Speaker 1: Hi, and welcome back to SOS Stories of Survivors. I'm
Speaker 1: your host, Serrina Dansker, and today's episode is about awakening.
Speaker 1: My guest today is here to talk about the moment
Speaker 1: when life as you know it disappears and when you're
Speaker 1: left with the question, who am I now? Maria Garcia
Speaker 1: was just twenty five years old when a massive stroke
Speaker 1: left her locked inside her own body. She was unable
Speaker 1: to move or speak, and what followed were years of frustration, grief,
Speaker 1: but grit and determination as well, and a rebirth of
Speaker 1: her spirit. Through her platform. Genuinely, Maria, she now helps
Speaker 1: others reclaim their lives, their health, not just in body,
Speaker 1: but in heart and in soul. Maria, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1: I'm so deeply honored to have you here.
Speaker 2: Thank you for yon pleasure.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, Well this is such an amazing story.
Speaker 1: Can you take us back to the time when you
Speaker 1: first realize that something was wrong, something was happening in
Speaker 1: your body.
Speaker 2: Yes, I was talking to a boyfriend on the phone,
Speaker 2: sitting out my bed, and all of a sudden I
Speaker 2: start to say things like the red ocean is underneath
Speaker 2: the get to the table, and I'm like what what
Speaker 2: does that even mean? Because I watched myself say it
Speaker 2: if I was the third person wow outside of my body,
Speaker 2: and I was like that, I don't know what that was.
Speaker 2: And then I said something else that made no sense,
Speaker 2: and then suddenly I was able to get out. I
Speaker 2: used to go, I need to go, and I hung
Speaker 2: up on the phone. And as soon as I hung up,
Speaker 2: I got the worst headache I've ever had in my life.
Speaker 2: It was like somebody went bam with a metal pan
Speaker 2: on my head.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: And I fell into my bed, no position, And then
Speaker 2: I knew some things up now.
Speaker 1: Was there were there any signs before this happened? Like,
Speaker 1: were there any things that led up to that first
Speaker 1: moment that you can recall?
Speaker 2: Or if I really think about it, probably two or
Speaker 2: three these fire I had a weird feeling like writing
Speaker 2: up my body, and I remember going to the pharmacy
Speaker 2: like in the middle of the night, maybe two or
Speaker 2: three him was that related? I don't know.
Speaker 1: So you were only twenty five years old, so young,
Speaker 1: full of plans. How how did you know you feel
Speaker 1: when you were in that fetal position and your body
Speaker 1: wasn't responding anymore?
Speaker 2: Well? To be honest, I thought I had food poisoning.
Speaker 2: So because I just at lunch and we had a shrimp,
Speaker 2: so that was my first My first thought, I'm food poisoned.
Speaker 2: I never thought what was happening was that it was
Speaker 2: that a stroke because I didn't even know that word
Speaker 2: it consisted.
Speaker 1: Wow, So can you talk about what chance? So you're
Speaker 1: so you're in the fetal position, So what what what
Speaker 1: did you do? Did you go to the hospital with
Speaker 1: the food?
Speaker 2: A friend of mine was in the house and he
Speaker 2: heard the commotion in the room, so he came over,
Speaker 2: saw me lying down in the fetal position, called my mother,
Speaker 2: who was living on the second floor. Oh good, and
Speaker 2: she came down, just said, began to puke. They called
Speaker 2: the ambulance. Ambulance came. They actually came and left because
Speaker 2: they two thought it food poisoning and they didn't think
Speaker 2: of serious.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that's such a fail on their part. Wow.
Speaker 2: Well they didn't.
Speaker 1: They wouldn't think somebody my age was capable of having
Speaker 1: a stroke. So what did you do after they left?
Speaker 2: After they left, I got worse and worse, and so
Speaker 2: we ended up going to the hospital.
Speaker 1: Your mom, no, your friend, my friend. Wow. And and
Speaker 1: when you go into the emergency room. They were like, oh,
Speaker 1: stomach thang, just sit over there.
