Stroke at 55: Jeff Ryberg’s Story of Surviving AFib, Alcohol & a Life-Altering Wake-Up Call

Recovery After Stroke

Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke: What You Need to Know About the Silent Link

When it comes to preventing stroke, most people think of managing blood pressure or cholesterol. But there’s another major—and often silent—risk factor many overlook: atrial fibrillation, or AFib.

AFib is the most common type of heart arrhythmia, and it’s more than just an irregular heartbeat. It’s a condition that can significantly raise the risk of ischemic stroke, particularly if it’s undiagnosed or unmanaged.

In this article, we’ll explore what AFib is, how it increases stroke risk, and most importantly, what steps you can take to protect yourself or a loved one.

What Is Atrial Fibrillation?

Atrial fibrillation is an irregular and often rapid heart rhythm that begins in the upper chambers (atria) of the heart. Instead of beating effectively, the atria quiver or “fibrillate,” which can cause blood to pool and form clots.

These clots can travel from the heart to the brain, leading to a stroke—specifically an ischemic stroke, which occurs when a blood vessel is blocked.

How Does AFib Lead to Stroke?

The link between atrial fib and stroke lies in the potential for blood clots to form in the heart. If a clot escapes and travels to the brain, it can block blood flow and oxygen—causing brain cells to die within minutes.

• People with AFib are five times more likely to suffer a stroke than those without the condition.
• One in four strokes in people over age 80 are attributed to AFib.
• AFib-related strokes are often more severe and carry a higher risk of long-term disability or death.

Who Is at Risk?

AFib can affect anyone, but the risk increases with:

• Age (especially over 65)
• High blood pressure
• Diabetes
• Heart disease or heart failure
• Sleep apnea
• Excessive alcohol consumption
• Family history of AFib

It’s also common for AFib to be asymptomatic. Some people feel palpitations or fatigue, while others don’t notice it at all—making regular checkups and heart monitoring essential.

Signs and Symptoms of AFib

While some people feel nothing at all, symptoms can include:

• Heart palpitations (fluttering or racing)
• Fatigue or weakness
• Dizziness or lightheadedness
• Chest discomfort
• Shortness of breath

If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms—or even subtle changes in how your heart feels—it’s worth discussing with your doctor.

How Is AFib Treated?

Managing AFib typically involves:

• Blood thinners (anticoagulants) to reduce clot risk
• Rate and rhythm control medications
• Lifestyle changes (diet, exercise, alcohol moderation)
• Procedures like cardioversion or ablation in some cases

The goal is to prevent clot formation and restore normal heart rhythm, significantly reducing the chance of a stroke.

How to Reduce Your Risk of Stroke from AFib

1. Get Diagnosed Early
   Many people discover they have AFib after a stroke. Catching it early can save your life.
2. Stick to Your Medications
   Blood thinners are critical in reducing the risk of stroke in people with AFib.
3. Monitor Your Heart Regularly
   Wearable ECG devices or even smartwatches can help detect irregular rhythms.
4. Cut Back on Alcohol
   Heavy drinking can trigger AFib episodes and increase stroke risk.
5. Address Lifestyle Factors
   Manage high blood pressure, quit smoking, stay active, and eat a heart-healthy diet.

Final Thoughts: Knowledge Is Prevention

Understanding the link between atrial fib and stroke empowers you to take action. Whether you’re living with AFib or supporting someone who is, the path to prevention starts with awareness, medical guidance, and lifestyle change.

Atrial fibrillation may be common, but it doesn’t have to lead to stroke. With early detection and the right treatment plan, it’s absolutely possible to live a long, full, and healthy life.

Need More Support?

If you’re a stroke survivor or navigating AFib, check out our Recovery After Stroke community, where we share survivor stories, medical insights, and support tools for recovery and prevention.

From AFib and Alcohol to Stroke Survival: Jeff Ryberg’s Powerful Recovery Journey

Jeff Ryberg’s stroke was caused by AFib and alcohol. His inspiring recovery offers hope, healing, and lessons for stroke survivors everywhere.

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Highlights:

00:00 Jeff’s Introduction and Background
01:56 Jeff’s Stroke Experience
04:17 Atrial Fibrillation and Alcohol Use
09:35 Jeff’s Transformation and Recovery
13:46 How a Stroke Saved My Life: A Listener’s Powerful Reflection
23:44 Challenges and Support in Recovery
35:49 Post-Traumatic Growth: Finding Meaning After the Storm
42:05 Recovery, Friendship, and the Two-Hour Window
58:42 Post-Stroke Reflections and Advice

Transcript:

Jeff’s Introduction and Background

Bill Gasiamis 0:00
Hello everyone, and welcome to Recovery After Stroke, I’m so grateful you decided to join me today, whether you’re a stroke survivor, a caregiver or simply someone seeking to understand the recovery journey. On a deeper level, I wanted to thank you for being here. Your presence helps build this incredible community, one story, one episode, one connection at a time. More and more people are now discovering this podcast while still in hospital, sometimes just days after having had a stroke.

Bill Gasiamis 0:34
That kind of early connection is exactly what I needed when I had my own stroke back in 2012 and it’s why I started this show in the first place. It is also what inspired me to write the book, The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened. If you’re looking for more insights into navigating stroke recovery, not just physically, but emotionally and mentally. I invite you to take a look and check it out. It’s written from the heart, and it’s there to support you wherever you are on your journey.

Bill Gasiamis 1:07
Today, my guest is Jeff Ryberg, and his story is a powerful one. Jeff had a stroke at 55 caused by Atrial Fibrillation and alcohol related heart failure, but thanks to timing, medical intervention and a moment of clarity that changed everything. He not only survived, he transformed. In this episode, Jeff talks openly about his long history with alcohol, the signs he missed, the life threatening impact of untreated AFib and what it looked like to turn it all around. His journey is one of redemption, healing and purpose, and I think it will resonate deeply with many of you.

Bill Gasiamis 1:49
Let’s dive in. Jeff Ryberg, welcome to the podcast.

Jeff Ryberg 1:54
Thank you for having me. Thanks, Bill. Appreciate it.

Jeff’s AFib and Stroke Experience

Bill Gasiamis 1:56
Tell me a little bit about what happened to you, Jeff.

Jeff Ryberg 2:01
So, about two and a half years ago, I was feeling kind of poorly, and for a couple weeks, had been complaining about being tired, and I went to the doctor, I think, the Friday before, I got sick, and they gave me some medicine to get my AFib under control, had some AFib issues.

Jeff Ryberg 2:23
Atrial Fibrillation.

Jeff Ryberg 2:25
Atrial Fibrillation, right. So I went into the doctor and came home, I went to bed. Woke up early in the morning, my fiance is a nurse, and I said “Hey, I’m not feeling good.” And anyway, long story short, the ambulance came pick me up, took me to the hospital. My heart was failing, I had like a 15% to 20% on the left side. So I was in, had cardiopathy. Heart failure was kicking in, and they had me on pretty high blood thinners, heparin was involved, and doing all these things. But a day had passed, and they had gotten a lot of oxygen and things like that.

Jeff Ryberg 3:10
So the next day, my son was in the room with my oldest son, is 33 and I had to go to use the restroom, and he got him up at a bed, and he said “How come you’re talking so funny. What’s going on with this?” And I had a stroke, in his arms as he was taken to the bathroom. And this is where things get a little bit interesting. Is that it I had it in the hospital, luckily enough, and at 55 they said I was really young to have a stroke, which I thought I was old at the time, but had the had a stroke in his arms.

