself by releasing the stem cells and doing all the lovely things that it does when it’s in those conditions, and at the same time.
Bill Gasiamis 49:11
If you’re firing off the particular tasks that you have deficits In that that is going to kind of pinpoint the area where right Neuroplasticity needs to happen, and it will support those, the growth of those new neurons right, more so than it would have if, if it was exercise that you were doing outside of a chamber.
Bud Beucher 49:39
Right, you got it.
Bill Gasiamis 49:42
You should work for Aviv well, they haven’t offered yet, and I’m far, far away, but it’s okay. Maybe you can open up a satellite office. Maybe, maybe I could be the guy. Yeah, yeah. But the. That idea I’m really fascinated by, and that’s kind of why I initially interviewed the guys, because I wanted to understand how it worked, and I wanted to understand how it was different than the therapy that I could quote, unquote, get at the Health Spa, which is not really that targeted. It may be beneficial, but it does also concern me.
Bill Gasiamis 50:25
And I have spoken to a few people that have been to a health spa type of scenario, walked into a chamber, it has concerned me a little bit that what happens if something goes wrong? What if you need to come out of the dive? What if you need to be treated medically, right? You have an inner ear problem, and the pressure causes challenges, like, there’s a whole bunch of things that concerns me about them.
Bill Gasiamis 50:49
And that’s kind of why, like, because I almost as somebody who can’t access hyperbaric medically through the Australian Medical System at all, which I’ve tried, by the way, I’ve asked my neurologist, my surgeons, I’ve asked the doctors like there is no way, unless you are experiencing the bends from diving in Australia, you cannot access a proper medically supervised hyperbaric chamber.
Bill Gasiamis 51:21
So that’s kind of why I know about it, because I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get that type of help myself. So you said it’s a full time job. Like, what does that mean? Are you staying at the facility, or because it’s close to home, you’re traveling backwards and forwards.
Bud Beucher 51:42
So we would get in the car. We had to be there 30 minutes before the dive time. So I’ll make this up up. Let’s say we were on the nine o’clock dive. So we leave our house at 730 we’d get to the parking lot anywhere from 10 after eight, eight o’clock, depending upon how fast I drove. And we’d walk in, we’d go in the back. They always had somebody there that takes our vitals and things like that.
Bud Beucher 52:18
Then we would sit in the waiting room, and we would wait, and then you had to change your clothes. You had to wear special shorts, special shirts, you know, booties, things like that, because you don’t want static electricity, because fires in hyper bear chambers don’t mix.
Bill Gasiamis 52:40
Wow, okay.
Bud Beucher 52:43
And there was always somebody from the Aviv staff inside the dive chambers. So it’s 12 weeks long, so that’s 60 sessions, and then they would and it was five days a week, and they didn’t want you ever, if at all possible, to miss a session. So it’s one after another after another for 12 straight weeks. So we would go, and then they would schedule things like PT, weight training, nutrition education, psychological, you know medical.
Bud Beucher 53:27
Before or after the session, and it’s got a big waiting room in it, and it’s very first class, and They’ve got tile floors. And so even still, today, I don’t walk backwards very well, and so I would walk backwards inside the lobby waiting for my next session to start, walk back and forth backwards, and I’d follow the joint lines, and I always have a sense of where I was, wow. So I’d stop before I ran into the wall.
Bill Gasiamis 54:07
So the so the dive is only one part of the treatment on the day.
Bud Beucher 54:16
It’s a significant part. But they treat you in a holistic way. So the brain HQ is part of it. That’s also in the diet, but that’s a separate part of it. And then when you’re done, they allow you to continue with that for one year and and meaning it’s included the one year is included in the subscription. And then the PT is as you can get in, and they put you on these wild treadmills. They’re really cool. You get a harness. So you can’t fall down. And then you have these games that you play. They’ve got, you know, reaction times and things like that.