Speaker 2: Well I waited probably something like it felt like ten hours,
Speaker 2: but it was probably more like two or three.
Speaker 1: Did you have like did you feel like your your
Speaker 1: jaw slack and your m going Now? I'm like, you
Speaker 1: know how stroke victims normally find they can't control their body.
Speaker 2: I didn't really feel it, but I was told that
Speaker 2: my face was drooping and what I felt was vertigo,
Speaker 2: extreme vitigal. I couldn't walk straight and told on to people, Oh.
Speaker 1: My gosh, that's crazy. So once they you were in
Speaker 1: the hospital, they were able to diagnose that you were
Speaker 1: having a stroke.
Speaker 2: And yeah, I had a couple of tests, probably three
Speaker 2: hours there, and finally so many books over and says, oh, miss,
Speaker 2: we think you're a stroke. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: so much for food poisoning.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, stroke. I had no idea, You had no
Speaker 1: idea what it was. So what did they do for
Speaker 1: you when you have a stroke? Do they just put
Speaker 1: you in the ICU or you know.
Speaker 2: What happened to me is they transferred me a different hospital,
Speaker 2: one that specialized Wow. And it depends on what type
Speaker 2: of strokeer having. If it's a clot, they can give
Speaker 2: you medication called CPA and then you don't really have
Speaker 2: a side effects or all the stuff that is, I
Speaker 2: don't know, the sexy boys and not being able, so
Speaker 2: all that goes away or it doesn't eff too because
Speaker 2: it busts a clot. Okay, but they didn't know if
Speaker 2: my stroke was a clot or it might mean for
Speaker 2: first because if it's a breakage, it.
Speaker 1: Could kill you. Wow.
Speaker 2: It never gives me.
Speaker 1: Wow. So what did what did they prescribe? What do
Speaker 1: they do? They just well nothing.
Speaker 2: I got transferred. There was beefs now on the ground.
Speaker 2: It was Sunday, so there were no doctors or oh
Speaker 2: my gosh. So I was scheduled for surgery the following day.
Speaker 1: So what kind of surgery do they do?
Speaker 2: I don't know what it's called. But the procedures entered
Speaker 2: a type of balloon and you're growin and it goes
Speaker 2: up through your brain and to bust the clot.
Speaker 1: Wow. So they were able to find out that there
Speaker 1: was a clot in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, after many hours.
Speaker 1: And by the time they did that and you've done
Speaker 1: with the surgery, what was it like? You know how
Speaker 1: to describe how you're how you felt afterwards.
Speaker 2: Well, they was considered a medical success, okay, but to
Speaker 2: me it did not feel that way at all because
Speaker 2: when I came out of surgery, I couldn't move, I
Speaker 2: couldn't talk, I couldn't do anything.
Speaker 1: Really, so you were like a prisoner in your body.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. So how what's that like when you're
Speaker 1: aware but you can't tell people that anything? So how
Speaker 1: did you communicate?
Speaker 2: I didn't for two weeks?
Speaker 1: Could you blank or any of it?
Speaker 2: You could? That's whole the story. So, yeah, I was
Speaker 2: able to blink, but everybody thought I was a nicoma
Speaker 2: or an a vegitative state.
Speaker 1: Oh so they.
Speaker 2: Called my eye movements involuntary.
Speaker 1: Wow. So okay, so your your mind is awake, your
Speaker 1: body is still You're trying to let people know, So
Speaker 1: how did you How did you make them aware that no,
Speaker 1: I'm not in a vegetative state.
Speaker 2: I was actually a friend of mine over with pictures
Speaker 2: of a trip we took to Brazil and she saw
Speaker 2: me tracking the pictures with my eyes right, and she
Speaker 2: still everybody and they're like, oh no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: She's not there.
Speaker 2: But then I guess my family said, well, let's tell
Speaker 2: her bank once for yes and toys for no SAP work,
Speaker 2: and of course I did it. Wow.