Jeff Ryberg 3:49
What became kind of like, like to say a miracle was that the specialist that was in the whole area for the University of Washington happened to be in the hospital on my floor just a couple doors down, working with somebody else. So within 45 minutes, MRI, CT scan, and then did a thrombectomy, two blood clots, one each side of my brain, and got them out.

Atrial Fibrillation and Alcohol Use

Jeff Ryberg 4:17
So that led me to, I’m here with you now to talk about my experience and the what led up to that, and how fortunate and lucky to be in that situation, that I was to have that procedure, and we can talk more about that, but it was a very fortunate position. But every day I’m thankful to to be in obviously.

Bill Gasiamis 4:42
Yeah, it’s a pretty intense situation. So tell me about the atrial fibrillation history. When did you discover that that was a thing and that you need to be managed?

Jeff Ryberg 4:54
Well, I think, Bill had been going on for quite a while, so I think over the years, I have a, obviously, had a drinking problem, and that’s one of the things that would initially start the AFib. Would, I’d have like, a heavy night of drinking, and then my heart would race, and I would just probably pour more on top of and then all of a sudden, you know, I wouldn’t race anymore, and it wouldn’t feel at it. So I’d been to the hospital a couple times over the years for racing hard, and I never really thought much of it.

Jeff Ryberg 5:24
And then eventually, I think, as you kind of put the pieces together of this puzzle here is that atrial fibrillation probably was from alcohol use, the coronapathy from alcohol use. And one of the things that I tell people as I tell the story, is that when you’re in the hospital and someone asks you, how many drinks a day do you have? And I said to the cardiologist I have, I don’t know, two or three. And he said, are those doubles or triples? And I said, I don’t know, maybe. So you’re probably 10 to 15. And I said “Wow, that’s pretty good, probably pretty close.”

Jeff Ryberg 6:00
And as you drink over the years, you just get used to 10 to 15. That sounds like a lot, but over the course of a night, you know, you just kind of is what it is. So I think atrial fibrillation led to my situation that I’m in, or I was in over the years, and since it’s been two and a half years, I haven’t had any more atrial fibulation. I’m down about 40 pounds. I have a glass of wine here and there, or, you know, but it’s not more than half one or one here and there. So it’s there’s no alcohol. I’m a designated driver now, which never would have happened about three years ago.

Jeff Ryberg 6:46
I can promise you that, but I think that’s what led to it. And I think as the more people I talk to, and the more things I read online, and the cardiologist, multiple cardiologists I’ve had have all said the same thing, one of the things that was interesting was the I tested positive for the gene for cardiomyopathy. My dad had it, and so they thought that I would never really come out of the cardiopathy woods. As far as a heart was weakened. And I maybe jump ahead too much here, but as is, the years have gone on.

Jeff Ryberg 7:21
My cardiomyopathy is in full remission. I don’t have any issues with my heart any longer. It’s back to beating at 50% – 55% I don’t have any of the blood blood pressure medicine, blood thinners, all of that has been moved to the side for at least for right now, but I think it’s a matter of making the right decisions, eating correctly, losing the weight, cutting out the alcohol, like I said, making good decisions. But to answer your question, the AFib is probably was there for a lot, much longer time than I thought.

Bill Gasiamis 7:59
The war was behind the excessive drinking of alcohol? Was there a reason for it? Is it something that you just always did, kept doing? Was it to change your the way you felt, or what was behind it?

Jeff Ryberg 8:18
Yeah, I think it was self-medicating for anxiety issues, I think. I’m a salesperson for a long, long time, for 30 years, and so a high functioning alcoholic is what I would probably call myself, and most of my people I do stuff with, is it just alcoholic. Sounds like a different person, but a functioning alcoholic means you drink a lot and you’re able to perform. And I think a lot of it, you just get stressed out, so you just pour alcohol on it to help, you know, your situation that you’re in. And that’s kind of that was that for a long, long time, 30 years, probably.

Bill Gasiamis 8:53
Just take the edge off. Feels like it takes the edge off.

Jeff Ryberg 9:00
Yeah, I just, I don’t take a lot of medicine. Obviously, as you hear my story, as I slowly weaned myself off of medicine, I just not a big fan of how I felt on some of medicines. And so same with, you know, taking pills to calm myself down, that’s not really what I did. So I would just pour booze on it, have a couple drinks. Things are great, but that’s not the way to go. Obviously, that had a huge effect on my life and it, you know, change the way you view, you know, getting a second chance is a big deal.

Jeff’s Transformation, AFib, and Stroke Recovery

Bill Gasiamis 9:35
Let’s take a moment to reflect on what Jeff has shared so far from a hidden heart condition and years of heavy drinking to a sudden stroke that changed everything. This experience is a reminder of how quickly things can unravel and how powerfully they can rebuild. If this podcast has brought you hope or helped you feel understood, one way you can support it is by listening through. The ads, it may seem like a small gesture, but it helps cover production costs and allows me to keep sharing stories like Jeff’s.

Bill Gasiamis 10:08
And if you want to go even further, consider joining us on Patreon, at patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke. Your support helps bring these conversations to those who need them most, especially in those early, uncertain days of recovery. Now let’s get back to Jeff’s story and hear how he transformed his life after stroke, one intentional step at a time when I’ve spoken to other people who have had have been alcoholics and have drank excessively and try to give up a couple of times.

Bill Gasiamis 10:42
One of the challenges they have is that they’ll go through the process of slowing down the amount of alcohol they drink, but then these emotions come to the surface that they’ve never dealt with before, and that often makes it difficult for the alcohol consumption to stop, because then that was the whole reason they were drinking. And they don’t have a strategy to deal with the emotional side of not drinking alcohol, the stuff that’s coming up that they’ve repressed suppressed for years.

Bill Gasiamis 11:13
Because they just didn’t realize that one of the things they were going to need to do was seek counsel, seek a counselor and get some support. Like that. Did you in your 30 years, had ever been something that came into your awareness that I should stop this, and then you’ve put some steps in place to stop but then found yourself drinking again?

Jeff Ryberg 11:36
No, I think I just always thought I could control it. I thought I could just kind of work myself through the situation. So counseling was had been married before, so the counseling did wasn’t for my drinking. I think people would always say “Hey, you drink too much.” And then he just kind of dismiss it like it’s not a big deal. But when you have kids, my daughter is 20 and a couple years she came to me and said “Hey” she sat in my office and said “Could you please, please stop drinking? Please stop doing this. I don’t want to go through this again.”

Jeff Ryberg 12:07
So when you you put in a situation like that, and you’re afraid, I think people that in my situation, and I would tell anybody that’s listening, is that when you’re afraid, you’ll stop drinking. And when you get really get afraid to have another stroke or multiple strokes, or you’re in that situation, you will stop, and you should stop. And that’s what happened to me, is, I think if this didn’t happen to me, Bill, if I didn’t, it saved my life. And people say, you hear quite a bit, is it?

Jeff Ryberg 12:36
It probably saved my life, because I probably would still be drinking right now, you and I wouldn’t probably be talking. I That’s a Friday afternoon. I’d probably be at some place having a couple cocktails and but I think the what happened to me was I got a helmet check and someone said “Hey, we need to pay attention to what’s important to you.” And what’s important is the people around you, your son that was in a room with you, your daughter that said, Please, and your other son. I mean, there’s, there’s so many signals and signs that people just ignore.

