Bill Hrncir is the 1 in 6 people that will have adverse reactions to TPA (Tissue Plasminogen Activator) which was used to bust a clot that caused an ischemic stroke but also caused a hemorrhagic stroke.
Highlights:
02:18 Introduction
06:56 A Traumatic Event
09:55 TPA Caused A Hemorrhagic Stroke
17:55 Aphasia And Brain Fog
26:59 Stroke Deficits
34:40 Bike Riding Difficulties
39:41 Think About The Caregivers
47:08 Building A Stroke Group
54:26 Finding Purpose After A Stroke
1:05:05 Monocular Vision
1:10:29 Life Happens
Transcription:
Bill Hrncir 0:00
My world is foggy, but it shows up there or foggy. But it shows up there.
Bill Gasiamis 0:13
Yeah, so you’re in and out of clarity?
Bill Hrncir 0:17
Yeah, yeah.
Bill Gasiamis 0:18
And then when you have clarity, are you concerned? Are you worried?
Deedee Hrncir 0:23
No, he was not and that’s what was kind of, I don’t know if it was scary or if it was sort of a relief it did I mean have its positive side because I mean if he would have looked in the mirror at the time, and seen what you know what all was going on with his body and his head and you know, everything at the time, I think it would have been a little scary for anyone.
Intro 0:58
This is the recovery after stroke podcast, with Bill Gasiamis, helping you navigate recovery after stroke.
Bill Gasiamis 1:10
Hello and welcome to recovery after stroke, a podcast full of answers, advice and practical tools for stroke survivors to help you take back your life after a stroke and build a stronger future.
Bill Gasiamis 1:21
I’m your host three times stroke survivor Bill Gasiamis. After my own life was turned upside down and I went from being an active father to being stuck in hospital. I knew if I wanted to get back to the life I love before, my recovery was up to me.
Bill Gasiamis 1:35
After years of researching and discovering I’ll learned how to heal my brain and rebuild a healthier and happier life than I ever dreamed possible. And now, I’ve made it my mission to empower other stroke survivors like you to recover faster, achieve your goals and take back the freedom you deserve.
Bill Gasiamis 1:52
If you enjoy this episode and want more resources, accessible training and hands-on support, check out my recovery after stroke membership community created especially for stroke survivors and caregivers.
Bill Gasiamis 2:04
This is your clear pathway to transform your symptoms reduce your anxiety and navigate your journey to recovery with confidence. Head to recoveryafterstroke.com to find out more after today’s show.
Introduction
Bill Gasiamis 2:18
But for now let’s dive right into today’s episode. This is episode 174. And my guest today is Bill and Deedee Hrncir, Bill experienced an ischemic stroke. And when the doctors treated the clot with TPA Bill also experienced a hemorrhagic stroke.
Bill Gasiamis 2:37
These days Bill is recovering and is dealing with aphasia, which is worse when he’s tired. Bill is the author of the book, I just can’t read my own mind, which tells his story and gives tips for stroke recovery.
Bill Gasiamis 2:51
Now, just before we get started, there was a little bit of background feedback and background noise from time to time during this episode, I’ve done my best to remove it for you.
Bill Gasiamis 3:01
And hopefully, it’s still a pleasant listen, and you get a lot out of this episode. Thanks so much for listening, Bill and Deedee Hrncir. Welcome to the podcast.
Bill Hrncir 3:12
Hi, how are you?
Deedee Hrncir 3:13
Hi.
Bill Gasiamis 3:14
I’m well thank you guys for being here. Thank you for organizing this. And thank you for sending me a copy of the book. IJust Can’t Read My Own Mind. It’s really interesting when I made stroke survivors, because until I had a stroke, I’ve never met anyone who was a stroke survivor.
Bill Gasiamis 3:35
All stroke survivors have a story to tell they seem to need to tell their story. It’s really important. And then they also seem to want to help other stroke survivors, which is what I want to do.
Bill Gasiamis 3:47
But I didn’t realize that it was something within me. And it seemed bizarre every time I met another stroke survivor, they wanted to help somebody else. Not that stroke survivors aren’t lovely people that they don’t like to help.
Bill Gasiamis 4:03
It’s just interesting that they are going through their own turmoil, and they want to help other people. And this is the feeling I get from you, Bill. I get the feeling that it’s really important to include other people in your recovery.
Bill Gasiamis 4:19
But before we talk about that, tell us a little bit about what happened to you. And then we’ll go into the rest of the conversation.
Bill Hrncir 4:32
In my book I wrote I was a super dad, a loving husband, a businessman and an athlete.
Bill Gasiamis 4:45
Pause, pause let me check with Deedee, Deedee is that all accurate?
Deedee Hrncir 4:53
Well, it depends on the day you’re asking.
Bill Gasiamis 4:57
Okay, sounds like today’s a good day, so Bill, we’re gonna go with that mate. I think you did a good job in describing yourself Deedee agrees today. Go ahead, man.
Bill Hrncir 5:11
Oh, then out of the blue. I had severe knock me down. Take away my voice. Throw me into a wheelchair stroke. Wow.
Deedee Hrncir 5:32
Yeah, yeah, he described it as the perfect storm. He was on the wrong end of genetics.
Bill Hrncir 5:40
My brother and my parents had a stroke.
Deedee Hrncir 5:46
And he would overtrain.
Bill Hrncir 5:53
I guess the bottom line is you hit 40. You have to be more of a moderate by exercises, you know, moderate like any drug, potent drug. Exercise too little? It does nothing. Exercise too much. And it will cause injury.
Deedee Hrncir 6:30
And your work, stress overload.
Bill Hrncir 6:35
I have to work on that.
Bill Gasiamis 6:41
Still? You have to work on that still?
Deedee Hrncir 6:43
Oh, yes, for sure. And he also survived a trauma, which, you know, they thought also might be the cause.
A Traumatic Event
Bill Hrncir 6:56
Experience a traumatic event or cause physical, emotional and psychological harm. The accident that I saw, may have been the straw that broke the camel’s back.
Bill Gasiamis 7:24
Yeah. I read that part in the book. And it was pretty dramatic. It was a collision between two cars, one car lost control ended up on top of another car. There was a little child and granddad in the car.
Bill Gasiamis 7:41
And as a result of that collision, the child is out of the car. But the other person driving the car, imagine the granddad stuck in the car. And then you’re dealing with the whole situation.
Bill Gasiamis 7:54
And I imagine as a dad. And as a person who has a father, you’re putting yourself in the shoes of their child and you’re going wow, what what’s going on? These people have been impacted by this.
Bill Gasiamis 8:11
And then you have to deal with that emotionally. And if you’re going through a difficult financial time or difficult life experiences because your mid 40 all the stresses of the world are coming together to attack you at the same time because that’s just what I did.
Bill Gasiamis 8:27
That’s what normally happens in that part of life that midlife then a traumatic injury like that could be the icing on the cake for this terrible experience to happen around the corner.
