Kevin R. Housman was undergoing brain surgery to rectify a hand tremor and experienced a Lower Basal Ganglia Stroke while the procedure was being performed.
01:11 Bill’s Book
03:30 What happened to Kevin R. Housman
08:39 Hand tremors and surgery options
14:19 After the procedure
21:50 Stroke recovery and treatment options
28:45 Bipolar disorder and stroke recovery
39:45 Depression and mental health
45:26 Managing depression and returning to work after a stroke
51:46 Prostate cancer diagnosis and recovery
58:32 The importance of diet and exercise in recovery
1:06:09 Alcohol and its effects on brain recovery after a stroke
1:14:12 Hope for the future
Transcript:
Kevin R. Housman 0:00
The other deficit was my speech, and it was slurred. But worse than it is now. And according to my therapist who knows the ins and outs, and two people who I just saw today say, oh, it’s gotten quite a bit better, Kevin. So I’m happy that I’m on the track.
Kevin R. Housman 0:27
But I don’t know how far I’ll come back. You know, it’s funny because I’m not getting it, I was looking towards retirement from my job. I had taken the first course in voice casting and broadcasting learning how to use your voice and make money.
Intro 0:58
This is the recovery after stroke podcast, with Bill Gasiamis, helping you navigate recovery after a stroke.
Bill’s Book
Bill Gasiamis 1:11
Hello, and welcome to the Recovery after Stroke podcast. Today’s a very cool day. Apart from the fact that I have another fantastic guest for you. I would like to let all my viewers and listeners know that my book, The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened is in the final stages before publication and almost ready to launch.
Bill Gasiamis 1:32
And to celebrate the completion of this four-year project, I will be giving away the first chapter free to grab your copy, all you have to do is go to recoveryafterstroke.com/book, have a look around, and discover what the book is all about.
Bill Gasiamis 1:50
And if your curiosity gets the better of you and you want a little sample of the book, then all you have to do is click the Download Free Chapter button. Very shortly after the free PDF of chapter one will be forwarded directly to your email inbox.
Bill Gasiamis 2:06
Once the book is published and available for purchase, you’ll be among the first to know and I hope you will decide to purchase a copy either for yourself or someone else that may be benefiting from reading the book. Just go to recoveryafterstroke.com/book and get your free chapter after this episode.
Bill Gasiamis 2:28
Now if you are a stroke survivor with a story to share about your stroke experience, come and join me on the show. The interviews are not scripted, you do not have to plan for them. All you need to do to qualify is be a stroke survivor who wants to share your story in the hope that it will help someone else who is going through something similar.
Bill Gasiamis 2:49
If you are a researcher who wants to share the findings of a recent study or you are looking to recruit people into your studies, you may also want to reach out and be a guest on my show. If you have a commercial product that you would like to promote that is related to supporting stroke survivors to recover.
Bill Gasiamis 3:08
There is also a path for you to join me on a sponsored episode of the show. Just go to recoveryafterstroke.com/contact, and fill out the form explaining briefly which category you belong to. And I will respond with more details on how you can connect with me via Zoom.
What happaned to Kevin R. Housman
Bill Gasiamis 3:30
This is episode 270. And my guest today is Kevin Housman who has had his fair share of health challenges, including stroke. Nonetheless, Kevin continues to find ways to move forward and joins me on the show in the hope of raising awareness and encouraging others to go after recovery. Kevin Housman, welcome to the podcast.
Kevin R. Housman 3:54
Thank you. It’s good to be here and nice to meet you, Bill.
Bill Gasiamis 3:58
My pleasure. Nice to have you here. Tell me a little bit about what happened to you, Kevin.
Kevin R. Housman 4:03
Well, I guess it all started about eight or 10 years ago really when I developed essential tremor. I went to the doctors and they checked me out it wasn’t Parkinson’s so relieved there but the tremor was just something that happens in the brain and makes your hands on ARM shake a little bit in my case, and it got progressively worse.
Kevin R. Housman 4:38
So about a year and a half ago, I decided to have an elective DBS surgery, deep brain stimulation to correct it. And that involves putting two electrodes in your head and then wiring it to a battery. A pack is implanted in my chest. It sends current into this portion of my brain and stops the tremors. And it works pretty well, not completely, but way, way better.
Kevin R. Housman 5:16
And I’d say that part of the surgery was a success. The problem was that during the first procedure on October 24 of last year, they said they put an electrode in the wrong spot on my right side. So it would be the left hemisphere. And they missed the target, apparently, and I had a stroke, not a real severe one, fortunately, but enough to make my right side droop.
Kevin R. Housman 6:03
And I couldn’t speak very well, my right hand and right leg were weak. And I had to take some PT right away to learn how to walk. That came back pretty fast. But the thing that hasn’t come back is my writing the fine motor skills. And I still have speech problems. But it’s gotten better in speech therapy.
Bill Gasiamis 6:32
Okay, so how, is your speech different? How is your speech different? So we wouldn’t know what it was like? Do you? Can you describe it to somebody who has never met you before? And then tell them how your speech is different. What do you notice about it?
Kevin R. Housman 6:51
Yes, what I notice about it, and when talking to my wife and other people close to me. To help it be more clear, I’ve slowed down the pace of my speech, demonstrably, and hopefully eat with the right setting on my electronics, so you don’t have too much trouble understanding me.
Kevin R. Housman 7:20
But I’m a salesman, I sell commercial office space. So I lease and talk to people all day long. And, you know, it kind of sounds like I’m about three martinis into a nice evening, when I talked to him, and some people have a broad but other beautiful, very active one of my you know, but that’s been a bit of a hassle.
Kevin R. Housman 7:51
And well, not only that, writing stuff is hard, it’s a little bit difficult to still move around. I don’t find walking easy as my right side has a weakness that needs some more work.
Kevin R. Housman 8:07
And you know, is also the current state of the office market isn’t helping anything with in terms of production, it’s the place not to be right now is in the office. But making a living, and I’m back at work now. Most recently, four days a week, and I’ll start full-time in two weeks.
Hand tremors and surgery options for Kevin R. Housman
Bill Gasiamis 8:39
Okay, so these tremors was it one day you didn’t have the tremors? And then one day you had them? Or was it a gradual increase of the tremor? Right. And then it got to the point where it was very difficult to deal with.
Kevin R. Housman 8:59
Yeah, good question. To me, it seems to remember back like it was very much a gradual thing. I can’t remember down which I didn’t or did have it and just remember, like having a slight tremor early on.
Kevin R. Housman 9:21
That would be like if you had a reaction to some medication for your asthma or something like that. It sometimes makes you tremble a little bit but it goes away. And I found that during stress, I try not to get stressed out but Sometimes life happens and during stress, the tremors get worse.
