61. Survivor Science Soundbites: Wrapping Up the Week on Curiosity and Stroke Recovery

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What up, everybody? It is Friday, November 22, 2024. Survivor Soundbytes number 4.

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Wrapping up the week. Big topic this week of curiosity came up every day, every minute of this week. I don't know if there's something in the air or if it's a pure coincidence, but curiosity has been all over my feed, whether it's x, whether it's, Instagram, all over social media, all over the podcast world. I think it's one of those things. It's like when you buy a new car and all of a sudden, it's the car you see everywhere.

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I gotta be honest, I'm curious as hell as to what is going outside outside of my house today. My neighbor is putting in a pool and, coincidentally, everything seems to be getting chaotic. Daniel Jones has just been released from the Giants, which has nothing to do with curiosity. Although, I am curious about the decision why it took so long.

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Yeah. So, again, I'm fired up. Just came out of the gym. Had a really busy week. Hope you had a great week. I certainly did. I certainly feel good about the progress and all the conversations that I had this week from talking to fellow stroke survivors. I believe early in the week, I met a younger group of stroke survivors, so that was really fun to be a part of with SAO. Again, that's Stroke Awareness Oregon. They are a really cool group. They have a lot of Zoom meetups.

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Yeah. They do a lot of things. It's it's an organization that I'm trying to get more involved with, and so check them out. Again, they're also kind of affiliated with Stroke Warrior Radio. Lanae is kind of the head base of the organization.

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She's amazing. If you haven't connected with her, I can get you in touch with her. A lot of things going on. Had a couple episodes of the podcast to record this week. 2 guests, Keith Ellis, whose podcast I did not yet release. I had a little bit of a hiccup in the middle of this week. Totally forgot and blanks did that. I had my semiannual MS treatment. That was on Wednesday when I was planning on doing the podcast and releasing it. So a little behind there.

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That'll be out this weekend, which is perfect timing going into the holiday week. I may also do a solo episode next week on top of the survival science sound bites.

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Yeah. So then, Wednesday, I talked to another stroke survivor, Jason Lopes. He's, actually here in Florida, kind of out of the Orlando area. Really interesting conversation. If you haven't met him, he's over on TikTok and Instagram.

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He goes by Jason Lionheart Lopes. Really cool guy.

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Younger stroke survivor here. I believe he said he's about 45 years old.

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Really enjoyed talking to him because he is like me. He gets fired up. He is, kind of an he's done a lot of mixed mixed martial arts and martial arts, trains a lot, comes from sort of a sports background, which is always interesting to me meeting somebody kind of like myself.

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It's really one of the first conversations, and I love all stroke survivors. Don't get me wrong, but there's not a lot of people who like me or like him. And maybe maybe there is. Maybe we just don't know them. I I know there are a few. And, unfortunately, you know, as many I would love to connect with more stroke survivors that are kind of really trying to get after it, and I have over the years, but I think my version and your version may vary in terms of what it means to get after it. But, yeah, meeting more stroke survivors that have sort of these you know, we're all different. There there are former athletes that have strokes. There are former runners. There are people just living everyday normal healthy lives, and then something happens.

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Everybody's got an interesting story to tell. What was nice to talk about Jason, and I'm going to release his episode probably in a couple weeks. I talked to him about that because as you all know, I'm transitioning the podcast from the Lovell Survivor podcast to Survivor Science. So there'll be the Survivor Science soundbites that come out, you know, Mondays Fridays, and then full episodes middle of the week generally. I know I got off track this week, but, again, my MS treatment got rescheduled, then it kinda got messed up. And then yesterday was a weird day because I always have a bit of a weird day, the day after treatment. And even knowing that, I still was surprised that yesterday was a little bit of a hiccup. And then this morning, got into some other things. Had a really couple interesting conversations with, some interesting people. Amazing team over at.

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Yeah. Well, I'm gonna keep that quiet for now, but a really good conversation this morning, and I'll tell you more about that as things go further.

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But, yeah, again, all these conversations that I've had all week have really been centered around curiosity, and I don't know if that's because it's the topic of the week, so it's top of my mind, or if it's just the way things are.

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So how do we wrap up curiosity? Again, I think it is important to be curious. Some of the things that I've thought about and learned throughout the week is that it's always good to be curious in any aspect of life. Whether you're trying to figure something out for yourself when it comes to stroke recovery, when you're just trying to figure out questions to everyday life, coming at every conversation and every interaction with a sense of curiosity and openness has always served me well, and I I hope it has served you well. Or if it hasn't in the past, you know, maybe that can change. Again, that was a big topic I talked about on Monday was that it's never too late to get curious about anything and everything.

