How Rachel Paverman Overcame a Cavernoma and Hemorrhagic Stroke: A Story of Resilience and Hope

Recovery After Stroke

Overcoming a Cavernoma and Hemorrhagic Stroke: Rachel Paverman’s Inspiring Journey

When it comes to medical conditions that are both rare and life-altering, few people are familiar with the term “cavernoma.” Even fewer have experienced the terrifying ordeal of a hemorrhagic stroke caused by this condition. Rachel Paverman is one such individual. Her journey from diagnosis to recovery offers a powerful story of resilience, determination, and hope that is both inspiring and informative for anyone navigating similar challenges.

What is a Cavernoma?

A cavernoma, also known as a cavernous malformation, is a cluster of abnormal blood vessels, typically found in the brain or spinal cord. These vessels can be prone to leaking blood, leading to various neurological symptoms, including seizures, headaches, and in severe cases, hemorrhagic strokes. Unlike more common stroke causes, cavernomas are often congenital, meaning that individuals can live with them for years before any symptoms appear.

Rachel’s Diagnosis: From Cavernoma to Hemorrhagic Stroke

Rachel Paverman’s story began in June 2019 when she started experiencing troubling symptoms, including difficulty swallowing and neurological issues. After an initial misdiagnosis of an aneurysm, further tests revealed that Rachel had a brainstem cavernoma—a condition that would soon lead to a series of life-threatening events.

In September 2019, Rachel underwent her first surgery to address the cavernoma. However, her battle was far from over. Just a few months later, in December 2019, she experienced a hemorrhagic stroke due to a second bleed from the cavernoma. This event necessitated a second surgery, which unfortunately did not fully resolve the issue. Rachel’s condition worsened, leading to a third surgery later that same month.

The third surgery, which took place at the end of December 2019, involved a different approach and successfully removed the cavernoma. However, the damage caused by the hemorrhagic stroke left Rachel with significant challenges, including paralysis on her right side and hearing loss in her left ear.

The Road to Recovery After a Hemorrhagic Stroke

Recovering from a hemorrhagic stroke is a long and arduous process, and Rachel’s journey was no exception. After spending over two months in rehabilitation, she faced the reality of living with the lasting effects of the stroke. Her right-side paralysis required ongoing physical therapy, and her hearing loss made social interactions more challenging.

Despite these obstacles, Rachel has embraced her new reality with resilience and positivity. She continues to work on her recovery, participating in physical and occupational therapy multiple times a week. Her story is a testament to the importance of perseverance and the power of maintaining a positive mindset, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable challenges.

Sharing Her Story: From “To the Abyss” to Advocacy

Rachel’s experience with a cavernoma and hemorrhagic stroke inspired her to share her journey with the world. In her memoir, “To the Abyss,” she chronicles her experiences, offering readers an intimate look at the physical, emotional, and psychological challenges she faced. Her book has become a source of inspiration for others dealing with similar conditions, providing hope and encouragement for those navigating their own recovery journeys.

In addition to her writing, Rachel volunteers with the Alliance to Cure Cavernous Malformation, an organization dedicated to supporting those affected by cavernomas. Through her advocacy work, Rachel continues to raise awareness about cavernomas and hemorrhagic strokes, helping others find the resources and support they need.

Lessons from Rachel’s Journey

Rachel Paverman’s story offers valuable insights for anyone dealing with a cavernoma, hemorrhagic stroke, or other serious medical conditions. Some key takeaways from her journey include:

1. Early Detection is Crucial: Cavernomas can be present from birth but remain undetected until symptoms arise. Regular medical check-ups and paying attention to unusual symptoms can lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment.
2. Patience and Positivity in Recovery: Recovery from a hemorrhagic stroke, especially when caused by a condition like a cavernoma, is a slow and challenging process. Rachel emphasizes the importance of being patient with oneself and maintaining a positive outlook, even when progress seems slow.
3. Support Systems Matter: Rachel’s recovery was supported by her family, healthcare professionals, and the broader community. Having a strong support system can make a significant difference in the recovery process.
4. Advocacy and Awareness: Sharing her story through her memoir and volunteer work has allowed Rachel to help others and raise awareness about cavernomas and hemorrhagic strokes. Advocacy can be a powerful tool for healing and for supporting others who are going through similar experiences.

Conclusion: A Journey of Resilience and Hope

Rachel Paverman’s journey from diagnosis to recovery after a cavernoma and hemorrhagic stroke is a story of resilience, hope, and the power of the human spirit. Her experience serves as a reminder that even in the face of severe medical challenges, it is possible to find strength and make a meaningful recovery. For those affected by cavernomas or hemorrhagic strokes, Rachel’s story offers a beacon of hope and a roadmap for navigating the difficult road to recovery.

As Rachel continues her journey, she remains committed to helping others by sharing her story and advocating for awareness and support. Her message is clear: no matter how challenging the circumstances, with determination, patience, and support, it is possible to overcome the obstacles that life presents.

Rachel Paverman’s Recovery from Stroke, Cavernoma & Hemorrhagic Stroke

Discover Rachel Paverman’s inspiring journey from cavernoma to hemorrhagic stroke recovery. A story of resilience, hope, and determination.

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Highlights:

00:00 Introduction
01:03 Cavernoma And Early Symptoms Of A Stroke
07:01 Life After Surgery and Early Recovery From Cavernoma
13:03 Current Life and Adaptations
25:30 Writing A Book
32:39 Emotional And Mental Recovery
43:28 Dealing With Tarsorrhaphy
50:13 Hearing Issues After The Surgery
1:03:52 Lessons From The Stroke

Transcript:

Introduction Cavernoma – Rachel Paverman

Bill Gasiamis 0:00
Hello everybody, and welcome to episode 318 of the recovery after stroke podcast. In this episode, I’m honored to share the extraordinary journey of Rachel Paverman, who faced a cavernoma and multiple brain hemorrhages turned her life upside down.

Bill Gasiamis 0:18
At just 25 years old, Rachel underwent three brain surgeries, each more challenging than the last, leaving her with significant physical and neurological deficits. But Rachel’s story is not just about survival, it’s about resilience, finding purpose and redefining life after a traumatic brain event.

Bill Gasiamis 0:39
Join us as we explore Rachel’s path to recovery, the lessons she learned and the hope she offers to others facing similar battles. This is an episode that will leave you inspired and uplifted.

Bill Gasiamis 0:52
Rachel paverman, Welcome to the podcast.

Rachel Paverman 0:55
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so happy to be here.

