Transcription:
Bill Gasiamis 0:00
Good day everybody Bill from recoveryafterstroke.com. So yesterday was a big day for me it was the 25th of November. And the 25th of November is the anniversary of my brain surgery in 2014. And I cannot believe that five years have passed is my brain surgery.
Bill Gasiamis 0:24
It seems like a blur. And it seems like yesterday and it seems that it went very slow. And it seems that it went very quick. Go figure. I don’t really know what happened. It’s just as I reflect on it, it’s just amazing that I’ve come so far.
Bill Gasiamis 0:42
And I’m still on my recovery journey. But as I get down the track five years and focus on the fundamentals of healing my brain, I’m noticing that day by day, I have some wins and those wins are not massive things.
Bill Gasiamis 1:00
But they are just wins that give me hope for continuous and never ending improvement. And that’s the one thing that’s really remained with me. Of course, I’ve had sick days during then bad days, bad moods. I’ve had challenges. I’ve had issues with feeling called on my left side and spasticity that really hurts my muscles and my leg, although you wouldn’t be able to tell that I experienced spasticity by looking at me.
Bill Gasiamis 1:33
Now I had some, close calls I suppose, or some scary instances where a headache for three days meant that I had to go to hospital and check and just make sure that something else wasn’t going on because of course, I’m paranoid. Every so often when a headache doesn’t go away for three days. So it’s been a really interesting experience and I’m better for it. And I’m physically different because of it.
Bill Gasiamis 2:07
And that’s okay, I suppose. And I’m just learning. In that time though, some of the things that I’ve done is managed to get back to work, obviously manage to get back to driving, becoming independent, getting my memory back, being able to write an email, focus for long periods of time in front of the computer, although I try and do that with a lot of breaks in between.
Bill Gasiamis 2:34
Been able to get involved in some really massive personal projects. I’ve been able to apologize a lot more to a lot more people and just tell them that I love them more. I’ve been able to heal some rifts in some relationships. I’ve been able to help my children overcome some massive teenage issues that we all go through that. It was their turn to go through.
Bill Gasiamis 3:03
And just being around for that I’m really grateful for managed to keep my wife nearby. She hasn’t decided to leave me when I’ve been difficult or challenging or grumpy or feeling sorry for myself. So she’s been amazing. So, there’s been so many things that I’ve done. And the one thing that I am actually extremely proud of, I’m not most proud of anything, I’m proud of everything the same but I’m really proud of the fact that I’ve sought out ongoing ways that I can continuously a never endingly continue to make a positive impact in human brain by changing mind nutrition by doing things like meditation, by quitting drinking alcohol by drinking less caffeine and trying to stay off the caffeine.
Bill Gasiamis 3:59
By really massively decreasing and almost cutting out all of my sugar intake. And I’m not talking about sugar that comes from fruit or veggies. I’m just talking about the bad processed packaged stuff. I’ve been able to continuously look up and read different books that are about healing the brain and discover and learn about the new research that’s going on, so that I can continue supporting my brain.
Bill Gasiamis 4:32
And I’ve really become obsessed for the first time about anything in my life. And what a great thing to be obsessed about. I’m really proud that I’m obsessed about how I can regain my brain health and continue to prosper in that space. Despite what I feel inside my body that people can’t see you know, the invisible stuff.
Bill Gasiamis 4:56
I’ve been listening to my body and when my body tells me it’s time to sleep, I sleep, when it’s time to do no more, I do no more. And I’m grateful that I have this massive feedback loop now that I actually am paying attention to. So things have come a long way. I am actually extremely happily, and massively proud of the fact that I put together a recovery after stroke podcast.
Bill Gasiamis 5:20
That podcast has over 76 episodes. It’s been downloaded in 50 countries around the world. I cannot believe the amount of people that are downloading it, it gets downloaded around 1500 times every single month. So it’s growing and you wouldn’t believe it. It started from 10 or 12 downloads a month. It’s growing on YouTube, my Instagram, IGTV and my Instagram page are growing massively.
Bill Gasiamis 5:52
And I’m just really pleased that I’ve been able to create this community and bring so much information to people and also help people overcome feeling isolated, and help people connect with other people that are similar to them, I get messages almost every single week, from people wanting to connect in some way, shape or form. And I’m just really proud that I’m able to do that. And I would never have guessed in a million years that is something that I would have done or have ever set up.
Bill Gasiamis 6:21
So it’s a lot to be grateful for absolutely so much to be grateful for. I haven’t forgotten the hard times because it was a lot of those the hard times lasted from February 2012, you know, through two and beyond my surgery in November 2014 with three brain bleeds, all sorts of drama, and fears and lack of work and all that kind of stuff.
Bill Gasiamis 6:46
So I haven’t forgotten how I’ve got to this point. I’m just really glad that I’m at this point, and I’ve been able to see a few more birthdays and a few more strokeaversaries and a few more surgeryversaries if that’s even a word. So I would just really like to thank you for being around and making my dream of helping other people come true by sharing my stuff by listening to my stuff by telling other people about it.
Bill Gasiamis 7:15
And by taking responsibility for your own recovery, and giving yourself every opportunity to heal your brain and become better. And last but not least, I’m very excited to announce and to let people know that I’ve recently just launched my online coaching service. So I am able to now fully support people in coaching for strike survivors and stroke recovery and healing the brain.
Bill Gasiamis 7:45
And that can be done at recoveryafterstroke.com/coaching. And when you when somebody signs up, they’re able to come in and connect with me on a private forum that is not visible to anyone else where they can for a very small fee per year, ask me any question and contact me as many times as I like to get some guidance on healing their brain.
Bill Gasiamis 8:10
And inside the forum, there’s a whole bunch of other information about topics that are all related to stroke recovery, and healing the brain after stroke. And inside the forum, hopefully, as it grows, there’ll be a whole bunch of people that are like minded that can support and help each other, share stories, and create hope and just give each other the support that we need to continue on recovering from this thing that’s happened to us that we didn’t plan for and that we’re still learning from.
Bill Gasiamis 8:45
If you’re interested in recovery after stroke coaching, you could just get in touch with me direct via direct message from here, or you can go to recoveryafterstroke.com/coaching and you can check out what it’s all about. You can sign up there. And once you sign up, you will have access to my staff and the community for $149 for that entire year, that’s $149 for the entire year.
Bill Gasiamis 9:13
And when it becomes available, you’ll get access to 10 steps to brain health for stroke survivors. It’s a 10 step course, about healing the brain designed specifically for stroke survivors. After I went through my own stroke recovery journey, and found that there was some things that make a massive difference, the things that are that are supported by the latest cutting edge research. So if that’s something that you’re interested in, go ahead and check out recoveryafterstroke.com/coaching and I’ll be there to support you and help you on your stroke recovery journey.
Bill Gasiamis 9:51
So that’s it from me for now. I really am pleased that I got to this five year anniversary and I’m looking forward to the next part. I’m really looking forward to making it to a 10 year beyond brain surgery. please do leave your comments below. Tell me about your stroke journey, your strokeaversary how long it is that you’ll be in post surgery or post stroke and just let me know how you’re going. And if there’s anything I can do to help, I’m looking forward to hearing from you. That’s it for now.