Jeff Ryberg 13:03
And one of the messages I wanted to say was, I want to get to the people before they get to my situation. How do I get to someone to say, hey, look, you were you given opportunities, and this is one, I got another one. This is another chance. And it’s an interesting because, you know, some of the people you try to talk to don’t get it. They hear you talking, they’re not listening to you. And I think my message is to get to those people, or my plan is to those folks, and I’m listening.

Bill Gasiamis 13:35
It’s a good thing to do. Are you on YouTube, by any chance, have you been commenting on my videos recently?

How AFib And Stroke Saved My Life

Jeff Ryberg 13:46
No, I haven’t been. You know, what I had, yeah, I don’t know I was on there. We looked at them. I watched, we were, I was taking, we’re have a place over in Eastern Washington, and we were taking a drive, and we were listening to a couple of them. There was one of them that was about alcohol that we listen to, and I don’t know if my fiance commented on it or not she may have.

Bill Gasiamis 14:06
There’s a comment by somebody on one of my videos. What stroke survivors wish they knew is what the video is called, and what it is is about a 9 minute video. And I asked the whole bunch of stroke survivors what they wish they knew about stroke, what when they were going through it that they were never told. Anyhow, the person who commented was WordsmithWorks3541, I don’t know if it’s you or not.

Jeff Ryberg 14:33
No.

Bill Gasiamis 14:33
Okay, but have a listen to this comment. This is I just read it five minutes before we sat down to record this. And now have a listen to what they’re saying “Prior to my stroke.” Okay, this is definitely not you “A drug an alcohol abuser. I had a horrible diet, was a fat load, and was losing my family, while I understand what Bill is saying about losing the old you. So I’m talking about letting go of that old person prior to stroke, and kind of evolving it and changing it turn it into a more improved version, while that person understands what I’m saying about that…

Bill Gasiamis 15:09
The old me.” he says “Caused my stroke, but ironically, my stroke saved my life. I don’t miss the old me that said I was overcome with crushing guilt about what I did to myself and my family three years later, and things are lighter and light years better. Thank God.” So, unbelievable.

Jeff Ryberg 15:35
Yeah, that’s, that is a message that I think you don’t get until it happens to you and just the absolute miracle of how it happened. It could’ve happened, if you think about it, what if I wasn’t in the hospital? What if wasn’t in my son, what if the specialist wasn’t there to do a thrown back to me, which is extremely rare, to do it anyways, to do two of them, and come out of with very little or no side effects. I, Bill, when I woke up in the recovery, they had said I had a stroke. And I said, I don’t have, I didn’t have a stroke.

Jeff Ryberg 16:17
And they said, you did. And they kept making me smile, and they kept asking what time it is and can you know what date it is? And luckily, there was a clock right behind the nurse’s head. Every time she’d asked me, was super easy, so I’d say, yeah, it’s June 23 at whenever.

Jeff Ryberg 16:30
So I was cheating, but I didn’t even know how to stroke, and I had gone to the neurologist two months later, and they wanted to check me out. And the lady said “Hey, here’s, let me show you your brain on the scan.” I said “Great, and she was here where the damage is.” And I said “What damage? I don’t have any damage.”

Jeff Ryberg 16:49
And she said “Right here, this white stuff, right here, is the damage from your stroke, and to that, to this.” I mean, I didn’t have no idea. I had no idea had gone three months after in recovery, I mean, I was fine. I mean, I on occasion, a couple little things here and there. But for the most part, I got extremely lucky to come out of this way did in the hospital for a week, six days, a few days in an intensive care.

Jeff Ryberg 17:15
But to come out the way I did, you know, was extremely, extremely, extremely lucky. Yeah, a miracle, if you want to call that. But yeah, it was, I can’t, it’s hard to describe.

Bill Gasiamis 17:33
So the heart condition, the genetic predisposition for cardiomyopathy, and then that has settled down, though. So it was an issue has settled down. Has your heart function improved increased? Is that what you’re talking about a little earlier?

Jeff Ryberg 17:53
Yeah, yes, it is. I don’t have any AFib symptoms or cardiomyopathy symptoms. It had completely gone to remission, the X-Rays, or the MRI, I did after the fact I see that the cardiologist once a year, I won’t see him until probably June. So my three anniversary is June 22 and it’s interesting too. As I go, do the all the reading I do online, which is too much, too much research. You know, stroke survivors aren’t supposed to live this long it could. I mean, it depends what you read. We’re not going to make it three years, whatever, but I spent too much time doing that.

Jeff Ryberg 18:31
And then that stress myself out. And then my thing is not knowing specifically what happened. I think we know what happened to me. I think we know that drinking probably caused this. Maybe it was a virus, maybe it was all these things, but not knowing is the hardest part. I say to my friends all the time, if you had broken your leg and you had to go in and get a cast, you knew that you broke your leg.

Jeff Ryberg 18:50
But when we have a stroke, when you had yours, I had mine, I don’t know exactly what caused it, so I don’t every time I go and get a sniffle or I sneeze, I’m like “Oh, is this going to be another stroke.” So that’s hard part. And do it research, research on.

Bill Gasiamis 19:07
Yeah, the common thing of what they call a cryptogenic stroke, a stroke that occurred that people don’t understand what the cause was, is “will it happen again? Why did it happen? Is this another stroke? Etcetera.” and what it requires is a little bit of vigilance, not over vigilance, but vigilance so that you do take the necessary steps to get yourself to hospital, to get yourself checked out, even if it’s a false alarm, because I had three bleeds from the same blood vessel.

Bill Gasiamis 19:41
And that means I went to hospital three times in two and a half years where it was definitely bleeding, but in amongst that time, I went about another 10 or more times where it definitely wasn’t bleeding, but we thought that it was. And it’s like, what am I going to do? I’m not going to die wondering. I’m definitely going to get myself to a medical professional where my history is, where they know who I am. And I’m going to go there and I’m going to say “Sorry, guys. I know I’m back again, but this thing in my head hasn’t been resolved. And, yeah, it might be bleeding again today…

Bill Gasiamis 20:25
And I think this is best place for me. You need to do a scan on my head.” And that was it, that would do the scan, and we would work it out, and I think it’s like, it’s appropriate to be vigilant in this scenario, and to think about, is this going to mean that, etc, get to know your body, understand what it’s like, get some feedback from medical professional, a scan, whatever, to ease your concern and to prove that that wasn’t a situation you needed to worry about. And then go about, get back to going about your life now.

Bill Gasiamis 20:59
You’ve made some massive steps, all the things that you’ve done, lost weight, stopped drinking, etc, that has significantly decreased your risk of stroke, like dramatically, the numbers are unbelievably in your favor. Now your cardiomyopathy has settled. That’s because the there’s no inflammation from the alcohol that causes inflammation in the body, let alone in an organ that’s susceptible to it, right?

Bill Gasiamis 21:28
Because you have a genetic condition, so that’s amazing. So everything you’re doing is on the right track now with the alcohol, I wonder, did you have a did you go cold turkey? Did you slowly stop decreasing it? How did that go? What was it like to experience that?

Jeff Ryberg 21:47
Well, so I quit cold turkey. They had me on a watch. That guy’s gonna have seizures from quit drinking at the time. For someone like me, I just stopped. And I didn’t drink for a year and a half or two years before, I had a sip of some anything, and it was fine. I had no problem with stopping it. Didn’t make me have any kind of nothing. I didn’t sweat, didn’t have any issues like that. So I was blessed to not have any issues that came up with that. But I think just the the fear of the unknown and my the doctor that I had my dad had as well.