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With that, I will say there's some caveats, I think. I can tend to be overly curious. I can ask so many questions sometimes that I sort of I I forget to stop and sort of reflect and I think, you know, I get very passionate. I get excitable. I know that about myself. That's that that is amazing, but it can also work to my dread detriment sometimes. Even now. Right? You hear me going a little too fast, so I need to slow down. I know I need to slow down. Listen to the things that I'm paying attention to. Slow it down. Not everything has to be a 1000 miles an hour, and I think we can all get wrapped up in that because we're all trying to get better as stroke survivors, as individuals, as humans who are trying to grow, learn. The world goes fast. And you know what? Sometimes our bodies and our minds, very kindly, hopefully, at this point, are gentle reminders to just slow and chill, listen, reflect. You know, and I think that's that's not a flaw. It's it's just it's something to be mindful of. So curiosity is, I think, an important driver. I think it fuels my recovery. It's always helping me get better in everything that I do.

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I'm kinda weird. I when I do watch TV, which is not a ton, but I do watch a a fair amount of stuff. I'm usually doing something else, which is, you know, good and bad. Right? If I'm doing a little reading, I can kinda watch TV in the background so that I can you know, I like to watch sports, and I think reading a book and watching sports, I think, is one of those tasks that you can kinda do simultaneously, especially sports because you kinda look up, catch a thing, rewind, review it. You know, but there are times I like to watch a documentary, and I like to I know it sounds weird, but I get curious. I'm like, I really wanna learn about this thing or I really wanna learn more about this thing or I really wanna hear about this thing because it's something that I'm interested in. And so curiosity is good, but you also need to take the time to not always be a 100 miles an hour with the curiosity. Take the time to reflect on that thing. You hear it a lot on certain social media platforms. People will say, you know, don't read so many books. Apply the thing. And that's, again, that's a nuanced take. I think that that is incorrect, but I think also, you know, the more you read, the more you can learn. I think sometimes everybody's different. Right? Some people can read a bunch, and they can kinda reflect back and learn progressively. I think some people need to read one thing at a time. I think we're all different.

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Curiosity is really important. Right? Because it helps us understand people's whys, the motivations, whether it's business, whether it's work, whether, you know, any multitude of things. It's great to be curious. It's great to ask questions, but also, you know, sometimes I know this myself. It's good to slow down. Again, that thing that I had this morning where, you know, I had an opportunity to ask some questions, and I just I I didn't ask as many questions as I really wanted to. I think in reflecting on that, it was like, I I didn't take the I didn't make most of the opportunity to ask questions and and the thing I had this morning, and it was you know, for me, it's there was a quick turnaround time. Everything happened very quickly. So I was maybe a little less prepared than I would have liked to have been. But at the same time, the questions that I did have were very specific, and I don't know that today during that particular thing would have been the right time to ask those questions because, again, you know, think you learn things as you go, not everything has questions upfront. Right? Just like a stroke. Like, when I had my stroke, of course, I had a million questions on day 1, but over time, I've realized, like, okay. You gotta pace yourself. It's a it's it's a marathon. It's not a sprint. And even though I personally desperately wanted my stroke recovery to be a sprint because I wanted to get through it and get better, the reality is it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of work, and that's one of the things, you're really gonna enjoy the conversation when I release the episode with, Jason Lopes.

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He and I, you know, we have similar but very different backgrounds, and I think we're both very tenacious. We're both ambitious. I think we both agree that, you know, I think it's good to have some ego along with the curiosity because ego does sort of help you want to get better. You're never satisfied, but also at the same time, you need to realize the ego can also get in the way. Similar with curiosity, it's like, it's good to be curious. You wanna be curious. You wanna have sort of a list and a progression and ideas of where you wanna go in your recovery, but you also need to understand what your body and your brain and your emotions are going through and that as much as you wanna fix it, the thing that about everybody saying it takes time is absolutely true. It does take time.

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There are no quick fixes in stroke recovery. There is no magic pill. You know, we talked a lot. We talked about a lot of things. I'm sure I'm gonna forget all of them, but we'll you know, I'll make sure to review them and outline all the things in the notes because it was a really good conversation about being disciplined. People ask him people ask me all the time. How do we do it as stroke survivors? Yes.

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We're younger. We're in our forties. That doesn't mean we're spring chickens anymore, which we also talked about, you know, is it stroke, is it about being a little bit older, is it about recovery, are there things we're doing wrong? You know, I don't think we actually came to conclusions on those things, but we tend to be people that push it pretty hard. And the moral of the story is we both have made mistakes in our recovery.

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We are ambitious. We are tenacious. We are relentless.

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We talked a lot about David Goggins, which is, you know, not for everybody, but I think that sort of mental strength, that mental toughness news is is something that has served us both well. And, you know, I think to to to his credit and to my credit, we both are aware now that we have tried to push too hard at times.