Speaker 1: I mean sometimes you really, I'm learning more and more
Speaker 1: you have to advocate for yourself because the doctors, as
Speaker 1: educated as they are, they lose sight of the big
Speaker 1: picture a lot of the time. Lottimes, you know, and
Speaker 1: it's and it's and it's it's scary really And you
Speaker 1: know what's.
Speaker 2: Really scary is that health is a business, so it
Speaker 2: doesn't you're a number. Really, it's all for profit, and
Speaker 2: the stuff that goes on is just mind boy.
Speaker 1: It is. I mean I was looking at my mom
Speaker 1: just gets noticed that, oh, all the doctors that you
Speaker 1: rely on now are not part of your insurance plan anymore.
Speaker 1: So you need to either change doctors or change insurance plants.
Speaker 1: She's eighty seven years old. Who in the world once
Speaker 1: there's are doing that. I mean, I just I could
Speaker 1: go on and on about insurance and the whole medical field.
Speaker 2: And scared there.
Speaker 1: Wow. So during those hospital and we have days when
Speaker 1: you were struggling to be recognized and that you were there,
Speaker 1: what what kept you holding on when giving up might
Speaker 1: have just been easier. What was your Why did you
Speaker 1: just keep trying to get recognized?
Speaker 2: And I think of so in shock. Oh what was happening?
Speaker 2: It was to me was surreal, totally surreal.
Speaker 1: And you're like, what the f right?
Speaker 2: I didn't know what was up or down?
Speaker 1: And just well, that's crazy, you know, that sense of
Speaker 1: being trapped, but yet somehow still reaching toward life. That's
Speaker 1: where your soul is like fighting to survive, you know.
Speaker 1: And I think that you have that inner spirit that
Speaker 1: you were like when your friend came with those pictures
Speaker 1: and you're like tracking and she's like, oh, you're awake,
Speaker 1: guard you and you're like, you're damn right, I am.
Speaker 1: What you're saying with your right that was your soul,
Speaker 1: And they're saying, I'm not ready to go. I'm here
Speaker 1: and don't discount me, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm so desperate and afraid.
Speaker 1: And of course, of course, I mean, this is your
Speaker 1: twenty five year baby. How would you even know you
Speaker 1: never even heard of a stroke before. How to get
Speaker 1: these people to listen to you? But that's when I
Speaker 1: think also God in the universe and our guardian angels
Speaker 1: kind of come in and send your friends or people
Speaker 1: that can help you get to where you need to be.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, I can only imagine how painful it
Speaker 1: must have been to relearn everything painful? It's the talk
Speaker 1: about that, but walking, talking, eating? What was the hardest
Speaker 1: part for you? Emotionally too?
Speaker 2: Everything? Wolf was the hardest part was watching what I
Speaker 2: could no longer do. Then I used to be able
Speaker 2: to do, and then there was all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: I can't do that. I can't feed myself, I can't talk.
Speaker 2: I'm twenty five and I'm wearing an adult diapers.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, you were living were you're still living on
Speaker 1: your own? No, you weren't able to live on So
Speaker 1: what where did you let you look back with your mom? Or? Wow?
Speaker 1: Did you have to have to have care to come
Speaker 1: in to help changes? Oh oh honey, that's gotta be
Speaker 1: so hard now, So how did you learn to walk
Speaker 1: again and talk? It was just.
Speaker 2: Painstakingly slowly. I lost hope basically when I went home
Speaker 2: after months, because I've been home four months. I want
Speaker 2: to rehab hospital and I thought to myself, well, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna go home and now be totally fine. Because I
Speaker 2: had no old reference for a stroke, I didn't know
Speaker 2: I should have been paralyzed right right. So I figured
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be all patched uff soon and no, it'd
Speaker 2: just be like I'll go back to my normal life.
Speaker 1: Oh that's really thought. And there was no Internet, not
Speaker 1: that you could have googled anything because you couldn't move
Speaker 1: your handswer or done any of that. So wow, that's
Speaker 1: just crazy. So you've said that losing your voice felt
Speaker 1: like losing your identity. I think can you talk about
Speaker 1: how it felt to not be interested or to not
Speaker 1: have your words come or have your words come out
Speaker 1: differently than they did before.
