Hand In Hand

Rosanna Radding was trained as a artist. Stroke hit her 22 years ago. It totally changed the course of her life. After told by doctors that she could not recover much, Rosanna refused to accept the conclusion. She decided to find new meaning of her life. She started with cooking, then turned her experience into a business designing and making kitchenware for people with only one hand. Listen to this remarkable story. How a stroke could turn a woman into a flourishing entrepreneur. Do not give up. Yes you can! 1’00’’ how did Rosanna come to the idea of One Hand Can 2’47’ Experience with OT 3’50’’ changes in Stroke rehab and care 4’40’’ You would not get anything back after 6 months? 6’10’’ Rosanna’s stroke story 7’04’’ Aside from cooking, what else does Rosanna do? 8’52’’ When did One Hand Can Start? 9’51’’ A little about Rosanna 10’05’’ Where to find Rosanna’s cooking video Gallery? 10’53 How many products does Rosanna offer? 12’10’’ How did Rosanna turn her web site into a business? 14’20’’ How is Rosanna

There are a few things caregivers can do to find joy in caregiving. Caregivers play a crucial role in stroke and TBI recovery. Nancy Weckwerth discusses with the Hand in Hand Show what can a caregiver do to find joy in the process. And why it is important to find joy for caregivers.

Sue Mustalish RN, BHS, HNC is founder of Solflower Health Consultants, a holistic health practice integrating mindfulness, wellness, reflexology and end of life matters. Her forty years of nursing experience in a wide variety of areas and her mindfulness practice inform her health philosophy. She believes each individual has the capacity to recognize and effect their own health and wellness potential. Listen to Sue tell you about Integrative medicine. 0’55’’ What does Solflower Health Consultant do? 2’36’’ What made Sue to start Solflower Health Consultants? 4’24’’ What is integrative medicine? 7’50’’ why integrative medicine? 10’11’’ The difference between integrative medicine and western medicine? 15’25’’ How is the attitude changing towards integrative medicine? 16’28’’ How did Sue discover Mindfulness? 20’00’’ How can mindfulness help caregivers? 22’20’’ How to find a good mindfulness coach? 25’40’’ How does Sue offer her consultancy? 26’26’’ What does Sue want people to know?

Roberta was a stay home mom, a farmer and a bartender when stroke hit her and totally disrupted her life. How is she recovering? What support is she getting? How is she adjusting to the new life? Listen to Hand in Hand Show interview with Roberta. 0’43’ Life before the stroke and stroke 2’11’’ Recovery after stroke 4’44’’ outpatient therapy 5’30’’ progress to return to normal life 6’00 cooking at home 10’34’’ talking about kids 14’20’’ adjustments for kids 15’20 stroke support both locally and online 17’48’’ wrap up

Herb Silverman suffered a stroke at the age of 27. In the first year after stroke, aphasia kept him from using more than 2 words. 27 years has passed. Herb regained his speech, went to school again and retired from a successful career with New York Life Insurance. He has been featured in numerous articles, as well as on radio and TV, including a story on CNN, “Laughter is a Healing Tool”. Presently, as an Advisory Council board member for the National Aphasia Association, Herb promotes public education and support services to assist people with aphasia and their families. Additionally, an alum of the University of Chicago (Go Maroons!), he was selected to serve as the Volunteer Regional Coordinator and President for the greater Atlanta area. He is also a member of the Emory University Goizueta Business School Alumni association. Listen to Herb's remarkable story. Find his blog at https://hwsilverman.wordpress.com 1’00” Herb’s stroke story and aphasia. 3’20’’ How did Herb overcome aphasia and become a pu

Do you know there is an influential researcher advocating more interactions between researchers and survivors? Do you know she is working hard to make her research more applicable to survivors? She is finding answers for questions such as how does sedentary behaviors affect survivors. How to make exercises feasible to survivors struggling with mobility challenges? Will group therapies help? What are the typical steps of a stroke research? How do researchers validate their results? Listen to Dr Carolie English. You will learn a lot through this interview. 1’24’’ What led Coralie Into Research. 3’50’’ Steps for a typical research project. 4’50’’ The design of tests. 7’00’’ The art of balance, pros and cons of being inclusive and exclusive in samples. 10’30’’ How are results validated? 11’08’’ How to avoid bias through randomization? 12’11’’ Example of randomization. 14’55’’ The best and worst part of being a researcher. 16’28’’ The excitement of working with researchers around the world. 18’15’’ The sedenta

Keith was a business owner about to travel to Seattle when his family noticed something was wrong. Keith suffered a stroke. He had to sell his ownership and went on a journey of transformation. Keith is now building a training program to help survivors wanting to get back to business. Listen to Keith's story. 0’44’’ Keith’s story. 3’00’’ the hardest part of having a stroke. 4’34’’ The experience of driving. 7’40’’ BASE program. A training program Keith is building. 11’35’’ Why a survivor can provide unique perspectives in recovery? 13’07’’ The challenge of going back to work. 15’17’’ Depression – how does BASE address that? 20’11’’ Finding a new purpose for life after stroke. 23’00’’ How to find Keith’s program?