Jeff Ryberg 22:25
I had him as had the same doctor, and he had said to me, and I can see him saying, If you drink again, you’re going to die of a stroke or another heart failure if you drink again. So this is a specialist, one of the top guys, and so I didn’t, because I was afraid and I didn’t I wanted to stop, I wanted to change my life. And I think, yeah, most people will fall back off the wagon and get back on a drink again. That’s just not going to happen. It’s one of those things where, like I said “I will have a half a sip of this or that.” And it’s almost like I’m in the game.

Jeff Ryberg 22:59
I get a pinch hit, or I get a pinch run, and that just makes me feeling so part of the team, and that’s it for me, and that’s fine. That’s all I need. And that’s rare as well, where most people that are card carrying a members, they’re not going to be able to, you know, have just the one sip and call it good. But, you know, great. I mean, I do have that ability.

Bill Gasiamis 22:59
Did you replace it with something? So a lot of people will say to me, when they’ve quit something that they were will call it addicted to, or they have a tendency for addictions, that kind of stuff. They replaced it, like with ridiculous gym sessions, and they went to the gym 15 times the first week, etc. Well, how did you go?

Challenges and Support in AFib and Stroke Recovery

Jeff Ryberg 23:43
But, man, that’s so funny, I said that. So, I love to gamble a little bit. So when you start to pick up other habits, I don’t gamble a lot, but we have, you know, a little gambling ground here, so I love doing that. But impulsively, I found that after the stroke, man, if I want to buy it, I’m going to buy it, or if I see something, I’m on it. If I want to, you know, my ability to slow down, my those kind of things, have just gone in the ditch. And so my kids and everyone thinks it’s so funny. All the clothes, I gotta buy new stuff.

Jeff Ryberg 24:17
So we just start buying stuff, or gambling or whatever I’m going to do. So it absolutely 100% I gave up booze for other things, but it’s all fun stuff. It’s nothing that’s going to cause me troubles. One of the things I thought was interesting was that I know about you, but when people say all time”Hey, you look fine, that you don’t have any issues. Got nothing wrong with you.” but at the end of the day, man, I get tired at 10 o’clock, 9 o’clock, I’m when I’m done, I’m done, or if I go, I don’t know about you, you go to the mall.

Jeff Ryberg 24:51
And it’s just, there’s just, like, there’s a million lights going off, and you’re like “Where in the hell right?” It’s just, and you’re not, you’re normal, but you’re not. And so you try to put on this facade that, hey, everything’s great, but at the end of the day, you’re kind of like, Hey, I’m still not, I’m not bad in 1000 right now, I’m in, I’m trying, but it’s taken a lot more, you know, effort than it used to. Yeah, that’s not, you’re the same way.

Bill Gasiamis 25:17
Yeah, they’re very common stroke symptoms, right. So afterwards, fatigue, over stimulation, the lighting, fluorescent lighting in malls, etc, just completely change the way that your brain experiences that, and the noise, the people, just all the stuff going on. It’s a lot for your because it all happens through your eyes. There’s a lot for your eyes to process and then your brain to deal with when it’s also trying to heal from the injury that it experienced from the two clots that went into your brain, right?

Bill Gasiamis 25:52
So that’s what that is, and the fatigue is telling you, like you said, when you’re done, you’re done. That’s how I am. Like, it doesn’t matter what’s on the to do this. It doesn’t matter how urgent they are. There is just a time in the day when I hit the wall, I’ve hit the wall, and there’s no going over it, under it, around it, there’s just stopping at the wall and relaxing and doing whatever I have to do, and then reassessing the next day, and gathering myself, and then getting the tasks done that was supposed to be done the day before, in the new day.

Bill Gasiamis 26:28
And then moving on and just playing that game again and see where it end up at the end of the night, I have nights where eight o’clock in the evening I am completely gone and I need to be in bed. And then I have nights where I can go till, well, I don’t feel like sleeping until 11:30 or 12 o’clock in night. And it, I don’t really know, I can’t predict it. So just go with the flow. The hardest part about going to bed late is, if I don’t get enough sleep during the night, is waking up and being a little bit groggy.

Bill Gasiamis 26:59
My left leg is, you know, struggles to wake up. It takes a bit longer to wake up. My left arm, same thing. So that’s the only risk that I have, is the next day, is if I have a late night after feeling energetic, I pay for it the following day. So there’s no, yeah, you can’t interest there’s no balance. It’s just like you have a certain number of hours of energy, you might sneak another one in on today, but you’re not going to have that tomorrow.

Jeff Ryberg 27:34
That is identical. That is exactly my left side saying it would. It takes a while to get it going, but once I get rolling, but I’ll shut down at dinner if we’re at I was some friends at 9 o’clock, or I can go to 11 or 12 and I’m not tired. Same kind of deal. So it’s interesting that you’re have that same was yours on the right side or left side?

Bill Gasiamis 27:53
Mine was right side.

Jeff Ryberg 27:55
Yeah, same, yeah. The bigger one was on the right for me. But my that was had prowess on the left. So, when I had the stroke, my left side was paralyzed, and then when it came out, it was gone, which is, I can’t, it’s unusual. I was watching the Jamie Fox special. If you’ve seen that.

Bill Gasiamis 28:21
Haven’t seen special. He had some kind of a stroke, yeah.

Jeff Ryberg 28:24
Yeah, that’s interesting one. So I watched that, and his was very similar toward the end where he was saying something about he didn’t realize he had one. There’s no way he had one. I didn’t, you know, it’s similar to my situation, where I was like “There’s no way I had one there.” You can’t tell you had one, but his, it’s an interesting to hear him talk about his situation. Yeah, very, very similar to yours as well.

Bill Gasiamis 28:50
So what happened with work? How did you navigate that? Was there a stop work? Was there a transition back?

Jeff Ryberg 29:00
Well, so again, I’m probably unique. I probably took about a week off from work, which, knowing what I know now, I probably would have taken a lot more, but my job is very important to me, and I don’t take a lot of time off. But so for that’s why, when I went back into to the neurologist and said there’s damage. I was like, I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s I don’t know what you and there’s no damage.

Jeff Ryberg 29:26
But sure enough, there definitely is. And so it was about a week, maybe a week and a half, and I was still kind of doing emails. I was in the hospital, I didn’t work at all, technically, probably two weeks overall. But that was it, that was about it. And then I’m back on the kept me busy, but I think maybe that’s what helped my brain keep going and stimulating, whatever it was. But it was, yeah, unusual, very unusual, to have that kind of surgery, and I’m just bounce right back. I said just was strange.

Bill Gasiamis 30:01
When you got back to work, were you full time? Back to normal routine, the whole time?.

Jeff Ryberg 30:08
Full time, yeah, I work. I get to work from home. So that helped a lot. So my customer, I didn’t go see for a while, but for most time, I was just working from home and making phone calls, and no one really would know the difference. I think my work knew I was had a stroke, but, yeah, there was no special, you know, help on that side. Just jump right back in. And I think again, that probably helped me mentally to just prepare that I was going to be fine. But that didn’t take me to probably a year later.

Jeff Ryberg 30:42
I kind of realized as I read through what had happened to me how serious this was. I mean, even when I go back now that some of the reports on my charts weren’t there until like, six months ago, and then your heart rate’s about 50 when you’re reading it, and by the time you’re done, it’s about 100 you got, holy crap. That’s what happened to me. That’s where I was, right. That’s the program that was going on. And the, you know, having two sides and the doctor, all the things that were going on was a lot, and it’s eye opening. That’s when I kind of got more involved.