Bill Gasiamis 9:49
Yeah, if you can work out don’t get stressed. Jane, if you know what that is and how to do it, let me know and we’ll Sell it will sell it for a squid the knowledge to everybody.
Bill Gasiamis 10:05
Good, everybody gets stressed. So you notice that when you have, it would be a tough day at work or Yeah, lack of sleep or something that just interferes with your feeling of being rested or well or is stable, then you notice that the tremor gets worse. Is it as it is? Did it get to the point where it was impossible to hold a glass of water?
Kevin R. Housman 10:32
Well, no, but it got impossible to carry, well, it did get impossible to carry a full glass of water across the room without spilling it. And that’s when I kind of decided man, I gotta do something. It just progressed in my case.
Kevin R. Housman 10:55
And people notice that we’re at work and I know who who knows what they would attribute it to either I’ve been drinking and just stopped or I had some other ailment. And I some people I told, but a lot of folks I run into aren’t, I’m not real close to them, I deal with him for a while during a deal.
Kevin R. Housman 11:24
And then we don’t see each other. So I don’t feel like I have to explain it. But I was showing office space one day to this very nice lady who’s a broker and she represented a company that wanted space. So this is about two and a half years ago now.
Kevin R. Housman 11:50
After the tour, I called her was just my habit and said how are we doing if there’s an interest. How does your client feel about what they saw? And she said, you know, everything was fine. We’re interested, we’re gonna send you a proposal but I wanted to ask you a personal question.
Kevin R. Housman 12:13
And I said sure. And I didn’t expect this but she just came right out and said I noticed your tremor. And does it bother you? And I said yes, it bothers me. I have a central tremor. And you know, she said so does my sister and she’s having surgery to correct that.
Kevin R. Housman 12:40
And she said I know a doctor who is like the best in his field over at Cedars Sinai which is the famous place that treats all stars. And so she put me in touch with him I got right in we can no waiting and I guess she has some influence and turns out he’s a very nice man.
Kevin R. Housman 13:06
I saw him for a good year and a year and a half before deciding to pull the trigger on the surgery. Now he didn’t produce he doesn’t perform surgeries. He is certainly the electrical magnificent magnet, May. Magician, the ledger, the electrical magician, and so he works on electronics. But there’s a surgeon he works with who does perform the surgery regularly. And that’s why I had to do it.
Bill Gasiamis 13:40
Did you call him a magician?
Kevin R. Housman 13:42
I sorted. I meant this. Yeah, he is sir. Like an electrical magician. The guy is very accomplished.
Bill Gasiamis 13:55
Saying so he’s good at working out where electrical things happen in the head and he plays with it and I know I’m butchering it. I know I’m not talking about his skills properly. But he he plays with it. And then he resets things and he fixes things. A
yes, all right. Well, well.
Kevin R. Housman after the procedure
Bill Gasiamis 14:17
Okay. I understand. All right. So that seems like you’ve done all your due diligence, you’ve taken some time to consider the whole process. And you’ve spent quite a lot of time in the pre-procedure phase which is talking and understanding your condition etc. And then you decided to pull the trigger and get the procedure done. And then during the procedure, you experience the stroke now I’m going to ask a question, did the procedure resolve the tremor?
Kevin R. Housman 14:54
I would say 90% of it is resolved but I still have a little bit. So I can take one dose of a very small dose of medicines called propranolol, there’s a beta blocker that helps calm your tremor. And with that, I’m pretty good on the tremor. And I’m even better when you have the remote that I have that controls the device. It has two settings on it for me.
Kevin R. Housman 15:32
One is what I’ve got now that allows me to talk better. And the other one ramps it up a little bit, I guess zapped me a little more, but they help me have fewer tremors even than I do now. And it makes my speech a little bit more impacted.
Bill Gasiamis 16:00
Okay, so that thing is currently installed into your brain and you can adjust the settings and get a different kind of experience. Yeah, okay. Weird. That’s what’s magic stuff. That’s magician stuff for sure. Okay, so, so it was partly successful, but then you had this other complication? Yes, sir. All right. Now. I wonder if there’s a possibility.
Bill Gasiamis 16:32
And I don’t I don’t know. So I’m just I’m I’m a novice. I’m just asking because I’m curious. Right. I wonder if there’s a possibility that is it possible that these tremors are made worse by the person trying to overcorrect them.
Kevin R. Housman 16:51
I sue as you mean, I, I don’t know. That would be a question concerning how voluntary involuntary is yeah, that’s what I don’t know. I haven’t, like done any meditation or other type of therapy to help me stop tremors,
Bill Gasiamis 17:19
or calm or wonder if you’ve been listened to? Any of the recent podcast episodes specifically episode 263. With Yugi oka
Kevin R. Housman 17:30
263. Yeah. Okay,
Bill Gasiamis 17:33
have a listen to that episode because it’s about a gentleman who helps people connect their body to the brain again, the way that he describes it. While he doesn’t describe it like that? I do. He is. He describes it far more eloquently than that.
Bill Gasiamis 17:52
And in that interview, one of the specific subjects that we spoke about, and a video that he sent me, was about a young kid who got hit by a car. After the lengthy recovery process developed a tremor. Really, yeah. And they worked together so that they could decrease the tremor.
Bill Gasiamis 18:17
Wow. Yeah, it is. And there was no medical intervention, but there was a, a oh my gosh, I never know how to describe it. It was kind of like, an awareness intervention where UG supported this young child, this teenager to reconnect with his brain and to stop overcorrecting.
Bill Gasiamis 18:45
So what he was doing this kid was he was holding his hand to keep it still, but that holding it and keeping it still meant that he was somehow interfering in the process and making it worse. So the more he focused on it, the worse he made it. And then the worse he made it, the worse the loop got.
Bill Gasiamis 19:03
And it just got out of hand where it was unable to be. He was unable to hold a cup or a glass or anything. But then with time, they kind of reversed that process somehow. And they got him to have meaningful use of his arms so that he could hold a glass of water and drink it. spilling it. Yeah.
Bill Gasiamis 19:27
So that’s incredible. He’s an amazing guy, this YuGiOh guy. I mean, this guy is like, he’s like a Japanese magician. Like he, you know, he’s just got the army and he’s a cool dude. And he’s just so smart. And he talks about amazing things.
Bill Gasiamis 19:43
Now, I interviewed him a couple of weeks ago, and you might benefit from at least understanding the concept behind it. And okay, Yugi is also somebody who I recommend you could reach out to and he would be happy to have a chat with you.
Kevin R. Housman 20:00
Oh, thank you. He sounds like the kind of guy she was talking to before I had the surgery.
Bill Gasiamis 20:06
Look, that man. I don’t know how that would have come about, you know because if you didn’t have a stroke, you never would have met me. And I never would have suggested him. So I don’t know how it would have happened. I know, I had to have a stroke, too. I had to have moisture 10 years ago so that we could get to this stage.