Bud Beucher 55:10
And you got to look for the they flash. And then they’re, they’re like, five places wide, five places up, and they change colors and they have now, the faster you get, the subtler the differences are. So when you’re when you’re a rookie, all blue will show up, and there’ll be one that’ll be orange. You got to find the different bird as an example, and they judge you based on time and accuracy. So it’s very, very analytical. There’s, there’s very little subjective.
Bill Gasiamis 55:53
Understand, very thorough. Yeah, so the protocol 12 weeks, but you do you get assessed in between those 12 weeks? Is there any time frame where there’s an assessment? Or do you just go in for the full 12 weeks and then you get assessed again at the end?
Bud Beucher 56:12
You’re assessed all the way along. Now, you’re not necessarily assessed by the dive, but you’re assessed all along. So you on the brain, HQ, you know, you do it four days, and then on the fifth day, you kind of do a test, if you will. And then that test at the at the periodically, will accumulate. And then they tell you “Oh, you’re doing better here. You’re doing better there.”
Bill Gasiamis 56:45
So there’s feedback so that you can see your problem.
Bud Beucher 56:48
Yeah. And even in PT, there’s feedback, and in the weight room, where you do calisthenics and things like that.
Progress and Support During Recovery
Bill Gasiamis 57:00
Yeah, wow. I never knew about that part of it. I thought the protocol was literally only the hyperbaric stuff. That’s cool, knowing that all those other things happen.
Bud Beucher 57:11
Yeah, and then they have, they have a dietitian, and he talks to you about eating healthy and things like that. And
Bill Gasiamis 57:17
what was that like, learning about diet? Were you an unhealthy eater in comparison?
Bud Beucher 57:25
In retrospect, I probably was, you know, because I was 100 pounds overweight, yeah, so it’s hard to be healthy, eating healthy and being 100 pounds overweight.
Bill Gasiamis 57:38
And how did you find the adjustment? Did you stick to that diet, dietary change? Did you understand the benefit of it and why it was necessary?
Bud Beucher 57:48
Yes, I did, and I’ve stuck to it pretty well. Like today, I had granola with a protein drink, and then I put protein powder in my blender, and I put protein drink in that, and that was my breakfast. And for lunch, I had a bagel with jelly, not a good choice, but then I also had a granola with a protein drink mixed on top of it.
Bill Gasiamis 58:18
What would you eat for dinner?
Bud Beucher 58:20
I’m going to my brother Bob’s house so whatever Linda can serve.
Bill Gasiamis 58:27
Yeah, well, you know, I reckon there’s a bit of improvement there, even at granola and and bagel. I reckon even improvement that can be done. But I understand, like, the benefits of perhaps not drinking the amount of alcohol that you were drinking.
Bud Beucher 58:50
They tell you, when you’re in the hospital that you’re not supposed to drink period for the first two years post stroke. And I was pretty good with that. Maybe I had three or four drinks in total the first two years. And I’m not proud of it, but last night, I had three drinks. I mean, what the hell Life’s worth living, right?
Bill Gasiamis 59:18
Well, maybe let’s unpack that a little bit. There’s a couple of things I want to unpack and check up on you on. So drinking, the issue with drinking is that it damages the brain cells, right? Because it crosses the blood brain barrier. So any work that you’ve done, you’re potentially putting at risk and the damage in the area that already is dead, you might extend that. You might make it worse. So you’ve spent all this time, money, effort, in your recovery, and then, you know, you put alcohol in in your body and in your brain, and it’s, it’s like a proper poison.
Bud Beucher 59:54
Hold on, hey, Jane, yes, can you find a charging cord? For me, really, one please, for your phone. Yeah, my phone, yes. Thank you dear.
Bill Gasiamis 1:00:06
So that’s kind of the the thing, like I would, I would push back on that for that reason. Now, there is tons of studies that also say that there is no safe amount of alcohol for any human being, whether they’ve had a stroke or not, and I know that’s hard to say, because what we’ve had to deal with is we’ve had to deal with all of the advertising, all of the marketing.