Speaker 2: To be honest, I was so ashamed, really shaped. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like I brought this out myself or something.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. But but but that's that's not what happened.
Speaker 1: You can't bring a stroke upon yourself. I mean, I
Speaker 1: don't know what causes strokes. I I don't know if
Speaker 1: you've done research and have learned anything about that A
Speaker 1: little bit not to watch, Yeah, I I have. I
Speaker 1: have a friend that I played tennis with, and she
Speaker 1: was a little older than you, she was probably forty,
Speaker 1: and she too suffered a stroke, but not as debilitating
Speaker 1: as yours. She was able to fully recover, probably, I
Speaker 1: mean she still struggles a little bit with some things,
Speaker 1: but for the most part. She plays tennis and she's
Speaker 1: you know, she her voice is good. And she said
Speaker 1: she still doesn't know what caused it. And she said
Speaker 1: to ask you.
Speaker 2: She says, if she knows, it's probably different.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2: What I was told that the hospital was that the
Speaker 2: only risk factor was birth control.
Speaker 1: Really, that's interesting.
Speaker 2: Exactually and the inserts.
Speaker 1: Oh that it can question. Yeah, well, they put so
Speaker 1: many things on the inserts. If we read every word, Wow, interesting,
Speaker 1: that's that's really interesting. Could be medication. Hmm. So can
Speaker 1: you talk about you're when you started to speak and
Speaker 1: different words would come out, what you didn't mean to,
Speaker 1: How how you were able to cope with that and
Speaker 1: and and eventually correct that.
Speaker 2: When I began to speak, I was actually not saying
Speaker 2: incorrect words, but my words were I could only speak
Speaker 2: one syllable at a time. Oh, and my voice was
Speaker 2: very ready.
Speaker 1: It's the kind of sexy I do have to tell you, Maria.
Speaker 1: So I, I mean, I've heard you describe, you know,
Speaker 1: about a moment where you were handed a hairbrush. You
Speaker 1: want to talk about that.
Speaker 2: So I was still in rehamp I was living in
Speaker 2: the rehamp I had a gun home yet at the
Speaker 2: very beginning and the first day I went to therapy,
Speaker 2: my therapist gave me a hair brush, and by this
Speaker 2: time I was moving my right arm, and my family
Speaker 2: had brought me my laptop, and I was communicating with
Speaker 2: your the laptop. Oh good, I couldn't talk, so I
Speaker 2: would just with my right hand. Wow, that was so amazing.
Speaker 2: When my brother brought my lips, I was like, Wow,
Speaker 2: this like freedom.
Speaker 1: So that gave you hope.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's big.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So yeah, I had a way to communicate. Wow.
Speaker 2: Say, I'm in therapy with the hair brush, and the therapist says,
Speaker 2: just comera, and I thought, right easy, So I got
Speaker 2: them hair burst about here, couldn't even touch my head,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden, I was like the realization
Speaker 2: hit me of the really long road I had ahead
Speaker 2: of me, and I started willing just I lost.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I don't blame you. It's overwhelming. I
Speaker 1: can see it now. I see it with my mom
Speaker 1: as she gets older. I can definitely relate to that
Speaker 1: because it's it can be daunting and you don't know
Speaker 1: you're really in the unknown, and you're at the mercy
Speaker 1: of the doctors, and you have to assume that what
Speaker 1: they're doing is really what you need. It's just it's
Speaker 1: it's crazy. So did you feel like depression?
Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, I was stuck in that yme stage for
Speaker 2: m probably at least five years.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: I mean when I went home and I went home
Speaker 2: in the wheelchair and diapers, my eyes were crossed, mice
Speaker 2: got crossed. Oh honey, no that I crossed anymore.
Speaker 1: No, I know, but your eyes aress. So now your
Speaker 1: mom looked on the second floor. So did they have
Speaker 1: to build a ramp? And how did they know?
Speaker 2: They they moved down to my apartment.