Kevin R. Housman 20:24
Wow. Yeah. He had a stroke 10 years ago.
Bill Gasiamis 20:28
Yeah. So in February 2012, I had a brain hemorrhage. And then I had two more after that and brain surgery. And I had to learn how to use my left side again, and how to walk, learn how to walk again. And I still live with the deficits today, you can’t see them.
Bill Gasiamis 20:45
But my deficits are. Also, there’s a little bit of motor neuron motor. There, there’s a little bit of motor issues. So a little more hand, my left hand and my left leg kind of don’t know where they are in the world. It’s great proprioception issues.
Bill Gasiamis 21:06
And then, and then the skin burns hot. It’s called it it’s uncomfortable for people to touch it. My balance is a little bit out. So I have several different symptoms. I see. And that’s, that’s what motivated me to get into this space and start speaking to other people about fear stroke conditions.
Bill Gasiamis 21:33
And what’s interesting is, I’ve never spoken to somebody who has had a procedure like yours that caused the stroke, there’s 1000 ways to have a stroke, believe me, I mean, yeah. Stunning. How many ways there are two have a stroke? So I’m curious about that side.
Lower basal ganglia stroke recovery and treatment options
Bill Gasiamis 21:52
I know, there’s some stuff going on that we can’t talk about anything. So if I ask a question that you can’t answer right now, just let me know. But what was it like when you experienced the trimmer treatment? Are you awake for that? Yes.
Kevin R. Housman 22:11
For part of the procedure, I was awake. After they place the probes and I think it must have been, they will let me wake up in surgery. And it’s remarkable get they’ve had guys, you know, play the guitar and stuff like that. But they didn’t do that. But everyone listened to me. But
Bill Gasiamis 22:36
because you’re terrible at the guitar. Yeah.
Kevin R. Housman 22:41
But they, they, I remember them speaking to me, and they said, you know, can you talk Kevin, I talked about I guess it was coming out when he and my right side was drooping. And that and they probably know something was wrong then but you know, they put me back together. And then about five days, eight days later, they did a restorative surgery to redo the replacement. And it worked.
Bill Gasiamis 23:17
Okay, so you’re woken up from surgery. And you’ve noticed that the tremor is better. But now you’ve had a stroke. So what’s going on in your head?
Kevin R. Housman 23:29
What are you writing? Well, I didn’t know for about another month that I had had a stroke. I was unaware that the scan said that and they didn’t tell me that I had a stroke.
Kevin R. Housman 23:48
So I was just told, Look, we put the probe in the wrong place and it was somewhere that it affects your speech and it was like it got bruised in their vessel bruises should come back is what they told me. And so I started out thinking okay, this is an unfortunate deal, but I’m going to come back from it, and then excuse me Bill, the word stroke never got used with me until I was sitting in Dr. Tang Lyon.
Kevin R. Housman 24:34
His office sees the electrical magician. And he said, you know, by the way, your your MRI shows that you did have a stroke and I want you to know that. And I said okay, banks, I get that. And I was disappointed and proud.
Kevin R. Housman 24:59
Probably a little angry at first. But that’s all I remember a feeling, my wife and my brother are very close obviously, they both got mattered that I did and they were fidgeting around and I said, Look, I just got to feel better, you know. And I did get better. And I got to the hospital and three days or so.
Bill Gasiamis 25:34
Yeah. Okay. And then when you went home, what were the deficits that you had to the stroke-related deficits that you had to deal with?
Kevin R. Housman 25:45
My right side was so weak in the legs and the arms. But I was able to walk and negotiate stairs in my home, which I have bedrooms upstairs in living spaces downstairs. So with a little help from my wife, I was able to do all the getting around.
Kevin R. Housman 26:09
And I started, I guess I didn’t start right away in therapy because I just wanted to heal up. But the other deficit was, my speech. And it was slurred. But worse than it is now. And according to my, therapists, who know the ins and outs, and two people who I just talked to, they say, oh, it’s gotten quite a bit better, Kevin. So I’m happy that I’m on the track.
Kevin R. Housman 26:47
But I don’t know how far I’ll come back, you know, it’s funny because I’m not getting, I was looking towards retirement from my job. I took the first course, which was offered over Zoom in voice casting and broadcasting and learning how to use your voice and make money.
Kevin R. Housman 27:22
Because I thought that it’d be a fun way to spend some of my retirement, that is probably gonna be tough to do. And let’s say one guy, sounds like Foster Brooks and kind of kind of plays a drunk guy all the time. But, you know, you never know.
Intro 27:46
If you’ve had a stroke, and you’re in recovery, you’ll know what a scary and confusing time it can be, you’re likely to have a lot of questions going through your mind. Like, how long will it take to recover? Will I recover? What things should I avoid?
Intro 28:01
In case I make matters worse, and doctors will explain things that, you’ve never had a stroke before, you probably don’t know what questions to ask. If this is you, you may be missing out on doing things that could help speed up your recovery.
Intro 28:16
If you’re finding yourself in that situation, stop worrying, and head to recoveryafterstroke.com where you can download a guide that will help you it’s called Seven Questions to Ask Your Doctor about your Stroke.
Intro 28:30
These seven questions are the ones Bill wished he’d asked when he was recovering from a stroke, they’ll not only help you better understand your condition, they’ll help you take a more active role in your recovery. Head to the website. Now, recoverafterstroke.com and download the guide. It’s free.
Bipolar disorder and Lower basal ganglia stroke recovery
Bill Gasiamis 28:49
You save a little bit of work, you’re taking it well. And you said that your loved ones your brother in your wife took it a little worse than you are you taking a well or is just this your personality?
Bill Gasiamis 29:04
Is there some underlying you know, anger or frustration? I imagine there is some of it, but how would you describe how you’re taking this?
Kevin R. Housman 29:16
There’s a little bit of anger with the fact that a mistake I think was made of some guide that cause but you know, I still don’t feel bitter towards my doctors. I know that they’re good doctors and look, stuff just happens and I think I think it’s partly my personality and my faith because you know, I’m a believer in God and I believe that he’s got me and is he Enzi knows what’s gonna happen.
Kevin R. Housman 30:02
And somehow, he’s gotten us through the last nine months, you know, financially and everything has been okay. But I don’t have good disability insurance. Because there have been some other things going on in my life that made me expensive to insure like I’m bipolar.
Kevin R. Housman 30:31
And that for me, usually means I don’t get too manic I get, I do get hypo manic sometimes, but that’s rare. And the issue I have with that is depression. So like, if I had to stress out, I’d get depressed. And I’ve been on medication. For a long time, I have had two good doctors helping me.
