4. Two Wins and a Funny Fail

My name's Will Schmierer Welcome back to another episode of wubbels survival podcast. In today's episode, we are going to talk a little bit of return to the previous three episodes of this podcast, and go a little bit different direction, we're going to talk about successes and wins, because this podcast is about the struggles and successes that a survivor and the caretaker and the families, everybody a part of the survivor journey, a face, a be challenged with, may have to overcome. So on and so forth. So today's episode, I, you know, I want to talk about some of the wins, I do kind of want to get back to, you know, this is a serious topic, obviously, stroke, stroke, survivals, brain injury, any any, any sort of any neurological event, or any life altering life changing event is a big deal. And I don't want to make light of that. But I think in my experience, part of overcoming that is being able to find the silver linings, have some fun, be funny, enjoy life, you know, you have the opportunity to really make something of this second chance, maybe you're like me, maybe you did some things that we're doing, we're proud of, you know, everybody has a unique story. And in my case, I had a pretty good run, I was doing pretty well, by all accounts, I just had some things that for whatever reason I struggled with, um, you know, some good, I kept quiet about it and really asked for help. Of course, in hindsight, yeah. I would rather ask for help now, You know, but now I know. That's why I think I am so passionate about making this, you know, Second Chance really valuable and why I want to share my journey and some of the things I've gone through in the last three years with others, because I want to give them hope. I want to share funny stories, share the wins, share the struggles, it is about friendship and finding other people who may be in a similar place, you know, because it can get very lonely. So, again, on this episode, we're going to talk about some wins some successes, I'm going to kind of highlight a few of mine. They're unique to me, because I've been through them. But what I do want to share about those is kind of the lessons learned and things that you might be able to apply from the specific when for me and extracting some that some of those lessons that I've learned and apply them to your specific issue, maybe a problem you're having maybe something you're looking to overcome, it could be questioning some things, I think it's going to be a really good episode today. And with that, I do want to share one of my favorite stories. From the second time I went to inpatient rehab in 2020. So to recap the story real quick. I had my stroke December of 2019. I went into Brooks rehab, inpatient rehab care for stroke survivors here in Jacksonville, Florida in January of 2020. I spent 30 days doing a lot of the early physical therapy work that anybody who goes to inpatient will probably do either that exact program or something very similar. In my case, it was relearning sort of bigger motor skills. My stroke was not classified as a catastrophic or major stroke, but it was pretty and I'd say it was a pretty big deal. For me, I think probably for anybody I had a stroke that paralyzed the majority of the right hand side of my body, which means it affected the law. left side of my brain. So for those who may be unfamiliar, the side of the brain that the Stroke affects determines, then typically which side of your body has some lingering effects, it can vary, it could just be upper body, it could just be lower body. Very commonly, survivors and family and people who are really involved will know, every stroke is different, absolutely true. And again, that's why some of these wins that I'm going to talk about today might be specific to me. But I think there are very much things that you can extract and hopefully apply and take, you know, either a deeper look or a second look and apply them to things you're doing. Either as a survivor, as a caretaker, as a family member, I think it's good to talk to talk things out. Whether you're the survivor, the care, main caretaker, a family member, again, we all have a role to play in helping, whether it's helping yourself helping the other person helping family members helping, you know, the people that are helping, because they also need support. It really, it sounds corny, but it is a collaborative effort. And everybody's role is crucial, I think, to the success ultimately, of everybody saying making it through making it through healthy positive. To the individual survivor, obviously, the support is immense. But make no mistake about it, it can it can take a toll on everybody involved. So I think that is why support and collaboration is super important when it comes to stroke and stroke recovery. So yeah, gone back to one of my early kind of fails. Now this is a little bit funny because I was in an inpatient rehab, I left January at the end of January of 2020, you know, wheelchair, or a think I said before I was home for a week, wound up thinking I was having a second stroke, going back to the hospital spending a couple of weeks there ultimately got diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, ms for short. Which is a heck of a lot easier to say than multiple sclerosis. Anyways, I got to go back to inpatient rehab, the same facility here in Jacksonville, middle of February, beginning of March 2020, before COVID. So I went back for the second time in the first quarter of 2020. And what one of the things I did there that I kind of look back on. It's funny, but it's also silly and slightly dangerous. I think it's important to note that when you are in a wheelchair, you find yourself wheelchair bound suddenly, for any reason, it is imperative that you