Bill Gasiamis 8:41
I completely understand that. So it was about two weeks after the collision that you witnessed that you had the stroke. That was a normal day. You woke up, you went to work?
Bill Hrncir 8:57
Well, no. I took my daughter to this dance class, out of town, I think Deedee will tell it.
Deedee Hrncir 9:22
The night before he had a headache. And that wasn’t normal for him. But we had no idea that a severe headache is one of the signs.
Bill Hrncir 9:36
She had headaches all the time. I didn’t.
Deedee Hrncir 9:39
We still didn’t see that as something that you know we should be oh, you know, why is this going on? So he was out of town.
TPA Caused A Hemorrhagic Stroke
Bill Hrncir 9:55
In Austin, for instance once I hit the hospital, I was given a dose of tissue plasminogen activator TPA, to bust my clot. One in three patients have major improvements. However, six out of 100 patientsm, bleeding can occur, and long term disability or even death. I was one of the one out of six, of course.
Bill Gasiamis 11:02
You went into hospital because of a stroke, they gave you TPA to remove the clot, and then the TPA caused a hemorrhage.
Deedee Hrncir 11:15
Yes, and, little did we know, you know, now that we have the stroke group, a lot of stroke survivors were given TPA. And so now that’s kind of had to become part of our vocabulary, you know, and they, they say it was something with three letters that they gave my mom, and we go, oh, that’s tissue plasminogen activator.
Deedee Hrncir 11:35
But then, you know, even to know what that is, of course, we knew nothing of that before stroke, like you were saying, I didn’t know anybody with a stroke. We didn’t know what a stroke was we and you go day by day learning more.
Bill Hrncir 11:56
One year and three months. My brother had a stroke. I didn’t know what it was.
Bill Gasiamis 12:08
So even though your mum and dad had a stroke, and your brother had a stroke, they still didn’t understand it, because you hadn’t got one that makes sense. And now you understand it in a way you never wanted to understand it.
Deedee Hrncir 12:24
Yeah. That’s right on.
Bill Gasiamis 12:30
And what about the TPA? Did you guys know the risks of the TPA? Or was that just administered before anyone?
Deedee Hrncir 12:39
He didn’t really get to decide about that. But really, I was in Laredo, and they called me and, you know, they’re telling me, you know, we’re going to give him something to try to dissolve the clot.
Deedee Hrncir 12:51
And, you know, luckily, we had just updated our will at that time, and I could speak for him on his behalf. And, you know, we got in the car, but it’s a four hour drive away. And so, you know, the whole time, I’m really not knowing what I’m saying yes to, but I said, you know, if it’s going to help, if it’s something you normally do you do, please do?
Deedee Hrncir 13:19
Well, they told me it was the right thing to do at the time. And I mean, apparently, it was it was whether it caused the bleed, afterwards, it still was really the only choice at the time.
Bill Gasiamis 13:32
You’ve got a stroke and, you got a blood clot in your blood vessel causing you brain damage. And if they don’t get it out, it’s gonna continue to cause brain damage. If they, get it out, and you’re not one in the one in six, then you’re going to have a good outcome because I’ve never heard of anybody who’s had a bad outcome.
Bill Gasiamis 13:54
I’ve heard about the bad outcome. I’ve heard that it does cause this problem for people. But I’ve never met anybody. And I’ve done 170 episodes, and I know a heap of stroke survivors.
Bill Gasiamis 14:07
And Bill’s the first person that I’ve heard, who said that he had an adverse effect from TPA. So did you Where were you when you got the call? That Bill’s not well.
Deedee Hrncir 14:23
I was at home because I was sick, actually. And so we were debating the night before he had a headache and I was sick with a cough. And, we were saying, okay, who’s going to take Ally our daughter to who’s going to take her to her dance performance?
Deedee Hrncir 14:40
And he said, Well, you know what, I’ll go and I’ll go for a run and it’ll be you know, kind of a little release for me from the stress and whatever. And so, you know, I was home and then of course, I had to hurry up and get over there and, you know, mine was minimal thing compared to what he was going through.
Deedee Hrncir 15:00
And you know, you just do what you got to do. But yeah, it was just a weird thing. I’m usually the one who goes to the dance stuff, he would go to the sport stuff with my son. And so yeah, that’s where I was things.
Bill Gasiamis 15:16
Things were a bit different that day. And, you’re a regular wife, you know, he’s a regular husband. You guys have kids, you do the normal stuff, you know, it sounds like a pretty typical relationship situation then you know, a lot of people experience right. And then you get the phone call that he’s unwell, but also, that he’s had a stroke, and they’re gonna do those things.
Deedee Hrncir 15:47
Well actually when they called, What was weird is he runs and bikes competitively at the time, that’s what he did. So he took his bike with him. And all they told me is he’s had an accident.
Deedee Hrncir 16:05
And I in my head envisioned a car, getting his bike, he flying off, you know, no clue what it was. And they told me until you get here, we can’t tell you anything else. So that’s what made it harder, because then we had this four hour drive, where we’re just, you know, things are going through our mind of what it might be.
Bill Hrncir 16:29
And another Bill, my.
Deedee Hrncir 16:32
Brother in law, drove me to the hospital. Yes. I mean, drove me to Austin and to the hospital. So yeah. And on the way, we got the call that, you know, they wanted to use the TPA, and all that.
Deedee Hrncir 16:51
And so they’re giving us a little bit more information. But like you say, and like we mentioned earlier, is that still them telling me a stroke, and telling me TPA, and they could have been talking Chinese, I mean, any language, and I’m, you know, other than my own, because I understood none of it, but I just had to go with what they were telling me was the best situation at the time, you know? So yeah, that was what happened that day.
Bill Gasiamis 17:23
Must have been tough. I get it, I was out of my mind. You know, I had three bleeds. But the second one, particularly, I was completely gone. I don’t recall it. And I just remember my wife coming to the hospital that I recognized her, but later on, I don’t know how many days later, but much later are recognized her. But at the beginning, I couldn’t recognize her . So I was in my own world. Bill, do you relate to that? Being kind of out of it?
Aphasia And Brain Fog
Bill Hrncir 17:55
My world is foggy, but it comes and shows up there foggy, But it shows up there.
Bill Gasiamis 18:08
Yeah. So you’re in and out of clarity? And then when you have clarity. Are you concerned? Are you worried?
Bill Gasiamis 18:19
No.
Deedee Hrncir 18:21
No, he was not. And that’s what was kind of, I don’t know if it was scary, or if it was sort of a relief that he didn’t know how bad it was.
Bill Hrncir 18:34
The doctors drugged me up.
Deedee Hrncir 18:36
Well, yeah, I mean, they did the self induced coma so that they can really know the brain swelling. But, it did. I mean, have it’s positive side. Because I mean, if he would have looked in the mirror at the time, and seen what, you know, what else was going on with his body and his head and you know, everything at the time? I think it would have been a little scary for anyone.