Kevin R. Housman 31:01
And I’ve been, I have been a hospital for depression twice in my lifetime. The last time was over 13 years ago. But you know, I have that history. It’s in the record. And when insurance companies see that they don’t want to underwrite me, anything I can afford.
Bill Gasiamis 31:29
Understand, when the SU when you have a Bipolar episode, is the depression shortly after a real manic episode? Or does the depression come first and then the manic episode? Or is there no real pattern
Kevin R. Housman 31:49
usually happens with me, the way I recall them all is usually happens, the depressive episode occurs first. And then when I come out of it, I tend to get a little manic. Like, you know, it’s not severe, like, Hey, don’t run off to Vegas and put it all on one number and spin the wheel. But I do.
Kevin R. Housman 32:17
You know, I tend to be compulsive about buying things, and I have to watch it. Because, you know, it’s like, I have so much energy and it feels so good, not to hurt anymore. And not to be pressed, I just, you know, I want to live and I want to do things I wish I ended up, you know, buying this and that.
Kevin R. Housman 32:43
And sometimes we don’t need it, you know, and I bought my wife a new coffee maker for a house we recently purchased. You guys, it was from Japan. And she said you’re taking it back right now. And I had to go and I went to eBay. and by gosh, they were really good about it. And they gave me my money back. So you know, lesson learned.
Bill Gasiamis 33:21
Okay, so How long have you had the bipolar? Is it something that’s about
Kevin R. Housman 33:30
age 30? I was diagnosed first. And I’m 64. Now.
Bill Gasiamis 33:36
So you were diagnosed on the 30. But did you experience the symptoms before?
Kevin R. Housman 33:41
Yeah. A bit. Maybe a little bit in college, but not big time until my late 20s. And, you know,
Bill Gasiamis 33:56
you’ve dealt with some pretty serious, long-term medical conditions related to the brain, right? And,
Kevin R. Housman 34:07
yes,
Bill Gasiamis 34:08
does that somehow prepare you for this? possess, somehow make it like? Well, I got through that. I’m going to get through this. How do you deal with all of that?
Kevin R. Housman 34:19
I think it does. I’m, I’m remarkable. It’s remarkable to me. I have a friend who had a stroke about five years ago, it was because of AFib. And he got a blood clot there. And he’s a nice guy. I told him about what happened and he sent me some paperwork that he got when he was being educated about the stroke and talked to me a how plastic the brain is.
Kevin R. Housman 34:52
And I believe that because it’s happened to him. His recovery has been pretty remarkable. And he’s said, Kevin, don’t believe and when they, they tell you, after six months, your progress is about where it’s gonna be. And I’d be any better after that. That’s where I was held.
Kevin R. Housman 35:13
And I was depressed about it because when the six-month mark came, I still had these deficits. But there, they were better. I admit that, but they were still deficits. And, that hurt me in doing repression there. And it is unfortunate, but yeah, my doctors got me through it.
Kevin R. Housman 35:38
And I switched the medication a little bit that they gave me and it worked. So I made it through that. And that works. I think it does help me with the stroke. Bill. I think it’s a good observation.
Bill Gasiamis 35:56
Yeah. Do you know, if is there a connection between bipolar disorder and the medication that they give you and the tremors?
Kevin R. Housman 36:07
Well, there was a will there is, the mood stabilizer Amaan could cause tremors, and one of the drugs they use to kind of come alongside the antidepressants is an anti-psychotic, and they can make you that was called Abilify, it, it can make you tremor.
Kevin R. Housman 36:37
And we experimented by going off movement stuff. But I could only tolerate being down at a certain dose, I had to have some of it, or I was kind of slipped and gotten more depressed. And it’s been a long path through me on depression.
Kevin R. Housman 36:57
And accepting that because I didn’t want to at first I was a type A person. And this was thrown at me and I thought, hey, I’m not gonna let this happen. But I had to admit, and then I can accept the help. And the help is out there. So that was good news.
Kevin R. Housman 37:19
And I think the brain is remarkable how plastic it is. You said the story about that young man who helped himself by rethinking new pathways, you know, stuff I don’t understand going into the brain. And it’s pretty cool.
Bill Gasiamis 37:40
It’s very cool. So with the so it’s quite a long journey for you to get to stroke, you know, bipolar medication, that tremors led to the procedure led to the stroke. So you can kind of see the process that got there.
Bill Gasiamis 38:04
When you’re in a depressive state, as somebody who has bipolar, do you know that you’re there? And do you know that it’s going to pass? And that you can sit this through even though it’s uncomfortable? Or do you not have that awareness?
Bill Gasiamis 38:20
How would you describe that moment of depression, I think people feel feel like the depression after a stroke because about 30% of people after a stroke will experience depression. And it’s related to the stroke, it’s also related to their changing identity.
Bill Gasiamis 38:39
It’s also related to, you know, the deficits that they have to overcome and the disability they’re experiencing. So what’s it like when you’re in a depressive state? Do you have an awareness of the fact that you’re there? And soon you won’t be how do you how does it play out?
Kevin R. Housman 38:58
Well, I wish it was in fact. Like that, I have an awareness when I’m in it. I know. When I’m feeling down and it’s not just the blues for a day or two or three, I’m that I tend to find it hard to concentrate. It’s you know, I don’t like things I usually like, I tend to withdraw.
Depression and mental health of Kevin R. Housman
Kevin R. Housman 39:33
I don’t engage as much with people. And then I realize I’m in an episode and so I do know that part of the equation. The other part you said this so important, is will it go away? And you know that it always has, but I mean, it has every time it’s gone away, it’s sickle cool.
Kevin R. Housman 39:59
But when you’re in it, you feel like, this is a sickness, I’m not gonna get over, like, when you’re seasick, you know, you don’t feel like you’re gonna ever feel good again, you don’t want to just die are so sick. And that’s where we need help.
Kevin R. Housman 40:23
Because we need someone to come alongside to assure us that it is gonna get better are you right, depression doesn’t last all that long? But if you know if it lasts any time at all, it’s bad. I mean, yeah, I have a lot of respect for depression, because I hate it so much. And, you know, so and so easy press, their new press, you know, it doesn’t matter why or how, and add type of thing. They need hope.
Bill Gasiamis 41:07
Yeah, this thing, when, I don’t know, if I’ve been depressed, I don’t get it. But I have had a really difficult time through this last winter. I don’t feel like myself, feel disconnected from myself, etc. It’s just coming into spring now in Australia. And I recognize that I had been in this state beforehand.
Bill Gasiamis 41:35
In winter, last year, everything kind of seemed to drop off the mood, you know, the energy levels, the fatigue increases, the lack of clarity, the inability to focus and concentrate. But this time, I think it was a little more severe. And my wife noticed that more, and she made a point of it more. But when I was in that state, I couldn’t comprehend exactly the state that I was in and how I had to deal with it.