Bill Gasiamis 1:00
Thank you for being here. Tell me a little bit about what happened to you.

Cavernoma And Early Symptoms Of A Stroke

Rachel Paverman 1:03
Yeah so back in 2019 when I was 25 years old, I was traveling for work a healthy 25 year old just started having her career. At this time, I live with my boyfriend, I was working a full-time advanced position where I traveled internationally as well as domestically, and I was doing really well at the start of my young career.

Rachel Paverman 1:31
I also worked in sports too, so I had a really great time doing that, and then one morning I woke up and I was having trouble swallowing, and I was having other weird neurological symptoms. I couldn’t hold my pen as tight or do my makeup in the morning, and I would get dizzy at random times, and I couldn’t really put my finger on like, what exactly was happening.

Rachel Paverman 2:00
So I think it took about two months. So this started in June, and in September of 2019, I had a MRI, which showed they thought at the time that it was an aneurysm, but what it actually was something called a cavernous malformation, and i t was on my brain stem, and it was about three centimeters.

Rachel Paverman 2:30
So I did have my first operation an open brain surgery on September 26 of 2019 to remove it. From there, I went to rehab, and I was doing better, and then in December of 2019, early December, I had another bleed. So the cavernoma was still in fact in my brain, and they had not realized that.

Rachel Paverman 3:00
So I did have a second lead at that time, which then led me to have a second surgery on December 10 to remove it. My neurosurgeon was out of the country at that time, so one of his colleagues performed the surgery, and then in the next couple of weeks, when I was in rehab, I had further decline, to the point where I wasn’t able to talk or sit up on my own or walk or hear or see anything.

Rachel Paverman 3:34
So I was in the process of having a feeding tube put in, and they called for an emergency surgery for me, I was just declining so quickly, and at that time, they went through a different site, so they went through the back of my brain, and from that they realized that the cavernoma was still there, and It had exploded in my brain stem, so I had hydrocephalus and all these other things going on, and I was left with a multitude of deficits.

Rachel Paverman 4:10
But on December 30, that was my third surgery, and I spent about two months in rehab, but I had my third surgery at that point, and at that point it was fully removed. So I’m not left with a cavernoma any longer, but I’m left with a a bunch of deficits.

Bill Gasiamis 4:35
The obvious question is, how did they miss it two times? What Is that even a thing like, what, what went on there? Do you, I don’t even know how to say it, like I have. They’ve been able to explain that?

Rachel Paverman 4:50
Yeah. So the thing is, like with cavernomas, we I was afraid at the time to do research, which is kind of stupid on my part. I was really distrusting my surgeon, who was the chief of Neurosurgery at the hospital that I was at, so I knew that he was a great surgeon, but what I didn’t realize was that he wasn’t a CCM cavernoma specialist who was just a great neurosurgeon.

Rachel Paverman 5:20
So I think, like, what really had happened was the brain stem is such a delicate area that he had explained to me that you can’t just move things around and try to find what you’re looking for, because it’s so sensitive. So they took out what they thought was all of it, and they just kept missing the whole thing.

Bill Gasiamis 5:43
Right, okay, so they kept missing the whole thing, and then they were reporting that they had done the job.

Rachel Paverman 5:56
I’m sorry?

Bill Gasiamis 5:57
Were they reporting that they had done the job? it was successful.

Rachel Paverman 6:01
We believed that they had got the whole thing. But I think what happened was, after my second surgery, my surgeon was out of the country, so I think that they were trying to stabilize me and hope that they would have gotten it all, but the guy that was really supposed to be devoted, it wasn’t around. So I think if he was around, and might have avoided a third surgery, but he was actually out of the country speaking at a conference about my case, ironically. So he wasn’t there, and I think I could have avoided a third surgery, if it was but I’m not really sure.

Bill Gasiamis 6:46
Yeah. So now you’re dealing with what the outcome of the third surgery was. So did you have deficits when you woke up from the second surgery, or did they come on as the cavernoma started to play up.

Life After Surgery and Early Recovery From Cavernoma

Rachel Paverman 7:01
Yeah, so I did have some deficits, but nothing to the extent of what I currently have. So what led me to have my second surgery, I had a bleed, and the bleed happened overnight, and what happened where I woke up was I was completely paralyzed on my right side, so I wasn’t able to move my arm and my leg. To this day, I’m still not able to have feeling like on that side or anything.

Rachel Paverman 7:36
So that was kind of the alarm that went off and made everyone realized, I think you need another surgery. And, yeah, I mean, it was definitely I was having some issues swallowing as well. But I think the main thing was the fact that I had lost, like all abilitlies, to move half of my body.

Bill Gasiamis 8:02
How long did you spend in hospital after that third surgery? Rachel.

Rachel Paverman 8:06
So after the third surgery, I would say I spent about eight to 10 days in the ICU, and then I was moved to a step down unit, and then from there, I was transferred to an inpatient rehab facility, and I spent about a month and a half there. So I was in the hospital until the end of February.

Bill Gasiamis 8:34
And then when you went home, what challenges did you experience physically?

Rachel Paverman 8:40
Yeah, so I was released from the hospital on February 22nd and the covid pandemic started on March 16th or 17th. So I had just started in rehab, and I was so early on in my recovery that I really didn’t know what to do on my own, and shortly after I started at therapy, my therapy had shut down because of the pandemic, so I was really left on my own with my mom and my stepdad, and we’re kind of just figuring it out on our own.

Rachel Paverman 9:20
At this time. I lived with my boyfriend at the time, but I moved out and moved in with my mom because he was still working, and I was really afraid, so fresh out of surgery, to be exposed to covid at the time, it was so such a scary thing, so.

Bill Gasiamis 9:46
Yeah, you’ve just had all these interventions, and then you’ve come home and you need to repair and recover and heal and you’re hearing about covid and we don’t know anything about it, and it’s pretty dramatic.

Rachel Paverman 9:59
Yeah, yeah. You know, it’s funny. I actually thought, like, it was so crazy to me that I had brain surgery, and then it was so crazy to me that covid shut the whole world down that I got out of the hospital and I’m like, Is this real life? Like, am I dreaming? Like, this is so crazy, like everything was just so bizarre to me, like I couldn’t wrap my head around it.

Intro 10:28
If you’ve had a stroke and you’re in recovery, you’ll know what a scary and confusing time it can be. You’re likely to have a lot of questions going through your mind, like, how long will it take to recover? Will I actually recover? What things should I avoid in case I make matters worse? Doctors will explain things, but obviously, you’ve never had a stroke before. You probably don’t know what questions to ask. If this is you? you may be missing out on doing things that could help speed up your recovery.