Bill Gasiamis 19:06
Yeah. How long did you spend in hospital Bill?
Bill Hrncir 19:10
I think well, two weeks, but I was shipped over to like to rehab to Texas neurorehab center.
Deedee Hrncir 19:29
For three months.
Deedee Hrncir 19:40
You wanna talk a little bit about your craniotomy?
Bill Gasiamis 19:45
Let me ask you this question. So you’re in hospital for a couple of weeks. You get to rehab and in rehab, it must hit you that all these things that you used to be able to do before, you can’t do now?
Intro 19:59
If you’ve had us 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 now long will it take to recover? Will I actually recover? What things should I avoid? In case I make matters worse, doctors will explain things that obviously, you’ve never had a stroke before, you probably don’t know what questions to ask.
Intro 20:23
If this is you, you may be missing out on doing things that could help speed up your recovery. 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 a seven questions to ask your doctor about your stroke.
Intro 20:43
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, recoveryafterstroke.com and download the guide. It’s free.
Deedee Hrncir 21:02
Yeah, well, I thought it’ll be two or three months now. And I’ll be okay. But it didn’t.
Deedee Hrncir 21:19
Yeah, I think that was based on what he thought, his brother stroke was on the other side of the brain. And so physically, he wasn’t affected in the same way, he lost a little bit of his strength in his hand, but he could walk, he could talk, it was a completely different thing.
Deedee Hrncir 21:38
So, you know, like Bill says, I thought, oh, you know, I’m going to be like Eddie, and, you know, a couple of weeks will pass by, and I’ll be able to go to the gym again. And I’ll be back on my bike.
Deedee Hrncir 21:49
And, you know, it’s all good. And a couple of times, we’ve been trying to just pull everything out that the hospital had attached to him and just hop out of the bed and realize right away that he couldn’t, and, you know, then they actually just strapped him in, like an animal. What it was necessary at the time, he really did try to get out several times.
Bill Gasiamis 22:12
Right, right. So when his brother had the stroke, how quickly did he get back to being himself? Was it a minor incident as far as the recovery?
Bill Gasiamis 22:27
Six or eight months?
Deedee Hrncir 22:30
Yeah, like, it was like six months maybe? Or, you know, eight months? He had a couple of memory issues sometimes and, you know, smaller things that, I guess at that time, you know, when I think back we really didn’t realize how severe a stroke was.
Deedee Hrncir 22:56
He had several, he had another one. And then he had a couple of heart attacks since then.
Bill Hrncir 23:02
But he’s all good.
Deedee Hrncir 23:04
He can still, you know, thank goodness, he can still, do for himself and drive. And you know, all of that, but he was lucky.
Bill Gasiamis 23:15
Did he write a book as well? Does he feel the need to talk about it all the time?
Deedee Hrncir 23:21
No, no, he always jokes about you know, the difference in the two strokes and you now, jokes about how Bill has the lot of friends come visit and whatever. And he says, you know, yeah, he’s the one that wrote the book not me.
Deedee Hrncir 23:40
Yeah, because one time. He said he was somewhere somebody said, Oh, are you the one that wrote the book? And he said, No, I’m not the one that wrote the book. Yeah, sometimes it’s hard.
Bill Gasiamis 23:55
Competing against each other.
Deedee Hrncir 23:58
Oh, yeah. Cuz they’ve always been competitive their whole lives in athleticism, and even in they used to fly ultralight airplanes, both of them and, you know, they would say, Oh, I flew, you know, so many yards or whatever.
Deedee Hrncir 24:15
Well, I landed on water and well, I you know, whatever. So, they were always trying to one up each other. Yeah. So Bill did one up him in the stroke, though, because his was pretty bad compared to his brother.
Bill Gasiamis 24:29
Congratulations Bill. In rehabilitation, what are some of the things that you had to learn to get back? I know you have aphasia, and that was a very big part of your recovery. But physically, what else did you have to recover from?
Deedee Hrncir 24:48
Five days a week, I would go down to the gym and I would work out for about one hour. And…
Bill Gasiamis 25:17
Just keep trying if you like. I’m just gonna wait. This is really important part of the interview, right? Because we want to make people understand what it’s like to have aphasia and to try and get through a sentence. So like, it’s really okay. If it takes a while I don’t really mind at all.
Bill Hrncir 25:49
I can’t think, you know, say, hop on, and we would go to the gym on a wheelchair. And he would let me stay, and the therapist would work me over.
Bill Gasiamis 26:29
Which side was affected left or right side?
Bill Hrncir 26:32
The left.
Bill Gasiamis 26:36
And did you have a problem with your right hand as well?
Bill Hrncir 26:41
Yes.
Bill Gasiamis 26:43
How far along have they come now?
Deedee Hrncir 26:50
Well, I will tell you 85%. But it’s a little bit lower than that.
BIll Hrncir Stroke Deficits
Deedee Hrncir 26:59
Well, you can show him. Lift your arm, he can lift it, but to open and close his hand is still not there yet. So that was a lot of the therapy still is yeah, still works with that, has not given up, never has been the type.
Deedee Hrncir 27:23
Giving up is never an option, as he says in his book is never an option. And, the walking, I think being that he was a runner. And being that he was a cyclist competitively. The leg was more important to him because he did not want to be in that wheelchair.
Deedee Hrncir 27:46
You know, meanwhile, he’s in rehab. And they’re asking me, you know, what accommodations are you making in your home? And I said, well, I don’t want to do anything, because I don’t think he’s gonna want to be in a wheelchair.
Deedee Hrncir 28:03
And they say, Well, I’m sorry. You can’t take him home. If there’s not ramps and ADA accessible bathrooms and what have you. So we’re in Austin, and meanwhile, back home. My brother’s trying to he was an engineer, and he was trying to make accommodations on the house and you don’t realize all the accommodations necessary.
Deedee Hrncir 28:31
You know, doorways had to be expanded to fit a wheelchair. And the one for this very office that we’re in right now, which is Bill’s office, and the bathroom door. And we had to take out it a lot of tub and put a roll-in shower, and front door side door, back door ramps because Bill’s an outdoors person.
Deedee Hrncir 29:00
And I wasn’t going to cage him in and just going around only to the front, which is the street side. I mean, I knew he would want to be in his backyard. And you know, he’d be able to have access to the garage where his bike and truck were.
Deedee Hrncir 29:16
So those were huge accommodations for us. Because when he got home, as much as he was happy to see that we had made accommodations for him. It was hard for him. And as soon as he could he wanted to like can we knock off these ramps? So those were, you know, those are huge for independence.
Deedee Hrncir 29:42
And as you’re aware, too, I’m sure you know that most stroke survivors. That’s the first question they ask Bill. You know, when they meet him and they just had a stroke, as you know, well, how long did it take you to walk? And how long did it take you to drive? And how long did it take you? You know, did your vision is your vision fix? Can you read yet?