Kati was flourishing as a supermodel when a devastating stroke derailed her life and career at the age of 21. Since then, 95% of her body has been paralyzed. Kati overcame her early depression. She rebuilt her life and met her wonderful husband Henning Vander Hoeven. Together they blog on Huffington Post, present at TED Talks, and actively championing for stroke survivors worldwide. In this episode, Henning and Kati share their remarkable lives in detai. How they transformed their own lives as life transforms them.: 0’45’’ Intro of Kati and Henning. 1’27’’ What Happened to Kati? 3’00’’ Were there signs of stroke? 4’21'' The impaired mobility. Lost connection between brain and the body. 5’10’’ Kati’s videos of her own therapies. 6’30’’ New life as a blogger and public speaker. 7’30’’ Awareness of Locked in Syndrome. 9’00'' Make something meaningful out of tragedy. 9’22’’ Imagine That - TED Talk presentations. 10’00’’ Biggest challenge in Kati’s journey – acceptance and paradigm shift. 12’40’’ Adaptation.

Dr. John C. Kilburn Jr. is the Associate Vice President for Research and Professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice at Texas A&M International University. He has been a stroke survivor since November 27, 2001. In this episode, John shares his story and his advice to survivors and caregivers. 0’48, Early Life, and family history. 2’48’’ Life before stroke. 4’30’’ How did stroke change John’s life? 6’40’’ Were there any signs of stroke? 6’58’’ Memories of what happened on the day of stroke. 10’34 Memory of the initial days in the hospital 12’48 Initial recovery. 13’03 John’s remarkable mother in law. How did she help? 14’30 Initial therapies. 18’07 How can marital counselors be helpful? 20’53 “You do not look like you had a stroke” 22’45’’ Health after stroke 25’50’’ Advice to survivors 30’10'' Live life! 31’03'' Message to caregivers 34’04'' We are not alone 35’10'' Thank you! Laredo Stroke Support Group

Creating a "Culture of Possibility" is the vision of Our Heart Speaks (OHS) and its founder Keith W. L. Rafal, MD, MPH. In this episode, Dr Rafal discusses his philosophy of creating a "Culture of Culture of Possibility.” He explores a new mindset and paradigm shift. This interview digs deeper into the work and vision of OHS. Dr. Rafal is the Chief of Rehabilitation and Restorative Care at Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island and a Clinical Assistant Professor at Brown University. He is the founder and director of Healing Choices, P.C. an integrative medicine private practice who specializes in drug free treatment in collaboration with other practitioners for patients living with chronic pain, fibromyalgia and other chronic medical conditions. He has been the Director of the Fibromyalgia Program at the Rehabilitation Hospital of Rhode Island and has had additional training in the areas of behavioral medicine, homeopathy and western herbal medicine, which he has been able to successfully incorporate into his pr

Molly is a senior Exercise Science and Spanish student at the University of South Carolina and will be attending medical school at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in the fall. She became involved with the stroke community during her junior year when she volunteered in the research lab of Dr. Stacy Fritz. Dr. Fritz and her physical therapy students were working on a research project called the NExT Gym, which was a pilot program for stroke survivors to workout directly with physical therapy students in a safe gym environment to improve their strength, flexibility and cardiovascular health in the hopes of preventing another stroke. Through that volunteer opportunity Molly connected with several stroke survivors with hemiparesis who were more than happy to demonstrate how they adapted everyday items, like shoelaces, to make their lives easier. Following that conversation she decided to create the TIPPS website for her Honors College senior thesis project. TIPPS, which stands for Tool

In 2012, LeaAnn was enjoying her life. She was a professional caregiver who loved her job. She was traveling in Central America enjoying the weather and food, when she suddenly collapsed. Doctors found an issue with her heart. They placed a mechanical valve in her. LeaAnn gradually recovered. It seemed life was back on track again. In Sept 2014, LeaAnn went for a dental surgery. Unexpectedly the surgery triggered an infection. After the dental surgery, she started to throw up and had flu like symptoms for a month. LeaAnn went to see doctors who said it was just the flu. One night, she went to bed one night with a strange headache. LeaAnn woke up the next morning and fell to her left side. When she woke up, it was in a hospital. LeaAnn had a stroke. Life has been changed forever after that. One thing will never change- her passion as a caregiver. In her recovery, LeaAnn set up a Facebook support group. She also started working with Strokefocus to improve the stroke care. Listen to her episode.