Intro 10:58
If you’re finding yourself in that situation, stop worrying and head to recoveryafterstroke.com, where you can download a guide that will help you. It’s called “Seven questions to ask your doctor about your stroke”. 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.

Bill Gasiamis 11:28
Your 25 year old self has kind of crossed that threshold where you realized you were unwell and you’re going through all this stuff to try and heal your brain and trying to get that particular blood vessel, the cavernous malformation, out of there. Before that event, what was life like? How did you go about day to day life, and were there anything? Any signs or symptoms that you look back on now and think or maybe that was giving me some information about something I didn’t know was in my head.

Rachel Paverman 12:15
Yeah, definitely. So I all my life, I was always told my doctors that I was in the gray area. I was told I have Crohn’s disease, I didn’t have it. I was told I had Fibromyalgia, I was told I had like Hypothyroidism, and I all my life I was just always in the gray area, and I never could figure out what was the root cause of me not feeling well. So for me, a lot of the symptoms that I had were gastrointestinal. I had so many issues with my stomach, and I don’t know if it’s because I was anxious, because my brain wasn’t right and something was off in my brain.

Current Life And Adaptations After Cavernoma

Rachel Paverman 13:03
But I also remember, like over the years. So for as long as I can remember, I would always have like, these random disease spells, and I’ve had them forever. So for me, I didn’t know that it wasn’t normal to in fact, until the cavernoma was taken out, and I realized, like, okay, that’s not really something that should have been happening, but I didn’t really know any different.

Rachel Paverman 13:32
And then my surgeon also told me that it’s something that I was born with, and then it was likely just growing over the years, and then when I did finally get to figure out what it was and that I had this in my brain, I had already experienced like two, I think it was two bleeds at that time. So my surgeon said that he can tell by the color of blood to see how many bleeds that I have experienced. And by this time it was removed, I think they said that I have total of like five fleets.

Rachel Paverman 14:14
So yeah, so I definitely had some prior to discovering it, which I think that might have an idea as to when those happened. And I think that one of them was when I woke up and had issues swallowing, but I’m not quite sure when the other one was.

Bill Gasiamis 14:34
Right, okay, that’s interesting, right? So waking up and not being able to swallow. What did you think that you just forgot to swallow, or you didn’t know how, or there was something wrong with your throat?

Rachel Paverman 14:49
Yeah, it was. It’s the craziest. I can’t even explain like, it’s like, it’s not that I couldn’t swallow. I knew how to swallow. I just like my brain wasn’t communicating with my body to tell me to swallow. So I know, I knew I had water right now, I knew how to swallow it, but when I went to swallow it, my brain just like they felt like it was just a block on my brain that wouldn’t let me do it. It was, it was really scary, and I was brushed off by a lot of people who thought, Oh you’re fine, It’s just your anxiety, like you should go see a therapist.

Rachel Paverman 15:33
So I started doing therapy. I went to my primary care physician, and she told me that she would do scans on my throat to see if maybe I had something going on in my throat or something. So nobody was looking at my brain as a cause. They were looking at everything else.

Bill Gasiamis 15:58
Yeah, which kind of makes sense that they wouldn’t think of the brain, because it could be another a number of other issues. You know that your your age is an issue. They look at you and they say, well, she’s very young. Uh, she’s probably doing something crazy, or, who knows what? How long did it last for the not being able to swallow, though, and also, did that mean that you didn’t eat food as well?

Rachel Paverman 16:29
So it started in June, and then I didn’t get my diagnosis until September, so it wasn’t too, too long, but I didn’t ever have an issue where I wasn’t able to eat, but I would cough a lot when I was trying to, like, sip on water, it would just, like, slip down my throat before I could swallow it, and then with food, I just had to eat very slow, because I it took a while for my brain to connect to understand that I needed to swallow it.

Bill Gasiamis 17:07
Yeah. So what’s life like now? What? How do you go about life? How to how have you adjusted to your body? What are the things that you do to occupy time with.

Rachel Paverman 17:24
Of course. So I’m almost five years out. In September, it will be five years. So I’m currently still doing physical therapy three days a week, occupational therapy two days a week, and I published a memoir. So a couple years out, I have, I wrote down all the memories that I have of my surgery during covid, and then I spent a lot of time editing it and just going through that and creating journal entries to add on, and I published a memoir in 2022 some of the things that I love enjoying now.

Rachel Paverman 18:09
Which are a little bit different from what I was able to do in the past, but I always love working out, so I have a bike at home, So I do that, and I do adaptive CrossFit. I love listening to audiobooks and podcasts. I love going to parks and cooking. And then something else that I’ve been doing is the organization that works closely with cavernous malformation is called Alliance to care Cavernous Malformation. So I’ve been volunteering with them, and it’s changed my life, to say the least.

Rachel Paverman 18:47
It’s it’s been absolutely amazing to me. It’s an organization that’s for that is for those that are affected by cavernous malformation, and they just bring research community support and multiple resources for the community and everyone affected by CCM. So it’s a cause that’s very close to my heart, and although I don’t have a capitalist malformation in my brain anymore, I think that it’s so important to just create a future that could be CCM free for the future generations that are dealing with the genetic type, or if they have a type like I have, that’s sporadic, that wasn’t able to be operated on.

Rachel Paverman 19:37
So my mission in myself, I should just make sure that the there’s hope for the future, and make people see that meeting positive can really affect like the way they recover and the way that they see things, and also the alliance structure is the. They introduced me to the company that I now work for. So I work for a company called Avid Therapeutics, and they are a bio pharmaceutical company, and what they’re doing is looking to find a cure for CCM. And they took me on early in the year, and I’ve been working with them doing a lot of like social media, internal events as well as branding.

Rachel Paverman 20:28
And I’m just so happy to be a part of the team and kind of just work closely with them to help them meet their goals, and my goals are aligning with their goals, so it’s really just a great master. I’m so happy to be working there and kind of back in the workforce again.

Bill Gasiamis 20:47
Just a quick break, and we’ll be right back with Sonny’s incredible journey. But first, I wanted to take a moment to talk about something that’s been a big part of my own recovery journey, and that is my book, The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened. In it, I share my personal story and that of nine other stroke survivors who have turned their challenges into opportunities for growth. If you’re looking for inspiration and guidance on your path to recovery, this book is for you to get your copy, just visit Amazon or visit recoveryafterstroke.com/book.

Bill Gasiamis 21:22
What was it about volunteering that was important before you knew all the benefits of it, you decided that you’ll volunteer. Why did you make that decision?

