[Music]
it was four o’clock in the morning and
my wife is shaking me and she’s saying
what’s wrong and I looked at her and I
said Jean nothing’s wrong what are you
talking about and she looked at me
didn’t respond picked up the phone and
dialed 911 and that is the moment when I
knew my wife had gone Jeff so imagine my
consternation when the EMTs are trying
to strap me onto the gurney and I hear
one of them say major stroke how can I
have a major stroke I don’t smoke I
don’t have high blood pressure
I don’t eat poorly I exercise my weight
is good but I have since since found out
that 15 percent of the people who have
strokes are like me they had an
arrhythmia in their heart and mine was
undiagnosed called atrial fib you ladies
and when you have afib your heart
doesn’t empty so some of the blood pools
and it clots and a small clot went up
through my subclavian artery and lodged
in my brain and asphyxiated brain cells
particularly the ones that I use for
fine muscle control of my low right hand
and for forming words gene could
understood hear me
but you couldn’t understand me it was
like she was talking to a German
Shepherd right the animal looks
attentive but the only way spawned it
can give is to go woof or in my case
off we go to the rehab for five weeks
and while they are really rolling me
down the hall I look into the some of
the rooms and I see people just thing
like this they head down okay so that’s
the depression and I don’t want any part
of that
because the only way only place that you
can go from depression is to despair and
I see other people and they’re watching
J time television my brain is damaged
I’m not going to improve it by watching
the daytime television so I meet with
the neurologist and the speech
pathologist and they say to me we got
your cat scan and we got your clinical
work ups from the hospital and we’re
frankly not really optimistic about your
progression
mm-hmm but they did say the only way
that you are ever going to speak is to
take portion a part of your brain and
retrained it it has to be able to now
make words and it never did that before
so I said okay I live on an island I
never wear socks so I can take the
portion of my brain that changes my
socks and teach it how to speak words
and that the good part of this was I
could talk to it I called it sock breath
and I said okay sock breath let’s hear
you say neuroplasticity because that’s
the process that I was using to
reprogram my brain I spent some time
with the speech pathologist and she
started me out making exercises for my
mouth and then making sounds now words
sound and when we got through this with
the session I said can I have a copy of
that book she goes no but I will make
you copies of the pages so I took them
and I went back to my room and I
practiced and I said it studied and I
practice and guess what
my five week stay and Rehab ended in a
week not because I was a good student
student but because I had stayed fit by
by maintaining balance and core strength
I had the resilience that I didn’t need
the physical therapy that many people
who have a stroke have to go undergo so
I went home and checked into outpatient
rehab and about this time I got a an
email from someone who said to me one
every day and about I know eight nine
thousand other people and these are
always inspirational sayings and this
one really struck me it was from the
valet of Abraham Lincoln and he said if
it’s to be it’s up to me I like that
if it’s to be it’s up to me so I go to
the outpatient rehab and I made a very
very nice young woman who is going to
help me with speech and she had she got
to the point where you know my past
sounds and was saying small words oh boy
and bigger words oh man
and then Oh frabjous day sentences and
she would have me read and every time I
was reading if I made a mistake
she would say say that worked five times
and repeat the sentence and if I made
two mistakes who would do the designing
the same things except now I have to go
back to the beginning and in maybe six
weeks we finished the book and I said
okay what’s now she goes nothing what do
you mean nothing I’m not ready and she
said there’s nothing else I can do for
you because you know how to make the
sounds you know how to make the words
you can only practice yourself and I
started reading aloud everything the
newspaper my email and I still to this
day read to my wife every day and that
process helped and friend came in to
visit me and that was wonderful
but I had to get out of there I had to
go out with people and I contacted my
friends in Toastmasters I had been a
member for about three or four three
years and how could you not pick them
right it’s an organization that has the
tagline find your voice what had I lost
I’ll go there to find it
and I went there and it was so nice
there’s a young woman named Patricia who
every day she sees many artists now
every Friday morning would be in my
driveway to take me to and from the
meeting it was a guy named Paul who
every singing single day we say to me
you sound better than you did last week
and that gave me hope and that
combination of a little bit of love and
hope gave me some courage and I took
part in something called Table Topics
and these are two minute speeches on a
topic you don’t know what it’s gonna be
until you’re told and everybody has a
different document and it’s a little
book contest of sorts and I won so I go
up and I get my ribbon and it came back
down and I said to the person next to me
rosemary I said this was nice but it was
a mercy vote and she goes oh no it
wasn’t you had logic you were organized
you had reasons for everything you say
you just sound stupid
[Laughter]
[Applause]
and I thought to myself you think I
sounded stupid now you should have heard
me when I checked into rehab and I did
sound much better that day and I sound
better today than when I won that ribbon
and I know that I will sound the way I
used to be if I keep doing what I’m
supposed to be doing I learned a few
things from that these things one is we
will all fight face the facilities of
life sometimes hopefully not as severely
as mine but will all too well and being
fit will really increase your resilience
I don’t care if we have to do another
storm cleanup or you have to get out of
rehab because you’re fit that’s good
stay it stay fit and if you’re not think
think about becoming that the next thing
that I know is that the people who are
part of my life both friends and family
acquaintances they gave me emotional and
psychological resilience they helped me
to be what I could be and the last one
is from the words of William Johnston
and he taught me to continue to strive
and by the way I took that quote and I
blew it up at big as it could be and I
taped it to my file cabinet so I could
see it every time I got walked into my
office and every time I left and if you
don’t know what a file
it’s this it’s a big wooden box made out
of oak and it deals only with a very
specific app called paper whatever haps
– happens to you whether it’s good or
bad what it’s what is to be is up to you
[Applause]
it was four o’clock in the morning and