Jeff Ryberg 31:13
I do a couple of stroke groups a month, which I didn’t think was going to be for me. And my fiance said “Jeff, I think this would be good for you to go and talk to these people.” But I think it’s interesting that I didn’t know how much I could help them or how much they could help me, but at the end of the day, it is amazing the give and take on both sides, how much they help me and how much I’d like to help them.

Jeff Ryberg 31:37
And just listen to their stories. And what’s, you know, all the things that they’ve done. So it’s been, again, it’s one of those things where it changed. It changed my life. I wouldn’t be getting to meet the people I get to meet with. And, you know, it’s a treat.

Jeff Ryberg 32:14
Silver lining.

Jeff Ryberg 31:55
Yeah, one of the things I wanted to share how much more time we got, but I wanted to, want to show, I wanted to share one, other one of these, I like to say a miracle. I wasn’t sure why it happened, but I was at a football game, and this guy came. I was sitting kind of by myself in this huge stadium, and this guy came walking up the bleachers and not up to stepped up the bleachers, and he sat down right next to me, and he said “How you doing?” I said “Great.” And he said “You know, these teams?” I said “Yeah, this my neighbor’s son plays for one of the teams.”

Jeff Ryberg 32:31
And turned out he was a pastor at a local community or somewhere around their town. And we talked about, you know, our kids. And I say, I learned my lesson about, you know, calming down, I had a medical issue. And he said, I know you did. And he said, I know you were given a second chance to make an impact. And I don’t know who this guy was, I’ve never met him before my life. And he said, You’re given a second chance to make an impact. And I, we talked another few minutes. He got up and left, and he came back, and he put his hand.

Jeff Ryberg 32:31
He said “I just want you to know you need to make an impact.” And he left. So my thing that I would want to share is that something, someone wants me to do something and reach to people to say, you can do this, if I can do it, and I can recover and I can get through with very little or no effects to this, and you can quit drinking, and you just be a better person. As far as the thing, the choice that you make, anybody can do it. And so anyway, I thought I shared that with you and those listening. I think it’s a miracle. It really is.

Bill Gasiamis 33:38
It’s just, my head can’t wrap itself around that type of a situation. You go and you sit down somewhere, like it’s almost random, and you’ve been through all this stuff, and then there’s this person, and then they say these words that you’ve never heard another human being in your life say to you, and they seem to have an insight into your soul that they just possibly can’t and then they just lay down some wisdom on you. And then they just get up and they just disappear like it’s.

Jeff Ryberg 34:11
Well, he, you know, he sent me a, I think, on my phone. He wanted to send me something to read. If you don’t mind, I can just take a minute to read this. But I think it’s important that somebody that doesn’t know me, that just came and tracked me down and sat next to me, could have said, anyway, there was nobody around me for 50 feet. But he found me out, sat down next to me and dropped this on me so somebody was trying to get my attention. And he said it says “A life that matters is ready or not someday it will all come to an end…

Jeff Ryberg 34:48
There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, no hours or days. All things you collected are whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter, what you owned or what you’re owed, your grudges, your resentments, frustrations, jealousness, will finally disappear. So to where your hopes, ambitions, plans to do this will expire. The wins and losses and once seemed important will fade away. It won’t matter where you came from…

Jeff Ryberg 35:17
It won’t matter whether you were beautiful or brilliant, even in your gender, your skin color or your will be irrelevant. So what will matter? What will matter is that, not that, not what you brought, but what you built, not what you got, but what you gave. What will matter will not be your success, but your significance. What will matter is not what you learned but what you taught. What will matter is every act of integrity, compassion, courage or sacrifice that enriched, empowered, encourage others to emulate your example. What will matter is not your competence but your character…

Post-Traumatic Growth: Finding Meaning After the Storm

Jeff Ryberg 35:49
What will matter is not how many people you knew, but how many people felt the lasting loss when you’re gone. What will matter is not your memories, but what memories that the one, but will the memories that live on for those who loved you, what will matter is not how long you’ll be remembered, but for what living a life that matters doesn’t happen by accident.” Now this is what I was believing in before this person sat down next to me, but to hear somebody send that to me just randomly is, is not by accident.

Jeff Ryberg 36:22
And I was raised religious, and I believe in a lot of things, but when things like that happen is, I think, almost miracle type stuff that got my attention, and that’s why I’m here and one of my friends from the stroke group. Scott said, Hey, Jeff, this unit and Bill would hit it off. And I think this is where you need to get your message out to so.

Bill Gasiamis 36:48
I agree, I agree 100% I love hearing that story. Let me lay something down your way as well. Let me give you another bit of an insight. So you’ve heard of post traumatic stress disorder. We all have, most people know that what it is, it comes from many different events in life. What’s traumatic for one person may not be traumatic for another, but we hear about it, spoken with veterans a lot, but it doesn’t. You don’t have to have been a veteran to experience post traumatic growth. It could be just anything that you experience trauma from, right?

Bill Gasiamis 37:23
So anyway, there’s these two guys around the late 1990s doing some work in the United States, a guy called Richard Tedeschi and Lawrence Calhoun. They’re researchers, and they are into psychology and all that kind of stuff. And they coined a term called Post Traumatic Growth. So post traumatic growth. And post traumatic growth is something that people experience at the same time that they may be experiencing PTSD post traumatic stress disorder, and it happens together and in and then not one is not separate from the other. They kind of coexist.

Bill Gasiamis 38:04
And post traumatic growth occurs after a PTSD type event, like a really dramatic event, a stroke, what you saw on the battlefield, a car collision, anything like that. Doesn’t matter what it is. And these are the things in for people to be experiencing post traumatic growth, they have to kind of tick the boxes in these five domains, and those five domains are, number one, tell me if you tick these a new appreciation for life.

Jeff Ryberg 38:33
Yep, 100%

Bill Gasiamis 38:36
Stronger, more meaningful connections with people, increased empathy and greater sense of compassion, even towards those who have gone through something, some similar struggles. In other words, the way you relate to others has improved.

Jeff Ryberg 38:51
Absolutely 100% Yeah.

Bill Gasiamis 38:52
Tick 2 out of 2, then personal strength, a recognition of inner resilience and the realization that one can endure more than previously thought. Leading to increased confidence in handling future challenges.

Jeff Ryberg 39:07
100% Yeah, absolutely.

Bill Gasiamis 39:09
Tick 3 out of 3. Number Four new possibilities, the discovery of new paths, interests or life directions that may not have been considered before the traumatic event, such as career change, personal projects or advocacy work.

Jeff Ryberg 39:25
And 100% Yeah, absolutely, it’s just crazy.

Bill Gasiamis 39:29
4 out of 4. The final one, the fifth domain of post traumatic growth, spiritual or existential change, a deepened spiritual connection or a shift in beliefs about meaning and purpose in life, which may or may not be tied to religious faith.

Jeff Ryberg 39:45
Yeah, 100% Yeah. All of them, without a doubt, it’s, I don’t wish anybody to have a stroke, but to be able to get a the opportunity to appreciate. The things that I didn’t probably before that was right in front of you. I like to call it a helmet check, and I got a couple of them, pretty good ones, and someone wants me to get a second chance at doing something, and I will not waste it.

Bill Gasiamis 40:15
Yeah.