Rachel Paverman 21:35
So, I made that decision because I hadn’t. I’ve been I was always so interested in my job and what I did my career, and I spent a few years trying to figure out what my purpose was, and I was really focused on recovering, and I’m at the point now where I wanted to get back into the workforce slowly. So they really helped me integrate back into the workforce and use my brain in different ways than I was used to working. So it was a really great stepping stone for me, and I’m so grateful that I had the opportunity, and do still have the opportunity to do that.

Bill Gasiamis 22:21
Yeah. So I volunteered as well. About a year after I became unwell, I still had the arteriovenous malformation in my head for a few more years after that, at the Stroke Foundation, and it was really good to volunteer to do something for somebody else, and then I met other people there that were like me, and that’s kind of the first time I started to get involved with a community around stroke. And everyone was injured in their own unique way from stroke, and it didn’t, and it kind of, I met people that I felt like knew what it was like to be me and vice versa.

Rachel Paverman 23:14
Yeah, it’s so important in the community.

Bill Gasiamis 23:17
And it was something,. It’s the it’s a really cool place to find community. And immediately people know, understand you. Immediately people know what you’re going through, what’s happened. And it’s a very interesting, unique experience to co to go from nobody knows what I’m going through. I don’t know how to explain it to people. Nobody gets me. Everyone misunderstands me to immediately being understood and immediately people empathizing with your situation.

Rachel Paverman 23:47
So I totally understand that. Yeah, I totally agree with you. I think that the community is such a important part of recovery and just having people that relate to you. It’s just like an indescribable bond that you can’t really experience withpeople that you’ve known your whole life, that that might not know like what you’re going through. So I totally agree with that

Bill Gasiamis 24:18
You seem like you’ve taken all of this stuff in your stride, just by the short conversation that we’ve had so far. But was it really hard to wake up and discover that a lot of your body has been impacted negatively?

Rachel Paverman 24:33
It was definitely a tough pill to swallow at first, and I think that there are days that I still do struggle with that I think that it’s only normal to have, like, good days and bad days. I just try to stay as positive as I can be, because I feel like that’s the only thing I can do, like, there’s only so much that you have control over. Here, and I think that if that’s something that I can control, I want to control that.

Rachel Paverman 25:06
And yes, it’s tough that, you know, I was 25 and active and traveling and hiking and snowboarding and stuff, and I can’t do that now, but I’m just very grateful to be alive, because it could have ended a very different way, and I just have to remember to be grateful for that every day.

Writing A Book: To The Abyss

Bill Gasiamis 25:30
Let’s talk about your memoir a little, do you have a copy there by any chance?

Rachel Paverman 25:35
I do, yes.

Bill Gasiamis 25:37
Just hold it up to the camera.

Rachel Paverman 25:40
This is my memoir. It’s called To The Abyss.

Bill Gasiamis 25:45
Yep, and give me an idea of what the chapters are about. What’s in there?

Rachel Paverman 25:52
Yeah. So it’s really a book that’s it’s very heavy content, but I try to make it as light as that can be.

Bill Gasiamis 26:01
That’s quite the task is that your first book?

Rachel Paverman 26:06
It is, yeah. I’ve never written.

Bill Gasiamis 26:11
So, not only are you not a writer and it’s your first book, you also have to write about some of the heaviest content that you could possibly write about, and your thoughts are on the reader, it’s to kind of try and make it easy for them to read yeah.

Rachel Paverman 26:27
Yeah. I mean, I’ve gotten a lot of feedback that says that I did a good job at trying to make it easy for people to read. A lot of people have told me, like, it’s a book they just couldn’t put down because they just want to know, like, what happened next.

Rachel Paverman 26:43
So it’s basically just a recollection of what I remembered from life prior to my cavernoma, life during, the discovery of my cavernoma and my surgeries, because I do even when I was at the point where I wasn’t able to talk, I still have very vivid memories of what went on that part of my brain wasn’t affected.

Rachel Paverman 27:11
So there would be times where I wasn’t able to speak, but I knew exactly what was happening, so I wrote that all down, and then the end of the book is just turned on trees for about a year. So I did that, and it’s just documenting like what the early stages of life are like for me after I had all the surgeries and stuff.

Bill Gasiamis 27:37
Why did you decide to write the book?

Rachel Paverman 27:40
So what really inspired me to write a book is that my mom used to sit with me in ICU, and I used to not be able to see anything, so she would get memoirs from other people who had brain injuries and just read them to me. So that’s really what inspired me. There was one specific author that, had her surgery somewhere close to where I lived, and then she had her rehab experience at the same hospital that I have it at. So I was really inspired by her story.

Bill Gasiamis 28:23
Why is it important to read other people’s books and to get an understanding of other stories about stroke recovery? Now you’re, you’re reading the book X amount of years out after the stroke, right? What are you trying to do, what? How are you trying to use that book? What’s the point of it?

Rachel Paverman 28:44
The point of my book is to really just inspire other people and show other people, especially the CCM community, that anything is possible, and just be positive and try to put your best foot forward every day, and what we’re going through is definitely difficult, and you know, I I can understand that, and I just want other people to know that it’s okay and that I understand there’s other people that understand, and there’s something good on the other side of it.

Bill Gasiamis 29:22
But some people, so you may know that I’ve written a book The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened. It’s basically describing that there’s some good things that come at the end of it afterwards, and it comes through personal growth and by doing certain things that help improve your condition. Don’t matter how bad your situation is, you can always improve your condition somehow.

Bill Gasiamis 29:48
And it’s really that. It’s about telling people that down the road, when you reflect back, there might be some personal growth, there’s some opportunities that came up as a result of your. Or experience that you never imagined were possible, is that your experience all these are there, are there things that you reflect on that seemed really terrible at the time, but looking back, there are some silver linings and some awesome opportunities that have appeared.

Rachel Paverman 30:20
Definitely. I mean, I was just saying to someone yesterday, obviously, what happened to me was very terrible, but I lost my ability to drive. And the silver lining is that I see my parents a lot more now. I wasn’t I was never not close with them, but I see that a lot more frequently now than I used to, and it’s made us closer. I’ve also got closer with my sister, and I’ve also been, you know, just I’ve been given opportunities that have only come about because I’ve I’ve went through what I’ve went through and I experienced sort of experience, and I just life is just like different for me now.

Bill Gasiamis 31:10
Yeah, what are the some of the major challenges that still trying to overcome right now?