Bill Gasiamis 30:10
It’s a really hard question to answer because people want to know my story, but you’re completely different person. And I don’t know if my story is going to help you. But if I have to give you a timeline, if that’s what you’re really after, and that’s going to give you some hope, then fair enough, you know, my timeline, I had three strokes over three years and brain surgery.
Bill Gasiamis 30:32
So it was a really long timeline. And I only got really bad after the surgery, I only couldn’t walk after the surgery. So I’m not sure how it relates to everybody else. But it’s a completely different version of what happened. So sometimes it’s not accurate for us to give our story, but I know how it helps other stroke survivors.
Bill Gasiamis 30:58
What’s interesting is I never met any stroke survivors. Soon after, we didn’t speak about that there wasn’t a question that I asked, How long did it take you to get this back or that back? Because I had been three years in when I couldn’t walk, like it started nearly a three year mark.
Bill Gasiamis 31:17
So then it’s like, by then I had met people who were five and 10 years beyond stroke. And then it’s like, okay, it’s not a question I need to enter or come into rehab. And I’ll just do what I can. And I’ll get out of there as quickly as I can. And we got out of there in a month, but they thought that it was going to take at least two months to get me home.
Bill Gasiamis 31:41
And then there was possibility of how is it going to get up the front steps to his door, the front three steps. And they never talked about ramps or anything like that, which was great. Because the progress was a lot quicker than we expected. And I’m not sure why it just was.
Bill Gasiamis 32:03
And the result was that even though I couldn’t feel my left leg, I could walk holding on I could walk to the post on the porch, I could hold on and get up. And I didn’t need a ramp. But it was scary. We have a two storey home. I didn’t go upstairs for quite a while. Because that was scary to go up and come down because my knee used to give way. And then I would fall forward and I would do that. Just standing.
Deedee Hrncir 32:36
Yeah, Bill’s laughing because he had several falls because he insisted on doing things that you know.
Bill Hrncir 32:44
Two story house also.
Bill Gasiamis 32:47
Scary, right? Ankle was rolling the knee wasn’t working properly. And it’s the last thing I want to do is go for a tumble down the stairs. I mean, nobody wants to do that under normal circumstances. But after a stroke, can I my head had the fresh plate put in there.
Bill Gasiamis 33:02
And didn’t like people touching my head at all. I don’t like seeing combat sports like boxing or anything like that. It just makes my head hurt. So I was really sensitive about falling. But then of course at home, I fell a couple of times once I fell onto my couch and hit my ribs on the arm of the couch.
Bill Gasiamis 33:26
That was terrible. That was hurting for days. And then I fell on the floor once as well. On the concrete floor, and that was painful. You can do way more damage to yourself. By falling than sometimes the stroke has caused.
Deedee Hrncir 33:48
The stroke. Right. Yeah, Bill insisted on. Yeah, I think I’m ready to climb onto my two wheeled bike. And I said please don’t do this. When there’s not somebody to stand on the other side of the bike. I said, I’m on this side. But what if you fall the other way? I don’t think I can pull you up.
Deedee Hrncir 34:04
And sure enough, that’s exactly what happened. And then he was joking with me because I was asking him how many fingers whatever and he was like just laughing and I said, you know, I started crying of course because I was like, you know, don’t make me go through that.
Deedee Hrncir 34:17
You know, it’s hard I know. And that there’s tough stroke survivors and then there’s some that you know will try at all and I’m glad I have one that likes to try. But at the same time it’s scary for me pretty often because he really wants it bad and he’ll fight for it. You know.
Bike Riding Difficulties
Bill Gasiamis 34:40
I went for a bike ride I think it was about two years after I got out of surgery. Because I used to bike ride before I still love going for a bike ride and I got on and my left foot which is the effected one would slip off the plane little one was just a regular bike, you know, it wasn’t a sports bike for any particular events or anything.
Bill Gasiamis 34:55
And then the pedal would come up and scrape my shin. Then I’m gonna be like oh my God, I remember that one kid, you know. And now it’s happening again. So I tried and tried. And then I couldn’t do it, and then I went and got one stirrup, you know, so one stirrup to hold my effected foot in the right position.
Bill Gasiamis 35:31
So when I’m pedaling, it doesn’t do that it doesn’t fall off, and then the pedal doesn’t scrape my shin. So that was a great solution. Except what I didn’t realize was that when I stop my bike, the foot that I lean down with is my left foot. And because I can’t feel it, and it’s in the stirrup, I don’t know that it’s in the stirrup. So the bike stops, I go to put my foot out, my foot doesn’t go anywhere, and I fall.
Deedee Hrncir 35:58
Oh, so you had to retrain huh?
Bill Gasiamis 36:02
I had to retrain. But of course, retraining is not easy. I fell about three times before I said, I’m not riding the bike anymore. And the last time I fell in our central business district in Melbourne, I was riding through, and there was a road closure, because they were doing construction work.
Bill Gasiamis 36:19
And I come around the corner. And I didn’t realize that there was roadworks, because you couldn’t see around that corner what was happening. And when I got there, there was a man holding a stop sign and said, You can’t come here.
Bill Gasiamis 36:32
And just as soon as he said that, I tried to stop really quickly, I put my foot down at the same time. And all I did was fall flat on my face right in front of him. It was terrible. And then I had to ride home. You know, feeling all bruised and battered. And that was the last day that I rode a bike until I discovered an electric bike.
Bill Gasiamis 36:54
So the electric bike helps assist in the pedaling, and therefore my left foot doesn’t get tired and doesn’t slip off the pedal. And therefore, when I put it down, I don’t have to have a syrup on my pedal.
Bill Gasiamis 37:10
And I can put it down and I can ride under normal circumstances, it really makes a big difference in assisting me, not not fatigue the leg. So I’m very familiar with the experience of trying to ride a bike and falling over. I almost before I bought the electric bike.
Bill Gasiamis 37:33
I almost bought a three wheeler and this just made it possible for me not to buy one. Not that Not that I mind which bike I got, I would have got one that suited me eventually because bike riding is really important to me.
Bill Gasiamis 37:48
And so is exercise, right and you guys know, how important exercise Bill, wrote about it in the book, that exercise is a really important part of recovery. So you’ve already spoken about exercise being a part of potentially creating the perfect storm.
Bill Gasiamis 38:06
Because you overtrained but it also is important for your recovery. So, how much exercise do you do these days?
Deedee Hrncir 38:20
Not near three quarters of.
Deedee Hrncir 38:33
Of what you would like?
Bill Hrncir 38:34
Yeah.
Deedee Hrncir 38:34
Yeah, I was gonna say he has to really watch those words, because he still does overtrain when he rides bikes, he goes about 26 miles once a week. And, you know, I feel like that’s a lie. I feel like he doesn’t need to do that much.
Deedee Hrncir 38:49
But he likes to so it’s once a week, you know, and luckily he rides with his neurologist, so I can feel okay, if something happens that he’s going to be able to tell what to do. And, and so and I think too, he’ll see if Bill’s getting fatigued. And he’ll say, you know, let’s call it a day or whatever.