Jeff Ryberg 40:17
It’s definitely, yeah. Definitely changed.

Bill Gasiamis 40:25
And tell me about the family unit there, who lives at your place?

Jeff Ryberg 40:29
Yes, yeah, I’ve got three, three kids, two boys and a girl, the two older ones, 34, almost 34 and 31 and then daughter’s 20, and she’s graduating this year from college. So, yeah, it’s just my fiance and her two kids live here, and then my other ones kind of live outside the house.

Bill Gasiamis 41:00
Was your fiance on the scene back then a couple of years ago, when all that was happening was she around? Did she know the old version of you?

Jeff Ryberg 41:09
Yeah, it’s funny. So definitely, she’s a NICU nurse. So she’s used to take care of the little babies, which is perfect for me. I worked out fantastic. So she knew. I mean, she just had me, you know, called 911 quickly, and she knows that there’s something different that she kind of goes through and says, he’s especially, we’ve got to leave and go someplace. She’s the first ones, hey, let’s, you know, get you out of here. I know you’re tired or whatever. So she’s picked up on a lot of those things.

Jeff Ryberg 41:37
I’m a really bad patient. I’ll be honest with it, she would if she was here to tell you that I don’t, I don’t take good direction, I don’t take medicine very well. I don’t, I don’t follow the rules very well on some of those things. But I think maybe that’s helped me survive this thing, right as I kind of do it my own way, a little bit. But yeah, she’s been there every step of the way, and I’m absolute another blessing, another absolute blessing that I had the her to be there to help me get through this, because it’s not easy for the caregivers.

Recovery, Friendship, and the Two-Hour Window

Jeff Ryberg 42:05
I gotta tell you, as I watch some of the other folks, that they’re just as into it like we are. I mean, we had the we had the experience, but they’re experiencing it with us. And I’m not sure which one’s harder, because she’s gotta put up with a lot traveling, having to go someplace, we miss out a lot of things, because it’s difficult to kind of do the some of those things that I used to do, but we’re getting there. It’s a process. I got the opportunity I work a couple times a week, and that helps we do that together, and keeps the, you know, activity going, and, yeah, very, very fortunate.

Jeff Ryberg 42:38
So the quality of life my home life is, is very lucky to have that as well. A lot of folks helping me. And when I told people I was going to do this, they’re waiting to get to see it, or figure out how to watch it, or whatever. So there’s, there’ll be a cast of 1000, I think, trying to see what this looks like.

Bill Gasiamis 42:56
When you when you were drinking, were you drinking alone, or did you have a team of people that you did the drinking with?

Jeff Ryberg 43:03
Kind of both, I think towards more towards the end, I was probably by myself, and a lot of people would say, I don’t drink alone, but I had no problem with that. I think particularly towards the end and you stop, I wouldn’t even count. I’d count to 10 or 12. Just mix a drink with vodka, and I would just sit there, and I was fine. I just would, I was never really drunk.

Jeff Ryberg 43:24
Most people would say that never saw me drink so much, I was drunk. But I would definitely in both situations with my friends, you know, we’d like to go to the watch the games and do whatever, but mostly it was kind of a combination of both, unfortunately.

Bill Gasiamis 43:41
With your friends. What’s that like now? A lot of stroke survivors who have stopped drinking struggle with reconnecting with friends, because the whole premise around the friendship was, let’s go and have a drink, or let’s go and get drunk, or and now that person who doesn’t drink anymore, it makes it uncomfortable just because they say they don’t drink alcohol, for the rest of the people that drink alcohol, and it changes the dynamic. How did you find the dynamic with your friends change or stay the same?

Jeff Ryberg 44:13
Yeah, they’re all been pretty good to me. It’s more me than it is that side of it. They have all been very help. They wouldn’t let me have drinks. So even if I wanted to go have a bunch of drinks, they would take it away from me. They don’t push it on me. No one saying, hey, let’s have a couple. And they get it. They want me to be around. But I think for me to go to a bar, unless they’ve got gambling there, then I’ll go and I have fun with that. But now it’s hard, I mean, I got about two hours in me.

Jeff Ryberg 44:40
Most football games are three hours, so it’s hard for me to go there and sit there for three hours as they’re drinking pitcher after pitcher. And I’m the one watching how much they drink. I’m like “Oh my God, they’re going to have another one, they’re going to have another they’re going to have another beer.” And that was me. I was the one that was grabbing her to say, let’s get a couple more going. But so they’ve been great. I’ve been very lucky with that good group of friends, haven’t lost anybody as far as that.

Jeff Ryberg 45:03
I don’t go to the bars as much, I mean, because not as much fun anymore. I mean to sit there and do that, but I’ll have my soda water and lime, the place I used to go to frequently. I’ll show up now, and they’ll bring out the soda water and lime and they know that I’m not drinking. So it’s been nice. And so if I can keep the same kind of routine, I feel somewhat normal, if that makes sense.

Bill Gasiamis 45:25
You feel part of the action, but not partaking the things that are not good for you.

Jeff Ryberg 45:30
No, and, yeah, the drinking and driving that’s not an issue, which that took me a while to get used. To jump in my car and think to myself “Oh, I better be careful driving home.” But now I’m like, I’m not having any drinks, so it’s you know.

Bill Gasiamis 45:46
Would you have driven under the influence? Do you think?

Jeff Ryberg 45:48
Yeah, 100% Yeah. That’s another one that was just not a good life choice. Was very fortunate that I didn’t get myself in some trouble with that. So that was, yeah. So that is thing in the past, really. I know my friend, my friends have been very good, and my family and my kids have been very understanding and never an issue with, you know, pushing on me.

Bill Gasiamis 46:15
Yeah, you know, those online purchases that you made, is there been any regrets that you thought laid out. What did I point out for?

Jeff Ryberg 46:23
Man, it’s, you know what it is, It’s just clothes. If you go to my house, I have the same in my closet. I got, I don’t know what it is, I’m gonna have one of those. I gotta have a blue one. I gotta whatever. So my kids, like “Dude, stop buying stuff.” Man, you got more of the same clothes, they’re all blue or gray or whatever. I couldn’t wear them all, but I was an extra large. Now I’m like a medium large. I’m kind of all my clothes are too big. I look like one of my dad’s stuff.

Jeff Ryberg 46:47
So, almost 40 pounds is a lot, and most of was in my gut, if you see pictures that I mean, it was just so that, in itself, being able to be healthy and be around for my daughter to have her dad there is, you know, walking down the aisle is a big deal. I was very big deal. I guess I want to get to the people that were me three years ago and say “Hey, here’s what, here’s what it looks like.”

Jeff Ryberg 47:18
If you want to see what it looks like to have a stroke, I invite you to come to one of my groups during because not everybody is in the same position I’m in for a year in some are affected a lot more, and they’re not able to do the things that we get to do. It just, it’s a matter of just how it worked out. So if you take care of yourself now, you won’t be in that situation later. So yeah, that’s my message.

Bill Gasiamis 47:42
Yeah, prevention is the best medicine. I mean, though, if you can get through to people, to, you know, stop doing some of those behaviors, I mean, that’s the ideal scenario. That’s exactly what you want for them, but it’s not always is. Do you reckon there was any hope of anyone getting through to you in any way, shape or form, until you had like before, beforehand, if you had never had a stroke? Do you think anyone could have gotten to you and said you’re drinking too much? Or you’re doing this to yourself, or you’re making yourself unwell? Did you feel unwell?