pay attention. It can be difficult, it can feel constricting, confining, it's a real adjustment. You might be there short term and long term it I don't think anybody knows Nestle. How long are you going to be there? But what are the mistakes I made was I thought I knew better very much because I was in my mid 30s at the time and my stroke just thought I could handle things. So I thought it was so stupid to have a seat belt in the wheelchair. Long story short, I was trying to get back you know, as most survivors are trying to get back to good health trying to figure out how to manage day to day I got a little excited. I have no idea why we could not walk yet. I wasn't barely I think just starting to try a walker in my second trip to rehab. Anyways, I'm also very impatient. And I was sitting in my room one day and I was taking off my shoe for some reason I have no idea why I don't know if there was an itch it fell off the wheelchair. Basically off my I think it took it on my foot. I put it on my lap. The shoe fell out of my lap onto the floor and still not walking. I can't get out of the wheelchair. I should not be getting out of the wheelchair. I don't have my seatbelt on, because I'm just sitting low and behold, shoe falls out onto the floor and I think I should get that shoe and put it back on my foot. Well, yeah, maybe, but maybe I shouldn't maybe I should just wait and call the nurse because I'm not going to walk anywhere. There's no reason for me to get my shoe It's just on the floor. It's not a big deal. Anyways, long story short, I tried to get it when the falling out of my wheelchair. Now I have been in this rehab facility now for the this is the second time I've been there a full 30 days prior, this is probably halfway through, I fell out of my wheelchair, it's not a huge deal I was at that time, I was still over 400 pounds. But it's embarrassing, because I can't walk, I can't pick my shoe up, I've fallen out of my wheelchair, I can't get back up. Because I'm paralyzed. It just was a mess. And they made a huge deal out about it, they were freaking out, it was not really that big of a deal. But it you would have thought you would have thought the world was ending. They had all these people, medical staff, I mean, good God, I accidentally, because of my stupidity of trying to grab my shoe, I disrupted the entire stroke floor. Because they need to get me off the floor, which you know, in fairness, I didn't want to be on the floor. But also in fairness, it was my fault. So it was a big to do is super embarrassing. And again, at that time, it was so big. They couldn't just pick me up, they had to get the machine from the other side of the hospital. And yeah, it was a whole big mess. So if you are still in a rehab facility and find yourself in a wheelchair, or you're still in a wheelchair, period, please don't do what I did. Please be smart. Please be safe, especially if you can't walk and you're not able to really grab things yet. Don't try to grab it. Just wait. Just ask somebody. And what was it going to do? Just from my shoe back on sit my wheelchair like think about that. Think about how I just yeah, I didn't know it was embarrassing. But I thought I'd share that story kind of as a funny little fail. From the beginning. And you know, just trying to lighten the mood here on this podcast. Yeah, so that was that was a, that was a time. I'm sure my nurses, I mean, we just we endlessly made fun of it for the next two or three weeks. While I was still doing rehab at the inpatient hospital. You know, I never liked to keep the boring, I always like to keep lively. I do recommend that again. Like I said, please be safe. If you're unable to walk yet, just. Yeah, well, actually, that kind of segues into our first topic and successes. And one of the big wins for me, I think, initially early on, and I'm kind of doing this in reverse order. So for me, I think when I first had my stroke obviously, we've talked about it on this show already. And I've talked about it at length and at nauseam. But for new listeners, you know, walking was something I was playing relies on the entire Radiant side of my body. And being six foot eight 300 Now I'm 300 plus pounds. I had been six eight the whole time, but at the time of my stroke, I was close to 500 pounds are just shy. You know, but I knew walking was going to be a big one. And that isn't just because it is kind of one of I would say after one of everybody's at Forever, those that are able to walk is kind of the main motor skill, I would say, um, you know, I pick that TBD. Everybody's got different thoughts there. But walking was a big one for me. And one that I focused on intensely in the beginning, because I think if you get back to walking, that's how you start to change your health. And it I think by all accounts, when he talked to therapists, occupational physical therapists walking is sort of a big skill to regain, that serves to build your confidence in many other areas that might be affected by stroke. So walking was a big one. And it took me you know, and I realized, coming at a patient being at an inpatient in February 2020. briefly before going back, the world is like kind to wheelchairs and accessibility. I think we've seen that over the years that the world just isn't unkind in general. But it is particularly harsh. Not even intentionally, sometimes. It's just, you know, my wife is deaf, so she is a deaf woman living in a hearing world I see those struggles on the daily I experienced them with her. You know, when I was in the wheelchair, I was big, but I don't think it matters, what size your wheelchair is, I think it is just, you know, the world really is built for wheelchairs. You know, and I think sometimes that's that we for a variety of reasons. You know, but I just