Bill Gasiamis 42:08
And it Yeah. And all I had, all I had to do was seek out help from other people because I couldn’t do it myself. I joined the gym because exercise is good for my mood, yes, I went to the car, I went to the chiropractor, I went and got massages, I watched what I ate, you know, I did as many things that I went out as often as I could into the sun, etc.
Bill Gasiamis 42:32
I did as much as I could. Yeah, to kind of do things that support the release of feel-good hormones, and, and dopamine and all that stuff. So it was like there was a disconnect from my ability to comprehend the state that I was in.
Bill Gasiamis 42:57
And it kind of reminded me of when I had a stroke, and people said to me, why did you go to the hospital? And why did you take seven days to get there? It was because I was having a stroke. And even though I appeared Okay, on the outside, I was quite capable of doing a lot of other things.
Bill Gasiamis 43:17
I wasn’t capable of connecting the dots with the deficits in my left side that I should have medical intervention. I just Yeah, I talked to down. And I just wasn’t capable of going this is seriously nuts. Nothing inside me said to do, you can’t feel your whole left side go to the hospital.
Bill Gasiamis 43:42
And yeah, it was all doing the opposite. So I’m trying to relate the story of the disconnect that you get when you’re in a situation, you don’t necessarily have the mental capacity to connect the dots in your condition and what you’re meant to do. That’s true.
Bill Gasiamis 44:05
Therefore, perhaps when people are in their bipolar, depressive state they don’t have the capacity cognitively because the brain function is altered to go. I am aware that even though this situation is happening to me it is temporary, even though you know that you’ve been through that for 30 years, you still lose that ability.
Bill Gasiamis 44:32
It’s kind of like part of the impact that it has is it takes away a certain function of cognitive connections between what you need to do and what you should. What your what you going through and what do you need to do to get it sorted?
Kevin R. Housman 44:48
Yes. Well, that’s very true. And I well I give you credit for when you were feeling this way, I at least did all the things right that you could think to do. That’s a positive. My father used to teach me because I was an athlete in school, but I wasn’t a great athlete, I had to work hard.
Managing depression and returning to work after a stroke
Kevin R. Housman 45:17
And because smallish and everything, and he always said, You’re gonna have to do all the little things, right? If you want to be good. And so I hear about someone taking the steps, you gotta feel good about it, but then there’s you still left with the feeling that it’s not going to go away, or you were having the feeling, I don’t need to go to the doctor.
Kevin R. Housman 45:45
It is a cognitive thing, that happens in depression, too, you can lose some ability to think clearly. And that’s why, for one reason, it’s, it’s another of many reasons why it’s so important to have some support around you.
Kevin R. Housman 46:10
Because, like you said, your wife mentioned to you, so she helps you be aware of something was kind of off. And I have two people in my life like that my wife and my kid, brother, we’re very close. And I call him and just tell him, I’m not, I’m not doing good.
Kevin R. Housman 46:33
I’m, I’m feeling down and then you know, I probably should call the doctor. And then he’d say, your, you need to call the doctor that’d be like, me says, something’s wrong with my left side, I gotta go to the doctor. And I least had a glimmer to know that that wouldn’t work me for.
Kevin R. Housman 47:01
And so I went to him and the encouragement of people and, you know, then he changed the medication. It was unfortunately with depression, even when you get the right medications, for example, it takes weeks sometimes for it to clear up.
Kevin R. Housman 47:28
But, you don’t know it’s trial and error. But it can help you get back on your feet. I don’t preach medication, but you know, works for some people, for others.
Bill Gasiamis 47:47
Do you go to work in those states when you have a manic episode or a depressive episode? Are you capable of being fully active and working correctly and well,
Kevin R. Housman 48:03
I have a history of episodes during the last three years where I did say at work, and I thought for a long time, that I must be the most sensitive real estate broker in California because I have a crying spell on the way into the office, have them pull over to an off-ramp, and just let it pass and then go to work and, and it was really hard and sometimes it was too much once like about 25 years ago.
Kevin R. Housman 48:47
I did go to the hospital because I wasn’t on the right medication didn’t have the right things going on and a doctor helped me then. And then again after I had surgery on my prostate or was removed, who has cancer I did get depressed after that.
Kevin R. Housman 49:15
And I don’t know if it was this, the surgery or my reaction to it or something else I had, you know, things are stressful or so there’s a big stress going on. And I got I had to take some time off and Mueller most recently. You know I went back to work in January after the stroke.
Kevin R. Housman 49:45
And that was probably a little too soon. And I I I did it. I made it. I worked till June. And then finally a call I have with me I was the I got the press and I said, Hey, I hear I gotta take some time off and the doctor cooperated and wrote me a note. I took off a month, you know, recently, because I needed the time off. Yeah. Okay.
Bill Gasiamis 50:20
Well, I liked that. She’s not the first person who said, I went back to work too early after the stroke, not most people. Most people want to get back because it helps to create an environment, okay, things are getting back to normal.
Bill Gasiamis 50:41
Yeah, they get to be themselves again, hanging out with people again, and it’s useful, there’s a benefit to going back to work. Not only financially but emotionally and mentally, etc. But many people go back to work and then regret it, and then realize how hard it is.
Bill Gasiamis 51:01
But I did the same thing. But the thing about it is it does. It’s kind of like a muscle going back to work, you have to push through the pain barrier to see where you’re really at. And then you can reassess. And then you can go, Okay, hang on a sec, no, I think we need to take a couple of steps back.
Bill Gasiamis 51:20
So it’s great that you did that. Because now you know what needs to happen so that you can ease back into that work environment and the pressure of it. And the emails and the phone calls and the driving and all the stuff that goes with it. So that’s a lot for a brain to handle that healing.
Prostate cancer diagnosis and recovery
Bill Gasiamis 51:42
After a stroke. Definitely. A lot. Now you also threw in there because I thought you were already amazing. You’ve already had bipolar and essential tremors and then stroke but you also threw the threw in there a prostate cancer just for a good measure.
Kevin R. Housman 52:01
Yeah, well, you know, as 50 years old, I went to the doctor and he he felt something in there when he was giving me the exam and I said to this guy, what is it in he said it see they’re going infection or is a tumor? And I go okay, give me some good news.
Kevin R. Housman 52:22
And I went and had a biopsy and it was cancer, in fact, and it had to be removed because it had grown to the point already, where it had broken the capsule of the prostate so they figured and I got a real good doctor, that when did the surgery robotically and took it out.
Kevin R. Housman 52:55
And because I was very young for a guy to have prostate cancer, they feared my survival would be best served by the removal. And so far, it’s been okay I am still being treated for it with hormone therapy. But you know, my PSA is down pretty low.