Rachel Paverman 31:19
For me, I would say the biggest challenge is accessibility. So I use a walker, and I also use a wheelchair depending on what I’m doing or where I am. And I think, like I actually listened to a podcast recently, and someone made a very good point that if you’re disabled, like we’re not living in a disabled world. So we’re trying to navigate in a world of people who aren’t really, I mean, the world isn’t accommodating always to people with disabilities.

Rachel Paverman 31:58
If you never experience that, I don’t think you’d like realize it, but because I I don’t think I did. But now that I’m living in that world, I see, you know, is there a push place to get in, all the doors? Is there ramps? Is there grab bars in the bathrooms? And I’m finding that there’s really, there are in some places, but overall, I would say no, and it’s it’s really unfortunate, and I think that maybe it’s something that eventually the world can change in the future, but as of right now, that’s something I really struggle with.

Emotional And Mental Recovery After Cavernoma

Bill Gasiamis 32:39
You struggle with it, physically, obviously, navigating the obstacles, but you also struggle with it, emotionally and mentally.

Rachel Paverman 32:48
I do, so I see therapist, and he’s definitely helped me a lot. But I think, like, the one thing that I really struggled to move past is the fact that, like, my life is so different now, and I just, I think that, like, my life before, I always say, like, I don’t know who that version of Rachel is anymore. I don’t even remember, like, what it’s like to get in my car and go get a cup of coffee or just be able to do like what I want on my own time. I depend on a lot of other people for things that I used to be able to do on my own. So that’s something I think mentally, that I struggle with the most.

Bill Gasiamis 33:43
Where do you live? Which part of the United States.

Rachel Paverman 33:48
I live in New Jersey.

Bill Gasiamis 33:51
And what’s it like navigating the sidewalks and the roads and all that kind of stuff with a wheelchair?

Rachel Paverman 33:56
So it really depends on the town and I think for the most part, I have no key time doing that. But I said earlier, I like to go to parks, and the issue with that is that there aren’t a lot of accessible parks, and there I found a few, and those are the ones that I frequent and visit most often. But I struggle with like, I guess, you know, like, I’ve had surgeries in New York City, and there’s no way that I could live in New York City.

Rachel Paverman 34:35
I feel like the roads there and the sidewalks are so difficult and uneven and but here in New Jersey, I think, like the parks and stuff, and trying to find places where I can go to enjoy I struggle with more so than I guess, like the sidewalk scenario.

Bill Gasiamis 34:57
Yeah, many years ago we traveled to. Athens in Greece, and it was just after my first brain bleed, when I say just after, it was about nine months, 10 months after my first brain bleed, and my condition still wasn’t resolved. But of course, I had the opportunity to understand what it was like to have a brain injury and a condition that made life quite difficult at the time, and I remember trying to walk on their particular footpaths, what we call footpaths, you guys call sidewalks. And they don’t really have anything that’s useful to actually walk on.

Bill Gasiamis 35:50
I mean, it’s so terrible the condition of the paths in the city of Athens most normal, able bodied people wouldn’t be able to navigate them properly because they’re so narrow, they don’t fit a number of people in there. Some of them have steps from the buildings, decreasing the space that people have to walk on. Some of them have trees in the middle of the path, and they’re made out of what is now very shiny marble that maybe wasn’t very shiny back in the day when they first built it. So they’re very slippery, so in the rain, they’re really treacherous to navigate.

Bill Gasiamis 36:34
And when we were there in 2013 my cousin has an injury to one of her legs, and as a result, she can’t walk the way that able bodied people can walk. She really relies on steady ground, a good surface, with grip, etc. And she took us out into the city, and just helping her get to and from the car and the destination that we were going to was quite a task, because she was, you could tell she was concerned about finding her feet the entire time, like every step was a safe step for her to take, and then at one point, she slipped and fell and she broke her other she fractured her other leg, and it was such a terrible example of how inaccessible a lot of places are now.

Bill Gasiamis 37:35
Where we live in Melbourne, in Australia, it’s very accessible in that they’ve taken. They’ve put a lot of time and thought into the roads and the paths and how people might navigate a path. Most paths are quite wide, two people could easily walk on a path going either direction or even next to each other, and then they’ve got those little in the curbs, they’ve got those little ramps that go down one curb and up the other curb. So if you had a wheelchair, you could easily roll down the curb and then you can go up the next one. And they’re not they’re not that steep at all.

Bill Gasiamis 38:14
They’re very well maintained. And one of the things that they’re trying to do now is make public transport more accessible. So when you go to a train station, anybody in a wheelchair should be able to just drive straight into the train and park in a spot that’s been allocated for people with wheelchairs. And also, we’ve got a tram system here, and the sort of lagging behind in that area of getting the trams to the right state where people can also drive up and enter the tram in exactly the same way that they would have trained.

Bill Gasiamis 38:56
So there’s only in the particular area that we live the the tram line is missing some platforms at certain stops, and even that, when I look at it, and I think about somebody in a wheelchair trying to get say to the central business district from our area, and if they can’t get to the train station, and they go by tram. They have to get to a tram that’s to stop, that’s further away, perhaps from where they live or where they want to go, and if you have to do that in the rain, that’s really uncomfortable.

Bill Gasiamis 39:34
If you have to do it in cold weather, it’s uncomfortable. In hot weather, it’s really uncomfortable. It makes the effort that somebody in a wheelchair has to put in way more effort they require way more effort to get the same outcome that other people would have. You ever found yourself in a situation where you’re in the wheelchair and you’re stranded or you’re impacted by the weather, and then that’s kind of ruined your intention to go to a particular place.

Rachel Paverman 40:09
Well, it’s not weather related, but something comes to mind that actually happened yesterday, I was at a venue for a sporting event, and there was supposed to be a ramp that or a lift that brought you up the steps, you go on the wheelchair, and then it brings you up the steps. It’s like automatic, and it wasn’t working. So it wasn’t available for me to use with a wheelchair.

Rachel Paverman 40:45
So the security guard was like, oh, you know, can you walk like, are you able to walk like, I mean, yeah, but I can walk, but do I have to? And it was only a few steps up, which was fine, and I had no problem doing it, because I’m able to, but I really felt for people who could have been there that day, that were in a wheelchair, that weren’t able to walk, and what would happen then, you know, so It’s just interesting to see, like, when you’re when you’re somebody that’s in a wheelchair that needs that type of health.

Rachel Paverman 41:28
It’s hard for people who don’t understand that to like, relate to it and understand like, why those things are so important. And yeah, I think too. I went to a wedding a few months ago, and the vet like, it’s, you know, the venue was not very accessible, and the reasoning behind that was because they said it was a historical venue, so that way they were grandfathered in. And I had a family member that was in a wheelchair, and she really struggled to get around also.