Speaker 1: So that was and that was the wheelchair accessible? Did
Speaker 1: you have to know?
Speaker 2: I don't even recall. I don't think I was the
Speaker 2: house much. But there are only a few stairs down,
Speaker 2: so maybe somebody held on to me while.
Speaker 1: I was on the railing or no carriage, yeah, or
Speaker 1: carried you down maybe wow.
Speaker 2: But then the wheelchair didn't fit through any of my doorways,
Speaker 2: so right when I got home. That's funny, gradually using
Speaker 2: a walker at home because I had to.
Speaker 1: I had Well, that's determination, right, It's either sink or swim,
Speaker 1: and you decided to swim or walk. So you had
Speaker 1: started walking during rehab, so they had gotten.
Speaker 2: You that or or no, not really, I mean they
Speaker 2: had used as standing table. But I was able to walk.
Speaker 1: What role did your family play? I mean in keeping
Speaker 1: that spark alive in you that gave you that fight.
Speaker 2: Oh my god, there were my lifeline. They really were
Speaker 2: when I went home. I remember my brother came over
Speaker 2: every single day to go to me through workouts. I
Speaker 2: couldn't even really work out. Any would make me do
Speaker 2: squats holding on to the rail because I couldn't do
Speaker 2: it otherwise. And we also had a recoming bike, the
Speaker 2: kind that you can sit on like a regular chair,
Speaker 2: and so my mom took me to the bike. I
Speaker 2: put my feet on the pedals, my feet went. They
Speaker 2: look verd off. I couldn't even keep my feet on.
Speaker 2: That's how week I was.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So my mother what did she do? She died that's good,
Speaker 2: that's a good mother.
Speaker 1: She tied them to the pedal. And then you had
Speaker 1: to use sheer determination to I didn't they get the
Speaker 1: Oh BlimE.
Speaker 2: They were the ones that were like, you've got to
Speaker 2: do this. I was like, I don't like you people. Wow,
Speaker 2: time I thought they were like sergeants and I did
Speaker 2: it every second it.
Speaker 1: So when you look back, was there a turning point
Speaker 1: or a moment when you stop seeing yourself as broken
Speaker 1: and started seeing yourself as becoming someone new? Who am
Speaker 1: I now?
Speaker 2: So yeah, that came on very slowly. But the beginning
Speaker 2: of that was when I could finally walk and I
Speaker 2: wasn't using a cane or anything. I joined the gym,
Speaker 2: and at the gym there was yoga, and I figured
Speaker 2: I might as well because it's stoptable. I don't have
Speaker 2: to do everything and I'll just do the best I can.
Speaker 2: It was such a powerful mental exercise. I could not
Speaker 2: believe it. The black cloud that was over my head
Speaker 2: finally lived.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, I can so relate to that. There's
Speaker 1: something about yoga. It really is. I mean there is.
Speaker 1: When I was in some of the darkest times of
Speaker 1: my life, I went to this yoga class and it
Speaker 1: was during COVID, and it was it was crowded, but
Speaker 1: yet I have your masks on and you were able
Speaker 1: to do the yoga. But the instructor, and I've had
Speaker 1: him on the show, there was just something about the
Speaker 1: meditations he put us through and and just the journey
Speaker 1: through the poses that was lifting that dark about it
Speaker 1: really is. Wow.
Speaker 2: I also had a friend who was going through a
Speaker 2: really tough time and they didn't and they were like,
Speaker 2: the noise stopped. The boys that was in my ear
Speaker 2: all day just stopped.
Speaker 1: And I thought, Mom, there's something to be said about that. Wow.
Speaker 1: You know, so often healing isn't just about returning to
Speaker 1: who we were, but it's about growing into who we
Speaker 1: were meant to be, really and and I think yoga
Speaker 1: helps us find that inner soul that in a spark
Speaker 1: that spirit within you know. Wow. So let's talk about
Speaker 1: how you know, you eventually turned to nutrition and holistic
Speaker 1: healing as you were, I guess, as you were struggling
Speaker 1: to figure out how to recover from the stroke. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I did all kinds of things. I I was
Speaker 2: thiring noodles at the all. I did hypermeric oxten therapy.