Bill Gasiamis 1:00:30
All of the social side of why people should drink and why it’s okay to have one glass or two with dinner and all that type of thing. But the reality is, is that if you’ve had a stroke and you’ve done so much work and effort to be better, alcohol stops people from being better.
Bud Beucher 1:00:53
Well, you know, and I’m not defending myself, so please, no, I probably have a three or four drinks in a month? Yeah? Just last night I happened to have three.
Bill Gasiamis 1:01:12
Yeah, and again, I’m not saying that people should never have a drink. What I’m saying is that’s what that’s what the data says. So people who should be aware of it, and doctors in my mind, especially doctors treating people with neurological challenges, in my mind, would be best advising their patients the way that I advised you just then, making them understand like you’re putting all this effort into recovery.
Bill Gasiamis 1:01:42
And you know alcohol is is sort of one step back, just doing it to yourself. Now you also said that if you didn’t have your wife with you at those sessions, that you perhaps wouldn’t have recovered as much as you have. So why? Why is that? How did she support you in that part of your journey?
Bud Beucher 1:02:06
Well, you know, I knew I had to go. I wanted to go, and I knew I wouldn’t be as successful on my own as I would be with Jane. So what does that mean? That means I’d be driving up there by myself. I’d be going through the dive by myself. I’d be driving home by myself, and I’d be really tired at the end of the day. So it’s probably round trip, all included. It’s probably on a short day from Howie up to Vive, the dive back to Howie. If you have nothing going on other than just that, for that day, you got to figure it’s going to be four plus hours.
Bud Beucher 1:03:01
And if you have a session, it’s not like you get out of the dive and go immediately into PT, you might have to wait for an hour or two, and so it could be anywhere from five hours to as many as seven or eight hours. So that’s why I say it’s a full time job, yeah, and it’s in its I mean, it’s exhausting. And I slept a lot, and Jane did too, and yet she she wasn’t trying to recover from a stroke, but she went through the same tests, the onboarding tests that I did.
Bud Beucher 1:03:37
She went through the same protocols and and sessions that I did, and she she got the same measurements that I did, and it really upset me that she did better than I did.
Bill Gasiamis 1:03:59
Wow, so you guys went through it together, the entire 12 week treatment. I thought she was just there in body, but she actually attended all of the sessions at the same time.
Bud Beucher 1:04:15
She sat next to me inside that dive chamber for 12 weeks.
Bill Gasiamis 1:04:20
Okay, Well, I love that that happened, because there is nothing better than doing recovery with somebody that’s supportive with a community of people who are like minded. It just makes everything better. Going to the gym is boring, unless you know somebody at the gym, right. What am I going to do? Go to the gym and push weights? You know, there’s some kind of weird motivation.
Bud Beucher 1:04:49
We saw a lot of couples that would do this together, and they were married, and they were supportive of each other, sometimes the man. In my case, was there for a reason. Sometimes the wife was there for a reason, right? But you know what? She’s my life partner, yep. And in terms of expense, what? What is your health? Course, my goodness, I mean, you’d spend your last penny to get your health back?
Bill Gasiamis 1:05:23
Yeah, absolutely everybody would. I’ve met so many stroke survivors that don’t have access to endless amounts of resources. Finances are always an issue after stroke, especially if you haven’t if you happen to have a stroke and you haven’t established a good war chest, or, you know, it’s quite a challenge, and and they would spend every last and they do spend every last dollar to get their health back.
Bill Gasiamis 1:05:54
And there’s only sometimes so far that people can go, and the spectrum of stroke is so wide that I might not be the exact representation of what stroke looks like for somebody else and somebody’s in a wheelchair is not the exact representation of what stroke would look like for some third person. So it’s it’s lovely that you combine that with your partner. I think one of the luckiest things that I went through was a really supportive partner.
