{"id":264,"date":"2018-06-21T04:32:05","date_gmt":"2018-06-21T04:32:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/recoveryafterstroke.buildbyninja.com\/?page_id=264"},"modified":"2023-10-13T01:55:09","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T14:55:09","slug":"about","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/recoveryafterstroke.com\/about\/","title":{"rendered":"About"},"content":{"rendered":"
The Recovery After Stroke Podcast is hosted by me, Bill Gasiamis. I am also on the road to recovery after stroke.<\/p>\n
This community is for stroke survivors and their carers.<\/p>\n
Why am I doing this?<\/p>\n
Because, 1 in 6 people will experience a stroke in their lifetime and there is a lack of support for survivors when they leave hospital. Stroke recovery is a life long process that never stops.<\/p>\n
To give your self the best opportunity to heal, there are some things you must do and some things you must avoid. Join us in the Recovery After Stroke membership and discover what you need to know.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
When I woke one morning with a numb sensation in my big left toe, I could never have guessed that a week later I would be in hospital with a diagnosis of a brain haemorrhage. This was the view from my hospital bed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Going home on doctors orders to do nothing for the next six weeks was a small price to pay for a bleed in the brain. \u201cSometimes these things just happen\u201d I was told \u201cand then they correct themselves and it shouldn\u2019t bleed again\u201d So when I started to feel symptoms of another bleed six weeks later, I began to worry about what the future may hold.<\/p>\n
These are my MRI images.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
When you are seeking to recover from a serious health condition there are many people you can learn from. I sought out as many people as i could. Listening to Bruce Lipton author of Biology Of Belief, speak and then having the opportunity to speak with him personally really shed some light into, how my lifestyle and behaviour may influenced negatively, my genetic predisposition to experience a bleed in the brain.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
The impact of stroke in the community was not something I knew anything about before my own experience at the age of 37. As I became more involved in the stroke community, I learnt how important it was to raise awareness in the general population, of how to prevent stroke, recognise the signs of stroke, and what to do if you suspect that someone you know, is experiencing a stroke.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
I really thought that my body was in good condition before the stroke, as I had never really experienced any major illness in the first 37 years of my life. It turns out that there was more going wrong than I was aware of.<\/p>\n
That's why I was a little shocked, when I went to my routine optometrists appointment and was told that I had developed cataracts in both eyes. This is me just before the surgery to repair my right eye.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
There is a big push in Australia to bring stroke into the spotlight. Every year in September the Stroke Foundation runs Stroke Week, an event designed to raise awareness.<\/p>\n
For stroke week 2014 I was interviewed by my local news paper about my experience and how stroke impacted my family life.
\nYou can read the article here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Although surgery resolved the bleeding blood vessel, complications meant that when I woke from surgery I was unable to feel my left side. I was booked into rehabilitation where the goal was to retrain the brain, to know when my foot was on the ground and to teach my hand to discern the differences between items I was holding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
A few short months after my news paper story was published to raise awareness about stroke, I found myself experiencing a third brain bleed. After I drove myself to hospital, I had a visit from my neurosurgeon, the amazing Associate Professor Kate Drummond. Kate told me that due to the nature of my condition and the fact the the blood vessel continues to bleed, surgery was the only option.<\/p>\n
This was a great opportunity to both resolve the bleeding and prove to my brother that in fact, I did have a brain.<\/p>\n
Kates handy work..<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
This is me in recovery giving the thumbs up
to family and friends that came to visit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
Stroke recovery and rehabilitation may appear to only occur in certain places like hospitals. For me part of the recovery occurred by sharing my story. Just 2 months after I was released from hospital, I was invited to speak at the Australian Catholic University, to a group of 3rd year occupational therapy students, so they can get an insight into what it's like for a patient to go through stroke recovery. Watch the video.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
New research about the lifestyle factors that increase the stroke risk is being done all the time. A study released by the Lancet, a medical journal publication website, found that overworking played a big role in stroke. I was interviewed about what happened to me and why I ignored the symptoms of stroke for more than a week. Watch the video here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
The best way to reach a lot of people these days, is via podcast. When I worked this out, I realised that it was the perfect medium for me to continue sharing my story.<\/p>\n
The Recovery After Stroke podcast helps to raise awareness and offers hope to those impacted by stroke. Version 1 of the podcast was called the Transit Lounge Podcast, listen to episode 1 to learn how I came up with the name.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>