Speaker 2: I did therapy in Germany for six weeks.
Speaker 1: I believe was do you speak German?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Oh that's that's that's convenient and you remember now to right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I lived in Germany in my twenties. Okay,
Speaker 2: so in my early twenties.
Speaker 1: So how how many. How long had been going on before?
Speaker 1: Had you been in recovery? I guess, well they were
Speaker 1: in rehabilitation before you moved to.
Speaker 2: Germany probably something like five years.
Speaker 1: Wow, five years?
Speaker 2: And then I went to Germany for six weeks do
Speaker 2: that therapy?
Speaker 1: And what what? What did that entail?
Speaker 2: It was in the middle of the Black Purst Wow. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and it was a really awesome naturopathic center. So they
Speaker 2: didn't use medications, and it was I remember doing red
Speaker 2: light therapy. I remember them making me hike.
Speaker 1: They nature, that's that's fine.
Speaker 2: I couldn't do it or did it the best I could.
Speaker 1: But right, wow, Now did you still use a walker
Speaker 1: or a cane or anything?
Speaker 2: Germany?
Speaker 1: Wow? So you had really come a long way in
Speaker 1: that five years.
Speaker 2: Well, I had done a lot of stuff. I had
Speaker 2: done stems injections.
Speaker 1: Yeah, wow. And what was that like?
Speaker 2: You know, I was doing so many things at one
Speaker 2: time that I don't know what exactly was helping.
Speaker 1: That's I could see that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think everything little thing helped someone I don't
Speaker 2: even know. I was doing well then, Christmith, then I was.
Speaker 2: I did all kinds of things, anything that I thought
Speaker 2: would give me back any semblance of a normal life.
Speaker 2: I was twenty five. I had to get back to
Speaker 2: right and well your life.
Speaker 1: And by the time you went to Germany, now you're thirty,
Speaker 1: so life has looked pretty different for you at that point.
Speaker 1: What was what was life looking like for you? Then?
Speaker 1: Would you still have your boyfriend or now we.
Speaker 2: Broke up because he was living in London and I
Speaker 2: have thirty five four?
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, there's just too much. It was a lot,
Speaker 1: and you were working on you and sometimes that's really
Speaker 1: what you have to do, right is sometimes you little
Speaker 1: the noise go away and you focus on on being
Speaker 1: the best version of yourself. So after Germany, then what
Speaker 1: did you do? Then?
Speaker 2: What did I do?
Speaker 1: Your voice was returning your.
Speaker 2: Yeah, everything was coming back a little by little. Just
Speaker 2: I definitely didn't speak anything like I do today, and
Speaker 2: that this only happened fifteen years after the stroke, and
Speaker 2: not only when I changed my nutrition.
Speaker 1: You're a nutrient, so let's talk it. So you turned
Speaker 1: to nutrition and holistic healing, right, and and I guess
Speaker 1: what threw you to what you should tell us what
Speaker 1: drew you to that path?
Speaker 2: So I was interested in nutrition already because in the
Speaker 2: time since my stroke, I had been macrobatic. Then I
Speaker 2: went pescatarian. Then I went regetsarian, just to see what happened. Yeah,
Speaker 2: to see if it gave me any games. And I
Speaker 2: don't know if it was so many things that once.
Speaker 1: I don't know. You weren't sure, but but it was
Speaker 1: something that that intrigued you.
Speaker 2: And I thought, well, I saw an ad for a
Speaker 2: program for non nutrition. And this is already fifteen years
Speaker 2: after the stroke, and I had already been bought old
Speaker 2: for at least five to seven years. I'd stopped covering
Speaker 2: at maybe seventy percent.
Speaker 1: So at seventy percent, you had balance, you could walk,
Speaker 1: you were able to to talk, You had a voice,
Speaker 1: not like it is now, but at least you can
Speaker 1: hear your own voice again.