Bill Gasiamis 1:06:29
She was everywhere that I was when recovery was happening. We didn’t understand, we didn’t know about our hyperbaric back then. But again, we can’t access it, even if we do know about it, unless we come to the United States and go through the clinic.
Bud Beucher 1:06:44
Well, if you want, you stay with us, Bill, we’re only a half an hour south of the brown wood.
Bill Gasiamis 1:06:51
Well, I might take you up on that. You never know. Keep my number. Yeah. So it’s really cool. I want to speak about that, and I’ve spoken about that, that part of your journey with your wife, because it’s so important to have community, to have people who support you, to have people who have your back, whether you’re they’re your wife or just the neighbor, or an Awesome therapist or a doctor, somebody you have to reach out and ask people to support you if you haven’t got somebody directly, because it’s such an important part of recovery.
Bud Beucher 1:07:30
So you You are so right? And as as we went through the program, we ran into a lot of people from all over the world, and I don’t remember his name. There was this one particular young man. He probably was 30, and he’d taken a fall, and he was from South America, and he had traumatic brain injury, and his mom and dad tried to get a visa to bring him to the States for treatment, and I’ll make this shit up, for probably four years, and they finally got the visa. And when he first came in, we would see him, and he would be in a wheelchair.
Bud Beucher 1:08:21
And as he went through, he then was getting out of the wheelchair. And we’d say hello to him every day, and you know, how are you? How you doing? And toward the end, when we were graduating, he was looking us in the face and acknowledging us. So you know, he’s living proof that Aviv works.
Bill Gasiamis 1:08:46
So and you too, right? So what about your journey? So what was different from day one to the end of day 60?
Bud Beucher 1:08:59
My personality, my personality came back to life. It was dormant. Like I said, you know when, when, when I got out of the hospital, we Jane and I would have dinner together, and it would be an hour and a half of silence. Now I’d be, I’d be responding to her in my head, but I wasn’t verbalizing, and she was sad and lonely that I was not there. So Aviv not only gave me my life back, but Aviv gave her her husband back.
Bill Gasiamis 1:09:43
That’s pretty cool. What about your deficits? What about your physical injuries? How did they improve?
Bud Beucher 1:09:51
Well, like I said, I’m able to use my right hand real well, and you know, we’re. We just my trainer, and I just had his scale brought in from home, and it’s the Humi scale. And so on my phone, it shows me my composition of my my my body, right arm, left arm, torso, left leg, right leg, and you can see that the deficit is in my right leg. My right leg is four pounds of muscle lighter than my left leg. Wow. So you know, when I go to the gym, I try to only work my right leg.
Bud Beucher 1:10:37
So I’m trying, and I’m eating a ton of protein at the recommendation, suggestion of the VIV folks. And so that’s why I told you what my formula was in the morning. And I eat a lot of fish, and not so much red meat, but I eat red meat.
Bill Gasiamis 1:11:00
So the deficit in so you feel like the most results that you got from VIV was being able to develop your speech. Was it to bring you back online? Somehow that conversation that you were internalizing. How did it externalize? Like, why was it internalizing?
Bud Beucher 1:11:26
My personality just blossomed, and I don’t know why it did. Maybe it was Aviv, which I’d like to think it is. Maybe it’s guy, you know, I’m a church going Catholic, and we go every week, and you know, I’m so blessed. I’m so thankful to God. And, you know, I don’t know, yeah, maybe it’s, maybe it’s a combination of Aviv and God. Why not? Why not? Is right? What you know what? You can’t you can’t deny that my personality is much better. Now you didn’t know me before the stroke. Always thought I was pretty funny and, you know, gregarious, outgoing, never knew a stranger.