Rachel Paverman 42:10
So for me, I was in a wheelchair, but I’m able to walk and get around and get through those difficult situations, but there are people that can’t, and it’s just really sad sometimes to see like how the world is, and people don’t always understand that, and they’re not always empathetic to that.

Bill Gasiamis 42:33
Yeah, they’re not willing to help out, because they don’t understand how important it is to go down that path and help somebody in a situation like that, when a historical building is the excuse, does that mean that they are not allowed to interfere with that historical building, or they are or they have an exemption from making it accessible?

Rachel Paverman 43:00
I’m not actually sure, but I think when we were told that, I believe that it was because they were grandfathered in, so that way they didn’t feel like they needed to make it accessible, because they had gotten away with it not being accessible, and they wouldn’t get in trouble for that. But I can’t really speak on it, because I’m not exactly sure, but that’s kind of what I was taking away from it.

Dealing With Tarsorrhaphy

Bill Gasiamis 43:28
Yep. Fair enough. I also noticed your one of your lenses on your glasses is, what do we call it?

Rachel Paverman 43:38
It’s fogged out yeah.

Bill Gasiamis 43:40
Fogged out. So what does that help you deal with?

Rachel Paverman 43:45
So after my surgeries, I had a Tarsorrhaphy So they had essentially stitched my eyes shut because I wasn’t I don’t produce tears and I don’t blink. So on there to protect it, and then I had that on for about two years, and they opened my eye up, but I now experience double vision. So when I blur out one side of my glasses, it helps relieve the double vision and rest my eyes a little bit.

Rachel Paverman 44:22
Because I also have nystagmus, so my eyes are also bouncing up and down like a basketball all the time. So that mixed with seeing double of everything is very exhausting, so I use these when I’m on the computer or on my sunglasses to kind of help make it a little bit easier on my eyes.

Bill Gasiamis 44:50
When you say it’s exhausting, is it physically exhausting?

Rachel Paverman 44:54
I honestly, I think it’s mentally exhausting. I will, It’s so hard for me, like, when I’m having a conversation with somebody, to focus on their eyes, and there’s right legs and my my eyes are moving around. So there’s just a lot going on in my head. So when my eyes aren’t right, it kind of just, like, adds to that. So for me, I think it’s more mentally exhausting, but it’s also physically exhausting at the end of the day.

Bill Gasiamis 45:29
Yeah, when you say mentally exhausting, it’s not psychologically exhausting, although that would also impact people. I get that like it, it exhausts your brain, right? Does that tell that what you mean? Yeah.

Rachel Paverman 45:42
I think too, I was telling someone recently at supermarkets, I don’t know if you experience this, the lights are just so bright fluorescent. And I actually just heard that the reason behind that is because it makes the all the fruits and vegetables look fresher. So because wherever I’m in, like Walmart or food shopping, I have to wear sunglasses because it’s so bright, and it really just like hurts my head, and there’s just so much like stimulation happening between that and trying to look at the shelves and everything on the shelves.

Bill Gasiamis 46:27
I’m sitting here in front of a light that’s right there, and one to the left of me, and they’re fluorescent in color. They’re sort of bright white, and it’s important for having a decent image when I record, and it’s so tiring, like the one hour podcast episode that I sit here, I get through them, and I’m kind of used to it, and as soon as it’s done, the lights are off and I’m outside trying to recover, but it is so tiring, And I would love to use sunglasses on a podcast interview.

Bill Gasiamis 47:03
If I could. I never have, but it would be great, but I do, yeah, I should, but it doesn’t make a for a good visual. And it’s only an hour, it’s only an hour like it’s temporary, and it’s not every day. But I do also struggle with lights that are fluorescent in shopping centers or stores or offices or anywhere where I go. And at our house, the lights go off. There’s no lights on above my head. So if I’m sitting, unless we’re sitting and eating dinner, which is necessary to have some lighting above the head, that’s all good.

Bill Gasiamis 47:49
But if we’re sitting down, just chilling out watching TV, the lights might be on other parts of the room, further away, but next to me, there’ll be a lamp that’s got a really warm glow light globe so that I don’t have to deal with lights like that. And in our bedroom, I’ve got this little battery operated string lights, and then they’ve got little LEDs on them. You can buy them at the hardware store, and they’re really designed for they’re called, like, fairy lights.

Bill Gasiamis 48:25
They’re really designed for events. You know, you put them in the back yard when you’re having a nighttime event, and they make pretty little light features. And I use those as my night light so that it’s nice and dim. It just creates enough light so it’s not dark, but it doesn’t stimulate my head just before I go to bed, and in the in the evenings, if I wake up and go to the toilet, I try and do it in the dark. I try not to switch on any lights, because.

Rachel Paverman 48:59
Me too, I do the same thing. That’s so funny.

Bill Gasiamis 49:01
Yeah, right, okay, so that’s gotta be a thing that heaps of people do, because if I open the lights, I switch the lights on, then I wake up, and then it’s impossible to get back to bed, and then I’m not rested. Same issue. Yeah. So I’ve really got good at navigating my my house at night in the dark, and getting little jobs like that done in the middle of the night, and even getting some water. I try to make sure that I don’t switch on any of the lights. It’s just not worth it, right? Have a really massive impact on the brain.

Rachel Paverman 49:40
The same thing. The only problem is that the lights are off and I’m on the toilet or something, and my vision is so bad that I think, like, there’s someone from like, the corner of my eye on my paranoid I’m like, Oh my God. I think someone’s like, in my apartment. Like every night, and it’s obviously never the case, but my eyes are so bad, ours my brain, and it’s like tricking me into thinking something’s there when it’s not.

Hearing Issues After The Cavernoma Surgery

Bill Gasiamis 50:13
Yeah, you have to rely on your ears for that then? Did you get any impact on your ear on that side as well?

Rachel Paverman 50:25
Oh, yeah. So actually, I forgot to mention, after my first surgery, to access the cavernoma, they had to cut through the surgical site is behind my left ear, and to access my brainstem, they had to cut my hearing nerve. So I have total hearing loss in my left ear, and that was a result of my surgery, rather than the fleet.

Bill Gasiamis 50:57
Okay, so that’s why is definitely impacted really heavily, and perhaps part of the reason why your book is so heavy. Do you go into detail describing the kind of challenges that you are facing with regards to your body in the book?