Occupational therapy can be repetitive and boring. Not with Dr Rachel Proffitt whose passion is designing fun games for stroke survivors. As Assistant Professor in the Department of Occupational Therapy at the University of Missouri, her research focuses on developing, testing, and implementing virtual reality-based interventions for adults and older adults with neurological conditions. She has extensive experience in interdisciplinary setting with computer scientists and engineers and was previously the Director of the Game Based Rehab Lab at the Institute for Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California (USC). In this interview, Dr Proffitt shares her work and the experience that led her to become a passionate "game nerd" working for survivors.

The Penn State Hershey's Stroke Survivors and Thrivers Group is a vibrant stroke and TBI support group. Kathy Morrison is the leader of the group. A nurse by training, Kathy emphasizes that the group should work hard to understand what survivors and caregivers truly need. Additionally, Kathy's team has done a brave experiment to separate survivors and caregivers in some of their meetings. The result is very eye opening. In her interview with Hand in Hand, Kathy shared her learning and challenges local groups face.

On June 1, 2010, Peter Corfield's life changed forever. A brain aneurysm unknown to him ruptured. The former PE and Drama teacher, a happy Englishman living in France suffered a stroke. Peter refused to settle with his injury. In the following years, he worked hard to recover. He wrote a trilogy of his stroke and recovery. He built up the longest stroke recovery diary on the Internet. Peter has been videotaping his daily journey on YouTube for more than 2 years now and it is still growing. When Dr Jill Bolte Taylor published her groundbreaking work: My Stroke of Insight in 2009, she said there was no documented work on a full journey of stroke recovery before her book. Peter has certainly changed that. Not only there is now a record, it is in video. Peter loves life. He is raising fish. Every penny he gets in his books sales will go to the ARNI Institute, a British neurology rehab institute founded by Dr Tom Balchin. Listen to the fascinating story of Peter.

In 2015, Wyetta Dopson suffered a stroke. There was a delay in the process to send her to the hospital. 2 years later, Wyetta has turned her stroke and recovery into a book, Cry in the Dark. She is writing her second book while running a stroke support group on Facebook. She believes being positive is essential to life after stroke. Faith has given her new life meanings she never thought before. Listen to Wyetta's story. Maybe buy her book.

8 years ago, when driving through an intersection David Karchem suffered a stroke.  David was making a left turn at a light. He suddenly suffered an intense headache. He couldn't press the clutch of his car's manual transmission, so he coasted through the intersection the best he could while the other cars honked and swerved around him.  Dave wrote a note 'CALL911' before passing out. When he woke up in the hospital, Karchem learned that he suffered a right-brain ischemic stroke. Two blood clots over the right side of his brain had left him paralyzed on his left side. A third clot near the back of his brain, where the visual cortex is located, left him struggling to see and unable to taste or smell anything.  In the 8 years since then, Dave has built a rich life. He volunteers for the University of Southern California Stroke Program. He earned a master’s degree. He also saw many of his grandchildren born in the period. Let Dave take you through his remarkable journey. We recorded this session to celebrat

Meri Kelly, inventor of her unique series of color books to help caregivers got her idea when being a caregiver of her mom. Meri's mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. She decided to become a full time caregiver for her mom. In a rare occasion, Meri discovered the unique power of color books to calm caregivers down. Stress relief is crucial to caregivers as well as people they are taking care of. Strokefocus has used her color books with a group of caregivers for stroke survivors. The response was overwhelmingly positive. In this episode, Meri also discusses her experience of self publishing. Find her book at https://www.amazon.com/Here-Love-Coloring-Book-Inspirational/dp/153949439X. Check Meri's site out at http://colormecaring.com

Host Cam Compton and Guest, Nancy Weckwerth (Author of “Don’t Stop the Music: Finding the Joy in Caregiving”) discuss the role of Caregivers for adults with catastrophic illness. As a caregiver, Nancy explains the top 5 challenges of Caregiving for a loved one and how she learned to solve those issues.

Exercise greatly helps stroke recovery. With regard to exercise, survivors are faced with some common challenges. First, what exercises are helpful? Second, how to find a program both accessible and affordable? Dr Kristin McNealus launched Everybody Fitness Online with a program designed for survivors, especially those not in major cities. It does not require a contract. By paying an affordable fee, members can access through the Internet exercises carefully designed to meet their needs. Everybody Fitness Online provides individualized coaching and exercise design to address specific needs of its members. In this episode, Kristin talks about her program. She explains how exercises can address one side weakness and how should survivors manage exercise intensity. To learn more, listen to this very informative episode.