Post-Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Stroke Recovery Life and Travel
Bud Beucher 1:12:22
And you know, I went to the National Training Center, when I got out of the hospital for follow up work, and they were great people, too, but they didn’t have a hyper bear chamber. They had a gym, and they had physical therapists, they had speech therapists, they had occupational therapists, and I clept out immediately of occupational therapy, and, you know, about two weeks into it, I graduated out of speech therapy, so I was only left with P.
Bud Beucher 1:13:00
And it’s it was hard for me at the time to walk up and down the steps. Well, we took a 25 day cruise from Tampa to Alaska, and we virtually never used an elevator. We only walked up and down the stairs.
Bill Gasiamis 1:13:18
Yeah, that’s one of the things that I do. I have left side deficits, and my left side is probably weaker than my right side, and my left side, the muscle structure is probably smaller as well than it is on the right side. And when I go to a place that has sometimes you see stairs, and then you’ll see an escalator right next to it, just for people who can’t use the stairs. And even though it’s hard, I always use the stairs just so I can give my leg even more opportunity to remain remain capable of doing that function. How old are you? I am 51
Bud Beucher 1:14:02
You’re just a pop, yeah, I’m 68 and, you know, I’m really driven.
Bill Gasiamis 1:14:14
That helps. I know that being driven definitely helps. I wanted to also sort of ask you, I know that the deficit has left your muscle not as strong. So when I asked this question, I’m not necessarily talking about your guns or your or your legs or your muscles, do you feel stronger than before the stroke? Somehow? Do you feel kind of more.
Bud Beucher 1:14:41
No, I definitely not. You know, definitely not. But you know what? In comparison to when I was released from the hospital, I am so much stronger today. Yeah, I’m happy, but I’m not satisfied.
Bill Gasiamis 1:14:59
Yeah. It. So there’s more work to do.
Bud Beucher 1:15:02
Absolutely, you only have one of two choices, improvement or decline. There’s no such a thing as stabilizing, yeah, so it’s a conscious choice you make every day, when you go to bed, yeah, are you going to wake up tomorrow and decline? Are you going to wake up tomorrow and improve? Yeah, I choose to improve.
Bill Gasiamis 1:15:24
That’s a great choice. What does life look like now? What are your days look like now?
Bud Beucher 1:15:30
We’re traveling up a storm. You know, we’re absolutely enjoying our retirement. You know, I told you we went on a 25 day cruise back in April, and the day after we got back, I had hernia surgery. About eight or nine days later, we flew to Chicago, and then about two weeks after that, we went to Georgia for a week on a family reunion. And two weeks after that, we went back to Georgia, and we failed around with our my high school classmates, four of them and their spouses. And then about a month after that, we went to Colorado.
Bud Beucher 1:16:13
And we stayed with our we traveled with our daughter and the surgeon, her husband and their four kids and their nanny to Steamboat Springs, and then we came back from that, and we were back about five days. We went out to Seattle, and we went with on my fraternity reunion. We went Seattle, back to Seattle on a ship, but we went in four or five days early. We went to Vancouver, Victoria, and we flew on the seaplane. We just had a blast. And when we got back from that trip, let’s see.
Bud Beucher 1:16:56
We went down to Fort Lauderdale. Week before last, we went on the bright line train. We went to Pier 66 that’s the hotel that Nicholas is our oldest son’s company owns. And when I was a little boy growing up, we were snowbirds. So we spent six months in Illinois and six months in Fort Lauderdale, and we were on Isle of Bahia, and we literally watched the pier 66 be built. And so Nicholas’s company bought it. Maybe I’ll make this up six, eight years ago, and they’ve totally renovated it, they’ve changed it, they’ve put in condos. It’s just a fabulous hotel.
Bill Gasiamis 1:17:39
After listening to that story about your travel experience, so I feel like I need a vacation to get over everything I’ve just heard about.