wanted to get back to walking because for me being six, eight, I'm not used to being anywhere near the level of sitting all day long. You know, and it took me several months to get from wheelchair to starting to use a walker, it took me another good six months probably of using the Walker on. Eventually I went from wheelchair to Walker, to attain to a cane with a brace to just the brace on its own. And the brace was to help with my drop foot. Because when you have a stroke, again, this is dependent on your stroke and the individual. What duck foot is, is where, you know, your foot just, it's a little I mean, it is what it is. It's it's, it's, it says things are not quite 100%. So it does take some time, you know, you had to build up strength. I think that's one of the strangest things about having a stroke is that one day you're fine. And the neurological event that happens when you have a stroke, like by all accounts, you should, you would think have the same strength in your leg, but it just doesn't work that way. So you know, over the course of most of the 20s Horni, it took some adjusting and with time it started to get better. And eventually I got to a place of walking. And again with walking, it's it's still not perfect, but it is a much significantly better. I don't need a wheelchair, I don't need a walker, I don't need a cane. However, with having ms, I think it's taken a little bit longer. And there is the potential that I could short term need a wheelchair, which is why I have a wheelchair a power wheelchair. I've just really also take advantage of this time to improve my health. But that is where a separate episode I think because that deserves a full episode in and of itself. And honestly such as walking. But I think when I think about walking and the path that I've taken to get better at walking over the last three years it it really can feel annoying to the individual in the moment. It can even feel painful to again, the caretaker and family. Because it's slow, you might be lucky, it might take less time, you might be super lucky and you might not have any deficits when it comes to walking. Chances are there's something similar, you know, where one person like myself might have some deficits from the stroke in walking. Other people might have shoulder pain they might have you know, other motor skill issues, I think it's kind of a give or take. And it's just depending on your situation. Unfortunately, it's not a super clear cut and dry thing. It's not as simple as you know, I was talking to my daughter the other day, when when you have a stroke, it's not as clear as you know, when you break a bone, you break a finger you break even arm you know, it's six to eight weeks in a cast. It's a couple months, maybe at rehab at most, but it's it's kind of short term. With a stroke, it could be permanent. It could be short term recovery long term. It costs it, it stinks to hear but it it really depends. And the hardest thing I think is that it does take time. And even with patience and chipping away, you know, it's still taking me three years, it could take longer, it could take less. I think that's one of the hardest things is that you can put in a certain amount of work in any facet of your life after after a stroke or brain injury. And it's not quite as clear. I don't know how much you work or how much time you know, when I tried that too early on. I tried to put in a ton of work when I was at rehab and I think it helped certainly but I don't think There was no like clear cut, like, if you put in 2000 hours, you'll be good when 2000 hours is up, because I would have put 2000 hours in to fix everything as fast as I could have on. You know, that's one of the hard things to read. Took me a while to wrap my head around and still does to this day, three plus years into this route. So the next topic I want to touch on today is, you know, I think we've kind of wrapped up what walking is, and that metaphor for things and chipping away. But the next topic, again, is breathing. Now, this is a huge topic. And I think I might just kind of combine this with my last one. So breathing is something that people brought to my attention. during rehab, if you've been to a hospital, you know, they give you the spirometer they tell you to work on your breathing. One, they hand you the spirometer. And they basically throw their tray table. And they're like, Yeah, breathe when you have time. Okay, not helpful. Nobody suggests you know, now in hindsight is so obvious, right? Like, watch, watch the YouTube video of people using this watch, tick tock, watch anything, read more information. But I'm going to talk about breathing because I thought last year actually, when I was kind of figuring out where I wanted to go next, with my business, and coaching practice, I thought I might become a full time breathing coach after having had my eyes open to a world that I totally ignored. I think a lot of people, myself included, over estimate, we're under estimating that. And that sense how important breathing is to our lives. Breathing improves circulation, just general wellbeing, there are so many benefits to breathing, that I think are often overlooked, really not discussed because I think, and this is just what I think and this is what I've heard from people who are in the know people who are very kind of well known in the breathing community who I'll talk about in a little bit. We take it for granted, we all know the importance of breathing that plays in our life, to a degree. And what we know is actually probably not as much as we think. We're going to just say these things from my perspective, I bank. I did not ever realize how much of a mouth breather I was. Now when I say mouth breather, I don't necessarily mean what you probably think. I