Deedee Hrncir 39:11
But you are talking about the three wheeled bikes and we do have some for our stroke group, the recumbent bikes. Bill had one initially because I had gotten it for him. But you know, for him, that was a baby bike.
Deedee Hrncir 39:24
And you know, he had to move to the two wheeled, but he did ride with it. And it did help and a lot of the stroke survivors do use them because then we don’t have to worry about them falling and they’re still getting exercise. You know, I mean, they’re great bikes.
Think About The Caregivers
Bill Gasiamis 39:41
It’s not all about you, Bill. I mean, you have to give the caregivers a little bit of relief, you know, so that they can feel comfortable and at ease with you and that you’re not going to go and do something silly again. You know, they need you to just relax a little bit and do things at a slower pace. I know it’s hard.
Deedee Hrncir 40:04
Oh I like this Bill, this idea of worrying about the caregivers, because I try to tell him, you know, sometimes you have to think about what I’m getting out of it, you know, like, because it is very hard for the caregivers.
Deedee Hrncir 40:20
So, I can see both ways, when you have a stroke survivor, that scared to do anything. And then when you have one that wants to do everything, because we have several in our group that, you know, the caregivers say, you know, he wants to go outside and his wheelchair and go through the grass and go through, you know, and, you know that that’s an accident waiting to happen.
Deedee Hrncir 40:45
You go through the grass, and it just like breaks, and then they fall forward and, then you have some of that don’t want to get out of the bed, you know, and both need a little talking to sometimes and both have their pluses by being motivated to do more. And that’s good, but not extreme, you know.
Bill Gasiamis 41:14
I know Bill thinks about you. But what he’s doing is he’s going, I’ve got to find my limit, I’ve got to push, push, push, find my limit. So I know where it is, so that I can stop, right. And I don’t know why. But I became acutely aware of my wife’s role and what she was going through, because I think I became more aware of it because just before my brain surgery, her mom passed away.
Bill Gasiamis 41:41
So within a month, we had her mom’s passing the funeral, and my surgery. So at some point, I became really aware that she, as a caregiver, is going through regular parts of life, which are hard and difficult, then she’s dealing with a husband, who’s a stroke survivor, which is complicated and difficult all at the same time.
Bill Gasiamis 42:09
And there’s not a lot of time left for her. She’s a mum, by the way, and looking after the kids. And then she’s looking after her dad now who’s on his own. And she’s doing all these things, and at some point.
Bill Gasiamis 42:25
I wonder, was she thinking and she never admitted that maybe she was at some point, she was thinking, you know, I’ve had enough like, what about me, you know, like, I need some time for myself or something like that.
Bill Gasiamis 42:38
Now, what about you Deedee? Did you experience that whole I wish this didn’t happen? Of course, you wish your husband didn’t become unwell, but did you have moments when you felt like, you know, what about Deedee, like, we need time out, I need to rest and recuperate?
Deedee Hrncir 43:00
Yeah, we were fortunate and that our kids were old enough. My son was senior in high school, and my daughter was in college already. And both of them well, my son that was in high school, of course, he knew he still had to finish.
Deedee Hrncir 43:15
But my daughter, you know, said I can pause my college, you know, classes and I can, you know, come and help you I know that this is hard and new and different for all of us.
Deedee Hrncir 43:28
But I knew that, you know, it was best for her to stay in school. And I said, you know, I am from a big family. And we live actually like on a compound kind of like a ranch and have a sister next door and my brother and sister in law lived on the other side.
Deedee Hrncir 43:47
And so I had relief, which a lot of people don’t. And so that helped. But the part that was the most difficult was just the not knowing what to do. And so that’s when we started looking for a stroke group and didn’t find one and then decided well I’m going to study up and research and see if we can start it.
Deedee Hrncir 44:11
And I’m glad we were able to because it helps so much if I can recommend one thing to anybody who has a stroke is to get in a group with others that have been through the same because it helps so much to say okay, what did you do for you know, falling?
Deedee Hrncir 44:30
What did you do for the foot drop? What did you do for you know, the headaches? Or whatever it was that was going on? aphasia, you know, how did you because at the beginning, I’m a kindergarten teacher for 33 years and I’ve retired but I tried methods that I did in the classroom and oh let sound the word out.
Deedee Hrncir 44:55
Well, stroke doesn’t work that way. We we learned that right away and and then I learned also that I’m not supposed to be helping him say everything for him because he can talk for himself. I just have to be patient.
Deedee Hrncir 45:09
And so we learned a lot trial and error. But to say that it was not difficult is crazy. Everybody just needs to know that that’s normal to be a little overwhelmed. And it’s normal to need other people and to say, Okay, if they offered to bring food or if they offered to take your kids somewhere, you know, say yes. Because, you know, you do need a break, you do, you really do.
Bill Gasiamis 45:42
Cooking can be really tiring, that’s my biggest role in the household because my wife comes home after me. So when she’s still at work, I’m preparing a meal. But that can take an hour and a half, two hours, that I find that really exhausting, but I try to minimize the amount of food that I cook so that, you know, there’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and that’s it.
Bill Gasiamis 46:08
You know, not too much of everything going on. So, yeah, when people say to me, can I bring you some food? I’m like, yeah, for how many days can you bring me food? Bring as much as you want I’ll freeze it, you know, whatever, you just bring it.
Bill Gasiamis 46:26
The book. I’m surprised actually, before I speak about this next thing that I wanted to mention was I’m surprised how long ago was the stroke, and there was no stroke group in your community? I don’t get that.
Bill Hrncir 46:40
I have no idea.
Deedee Hrncir 46:43
We have two hospitals. And we have one big rehab. And then, you know, there’s there’s therapy at the hospitals, but they try to get you out as soon as possible, of course, because insurance and all, but our town is small, but it’s not tiny, what we have.
Bill Hrncir 47:05
270,000 people?
Building A Stroke Group – BIll Hrncir
Deedee Hrncir 47:08
Yeah, so it’s a decent sized town, not to have a stroke support group. But we also heard that, like our Alzheimer’s group is just they meet at the hospital, they talk a little bit, they go home, and we just didn’t want that kind of situation.
Deedee Hrncir 47:25
First of all, we didn’t want it in a hospital, because a lot of people don’t want to go back to the hospital, that leaves a bad taste in the mouth. So you know, we worked around, let’s make it something different.
Deedee Hrncir 47:38
And all of our activities are non clinical, just like, you know, they play tennis or, you know, they go bike riding, they, you know, do art class, and we try to take them, other places and whatever.
Deedee Hrncir 47:51
But that was the thing, building this stroke group, from just having a meeting once a month, has become like, huge for us. Because I mean, we had to get become a nonprofit. And yeah, really go beyond. And I’m not a business person, I told you, I’m a kindergarten teacher.