Kevin R. Housman 53:23
You know, you think with a prostate being taken out, you shouldn’t have a PSA count. That would be ideal. But I have some amount of cancer cells floating around in my body somewhere. Fortunately, there are no tumors yet, I guess scan and everything. So that’s a stressor too I suppose. But I’m, I’ve kind of rolled with that one.
Bill Gasiamis 53:54
The PSA stands for prostate-specific antigen, whatever the hell that means. But yeah, it’s the word that they throw around. So can we talk about a little bit what prompted you to go and have that examination?
Kevin R. Housman 54:11
Well, that was just a regular checkup. It was
Bill Gasiamis 54:16
attention men go and get regular checkups.
Kevin R. Housman 54:20
Yeah. And no, I think back to it. If it wasn’t a regular checkup, the reason I went in a week was because the flow of my urine was very reduced. And it was a slow stream and I thought I’m 50 years old, not 70 I should still be able to put out fires. So it wasn’t something was wrong.
Kevin R. Housman 54:52
And that’s what it was it was putting pressure on it and was restricting the flow That was something you have to listen to.
Bill Gasiamis 55:03
So what are you writing the book?
Kevin R. Housman 55:11
Yeah, I wish. As soon as I find out the happy ending, I guess I’ll write the book. It’s good to happen, though.
Bill Gasiamis 55:21
I think just write the book, write the book. And on the last page, do the da da da to know, so that you knew. Yeah, so that we can let it get to that stage? You know?
Kevin R. Housman 55:34
Yeah. Oh, thanks, Bill. Good idea.
Bill Gasiamis 55:39
Man. It’s extraordinary to hear your story. Because a lot of people go through life unscathed most of the time, and then they have a stroke. And then they don’t have what sounds like, like a real good toolbox of dealing with shit things that happen in life.
Bill Gasiamis 56:00
Yes. And then it’s overwhelming. It’s how do I deal with this stroke? Because it’s messed up everything? Yeah, I’ve never had the experience before. And I don’t know how to respond. And I felt a little bit like that after the third blade that I had in my head and the brain surgery, because it was like, Well, I’ve been through this twice already. None of it. None of it pleasant. It’s taken three years.
Bill Gasiamis 56:26
Yeah. But I’ve got some kind of it feels like it doesn’t feel unfamiliar. You know, all right. Yeah. Yeah, I opened my head. And, you know, feeling around in there and taking stuff out. That’s, that’s unfamiliar. But when I woke up, and I couldn’t walk, and I couldn’t use my left side, I just thought, Well, alright, I’ve got work to do, I’ve got to get stuff done.
Bill Gasiamis 56:54
And I never focused on anything other than what I needed to solve the problems that I needed to solve. Now, of course, I wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t the most amazing person recovering from a stroke ever had bad days, and I was down, and I was moody.
Bill Gasiamis 57:12
And I had all those issues, of course, but mostly the task on hand was, alright, let’s get on my feet, task one, task two, let’s get back home to task three, you know, let’s drive again. And then task four, let’s get to work, and so on. And it took quite a long time to get through all those steps.
Bill Gasiamis 57:38
And we never had a timeline on it. But I just got to work on solving problems. And it sounds like you’re, really, really good at that.
Kevin R. Housman 57:49
I’m involved in pretty heavy now. And I need to do some more. I mean, I’m also losing weight. And I’m finally able to do that, and I got a decent diet and healthy food. And I need to go back to working out, I stopped lifting weights, right before the surgery.
Kevin R. Housman 58:14
And I want to go back to the gym, at least I had a personal trainer twice a week. And it was really good for me. It helped my mobility, it made me feel good. So all those things are so important to you mentioned.
The importance of diet and exercise in recovery
Kevin R. Housman 58:35
And the key, the behind what you’re talking about is managing somehow not to react like a victim. And look at it as a problem to solve that’s healthy. But I mean, it’s hard to do sometimes. And we need forgiveness along the way, and people love us. But you know, that’s, that’s the most important thing.
Bill Gasiamis 59:11
I love the fact that you went back to the gym, so did I and it’s helped so, so much, and I avoided the gym because I’m afraid of lifting, for example, in a bench press with my head because my left-hand fatigues quicker than my right hand. It does. Yeah. And you get this imbalance.
Bill Gasiamis 59:29
And I’m always imagining the bar falling on my neck and choking. Something, you know, yeah. Now there are people around that that wouldn’t happen, but it risks injuries. So I just told my guys who developed my weight training program. All my exercises are going to be on machines that are supported.
Kevin R. Housman 59:49
And good. It’s good
Bill Gasiamis 59:52
and there are no free weights. I do free weights not Yeah, the only ones I do are for bicep curls, and all the rest To all our machines, even the tricep ones, absolutely everything is on a machine so that that I can get real good structure and resistance without being concerned that, for example, my left hand if I’m doing a tricep exercise above my head and back, yeah, they are above my head.
Bill Gasiamis 1:00:22
But I could lose grip on that. And it could fall off if it’s a very heavy weight. And sometimes my head just lets go and it doesn’t realize that it’s not holding tight enough. So it’s like, okay, I’ll get back, I’ll do that. And that’s helping.
Bill Gasiamis 1:00:42
What I also loved that you said is that you’re, you’re considering your diet. So there’s such a thing as a bipolar diet. And I’ve heard a lot of people get good results from doing diet interventions to sort of help smooth out, the range of the manic and the depressive episodes, and that they’ve noticed that some foods trigger the depressive episode much more, and some, the manic episode.
Bill Gasiamis 1:01:19
And I’ve been I’ve heard, I’ve read many years ago, that one of the things that depletes lithium in the body, for some people, is sugar, that for some people, sugar is kind of like something that they’re allergic to.
Bill Gasiamis 1:01:35
And one of the reactions it does is to suck out lithium stores from the body, or also to stop lithium from being absorbed.
Bill Gasiamis 1:01:45
And if you’re able to take out, you know, high fructose corn syrup out of those sodas, for example, and wherever else it’s added, which is in tons of places, and if you minimize your consumption of white sugar and brown sugar, and all that type of stuff, and you get your sugar only from say, a whole plant a whole food like a plant.
Bill Gasiamis 1:02:09
It helps to support the lithium stores in the body. That’s good. Yeah. So there’s a lot of hope. Important. Yeah, there’s a lot of hope in that space of specifically, working out whether your diet is sort of aligned with a diet like a bipolar diet, for example.
Kevin R. Housman 1:02:35
Yeah. I’ll look at it. I look into that because that sounds very positive.
Bill Gasiamis 1:02:42
There, there’s an Australian psychiatrist who wrote a book about it. And I’ve been trying to find her name. I have the book inside of the house. I’ve been trying to find her name. And I couldn’t find it. I’ll get it for you.