Rachel Paverman 51:16
Well, the problem is that, like early on in my recovery, I was very like sheltered, and because covid was happening, I wasn’t in the community so much, but I didn’t write about that in my book so much. But as I’m back in the world now and experiencing life every day, I’m realizing how much of an issue having no hearing really is and I don’t know if it’s because I have trauma to my brain and I have trouble processing sounds, or if it’s because I truly, like can’t hear.

Rachel Paverman 51:58
But if I’m in a setting where there’s multiple conversations happening at once, like there is absolutely no shot that I would be able to hear you, and it’s something that I’ve struggled with, like, almost more so than some of the other deficits, just because it’s, it’s it’s really hard to be social and to be myself when I’m not able to hear and I’m embarrassed that I’m going to say something that’s not the correct answer because I didn’t hear correctly. So I tend to stay quiet when I’m out, and that’s mostly due to the fact that I have trouble hearing.

Bill Gasiamis 52:43
Okay, so that’s a common thing. Like I hear about a lot of strokes of overs who say that they struggle with conversations even if they haven’t got hearing loss. The multiple streams of information makes it really tiring for the brain and really hard for them to keep track of multiple conversations, and they often take a step back in those situations.

Bill Gasiamis 53:12
Do you feel like you take a step back? Because what is it like? It wouldn’t be embarrassing, would it if you said the wrong thing or gave the wrong answer to a question that you didn’t hear properly? People mostly understand, don’t they? Isn’t it kind of okay or like they just what is it? Is a confidence thing? Is it a?

Rachel Paverman 53:38
I’m not exactly sure, like what it is, but I think part of it is the fact that, like, I don’t always speak up for myself, and I don’t always tell people hey, I don’t have hearing in this eye. So like, I might not always understand you, and it’s really hard sometimes to be so I have, I have a boyfriend now, and we go out a lot, and if we’re trying to be social around other people, I’m very particular about like, where I feel comfortable being and who I’m comfortable being around.

Rachel Paverman 54:14
Like, if I’m meeting new people, I would much rather meet them in the quiet of my house, rather than out at like a loud restaurant in the evening. But if I do know you, and you know my situation, and you know that it’s hard for me to hear, then I’m totally fine with being in a loud setting. But if I’m first meeting you, I’d really like to make like an impression for people to see, like the real me and not the me be out and not able to hear much.

Bill Gasiamis 54:50
I hear you. Okay, so that’s that’s pretty smart, actually. That gets you kind of gets you feeling good about. The encounter in the first place, you can build rapport with that person. You can get to know them. They can get to know you. Instead of being in a public place where you’ve met somebody and then having to tell them, I can’t say probably from this eye, or I can’t hear from this ear, and go through all of the rundown on all of the things that you can’t do, most people wouldn’t know how to react to all of that anyway, but I like that picking your location, that’s a really good way to overcome some of that.

Rachel Paverman 55:30
I just. I just want people to see my personality and see who I am as a person. Like I would like to say that I’m pretty outgoing, but if I’m in a public setting, like there’s a lot of times when I don’t show that I’m outgoing because I’m just so timid, because I’m afraid of what to say, or not being able to hear or having offered this when I say what, 10 times in a row, I don’t know. I just, I don’t know. It’s created a lot of, like, social anxiety for me. I think, like, part of it is covid, but also part of it is the fact that I have trouble hearing it.

Bill Gasiamis 56:14
Yeah. Look, I think you’re overthinking it, but it’s also good to protect yourself in that way. If you feel like you need to kind of step back. There’s nothing wrong with that as well. You don’t always have to be outgoing. You don’t always have to be the life of the party. You can take a step back and be somebody who just sort of observes and listens rather than totally gets involved.

Bill Gasiamis 56:37
There’s no issue with that. But if it’s a but if you’re overthinking it, and you’re kind of getting in your own way, that’s something to consider as well, like, if most people aren’t, if you’re in a place where you know most people, no one’s going to really take it the wrong way. If you have to say, what, what did you say? Or what was that about? But I get you trying to avoid the difficulty of a conversation that normally would flow, and then it kind of gets interrupted by all of the the Watts and the I didn’t hear that. Or can you repeat that?

Rachel Paverman 57:14
Right, It’s, it’s, actually, it’s very interesting that you say that you know people who don’t have hearing loss, but they have trauma to their brain and they have issues with processing. I always thought that it was just my hearing, but I recently started thinking that it might be like my processing as well. I had Neuropsychology testing done, and it showed that I have trouble processing. So I think that’s just exactly what it is, is that it’s hard for my brain to decipher, like one sound from another and process it, to hear it.

Bill Gasiamis 57:55
Yeah, I remember going to parties when I was first diagnosed, and had a whole bunch of neurological issues. I remember going to parties and telling my wife, like, we need to go home. It’s 930 I need to get out of here. I can’t be here anymore. It’s I’m struggling. And I was struggling with the music, the lights, the multiple people talking to me. It was physically and emotionally exhausting, and the best place for me was to not be there. So I would just go in, apologize or thank the person for the invitation and for having me there, etc. And then I would just get out of there.

Bill Gasiamis 58:35
And it was self preservation. So it’s really important to do that and not feel bad about it, if, if you have to get out of a a difficult situation when your senses are overwhelmed. I mean, it’s really important to just go I’ve had enough, or to do what you did, which is what I started doing later, which was you just turn up, and then you don’t participate too much, but you’re there, and you’re experiencing the party, and you’re with the people, but you’re kind of sitting in the dark corner where not too many people are around you, on a chair, where no one else is going to sit next to you.

Bill Gasiamis 59:17
Like I did that a lot as well, and that got me past 9:30 so that might have got me to 10:30 or 11:00, which meant that the my my wife, could appreciate being out and about and catching up with people, but also I didn’t have to run out of battery by 9:30.

Rachel Paverman 59:33
Right? Yeah, I think that’s something I struggle with too. My social battery it drains so fast, like maybe an hour, and I’m just I’m so tired. So I definitely understand that also, and I think that I used to do a better job myself, of like listening to my body sometimes, and not always being. A people pleaser, which I tend to do that a lot, and not be like, not be selfish, but be selfish and listen to my body more.

Bill Gasiamis 1:00:11
It’s important. What’s the hardest thing about this whole situation for you? What do you feel like has been the hardest thing that you’ve had to navigate?