Deedee Hrncir 48:11
Bill’s a businessman always has been my daughter’s business major, you know, so they both wanted it to be, you know, let’s do more with this. There’s so much potential, you know, there’s just, you get the community involved.
Deedee Hrncir 48:25
And, you know, there’s so much potential, but even very minimum, if you have meetings, and you allow them to talk, that’s sometimes all they need. Some people only come to the meetings and don’t come to any activities.
Deedee Hrncir 48:42
And still really get a lot out of just saying what they’re needing, saying what they’re feeling, asking questions, you know, there’s just, there’s their relations released from the hospital, and then they just go now what? I know we were we were like, Okay, we’re home. What’s, next for us?
Bill Gasiamis 49:04
That’s very common. Now, what do I do now? thing that happens is, is basically the doctors, they, you know, they they’ve set you up, they fix you up, they send you home, and then make it your responsibility to take the next step. And hopefully, you have the physical capability to take the responsibility on.
Bill Gasiamis 49:25
And if you don’t, hopefully, you have a caregiver or family or friends to support you to take that next part of the responsibility. That’s the real interesting thing. It’s like, we’ve done our job off you go into the world, and that’s kind of the that’s how I was released into the world, you know, back into the world was like, Okay, we’re done.
Bill Gasiamis 49:48
It we’re just starting. We’re not done we are nowhere near done. We’re just starting the book. Felt like that to me. To me, it felt like it was a conversation and somebody was asking Bill, what do I do about this?
Bill Gasiamis 50:10
And Bill was going for this. I did this and that’s kind of what it felt like, you know, every part of the book had a solution, I suppose for a challenge that Bill faced, it was really easy to understand really easy to read, the words are quite large, which is really good. Like the writing is quite large.
Deedee Hrncir 50:35
Yeah.
Deedee Hrncir 50:38
So you don’t needing glasses to read it. Yeah,
Bill Gasiamis 50:41
Yes, that makes it really easy, which means it’s quite a short book, even though it seems like it’s a lot of pages. It’s not a lot of pages. It’s a short book. And I think that when you’re recovering from something as complicated as a stroke, I think it needs to be short and sweet.
Bill Gasiamis 50:57
Too much information can then overwhelm, and create too many possibilities. And I just love the fact that there’s not a lot of information in there. It’s just important information for this. I did this, this is how I did it.
Bill Gasiamis 51:11
There’s even you’re running schedule, your gym, set your gym schedule, and all that type of thing. And it’s like, they’re really great tools that I can look at, and adjust or run with or do similar things or do something different. Like it’s great. What made you feel like it was important to write the book Bill?
Bill Hrncir 51:33
Well, I started off by trying basketball book, writing basketball book. I had a stroke, and went from basketball book to book about stroke.
Deedee Hrncir 52:13
And to give people a little taste of that, you know, pre-stroke, reading and writing are not hard, but whole stroke. He thought well, you know, the book take maybe five years, went on.
Deedee Hrncir 52:27
Yeah, 10 years was the final number that he kept telling people, because he would do a lot of public speaking, he had his videos and he would go to the university and to even elementary schools and kind of talk to them about what a stroke is, and how to recognize the signs.
Deedee Hrncir 52:52
And that was really cool for the community and very well received. I mean, if you’ve not done that, I mean, I’m sure you probably have with your podcast, but it’s so important to educate your community on what to do when someone’s having a stroke.
Deedee Hrncir 53:08
Because, you know, people don’t know, we didn’t know the headache was and we, you know, all the different signs. But anyway, when he would go speak, you know, he had his videos and everything, and it looked like, oh, you know, he doesn’t have too much trouble with his speech.
Deedee Hrncir 53:25
But then at the end, he would open it up for questions. And he would go, okay, you don’t have any questions? And well, that wasn’t planned or scripted for him. So he was like, he would look at me, and I would go, still can’t read your mind.
Deedee Hrncir 53:41
But you know, it’s really important for them to know, like that. There’s a whole community out there. And the answers are out there. You just have to go find them. But you have to, you know, ask and know what to ask.
Deedee Hrncir 53:54
So hopefully the book, Bill used to coach basketball, he coached our son from Kinder all through high school. And so it was he was passionate about it. And now he had to be passionate about stroke. So he had to just, you know, figure out what, you know, what all could he do to make other people learn about aspects of stroke that maybe they didn’t know.
BIll Hrncir Finding Purpose After A Stroke
Bill Gasiamis 54:26
That’s really important. I, for many years, I think from the first year after my first stroke, I went to the Stroke Foundation in Australia. And I became involved as a stroke safe ambassador and we’d go out and we talked to people about stroke, what it is how to prevent it and what to do if somebody is having a stroke.
Bill Gasiamis 54:50
And that was back in 2013. That program is still happening today. And stroke survivors usually end up going into a workplace or community gathering or something and speak to people there.
Bill Gasiamis 55:06
So that was quite good. And it was my first attempt at public speaking. And it was real fun to do, I got to meet a lot of lovely people. And they gave me encouraging words and all that kind of thing. And the Stroke Foundation made me have something to do some kind of purpose behind why the stroke happened to me.
Bill Gasiamis 55:31
And then that’s ultimately what led to the podcast, it was this talking about it, which I didn’t realize that I needed to talk about it all the time. And I still do, and I don’t know why I think it’s definitely part of my recovery and part of my healing, I get a lot more out of it.
Bill Gasiamis 55:53
Now, it’s not more, it’s not just that I talk about it. The connection with people, I’m also I also need people, I’m the kind of guy who needs people everywhere, all the time, if I can get them, you know, ringing me up, let’s go out for a drink a talk or walk or whatever, let’s just go somewhere.
Bill Gasiamis 56:12
That’s the kind of guy I am. So the stroke has actually made me able to find more people that are like me, that understand me that I’ve never had before. Because before I didn’t know how to connect, I didn’t have some one thing in common with people. Like I didn’t have that.
Bill Gasiamis 56:38
And even though I’ve met more than 200 stroke survivors easily in the podcast as 170. So I’ve met way more than 200 stroke survivors. But we are so different. We have different political views, we have different backgrounds, we have different ideas, different thoughts, but we really understand each other when it comes to stroke.
Bill Gasiamis 56:59
So we don’t really care about the other stuff. We just care about the fact that I understand you like I get it, and I needed that I needed people to understand me, I felt like the black sheep in the family.
Bill Gasiamis 57:09
So I can appreciate why Bill does all the things that he does and why he over commits to helping people and writing a book and all that type of thing, because he’s describing me like that’s exactly what I do.
Bill Gasiamis 57:25
And I’m just pretending to ask questions that I don’t know the answers to I know the answers to them. I just want to hear if he’s like me, I totally get it. What has been the feedback, like about the book, so it’s been out for a while now?
Bill Hrncir 57:48
We’ve sold 2000 copies.
Deedee Hrncir 57:53
And we live right on the border of Mexico, just the river separates us. So we now have the Spanish version. So we had to translate it because a lot of people around and even you know, I have family members and stuff that you know, speak a lot more Spanish than English.