Bud Beucher 1:17:50
Well, I’m not done yet, and I’m on a 23rd of October. We’re going for four nights after Chicago for my 50th high school reunion, and then we get back on the 26th or so of October, and then on the third of November, we’re going to fly out to Hawaii. Wow, we’re gonna take an intra Island cruise, and we’re gonna spend five nights on the front end of the cruise on wacky beach. And then we get back on the 16th, I think of November, and then, in theory, we’re done for that year.
Bud Beucher 1:18:27
But we’re going to watch our two grandchildren, our our youngest daughter and her husband are going out to Las Vegas, and then when they get back on Monday, then Monday night, we’re going to go down to our oldest son’s house, and we’re going to help their kids survive five nights without mom and dad. And mom and dad are going to England,
Bill Gasiamis 1:18:50
and you guys are going to be the full time carers of these children for five days.
Bud Beucher 1:18:55
Yeah. Grandkids are the best. If I knew grandkids were this good, I’d have skipped the child stage.
Bill Gasiamis 1:19:03
That’d be an interesting thing to see you do. That have been very interesting. Sounds like the mission has completely moved away from workaholic. Sounds like travel a Holic is the new addiction?
Bud Beucher 1:19:22
Yeah, well, I don’t know if it’s an addiction. My wife says I have a fear of missing out.
Bill Gasiamis 1:19:28
FOMO, yep.
Bud Beucher 1:19:29
Yeah. FOMO.
Bill Gasiamis 1:19:30
Yeah. Fair enough. That’s great, and especially, did that fear come about more so after the stroke, did you kind of get a bit of an understanding that perhaps we’re not here forever, and we need to squeeze some things in that we’ve been missing out on.
Bud Beucher 1:19:47
Yeah, we worked our fannies off, our whole lives, you know. And we sacrifice so much. Not just for our children, but the business. You know, for the first 10 or 15 years of our marriage, we only drove to Chicago and vacationed at my mom and dad’s house, or we drove to Texas and lived or went to Jane’s mom’s house, and we never had a vacation per se, if you will, outside of that two experiences, and the reason was financial and time.
Bill Gasiamis 1:20:31
Yeah, my gosh, I’ve just gone blank. Let me hang on a sec. I had the question.
Bud Beucher 1:20:43
Do you have brain drain image?
Bill Gasiamis 1:20:45
I don’t normally, I’m pretty good.
Bud Beucher 1:20:49
You’re having a senior moment. I am.
Bill Gasiamis 1:20:54
I was gosh, I was going to ask a question that was really relevant and I forgot. Doesn’t matter. Okay, so I Yes. Now I know what I was going to ask. I was going to ask about your overall general health and well being. How’s the blood pressure? Is that being managed? How is all the other little things that you took into stroke, into the days before stroke, with you? What is that like now?
Final Thoughts and Advice
Bud Beucher 1:21:18
So when they sent me out of the hospital. I’ll make this up. I was on 13 different medications, and I’m off of virtually all of them, but Eliquis, which is the blood thinner I’ll be on that the rest of my life. Even though I’ve had two ablations, and knock on wood, I am not in AFib anymore, and I have a loop recorder in my chest. I’m verifying that with my cardiologist on a monthly basis, but I’ve had an episode of transient global amnesia. It took place at the over just before the Fourth of July, and I was at the gym, and then my wife came to the gym.
Bud Beucher 1:22:11
I don’t remember, and so it was probably the episode probably lasted, an hour and a half or so, and that’s medical speech for we don’t know what’s wrong with you. And her brother had that in Texas for six hours, and you know, he just can’t get it back. So they ran a whole battery of tests on me, and I spent two nights in the hospital just this July. And so the protocol when they release you from the hospital with that is they put you on a statin. So I’ve got to this last prescription, and I’m going to get off the statin.
Bill Gasiamis 1:22:57
Fair enough. What’s the thinking behind the statin? If somebody experiences global, transient amnesia.
Bud Beucher 1:23:07
Got me, you have to ask the medical guys, yeah, just their protocol.