Jeff Ryberg 48:18
Yeah, I did. Towards the end, I did. I started getting a little bit like, tired. I remember mowing the grass, and then, God, I was kind of tired. I walked up to the stairs, and I was kind of tired. And, like, that’s weird for me to be that tired. But, you know, people would sell the time, hey, you know, you need to slow down a little bit. My family would say, you know, you have another drink. Or I’d argue with my fiance or my kids. And it was always like, a little, maybe a quick trigger for but now I don’t have that as much right, more calm and relaxed, and things aren’t as big of a deal anymore.

Jeff Ryberg 48:49
But no, noone probably could have reached me. As far as making me stop drinking, I would have come up with a reason to but I go into a meetings, things like that. I haven’t done that. I haven’t done any of those things, probably should stop in but I think at the end of the day, I think I feel pretty good where I’m at unless I could help somebody else while I’m there, I would be happy to go to a meeting and talk to somebody else at why I stop.

Jeff Ryberg 49:15
I have a lot of friends that are in the summer situation that I talk to, but you know, people have to kind of find it their own way. And I don’t want to tell them, preach them about you need to quit. I just want to say, here’s your options. This is what I that’s what it looks like over here and over here. And, you know, I’ll help where I can.

Bill Gasiamis 49:34
Yeah, it is a little bit like that. I mean, I don’t think anyone could have told me to stop smoking before my strokes or drinking, or anything like that. I wasn’t drinking excessively or smoking excessively, but I was drinking doing a little bit of both. I wasn’t eating well. I was probably too stressed at work, not sleeping enough, you know, just the stock standard things that people do. And this blood vessel that. Of mine, that burst was always probably going to burst, but I didn’t make it harder for it to burst. I made it easier, you know, I created the perfect storm around it so that it can burst.

Bill Gasiamis 50:11
It’s a blood vessel that I was born with which is faulty from the beginning. It’s called the anterior venous malformation, and I just didn’t know it was there and and then after the stroke the first one, the first plate, I was like, yours, well, I don’t want to be the cause of the second one or third one or any other one, and I don’t want to not be here at 37 I definitely want to be around so I’m going to do everything I can to avoid it, even though I couldn’t avoid it.

Bill Gasiamis 50:41
Because, you know, once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s pretty hard to put it back in. And then and now, even now, like, you know, in the last probably 12 years, 13 years, maybe I’ve had 10 drinks in total, and I just can’t do it, but it makes me feel like I’m having another stroke. So there’s no point.

Jeff Ryberg 51:09
Yeah, no. I met a guy that had a stroke, and he said, he has one or two drinks, he feels like he’s a mess. And I that same with me. If I have one, it’s not the same. It’s just it’s gone. That thing of it is gone for me, it’s saying “Did you have headaches and stuff when you were having your situation?” Did you know that you’re having a…

Bill Gasiamis 51:30
I had a pretty obvious signs like my entire left side went now over a week. So it started with my big toe, and then it kind of crept up as the bleeding increased in size. It the numbness crept up from my big toe to my foot, then to my calf, then to my knee, then to my hip, then up my chest and then my entire left side. Took about seven days to get there and then, but I was ignoring it the whole seven days, other than going to the chiropractor to tell him, I think I’ve done something to my back. You need to sort out my spine.

Bill Gasiamis 52:06
And the chiropractor said “Well, there’s nothing, nothing there. You need to go to the hospital and get that checked out.” I argued with him. I didn’t want to go that Friday because we were working the next day was going to be a big day. And then I came home, my wife said, what did the chiropractor say? And I say, he said, I should go to the hospital. And she said “Well, what are you doing here?” And I said, “Well, I can’t go to the hospital. I got to work tomorrow. If I go to the hospital now at this hour, I’m not going to be out of there for hours.”

Bill Gasiamis 52:39
And anyhow, she said “Well, I’ll take you to the hospital. They’ll check you out, they’ll tell you there’s nothing wrong, and then you can go to work tomorrow.” I agreed with her. I thought that was a great idea. And then, of course, when we went there, they did a scan, and they said “Oh, there’s a shadow on your brain.” And it made complete sense when they said there’s something wrong with your brain, when they said it. But up until that time, the numbness, the last thing in my mind was that there’s something wrong in my brain.

Bill Gasiamis 53:06
Now the chiropractor didn’t say it, but he knew there was something wrong in my head, but he didn’t say those words. He just said “You should go to the hospital.” And when I went there, wow, yeah, they confirmed it, but they didn’t know what it was. They didn’t know if it was a tumor or a blood vessel or what. They had no idea because the blood was in the way, and it was not allowing the scan to pick up the issue, and it took some time to work out what the actual issue was.

Bill Gasiamis 53:36
But yeah, man, that was the start of February 2012 and that whole situation went on for about two and a half years, until November 2014 when it bled for the third time. And then they said “We’ve got to take it out. Now you need brain surgery.” There’s no getting around it, they took it out. And that can’t do anything. Since then, that’s completely gone. It cannot cause another stroke. But that hasn’t stopped me from feeling like I might be having another stroke, and I go to the hospital, I’ve still been after that.

Bill Gasiamis 54:17
Because, you have to ease your mind, and then after the surgery, because the blood vessel was about four centimeters in from the ER near the cerebellum. After the surgery, you know, by the time they get through four centimeters, couple of inches of stuff, of brain matter, you know, they’ve caused a little bit of damage, and they’ve nicked a few things, and that’s left me permanent tingling, numbness, sensitive skin weakness on my left side, so that, and tightness in the muscles, like, like they’re cramped, or like, I’ve been to the gym and worked them.

Jeff Ryberg 54:55
Interesting, yeah, I read your book. I read about my third of the way through your book. I think I did read about you kind of waited for your, have your own business, right?.

Bill Gasiamis 55:10
Yeah.

Jeff Ryberg 55:12
Yeah. I think I read that part. Yeah, that’s fascinating, that’s amazing. I wonder that’s interesting on some of the stuff that’s going on with mine as well. If I had to, maybe nick something as well, but that’s fascinating.

Bill Gasiamis 55:26
Well, thrombectomies are invasive. You know, they’re pretty serious procedures, and when people come into your brain and take stuff out, there’s always stuff residual that leaves you. That’s that they leave behind in a little bit of inflammation, a little bit of damage, a little bit of whatever. And there you’re definitely experienced post stroke symptoms and conditions. 100% you definitely are. And that’s all related to the conditions that you went through, the fact that your heart is back online, and all that kind of stuff, that should be the sign for you, right?

Bill Gasiamis 56:05
That should show you what’s possible in the in recovery, like how things improve, get better, start functioning better. It might be a bit slower in the head, but there also might be some permanent damage in the head that you can’t get around, but you can create the environment around that damage to support it so that, it’s not as big, as it’s not as impactful in a negative way. And that’s kind of what I’m doing.

Bill Gasiamis 56:33
I’m trying to support everything around that damaged area to just function as optimally as possible, so that the deficit is not the most is not playing a big role, even though it is playing a significant role. I’m curious, actually, now that I thought of it, how quickly did your condition improve after you stopped the alcohol? So with the heart condition, how quickly did that settle? Then you started to see real big improvements.

Jeff Ryberg 57:08
In my, within, like, six months. So by the time, I think, when I had the stroke in June, I went back in and November-ish, for another I did another MRI and an echo, and at that time it jumped back to 50% so I was at 15% to 20% on the left side, which is really low when I went into the hospital. And then this first time I came out, first was at 50% and now the last one was at 55% so I’m back to a 100% normal, no damage, no scarring. It was pretty bad shape going in. I remember the ambulance driver looking down at me, and she goes “Oh, that doesn’t look very good.”