don't mean somebody who is just you can hear from 10 feet away. I mean, yeah, I am talking about them. But also there are plenty of people who are kind of mouth readers and they might be a little aware like myself I was aware slightly self conscious. I was a former smoker. But I knew it wasn't like terrible because either was mindful of it when I was in public or I just think until you really pay attention. You may not even realize because again, I will say with breathing we all sort of know how to breathe we it's not something we think about it because it happens involuntary. And if we're not breathing we sure as hell know right away that we are not breathing in there is a problem. But our brain is telling us there's a problem there is a major malfunction. We know if are not breathing at all right? But until you pay attention to your breathing you don't really know. And I will tell you this. I for a very long time. Most of my life I brush off any thought or breathing because I would hear terms like breathwork Well, that sounds annoying. That sounds like some I don't even know what that sounds like something that's a waste of my time and I don't want to hear about it. Because it just sounds stupid. However, however had somebody prior to last year, grabbed me by the face and said, Well, you had a stroke. You had undiagnosed sleep apnea. Can I suggest Have you read a book, or two or three or four? You are in fact, a mouth breather. While that is not technically problematic, you have been a mouth breather and a heavy mouth breather for the majority of your life, that is put your body under a surprisingly amount of undue stress that you could simply change with a little bit of effort. So I will go into this today. And we could probably do a much longer in depth episode on breathing specifically. And now, full disclosure, I believe somebody mentioned this book to me, I believe it was my sister, and then I believe somebody else mentioned the book to me in 2021. But neither time did anybody say, will you need to read this book? Now, full disclosure, the second person doesn't know me that well, the first person was my sister cat, who I love. Who knows, she probably should tell me and yell at me to my face. When she thinks something is important, I will absolutely listen. If she says will listen to me, hear me out. I'm listening. I believe we're all probably guilty of this, when somebody says something casually. It doesn't necessarily make me stop, pause and think. However, as usual, 18 months after she mentioned it, I fell upon it again last summer. I read breaths by James Nestor, it is a book well worth reading, if you are a and I will tell you why. A couple of reasons. If you're a stroke survivor, who maybe had undiagnosed sleep apnea, maybe you're looking for some early solutions, but walking is difficult, maybe you're in a wheelchair, like I found myself. You know, in hindsight, this would have been a terrific opportunity while in a wheelchair to do some work physically. Now, I did mind you, there were there were lots of machines at Brooks rehab. Those machines, once you leave rehab, they do not come with you necessarily. So once you get home, and you're in a wheelchair, so you're a little limited. Breathing would have been a great thing for me to really get into. And I did full disclosure in 2020 get into some things. I don't know if that's because of COVID Or because I am somewhat of a maniac and insist on trying to find solutions and was very viciously reading every book, finding everything I could find from other stroke survivors, some of which was good, some of which wasn't very helpful for me, there is a ton of doctoral intimate information for people going into the profession of being a physical therapist, occupational therapists, speech therapists, tons of integrations, stories of other individuals, less information of things that other individuals are trying to do. Which is one of the reasons for this podcast, I just want to share what I know what's inside my head with other people because it serves a purpose just staying up in my head. It's worked for me some of it, it hasn't. And I want to share that too. Like this didn't work for me, maybe it'll work for you. Like my whole goal with this podcast is to share knowledge. Because I don't think there are tons of survivors who are able to either do this or want to do this kind of stuff. Not everybody's as open as I am like I'm a very big dude who no longer works for a company I am. I have my own businesses like I can kind of say what I want do a degree I can push back I can tell you things that this has absolutely worked is absolutely hasn't worked. This may work for you. I'm not holding it to anybody like I just again, my main goal is to kind of share the information that has worked for me because I was looking for this a couple years ago so so that's why I'm doing this podcast and eventually hopefully doing some YouTube whether that's individual videos or this podcast with guests or a mixture of both. Because I feel like a spit I mean there's just not a ton of information. Think about it. Most stroke survivors are 65 and older. Not a lot of 65 and older YouTubers, but I'm sure there's The market for it, and I'm sure there are ones that will be doing it. And in recent years, I don't know if it's because of COVID, or the vaccine or some kind of combination. I don't know what's going on. I don't know the history of stroke, honestly, because I never paid attention until I had my stroke, which happened to be right before COVID. So like, there does seem like an uptick in stroke survivors under 65. I'd love to see some new information. In fact, I should probably go digging that. But yeah, Brett breathing. Real quick, you know, this episode is going a little long. But if