Deedee Hrncir 58:15
And so it was requested. And we got a couple of copies that we’ve already distributed and we’ve ordered more. So yeah, we’re hoping to, you know, do that and we’ve done we’ve done several book tours around in cities around us. Between the valley, Houston Yep.
Deedee Hrncir 58:39
He’s done seven book tours and got to work lamp. I told him to wait till after the holiday. Yeah, that’s the part that you think he forgets about too is to like sit down and close his eyes for a bit. Take a little break in the day. It’s gotten better about it, though he’d come home for lunch.
Deedee Hrncir 59:02
And I eat and just a little bit of shut eye and I’ll go back.
Bill Gasiamis 59:14
it really does help to reset and recharge the batteries and focus the brain again. It’s really good to sneak in a couple of, you know, daily rests or relaxations, even if it’s not sleep meditation, even for five minutes, has similar effects on sleeping so you can do it.
Bill Gasiamis 59:35
So I’m really impressed by you guys. You’ve come a long way. You’ve been through a heck of a journey. And you’ve written a book about it, to tell the story to share with other people to create a community to make it easier for other people to navigate stroke when I had the stroke in the first one in 2012.
Bill Gasiamis 59:59
There was no But it was just The Stroke Foundation, which was still amazing that it existed. But I didn’t know of anybody anywhere that had had a stroke that I could connect to. And that was the hardest part. And I feel like it’s really important, because we’re the only people that can really support stroke survivors.
Bill Gasiamis 1:00:21
Yeah, your neurologist can get you out of the hospital and your surgeon to get you out of the hospital. And the odd occasion, a neurologist will come for a bike ride with you. That’s, yeah. Yeah. Usually that don’t get involved afterwards.
Bill Gasiamis 1:00:39
And the really important thing about that is that they’ve never had a stroke, thank God. And that, therefore, they don’t really deeply understand that, like you guys didn’t understand when bills brother had the stroke.
Bill Gasiamis 1:00:55
You understand that now, what he went through, and unfortunately had to go through this. So I suppose what I’m saying is, you’re doing a great thing. And it’s really, really important.
Bill Hrncir 1:01:08
Thank you.
Deedee Hrncir 1:01:09
Thanks.
Bill Gasiamis 1:01:09
I’m glad that I came across you guys and had the opportunity to chat to you and get to meet you. And you know what, I don’t know what the word is. But it’s great that people with aphasia, get out and speak on my podcast, or at least try and speak or speak the way that can speak because speaking doesn’t have to always be like this, right?
Bill Gasiamis 1:01:39
It’s different. This is the thing you know, we talk about, lately, we’ve been talking about diversity, and all these different things to include in communities like, there’s people talking about having different body types and abilities at the gym, of course, stroke survivors can’t lift weights the same way that they used to.
Bill Gasiamis 1:02:01
So there needs to be an opportunity for that as well. And there also needs to be an understanding that not only do we speak different languages, but because of things like aphasia, we speak in different ways. It’s still communication.
Bill Gasiamis 1:02:16
And a lot of people who experience aphasia won’t come on the podcast because they’re embarrassed by it or it makes them feel uneasy, or they’re upset, or it frustrates them. I don’t know what it is.
Bill Gasiamis 1:02:29
But I’ve had about three or four people with Aphasia come on. And it’s like, it’s really, really important to hear from them, in their own words, the way that they can communicate now, because it’s still communication, and they need to communicate, and we need to hear from them.
Deedee Hrncir 1:02:48
Yeah, yes. And they need to know, you know, I tell people for a whole year, Bill didn’t talk. He didn’t say anything. It was a good thing. He was a real good drawer. And then he would draw a little picture.
Deedee Hrncir 1:03:03
So when he was in the hospital, he drew a little picture, and it was the lawn mower. And I said, Oh, are you worried that the grass is not getting cut while we’re over here? You know, because he was thinking about it. Hey, I’ve kind of been here a while who’s cutting the grass at home, you know, and I said, don’t worry about the grass.
Deedee Hrncir 1:03:20
And then he tried to write his dad’s name. And it was just jibberish. And there was a D in there, but none of the other letters were correct. And, then, you know, his dad was older. And then it was that he was worried about his dad too like, does my dad, know? I had a stroke.
Deedee Hrncir 1:03:38
And just, you know, and so people don’t realize that, you know, you meet other stroke survivors, and you’re going, Oh, that happened to you, too. And oh, for a year, we found this guy that didn’t talk for 20 years down the street. Yeah. And Bill just saw one day and followed him and said, Oh, he walks kind of like me, hey, his arm is kind of like mine and followed him.
Bill Hrncir 1:04:06
He was in the store buying cookies.
Deedee Hrncir 1:04:10
Yeah and Bill goes why is he eating cookies. You’re not supposed to eat cookies, you know, Bills all worried about his diet, you know, and he said, hey, you know, I ate cookies.
Deedee Hrncir 1:04:21
But anyway, yeah, I mean, and he says that he he didn’t talk for about 20 years because he didn’t know there was anybody else that was going through what he was going through. And I mean 20 years.
Bill Hrncir 1:04:41
Laughter in the book.
Deedee Hrncir 1:04:48
It mentions him so yeah, you know that and there’s just so many aspects of stroke that are relatable to other stroke survivors only, it’s a little community of, you know, understanding.
Monocular Vision Caused By TPA
Bill Hrncir 1:05:05
I would like to say this I can’t see on this side, two birds with one stone the stroke of my brain stroke and my eye stroke. And it’s in the book too.
Bill Gasiamis 1:05:41
There was a stroke. And then.
Deedee Hrncir 1:05:47
Yes, immediately, after he had an eye stroke.
Bill Gasiamis 1:05:51
I’ve never heard of that before.
Deedee Hrncir 1:05:53
Yeah, look up monocular vision, and you’ll find all kinds of people that have experience. And then we found out that there’s, I mean, of course, all the same ones that are asking when they can drive and all that are the ones that have the vision, you know, that all kinds of issues.
Deedee Hrncir 1:06:13
And it’s so much more popular than you think that a vision deficit will happen with a stroke. And we didn’t know and he had perfect vision before the stroke. We had a bulletin board up up in his rehab room, put pictures of the kids and all his award for running.
Deedee Hrncir 1:06:36
And little did I know he could not see it at all. He told me way later, you know about these. And by the way I didn’t even know what was up there.
Bill Gasiamis 1:06:49
Just trying to make you feel better. Yeah. Yeah, I did read that in the book. Actually the monocular. What was it called?
Bill Hrncir 1:06:59
Monocular. Vision.
Bill Gasiamis 1:07:01
Yeah. monocular vision. Yeah. Okay, so that’s an eye stroke. Okay, that is interesting. I just learned something again today. So it is jam packed full of great ideas, great information, great solutions to problems. And it’s definitely an amazing book. It’s written from a stroke survivor. It’s definitely for a stroke survivor.