Rachel Paverman 1:00:21
Definitely the fact that I, I’m just, I lost the old version of me. I lost my own life. And not to say that’s not, it’s my life is right now, and I love everything that I’m doing in my life. I love where I am in my life right now. But it’s just really sad sometimes to, like, look back at old photos of myself or I used to play soccer, so thinking about me playing soccer and reminiscing with my friends, and just knowing that, like, I will never be able to play soccer again or do some of things that I used to do. So for me, that’s the hardest. And I know that my life is great now, and it’s just different, but it’s it can definitely be hard to deal with that sometimes.

Bill Gasiamis 1:01:15
Yeah, have you seen some of those Paralympians that play those crazy wheelchair sports.

Rachel Paverman 1:01:25
I have seen that actually. My prospect coach also told me about they have like adaptive skiing, and she went to Colorado, and she was, she volunteered to life health with that so and I, I’ve seen like adaptive, like ice hockey and other things like that, which is so awesome.

Bill Gasiamis 1:01:47
Adaptive Ice Hockey would be good. You could still go onto the ice, have a fight with everybody, and feel quite normal. You know, skate on and straight off, however they do it. It would be really cool.

Rachel Paverman 1:02:00
Yeah, yeah. I will say, like, the world, as much as I said before that it’s not accessible. They’re also, like, super inclusive with some of the programs that they have out there for the disabled community.

Bill Gasiamis 1:02:17
Yeah, it’s getting better. I know it’s there’s a lot of work to do, but it is getting better. I see it every day because, like you, I pay attention to these things, and it’s always awesome to see people participating in well, you know, those really competitive people that they need to win and succeed at everything that they do. It doesn’t matter whether they’re missing legs or or arms or whatever, you know, but they just need to be in competition somewhere.

Bill Gasiamis 1:02:46
And I feel like there’s a lot more opportunities for people like that to find leagues where they can be competitive and get that out of their system at least, and feel accomplished or get rid defeated really badly, and then get back up and play the next game and see what they can do. And that helps create a community as well, right, a sporting community that is about sport and their passion.

Bill Gasiamis 1:03:12
But that allows for people with other conditions to attend and to get all the benefits from it right. It’s really important to get to to get the benefits from being able to attend to things. So I am liking where things are heading. But of course, there is a long, a long, long way to go in most countries. Most definitely. What is something that this whole experience has taught you?

Lessons From The Stroke

Rachel Paverman 1:03:52
I think it’s taught me to be grateful and to appreciate the little things in life, because for a while I wasn’t able to hold a fork or brush my teeth, or I’m still learning how to write, because the right side of my body was what was affected, and I was a variety. So I’m now learning how to live life with my left hand, so just little things like being grateful to shower and but I used to have to have health in the shower, and now I’m able to stand with the grab bar.

Rachel Paverman 1:04:35
But those are things that I now appreciate So much more, and just like being able to take a beautiful day for what it is and enjoy the sunshine, and be able to go on my like stationary bike and just like live a somewhat independent life and just have so much appreciation for it.

Bill Gasiamis 1:05:00
There are people listening that are on similar journeys to you and I going through their own stuff. What is something that you would like to tell them about this time and the challenges that they have?

Rachel Paverman 1:05:17
I think that what I would tell them is to just be patient with your body, and it doesn’t happen overnight, like we all know for an injuries take forever. I’m five years out, and I’m still seeing improvements every day, and sometimes I plateau, but I always continue, like moving forward and just be positive, because I know the vagus nerve connects the mind and the body, and it’s so important to have good mindset when you’re physically recovering.

Rachel Paverman 1:05:57
And just like taking care of yourself and eating good foods and really just being patient with yourself is the main thing. Because it’s a slow process, but it’s a process that always, well, you’ll always be improving. You know, for whether it’s a slow improvement or a fast improvement, or if you plateau a little bit you’re always going to be improving.

Bill Gasiamis 1:06:24
Your book is called?

Rachel Paverman 1:06:28
My book is called “To the Abyss”. It’s available on Amazon. And then I also have a website.

Bill Gasiamis 1:06:39
Yep, Tell us. Tell us about the website. By the way, anyone watching and listening, they’ll be able to go to the show notes to get links to Rachel’s socials and the website and the Amazon book just go to recoveryafterstroke.com/episodes and you’ll find Rachel’s episode there. But anyhow, tell us the website link.

Rachel Paverman 1:07:02
Yeah, so my website is just my first and last name. So www.rachelpaverman.com, and on there is just a little, a little bit about my story, and then I’ll link to purchase the book, as well as some photos of while I was like in the hospital and early on in my recovery, when I was writing the book, as well as I have a tab called in the media and in the alliance as well. So it gives a little information about the organization that’s very close to my heart, and then in the media is just some of the stuff that I’ve done and other podcasts and like folks chats and stuff.

Bill Gasiamis 1:07:52
Excellent. Rachel, I really appreciate you reaching out. Thank you so much for being on the podcast and sharing your story. Congratulations on your recovery so far, you’re doing an awesome job. I love the way you’re going about it. I look forward to hearing about all the amazing things that you continue to achieve down the track.

Rachel Paverman 1:08:12
Thank you so much. It was so great to meet you.

Bill Gasiamis 1:08:16
That’s a wrap for another episode. I hope you found Rachel Paverman’s journey through cavernoma and brain hemorrhage as powerful and as barring as I did. A huge thank you to everyone who has already left the review, It does mean the world to me. Your feedback is crucial for the podcast success, helping others discover this valuable content, and making their stroke recovery journey a bit easier.

Bill Gasiamis 1:08:40
If you haven’t left a review, please consider giving a five-star rating and sharing what the show means to you on iTunes and Spotify for those of you watching on YouTube, remember to leave a comment below, like the episode and subscribe to the show to get notifications of future episodes. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider supporting the podcast by subscribing to our Patreon Page at patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke, your support allows us to continue sharing these vital stories and keep the podcast available to all stroke survivors. If you are a stroke survivor with a story to share. Now is the perfect time to join me on the show.

Bill Gasiamis 1:09:23
The interviews are unscripted, and you do not need to prepare for them. Just be yourself and share your experience to help others in similar situations. If you have a commercial product that supports stroke survivors in their recovery, you can join me on a sponsored episode of the show. Simply visit recoveryafterstroke.com/contact, fill out the contact form with your category, and I’ll get back to you with details on how we can connect via Zoom. Thanks again for being here and listening. I deeply appreciate you. Your support means everything to me. See you on the next episode.

Intro 1:09:59
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 all content on this website and any linked blog podcast or video material controlled this website, or content, is created and produced for information or purposes only, and is largely based on the personal experience of Bill Gasiamis. The content is intended to complement your medical treatment and support healing.

Intro 1:10:33
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Intro 1:11:36
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