my wife is shaking me and she’s saying
what’s wrong and I looked at her and I
said Jean nothing’s wrong what are you
talking about and she looked at me
didn’t respond picked up the phone and
dialed 911 and that is the moment when I
knew my wife had gone Jeff so imagine my
consternation when the EMTs are trying
to strap me onto the gurney and I hear
one of them say major stroke how can I
have a major stroke I don’t smoke I
don’t have high blood pressure
I don’t eat poorly I exercise my weight
is good but I have since since found out
that 15 percent of the people who have
strokes are like me they had an
arrhythmia in their heart and mine was
undiagnosed called atrial fib you ladies
and when you have afib your heart
doesn’t empty so some of the blood pools
and it clots and a small clot went up
through my subclavian artery and lodged
in my brain and asphyxiated brain cells
particularly the ones that I use for
fine muscle control of my low right hand
and for forming words gene could
understood hear me
but you couldn’t understand me it was
like she was talking to a German
Shepherd right the animal looks
attentive but the only way spawned it
can give is to go woof or in my case
off we go to the rehab for five weeks
and while they are really rolling me
down the hall I look into the some of
the rooms and I see people just thing
like this they head down okay so that’s
the depression and I don’t want any part
of that
because the only way only place that you
can go from depression is to despair and
I see other people and they’re watching
J time television my brain is damaged
I’m not going to improve it by watching
the daytime television so I meet with
the neurologist and the speech
pathologist and they say to me we got
your cat scan and we got your clinical
work ups from the hospital and we’re
frankly not really optimistic about your
progression
mm-hmm but they did say the only way
that you are ever going to speak is to
take portion a part of your brain and
retrained it it has to be able to now
make words and it never did that before
so I said okay I live on an island I
never wear socks so I can take the
portion of my brain that changes my
socks and teach it how to speak words
and that the good part of this was I
could talk to it I called it sock breath
and I said okay sock breath let’s hear
you say neuroplasticity because that’s
the process that I was using to
reprogram my brain I spent some time
with the speech pathologist and she
started me out making exercises for my
mouth and then making sounds now words
sound and when we got through this with
the session I said can I have a copy of
that book she goes no but I will make
you copies of the pages so I took them
and I went back to my room and I
practiced and I said it studied and I
practice and guess what
my five week stay and Rehab ended in a
week not because I was a good student
student but because I had stayed fit by
by maintaining balance and core strength
I had the resilience that I didn’t need
the physical therapy that many people
who have a stroke have to go undergo so
I went home and checked into outpatient
rehab and about this time I got a an
email from someone who said to me one
every day and about I know eight nine
thousand other people and these are
always inspirational sayings and this
one really struck me it was from the
valet of Abraham Lincoln and he said if
it’s to be it’s up to me I like that
if it’s to be it’s up to me so I go to
the outpatient rehab and I made a very
very nice young woman who is going to
help me with speech and she had she got
to the point where you know my past
sounds and was saying small words oh boy
and bigger words oh man
and then Oh frabjous day sentences and
she would have me read and every time I
was reading if I made a mistake
she would say say that worked five times
and repeat the sentence and if I made
two mistakes who would do the designing
the same things except now I have to go
back to the beginning and in maybe six
weeks we finished the book and I said
okay what’s now she goes nothing what do
you mean nothing I’m not ready and she
said there’s nothing else I can do for
you because you know how to make the
sounds you know how to make the words
you can only practice yourself and I
started reading aloud everything the
newspaper my email and I still to this
day read to my wife every day and that
process helped and friend came in to
visit me and that was wonderful
but I had to get out of there I had to
go out with people and I contacted my
friends in Toastmasters I had been a
member for about three or four three
years and how could you not pick them
right it’s an organization that has the
tagline find your voice what had I lost
I’ll go there to find it
and I went there and it was so nice
there’s a young woman named Patricia who
every day she sees many artists now
every Friday morning would be in my
driveway to take me to and from the
meeting it was a guy named Paul who
every singing single day we say to me
you sound better than you did last week
and that gave me hope and that
combination of a little bit of love and
hope gave me some courage and I took
part in something called Table Topics
and these are two minute speeches on a
topic you don’t know what it’s gonna be
until you’re told and everybody has a
different document and it’s a little
book contest of sorts and I won so I go
up and I get my ribbon and it came back
down and I said to the person next to me
rosemary I said this was nice but it was
a mercy vote and she goes oh no it
wasn’t you had logic you were organized
you had reasons for everything you say
you just sound stupid
[Laughter]
[Applause]
and I thought to myself you think I
sounded stupid now you should have heard
me when I checked into rehab and I did
sound much better that day and I sound
better today than when I won that ribbon
and I know that I will sound the way I
used to be if I keep doing what I’m
supposed to be doing I learned a few
things from that these things one is we
will all fight face the facilities of
life sometimes hopefully not as severely
as mine but will all too well and being
fit will really increase your resilience
I don’t care if we have to do another
storm cleanup or you have to get out of
rehab because you’re fit that’s good
stay it stay fit and if you’re not think
think about becoming that the next thing
that I know is that the people who are
part of my life both friends and family
acquaintances they gave me emotional and
psychological resilience they helped me
to be what I could be and the last one
is from the words of William Johnston
and he taught me to continue to strive
and by the way I took that quote and I
blew it up at big as it could be and I
taped it to my file cabinet so I could
see it every time I got walked into my
office and every time I left and if you
don’t know what a file
it’s this it’s a big wooden box made out
of oak and it deals only with a very
specific app called paper whatever haps
– happens to you whether it’s good or
bad what it’s what is to be is up to you
[Applause]
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