you're interested, I think it's a great thing for any stroke survivor, because breathing has a lot of on it, like a lot of benefits on. And I think how it affects the individual is going to vary based on your, your scenario and how how you're currently bringing but I think, I think there are lots of promising benefits that are often overlooked. You know, you can think about it as a survivor. Maybe you don't deal with this, but I certainly do. You know, I don't think it's anxiety necessarily, but your life has changed, you know. So breathing up, we'll talk about breathing at a very surface level. You know, but I started to explore and I think when you read breath, if you read breath by James Neser, it's a great book. Another one I'm going to recommend is the oxygen advantage by Patrick McGowan. Full disclosure, I've done work with him to get certified with the oxygen advantage. They just released an app, he has a second book that was released in 2021. I think breathing Sure. Also really good. Very simple exercises that you can teach yourself, I think I'm going to build out part of my community with some breathing breath work. Because I think once you get past that terminology, and you start to realize, Oh, it's just breathing exercises, it really opens up a whole world. And again, there's a ton of stuff I could talk about with breathing you know, and things that I had overlooked and things that I really recommend. And just just for for the sake of recommending a fourth book here, I just want to recommend breeds by Alyssa ranek. Also a really good book. What I like about all these books is it's they're all sort of breadth is sort of the high level overarching books. James Messer was an investigative journalists, he looked into the breathing. There's a lot of info there. Patrick can. Linda's books are very specific. Patrick is great. Belinda seems great. I've never met her. They have a lot of techniques that can help you when you're getting started with breathing. Sort of tips and tricks. Like for example, I'll just give you one route right off the bat here, even though we'll go on long today is that I'll be honest, I have done a ton of radio and voiceover work in the past I've been around people. I knew the importance of nasal breathing, but I two huge things for me that really clicked with Patrick, I saw a video where he showed you how to unblock your nose. That for me was a game changer. Once I realized you could naturally unblock your nose. That was huge first separation and really getting into breathing and then Blender. I think what I liked about hers in particular was on her belly breathing. It sounds so silly when you read it at first. And you're like and you read it you're like how did I not understand this before? And I don't know maybe you do. Maybe you have no problem nasal breathing and maybe your your you know, I hope your breathing is great. But I think it's a really underestimated thing that nobody in the medical community and mentioned to me until I got into breath work this past summer and started going down this rabbit hole and then again talking to Patrick and taking some of his classes getting certified as an oxygen bandage coach, um, you know, and again, again, I think the last thing I'll say is it's funny too with the diaphragm. You hear about it people talk about all the time but it was always confusing to me and I never asked because I was too shy to ask anybody I don't understand and then I found out. The reason you don't really feel your diaphragm is because it has no nerve endings. It's just I had never thought probably because I was young and stupid. Never thought to look at an actual image of where the diaphragm was and how it actually worked, because that was another game changer for me. So anyways, please do look into breathing. If you are a recent stroke survivor, or it's definitely probably I would say one of the biggest things that has opened my eyes and last couple months, or last nine months now. Huge, huge, huge game changer. And again, I think if I had known about it sooner, it would have been more, you know, it's fine. I mean, I'm happy to know about it now. But it would have been useful, especially in the early days, when I was in a wheelchair, it was, you know, it's, it's something you could work on while you're not necessarily able to walk. So anyways, I think we're going to kind of wrap it up for this episode, I do want to mention a couple of things, I am in the process of creating a new website. That's a little more interactive. So I can start to get some newsletters out some some guests booked on this podcast. You know, we're going to see where that goes. So there will be a new revamped website coming out. And again, I think a newsletter will be great, because there's a lot of details, sometimes they get missed or forgotten on a particular show. Although the goal is to bring them up again, on the next show or another show, I think there's a lot of a lot of opportunity there for I want to be able to connect everybody. And then the last thing I'll say is, again, I think I've talked about it before, but I am in the process of building out a survivor community, specifically brain injury survivors. At first we'll see the direction that takes in the earliest stages of planning that out, I've had the tool for a while. But I really want to make sure it's planned out in a smart way so that we're all able to benefit from the community. Together, it will be membership fees. Yeah. And we'll we'll see. The goal is to build it out for everybody and that's you can head over to Spiro science.com and check that out. You can get to W email so you can get notified when we launch and I will probably do an episode when I launch here. Everybody knows y'all know emailers dropping some of them spamming.