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But the reality is, if you really wanna recover, I think, you know, and the the the I'm generalizing, but you do sort of have to decide, hey, it's time to take the reins. I got I'm in control of my destiny. You know, there are times we have both admitted to pushing it too hard, but I think pushing hard or trying to push hard and really put in a lot of work, put in a lot of effort, put in a lot of sweat equity, That's how we've recovered better than what you typically see on social media. It's not that we're better or better. It's just that we get asked these questions like, well, we put in a lot of time and effort. We you know, I was in a wheelchair.

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He actually, it was interesting talking to them because he had 2 strokes. He was never in a wheelchair, but I was in a wheelchair for well over a year and, you know, sort of that curiosity and the tenacity to push is how I've gotten better over time. Very similar to his story. We both, again, we both made mistakes. It's he still got some deficits 10 years out, which is really interesting. That's why the conversation was particularly interesting to me. We have a lot of similarities, but he's 10 years out, and he's still got some deficits he's working on.

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You know? So the the journey, it it doesn't stop. A stroke, unfortunately, is relentless, and there is no quick fix.

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And you see all the work he puts in in his videos. You see the work I put in over the years. Not as many videos, which we talk a lot about in the in in our in our episode together, you know, and it's it's it's he's still working at it. Right?

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10 years in. And so he's still curious about how can he get this a little bit better. How can he get this a little better? You know, I know another guy, Nick, strokes, sasquatch on, TikTok. He's 6 years out. He's a little further than me. He still has some arm movements. He's still pushing. He's still asking questions. You know, there's a lot of survivors. I'm only mentioning the ones that come to mind that I see regularly. And so to wrap it up, I think curiosity plays a big part of stroke recovery, and, you know, what that looks like for each individual is going to depend on the week, the day, the time, the month, how you're feeling, your emotions, the state of where you're at.

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Really boils down to staying curious, you know, being honest with yourself. When are you pushing it too hard? When are you not pushing it hard enough? You know, that's when is it time to switch things up? I think that's when curiosity really kicks in too. Because what if you are somebody who's putting in pretty good work, right, and things still aren't where you wanted to be? You have to dig deep. You have to ask questions. Reach out to other survivors.

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See what people many survivors are willing to have a chat more than you realize. Don't hesitate to reach out to any stroke survivor. And if somebody pushes you aside or ignores you, you know, they may have just missed it as we all know. I talk to a ton of stroke survivors, many of whom wanna have conversations and and, you know, sometimes they forget we've scheduled a call or or they forget that I messaged them because they saw another message, and and that's they're human. We're all human as stroke survivors. But I just think in general, stroke survivors want to help other stroke survivors because we all know how hard it is. And so, you know, in wrapping up the week, I just wanna encourage everybody to stay curious, stay focused, figure out what's working best for you when things aren't working the way you expect or want or hope. You know, reexamine, revisit those, reach out to other stroke survivors, see if they can maybe help you out. You know, maybe maybe they've had that issue. Maybe they know somebody else who's had that issue. Look for support groups. You know, join survivor science, the community.

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Go to the center.survivorscience.com to join there.

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Next week, I'll be pushing out a coupon code to join for Black Friday. If you're interested in joining the actual the online community portion of Survivor Science, you can go over to survivorscience.com as well and sign up for the newsletter. You can get notified of updates and all sorts of things, and you can reach out to me anytime. I really man, it's been a busy week. It's been an exciting week. Curiosity has come up a ton, and, yeah, anytime I can help a stroke survivor, again, reach out to me, email the podcast, hit up hit me up in the show notes, hit me up on social media. TikTok, Instagram are probably the best options.

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But those I'm under, think lovable. There, you can hit me up survivor science on x if you're over on Twitter. Really trying to get more conversations over there. I know people feel this way and that way about it. The only place that's really hard to get a hold of me is Facebook because I'm not great with Facebook anymore. I actually was in college when it came out and have kind of abandoned Facebook. I just do not enjoy spending my time there, but it's really easy to get a hold of me. Send me a message, especially on TikTok and Instagram. Happy to answer a question anytime. And, again, you go over to the website. You can fill up the form. It comes right to my email. You can email me anytime, will at survivorscience.com.

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And, again, I'll be out this weekend with an episode with, Keith Ellis. It was a really interesting conversation we had, kind of around long COVID, and and that's something to I think it was really interesting.

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COVID in general is interesting, especially as a stroke survivor. You know, we're a little more susceptible to certain things this time of year, holidays, meeting up with people. I think there's things to be mindful of and things to be careful of. Anyways, I know I'm going along here. This is supposed to be 15 minutes, Marty, at the 18 minute mark. I'm gonna wrap up for the week. Again, that episode with Keith will be out hopefully this weekend. If not, the latest, hopefully, it'll be in your, favorite podcast app by Monday morning for sure. Great conversation with Keith, and I'll be back on Monday in the afternoon with another, survivor sign sound bite. So, yeah. Have a great week. Hope you had a great weekend. Have a great weekend and get ready. Enjoy the holidays.

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We'll see you next weekend. Bye for now.