Bill Gasiamis 1:07:23
And it’s for caregivers as well. Because it’s gonna enhance the knowledge of the caregiver really quickly, so that hopefully it doesn’t take a long time for them to find out answers, that they need questions and answers whatever.
Bill Hrncir 1:07:41
Yeah. And the doctors and the.
Deedee Hrncir 1:07:46
Therapists, you know, kind of kind of seeing it from the stroke survivors point of view. Yeah, you know, and just people that caregivers in general not only a stroke, you know, just overcoming adversity.
Deedee Hrncir 1:07:58
I wanted to say you and I will take basketball for instance. I’m with you in it, talking to you about it. But you say out the beaten path.
Bill Gasiamis 1:08:48
You’re a type A personality by my small time I’ve got to know you. Right. So as somebody who is highly motivated, highly competitive, you know, intrapreneurial physical next level amounts of, you know, physicality. This has completely challenged you in every way. Did it get dark? Did you have some days where it was really dark?
Bill Hrncir 1:09:23
No. I don’t think so.
Deedee Hrncir 1:09:26
No, no, I mean, I mean in the hospital. And then the rehab. He got frustrated, really bad sometimes. But I’ve never seen him say or hurt and say, you know, why me? I just, you know, I’ve done everything right. You know, why is this happening?
Deedee Hrncir 1:09:50
Never, and I mean, I said, why me? As a caregiver, but he’s never, I mean, he’s never voiced it and he’s never acted like he felt that way. And that’s been what’s like, you know, my whole family, they go, you know, how can we be mad about this?
Deedee Hrncir 1:10:07
Look at Bill, he wrote a book and he had a stroke, and you know, whatever, whatever. So he’s the family motivator. But yeah, it’s weird that, you brought that question up because really, we’ve not seen it. I hope it stays in.
Life Happens
Bill Gasiamis 1:10:29
I got a sense he hadn’t. That’s why I asked it because I got a feeling that is the eternal optimist, and he’s an internal problem solver and solutions focused. And anyway, what good does it do to say, why me and to get shitty, I mean, we have done it a little bit, it doesn’t really help.
Bill Gasiamis 1:10:47
And it’s good to do it if you need to do it and get it out of your system. But the reality is, is that, actually, it’s not useful at all, to do that, it just puts you into a spiral for some people, potentially of a space where recovery is not happening, it’s not supporting recovery, it’s actually supporting the opposite of recovery.
Bill Gasiamis 1:11:05
So if you catch yourself being there, and snap out of it, then it’s okay to do it every once in a while for a little bit. But if you’re staying in there too long, it’s actually impacting your recovery.
Bill Gasiamis 1:11:17
And it’s sounds like what you need is more psychological support, or more emotional support, or more counseling or something, to get to the bottom of it, you know, you’re alive, you’re a miracle. And you’re not immune from life, life is happening to you.
Bill Gasiamis 1:11:37
And for some people, life happens, like it happened to us, or it happens completely differently, somebody can have a heart attack, they didn’t get the opportunity to say why me because they might be dead immediately.
Bill Gasiamis 1:11:48
This they’re not going to know. So we have to take the approach that this is just part of life, and we’re not immune to it. And who are we to think that life shouldn’t happen to us, and that everything should be perfect all the time.
Bill Gasiamis 1:12:08
I mean, that’s not how it is, every single person that came before us who’s passed away, was alive, and now they’re not life happens. And every single person that is born after us is also going to pass away at some point in time, and it’s not always pleasant, but it is the reality.
Bill Gasiamis 1:12:29
And I like that concept of not saying why me if if you have the the the training, to learn why it’s not not a good thing to say. But also, if you have the instinct to not say it. That’s a great thing. And for those people that have said it, don’t feel bad that you’ve said it’s okay.
Bill Gasiamis 1:12:55
But just know that you don’t need to stay there. Because it’s not helping you in any way. And lots of people with disabilities, with the inability to speak because of aphasia with the inability to do all the things still achieve massive accomplishments in life.
Bill Gasiamis 1:13:11
Just look at Stephen Hawking. If there was ever an example of what’s possible. Just look up Stephen Hawking, if you’ve never heard of him, you know, for the majority of his life. He couldn’t move or speak.
Deedee Hrncir 1:13:29
Yeah.
Bill Gasiamis 1:13:31
And everyone thought that he was some kind of a, the most amazing scientist of our time. It’s like, come on, guys. Like we’re very capable. And we have technology on our side, which generations before us did not have.
Bill Gasiamis 1:13:51
So, anyway, that’s my little motivational speech for everybody. If you’re sick of hearing me motivate you, well, I appreciate that too. You can throw something at, you can switch off or you can throw the book at the monitor or whatever.
Bill Gasiamis 1:14:10
I don’t mean to piss people off. I mean, to just make people think about things that they haven’t thought about before. And this thing that Bill has done to not do the why me that’s instinctive for some reason is not doing it. And it’s actually working in his favor.
Bill Gasiamis 1:14:27
And isn’t it amazing that some people are born with that instinct. Everyone else can learn it is basically what I’m trying to say. I know that took a lot of words, but that’s all I was trying to say.
Bill Gasiamis 1:14:40
So, yeah, I love you reaching out. I love the fact that you guys have come together to be on the podcast. I mean, thank you so much for doing it. I wish you all the best. And I look forward to just following your journey on Instagram, etc.
Bill Hrncir 1:14:58
One thing we’re going to do a book signing in your neck of the woods.
Deedee Hrncir 1:15:04
Yeah. Well, you gave us an excuse to go. Well, we’ve always wanted to go to Australia. So now that we know somebody we’re gonna go knock on your door and say, Hey, Bill, we’re here. It’s the other Bill.
Bill Gasiamis 1:15:19
Are you really?
Deedee Hrncir 1:15:20
We will. It might not be soon. But it’ll happen.
Bill Hrncir 1:15:25
I think in two years.
Deedee Hrncir 1:15:26
No no don’t give a date. Bill loves to give dates. He loves to give them some deadlines.
Bill Gasiamis 1:15:32
Two years I’m holding you to that. So tell me, where can people find the book? Where’s the best place to go? Is there a website that they can visit?
Deedee Hrncir 1:15:41
Yes Book Baby is his publisher. And you can go to book baby and look it up. It’s also on Amazon. And it’s really wherever books are sold. I know it’s at bookstores also. But the best place is Book Baby.
Bill Gasiamis 1:15:58
Thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Deedee Hrncir 1:16:00
You’re welcome. Thanks for having us.
Bill Hrncir 1:16:03
Thank you.
Intro 1:16:03
Importantly, we present many podcasts designed to give you an insight and understanding into the experiences of other individuals opinions and treatment protocols discussed during any podcast are the individual’s own experience and we do not necessarily share the same opinion nor do we recommend any treatment protocol discussed.
Intro 1:16:20
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Intro 1:16:58
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Intro 1:17:22
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