Jeff Ryberg 57:53
And he’s like, No, that doesn’t look very good. I’m like “Well, hey, I can still hear you guys, what doesn’t look good down what doesn’t look good up there?” But, I knew it was in bad shape. But was interesting was that I was on such heavy heparin for the for a maxed out on it could have any more and then to even throw a couple clots after that, and a large vessel on the rights on the right side, is why he had to go get it, and for him to be there is, again, is he had up to the specialist there to be able to do that.

Bill Gasiamis 58:24
I don’t know what, heparin has made a massive role in decreasing the demo, for sure.

Jeff Ryberg 58:29
I’m sure, yeah, and so I did a good job of slowly weeding myself off of the baby aspirin I’ll take on occasion.

Bill Gasiamis 58:39
Have you done that in conjunction with your medical professionals?

Post-Stroke Reflections and Advice

Jeff Ryberg 58:42
So that was just data. So I think part of the issue, Bill, was, I had three cardiologists at a couple several neurologists, and you could ask each one would give you different answers, some would say, yes, that sounds great. This one says, no. This one says, maybe, if they’d all say the same thing, I would have taken it. But one would say, yeah, maybe take a half, or maybe don’t take any. Or so they were all very inconsistent. And so eventually got to the point where I just would listen to the one that was going to kind of go with what I liked.

Jeff Ryberg 59:16
And then it worked. And so as I got better over the year, in two years, and now I’m going to three years. I don’t take knock on. We don’t take anything right now. And so against most of the doctors would some docs would say you should be on something. Other doctors say you’re fine. If it’s not causing any issues, we’re good. So I don’t know it’s it’s one of those things where, if I got way too many doctors. I think I wish I had just had one, I guess, be honest with you.

Speaker 1 59:18
Yeah, right, they say that. I think there’s an old wise saying. And if you got one, watch, you always know what the time is. If you’ve got two, you’re never quite so sure.

Jeff Ryberg 59:54
That that’s exactly it, yeah. So, and that’s what learned as we go.

Bill Gasiamis 1:00:03
It seems like you’re working it all out slowly. You’re kind of ironing out all the crinkles and making progress moving forward. So that’s great. What’s the hardest thing about stroke for you? Do you feel is there something that you can isolate and say, well, that’s definitely the hardest part of it.

Jeff Ryberg 1:00:19
I think the hardest part is probably people just not knowing that having is not okay. You know, things are not as they look and unfortunately, likely to be back to normal and be able to do the thing they used to do all the time, which I’m about 95% there, probably 90% there, but I’m not quite there, and I’d like it just that’s the hardest part, is it what it looks like is not necessarily what it is. And I think more people I talk to, and the other thing too, probably is, I think about, is there’s not a lot of support after you have a stroke, there’s no place to go.

Jeff Ryberg 1:00:53
So when I got out, I’m like “Okay, now we’re going to setting up with the docs appointment.” They don’t, they just kind of say, good luck. I hope you make it. Things are great. Join a couple clubs, that’s it. And so one of the most recent people on my stroke group as a doctor, and she said, I don’t even know where to go. I don’t know what to do next. I had this, I’m recovering, and who do I talk to? What am I supposed to do for a follow up? There isn’t that.

Bill Gasiamis 1:01:17
Wow.

Jeff Ryberg 1:01:17
Right? So there’s not you could take anti-seizure medicine, you could take this, you take that you want to, you know, which sometimes it’s you need to take it. But I don’t. I think the hardest part is not knowing what happened and why it happened. And, you know, where do you get help at and how do you do it? What’s next? So, I mean, yeah.

Bill Gasiamis 1:01:39
We’ve spoken about a lot of “Aha” moments or things that you’ve come into your awareness, etc. Is there one thing you can pinpoint that stroke taught you?

Jeff Ryberg 1:01:52
Yeah. Taught me just kind of slow down a little bit. And I think everything was always at the mock speed, right? I gotta do it faster, quicker, better. I gotta, you know, how much money can you make? How you know, how fast can you do this? And at this point, I’m like, I’m looking to ready to retire massively and do different things and slow down. And hopefully have some grandkids at some point that I’m able to do stuff with.

Jeff Ryberg 1:02:14
And so those are the kind of things that I wasn’t really thinking about as much as I do now. Now it’s, you know, definitely change, 100% change in life, or save my life for sure. That’s definitely a is a gift and not a gift, if that makes sense.

Bill Gasiamis 1:02:30
Yeah, absolutely. Is there a little bit of insight, wisdom, advice that you want to sort of give the people listening, who are like you and me being through a similar situation? You know, and tuning in for maybe some I don’t know, something that might not have contemplated or considered before.

Jeff Ryberg 1:02:58
I think biggest thing is, you know, listen to your body for sure. And listen to slow down a little bit and enjoy the little things in life that you probably didn’t. It sounds cliche, and everyone’s going to say “Yeah, yeah, for sure.” That would have been me three years ago. God, I said, sure. But in the day, I’m just like you. I’m just a normal old guy that just happened to, you know, have a stroke that loves his family, loves his kids.

Jeff Ryberg 1:03:25
And I want you know, I would say, if you want to be around to enjoy them, you know, smile a little bit and listen to your body, because your body’s going to tell you “I knew. I knew what I was doing was causing some issues, and it didn’t slow down until it’s too late.” So that’s what I would do.

Bill Gasiamis 1:03:44
Fair enough.

Jeff Ryberg 1:03:45
Don’t get a second chance like we do. I mean, this was a gift, absolute gift. So, yeah.

Bill Gasiamis 1:03:51
I couldn’t agree with you more. Jeff, I really appreciate reaching out sharing your story, mate, it is a fascinating story. I wish you well on your ongoing recovery and just thanks for being my guest.

Jeff Ryberg 1:04:07
Bill, thank you very much. I appreciate it. Good talking to you.

Bill Gasiamis 1:04:10
Well, that brings us to the end of this deeply, powerful conversation with Jeff, from living with undiagnosed AFib and alcohol dependency to suffering a stroke in his son’s arms and receiving life saving thrombectomy just in time. Jeff’s story is a striking reminder that sometimes the wake up call we never wanted is the one that gives us a second chance. Jeff’s honesty about addiction and recovery and healing, both physical and emotional, is something I think many stroke survivors and their families will connect with.

Bill Gasiamis 1:04:43
His story showed that change is possible even after decades of unhealthy habits, and it’s never too late to choose a better path. If this conversation resonated with you, I’d love for you to share your thoughts. Please comment, like and subscribe on YouTube or leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, your feedback helps others find these stories right when they need them most, and remember people are discovering this podcast from their hospital beds just days after life changing diagnosis, that kind of access to support didn’t exist for me when I had my stroke.

Bill Gasiamis 1:05:22
But it does now, thanks to your continued engagement and support, if you’d like to help these episodes keep going, head over to patreon.com/recoveryafterstroke, every contribution makes a difference. Wherever you are on your journey, know this, you’re not alone, and like Jeff, your most meaningful days may still be ahead. Thanks for being here. I’ll see you in the next episode.

Intro 1:05:48
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The post Stroke at 55: Jeff Ryberg’s Story of Surviving AFib, Alcohol & a Life-Altering Wake-Up Call appeared first on Recovery After Stroke.