Bill Gasiamis 1:02:58
She wrote a book about a diet that supports evidence of a diet that supports bipolar disorder. And it wouldn’t be the only one. There are a lot of scientific studies that show people getting good results from changing their diet.
Kevin R. Housman 1:03:17
Yeah, that was great to hear. And you had the I think the thing about the bipolar thing, it is a lifetime deal. So I’m, I’ve accepted that I probably needed to take this cocktail of medications in some shape or form my whole life, but changing the way I eat can be very important and supportive, reducing the sugar might be really good.
Bill Gasiamis 1:03:56
Yeah, you’re gonna find a big benefit from reducing sugar just for the stroke recovery, because sugar is inflammatory. So when the brain has a stroke, it is inflamed in that spot. And what we want to do is decrease the inflammation. And sugar is one of those things which is highly inflammatory.
Bill Gasiamis 1:04:15
And it makes fatigue and deficits worse. I noticed that if I have sugar, my left side goes wobbly, and it doesn’t feel great. And I can feel the sugar coursing through, my body now because I didn’t have much of it at all. Really? Yeah.
Bill Gasiamis 1:04:34
And I noticed that the fatigue gets worse. So I get more fatigued after I have a cake, for example, at a birthday party. And that food coma is quicker onset and more dramatic.
Kevin R. Housman 1:04:51
Yeah. Wow. That’s great.
Bill Gasiamis 1:04:54
Yeah. So everything that you do with regards to dying is going to benefit not only A little bit of the bipolar, but it’s also going to benefit the stroke recovery. And, of course, you do the diet thing to support the other things that you’re doing.
Bill Gasiamis 1:05:14
So the diet is not in replacement of, yes, your medical treatment, it is in support of your medical treatment so that what you’re not doing is doing a good thing on one hand, and then making it worse, on the other hand, by drinking too much beer or, you know, smoking, or, you know, eating at fast food restaurant every day.
Bill Gasiamis 1:05:42
Yeah, so that’s kind of the role that I took, I decided that I wasn’t if I couldn’t get myself off the medication and all that stuff. Because the doctor suggested that I would have to stay on something for the rest of my life. I at least didn’t want to be contributing to making it worse.
Bill Gasiamis 1:05:59
I made that my responsibility and I started to learn about specific diets that are good for neurological wellness.
Alcohol and its effects on brain recovery after Lower Basal Ganglia Stroke
Kevin R. Housman 1:06:09
That’s great. , I can’t wait to read that book. By an Australian doctor, and I’m sure that’ll help I’m in. The other thing that’s going on with me is, most recently, I’ve decided to stop drinking all alcohol. Because I know that it’s bad for what’s happening to me neurologically and is bad for my mood.
Kevin R. Housman 1:06:46
And, you know, I was born and raised, playing football and then sewists rugby in folk in college, and Roidmude without drinking beer was unheard of, you know, except for the Tongan team, it was all Mormon ever the oh guys I’ve ever met, that didn’t drink beer at the reception.
Kevin R. Housman 1:07:16
So I have kind of made it a part of my life to celebrate things and do stuff. But it can it it’s borderline, and sometimes it can get out of hand. And I know it’s not good for I just the sugar alone is remarkably bad.
Bill Gasiamis 1:07:44
Yeah. Tell me about when you stopped drinking.
Kevin R. Housman 1:07:51
Well, I came about three days ago.
Bill Gasiamis 1:07:54
Congratulations. Okay. I’d love to hear about it when you’re 30 days. Because you’re going to notice a massive difference, it’s going to improve so many things. Great. Yeah.
Kevin R. Housman 1:08:08
Well, I just got to do it. And, you know, bite the bullet. And at first, I see it as a loss. And it’s only a loss. If you think you can’t celebrate and, and stuff like that with my buddies. They don’t care.
Kevin R. Housman 1:08:28
And they know our buddies getting older. And, and same with my family. They’ve already demonstrated they’re very supportive of me doing that. So
Bill Gasiamis 1:08:41
somebody should have told you that after a stroke, you’re not meant to drink for at least 12 months, at least. Really? Yeah. Well, absolutely.
Kevin R. Housman 1:08:51
Yeah, that would have been good advice. Because it can’t be helping me. And it’s, it’s not giving my body the chance.
Bill Gasiamis 1:09:05
It’s not helping your brain heal. It’s making your brain prolong its recovery. Yeah, you take that out, and everything starts to improve again because everyone who has been in your situation with drinking and after sport and all that kind of stuff.
Bill Gasiamis 1:09:25
And even when you just went out with your friends on the weekend or with family, whatever, if you over drank the next day, you could say yeah, I think I killed some brain cells. I mean, it used to say their tongue in cheek, but it’s legitimate.
Bill Gasiamis 1:09:41
It doesn’t. It does nothing positive, other than taste good. Quench your thirst perhaps, and make you feel a little disinhibited. Okay, but in the long term, especially as the brain ages The whole is making aging increase more rapidly, and alcohol is decreasing your rate of recovery.
Bill Gasiamis 1:10:05
And alcohol is making bipolar swings worse. Alcohol is making fatigue of the brain worse, and your speech worse. It’s making everything worse. It’s not doing anything to create a better environment. It’s always reducing the quality of the environment so you can avoid it.
Bill Gasiamis 1:10:28
And stay off it. I’d love to hear back in 30 days if you tell me what you’ve noticed. And okay, that’d be awesome. There’s your homework. Yeah,
Kevin R. Housman 1:10:37
I’ll take you up on that.
Bill Gasiamis 1:10:40
There’s your homework, you stop drinking for 30 days. Tell me how you feel. And I’ll brag about it with everybody.
Kevin R. Housman 1:10:47
All right, that’s fair enough.
Bill Gasiamis 1:10:50
What a journey. I mean, that’s a pretty stunning journey that you’ve been through, I appreciate your your attitude of kind of, regardless of what you’ve been through, just keep moving forward and never give up. Is that? Is it something that you had to practice?
Bill Gasiamis 1:11:08
Or is it something that you had to did you learn that? Is it your family? Where did you kind of learn to keep going? Because most people who have been through something like you been through would say, I don’t know how you do it. I don’t know how you manage that. Kevin, I wouldn’t be able to do it. If it was me. How do you do it? Yeah.
Kevin R. Housman 1:11:30
Well, I, I think that has a lot to do with my family, how was raised, and and then as an adult, it has a lot to do with just my faith, that I feel some level of protection there. That is real to me.
Kevin R. Housman 1:11:56
And, as I think about my family. You know, my mom is German, and but she, she’s American, but she’s of German descent. And she could be kind of standoffish at times. But she’s the strongest person I know. She’s still going strong.