Bill Gasiamis 1:23:14
Right, and it’s temporary. They put you on it for a period of time, and then you get off it.
Bud Beucher 1:23:18
Well, I want off of all my medications as much as I can. I’m I push the envelope all the time.
Bill Gasiamis 1:23:29
And anyone listening who wants off of their medication should only do that in conjunction with their absolutely professional do not just get off any medications on their initial no.
Bud Beucher 1:23:40
You need to consult your doctor, absolutely, but you have to advocate challenge. Why am I on this? Do I need to be on it? I’d like to get off of it. And whether it’s your urologist, your heart guy, or whatever.
Bill Gasiamis 1:23:59
Yeah, if there’ll be people listening to this that have just recently experienced a stroke. What would you like to say to people like that who are hoping to gain from listening to people share their story about the journey that they’ve had with stroke?
Bud Beucher 1:24:21
You know, I tried to, I tried to be as uplifting as I can. And so one of the things I always used was ants don’t give up, and neither do I. So when your listeners want to give up. Just say that to yourself. And the other uplifting statement I think I say is, I know I say it, but I think it’s uplifting. Is no hill for a mountain climber, and so you have to have. Mantras you have to motivate yourself. Nobody’s going to motivate you but yourself.
Bill Gasiamis 1:25:07
What surprised you most about yourself after this journey or during this journey.
Bud Beucher 1:25:15
How far I’ve come, how effective and successful I’ve been, how far I’ve improved, how much I’ve regained. I am, I am, I’m in awe.
Bill Gasiamis 1:25:32
And on that note, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast and sharing your story, Bud.
Bud Beucher 1:25:39
Bill, thank you for allowing me this opportunity to share my journey, and the journey wouldn’t be nearly as good without Aviv. Aviv has helped me get my life back.
Bill Gasiamis 1:25:52
Yeah, and also, thank you to Aviv for sponsoring the episode, being supportive of the podcast, and returning what’s and creating that full circle where I found that their interviews that I’ve done in the past have been amazing and really important to share that story about hyperbaric, and now that we’re sharing the patient’s journey with hyperbaric, I think that’s really important, like it adds another layer of information to what people might experience if they go down the path of hyperbaric or if they’re considering it.
Bill Gasiamis 1:26:31
I love the opportunity to receive some support for them financially, because then that means that I can pay for my internet, I can pay for the editing, I can pay for hosting, I can pay for all those things. It’s just brilliant, and I’m grateful to them, and I am forever grateful that there is I do this all the time. Whenever I meet people who work in hospitals, who research, who create facilities or whatever I’m always like, ever, forever grateful to people who I’ve never met, who are doing so much work to help people that that they will never meet.
Bill Gasiamis 1:27:14
Do you know like it’s such an interesting concept to be supported by people who have done all this work before we got to become stroke survivors, so that we can have the benefit of recovery. So I’m grateful for that. I’m grateful for the opportunity to talk to you. Thanks, Bud. What a powerful conversation with Bud and his mantra, ants, don’t give up, and neither do I. It’s something I hope stays with you long after this episode ends. If Bud’s story resonated with you, I’d love to hear about it. Leave a comment on YouTube.
Bill Gasiamis 1:27:45
Send me a message or share this episode with someone who needs to hear it. Thank you again to Aviv clinics for sponsoring this episode and supporting the work we do here at Recovery After Stroke, their commitment to helping stroke survivors through hyperbaric oxygen therapy and comprehensive rehabilitation is making a real difference in people’s lives. If you want to dive deeper into stroke recovery, check out my book at recoveryafterstroke.com/book, and if you’d like to support this podcast, visit patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke.
Bill Gasiamis 1:28:15
Remember, you’re not alone in this recovery journey, whether you’re one week post stroke or 10 years out, there’s always hope, always progress to be made, and always a community here waiting to support you until next time, keep moving forward. I’m Bill Gasiamis, and this is the Recovery After Stroke Podcast.
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