Kevin R. Housman 1:12:20
She’s 87. And she’s like the Energizer Bunny, you know, and she just says, Be strong, keep going. And, and my dad was very similar, he passed away. But you know, he helped us in athletics. At school, they try to try and do their best. And it seems natural, that
Bill Gasiamis 1:12:53
says like, I set a good example. And that’s one of the things I love telling stroke survivors is, you know, it’s difficult, and it’s hard. I don’t even know the words to describe it for some people, then even begin to describe what stroke recovery is like.
Bill Gasiamis 1:13:09
Yeah, and I can appreciate that, right? But I would say that if you can be one thing, as a stroke survivor, you can be a good example to show others how you go about recovery. That’s a good point, you know, and I’ve got younger kids, who were in their teens when I first had my first stroke.
Bill Gasiamis 1:13:29
And it was like, Well, what am I going to do? I’m going to show them how when something goes wrong, how you curl up in a ball, and just go and sit in the corner and wait for death, or we’re going to show them a good example of how you tackle this and how you take Wi-Fi and how you fight for your recovery and the rest of it.
Bill Gasiamis 1:13:52
And I took that route. And that made me feel like the like the suffering? Well, I don’t know if it was worth it, but the suffering was okay to experience because I was going to transform it in some way and turn it into a lesson.
Kevin R. Housman 1:14:10
Yes, yes.
Hope for the future after Lower Basal Ganglia Stroke
Bill Gasiamis 1:14:15
I didn’t tell my kids that this is the lesson that you guys have to learn from this. I just Yeah. behaved in a way where they lived it. Yeah, I behaved in a way where they could later on in life when maybe in many, many years when I’m not around and they’re going through a tough time.
Bill Gasiamis 1:14:32
They might go I’ve seen I have an example of how to overcome. Yes, something serious. I remember that from back in the day.
Kevin R. Housman 1:14:45
Really? And maybe that’s a very good lesson to teach your children and it’s the most authentic way to teach them. So, you know, kudos, and I Your children are fortunate to have a father who looks at it that way.
Bill Gasiamis 1:15:07
And I think the people around you are also fortunate because you’re a good example of somebody who just takes life. Life’s what life throws at you, and then you just deal with it and move forward. And that’s awesome. I love it.
Bill Gasiamis 1:15:24
It’s the whole purpose of this episode of these episodes is to give people the sense that the struggle is well worth it, maybe I don’t know if it’s worth Yeah, I don’t know what the word is. But I’ll just say worth it.
Kevin R. Housman 1:15:40
I think that’s a good way to put it. Because there are days when you feel like I just, it’s isn’t going that well, and I should be here and not where I am. And you can do that yourself. It is, you just have to keep it positive. And you know, I have an I feel like he’s a mentor.
Kevin R. Housman 1:16:06
There’s an author named Henry now who writes he was a priest. And he writes little books about life and challenges. And he calls himself a wounded healer.
Kevin R. Housman 1:16:27
And he says, you know, we heal people, we can help heal them by revealing our wounded woundedness to them. And, you know, carrying on. And that’s so it’s a good example for me and everybody.
Bill Gasiamis 1:16:47
Yeah. Yeah, that’s awesome. So, what I’ve started doing at the end of the episode is asking this question, now, I could ask this about any of the conditions that you’ve experienced. But I’m going to ask it specifically about stroke. What was the hardest part about stroke for you so far?
Kevin R. Housman 1:17:09
I think the hardest part, for me, was the potential changes to my identity, you said that before. And I was very uncertain about how bad it was going to be, how long was it going to take, and just how many deficits I had deficits I had when I came out.
Kevin R. Housman 1:17:40
So that was probably the hardest thing was like, looking over a cliff in the great Corvettes there and going what, how am I gonna get to the other side of this, and it was scary.
Kevin R. Housman 1:17:57
But you know, it calmed down after a while. And the thing, it starts to, you see areas where you can make a little progress, like in speech therapy, you can make progress and in physical therapy and exercise, so there is hope. And that feels good.
Bill Gasiamis 1:18:26
Yeah, most of what was struck taught you if anything
Kevin R. Housman 1:18:38
I think having a stroke taught me one thing for sure. And that is I have a lot of empathy for other stroke victims. Because I, I went through it and I don’t know if it’s something that you can describe to somebody until you go through it.
Kevin R. Housman 1:19:06
It’s like you feel like a part of you got robbed, and you can get upset about it and everything but there are so many worse deficits than I have. I mean, I’ve you know, we’ve all seen people who are almost catatonic as a result of the stroke and everything from there to, you know, even better to the I Am and they’re just doing fine and it’s remarkable.
Bill Gasiamis 1:19:46
Yeah. What do you want to tell others who are listening who have had a stroke who are probably early on in their journey? What do you want to tell them?
Kevin R. Housman 1:19:57
I want to tell you Please don’t give up hope that will pass eventually. And I’m still on the journey. But I’ve seen progress. And I’ve now run into some very good people like, like Bill and for example that I never would have met before. And it’s taken me some places to see things that I wouldn’t have seen.
Kevin R. Housman 1:20:33
And it, for instance, made me a guy at work that has to take some time off. And there’s no shame in that. But I thought there was a first you know, and there is no shame. So carry on, do your best, and rely on those around you.
Bill Gasiamis 1:21:00
Awesome way to finish the podcast. Mate, thank you so much for reaching out and being on the show, Kevin, I appreciate it.
Kevin R. Housman 1:21:07
I loved it. Bill, thank you for your help.
Bill Gasiamis 1:21:11
Thanks for joining us on today’s Lower Basal Ganglia Stroke episode, Kevin is an amazing guy doing great things and paints the picture about how to keep going after recovery no matter what comes up. Now, remember, to grab a copy of chapter one of the book The unexpected way that stroke became the best thing that happened.
Bill Gasiamis 1:21:35
Just visit recoveryafterstroke.com/book Take a look around and discover what the book is all about. Click the Download Free Chapter button. As always, to learn more about my guests, including links to their social media and other pages, and to download a full transcript of the entire interview.
Bill Gasiamis 1:21:54
Please go to recoveryafterstroke.com/episodes to all those people who have already left a review it means the world to me thank you so much. You are helping others in need of this type of content to find it easier and that’s making the stroke recovery just that little bit better.
Bill Gasiamis 1:22:13
If you haven’t left a review yet and you would like to the best way to do it is to go to Spotify and iTunes and leave a five-star review there. And a few words about what the show means to you. If you’re watching on YouTube, comment below the video video.
Bill Gasiamis 1:22:30
I love seeing the comments and I respond to all the comments like this episode of course and to get notifications of future episodes subscribe to the show. Thanks again for being here and listening are appreciate you see you on the next episode.
Intro 1:22:48
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