Speaker 2: Right, I could have just nice, but still like, it's
Speaker 2: a lot of things I couldn't do that I used
Speaker 2: to do.
Speaker 1: So then you started to focus on your newttrition, right,
Speaker 1: and how did that transform you?
Speaker 2: My God, that gave me my life back.
Speaker 1: Was amazing? Talk about that?
Speaker 2: Yeah, wow, I could not believe it. Fifteen years after
Speaker 2: this stroke, I went through a course on nutrition, and
Speaker 2: I thought I would just learn something new.
Speaker 1: Like a college course on nutrition or it.
Speaker 2: Wasn't a college course.
Speaker 3: That was just it was a different course, just put
Speaker 3: it on by somebody online, right, right, And I thought,
Speaker 3: I'm just gonna learn something new.
Speaker 2: Sure, I didn't have any other intentions beyond that. And
Speaker 2: but what happened was six months from the start of
Speaker 2: the program, I had recovered another twenty percent and I
Speaker 2: got my life back. I do not believe it.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. So the person teaching that course, did they
Speaker 1: know about the benefits that nature and has for people
Speaker 1: who have gone through strokes or was it just something
Speaker 1: you stumbled across.
Speaker 2: It was just something I stumbled to grow because they
Speaker 2: do not in their marketing say that it improves conditions,
Speaker 2: right right, because I think part of the reason they
Speaker 2: don't talk about that aspect is because it sounds pretty incredible.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm sure, and they don't want to be
Speaker 1: liable and say, oh, well it didn't help me when
Speaker 1: you when you did that.
Speaker 2: What it is and everybody can benefits from improved hydration nutrition, yeah,
Speaker 2: regardless of what the underlying problem is.
Speaker 1: M h. It's true. Water is amazing and just eating
Speaker 1: well and so often I'm guilty of it. I don't
Speaker 1: drink enough water. Sometimes I don't eat when I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to eat, I drink. If water was wine, I would
Speaker 1: be golden also. But let's talk about you know how
Speaker 1: you now coach others through pretty much the same program
Speaker 1: that helped you. Right, So what's the most powerful transformation
Speaker 1: you've witnessed from one of your clients? Oh?
Speaker 2: Wow, I've seen so many.
Speaker 1: Pick one.
Speaker 2: One of the most powerful ones is this gentleman came
Speaker 2: to me on crutches, couldn't walk, he had terrible astatic pain,
Speaker 2: and he was scheduled for an operation. He was an
Speaker 2: operation within seven weeks asatica released. He can't do all
Speaker 2: the classes it's online. He's like March Maria and starts
Speaker 2: swarming place.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my god, okay, no crustions.
Speaker 2: Not he cancel his operation. And to me that was
Speaker 2: so blieved because I thought, what does food have to
Speaker 2: do with SATA? Yeah? To me at that time, I
Speaker 2: didn't know it had anything to do with it. But
Speaker 2: now I know it's foundational because if you're getting in
Speaker 2: your nutrition correct, everything else can stack on that. You're like,
Speaker 2: your whole life is based on nutrition. I mean, when
Speaker 2: we take our pets to the vets, The first thing
Speaker 2: to ask you is what are you feed your pet?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 2: Yes, I've never been asked what I meaning?
Speaker 1: No? No, they they don't ask us. That isn't that interesting?
Speaker 1: Don't ask you if you smoke, you drink? Do you
Speaker 1: do drugs? Not? Do you we eat cookies and ice
Speaker 1: cream every day?
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 2: Because that's the rouquals of pretty much everything.
Speaker 1: Wow. So for someone who's listening, who feels stuck, whether
Speaker 1: they're an illness, grief, self doubt, what's the very first
Speaker 1: step they can take to begin their process and healing?
Speaker 1: What would you say?
Speaker 2: So many things, but I would start with hydration one,
Speaker 2: that's important. And when you get the right stuff in
Speaker 2: your body, healing happens because your body wants to real.
Speaker 1: It's amazing how sometimes healing your body also heals your spirit. Yes,
Speaker 1: and that's the real magic in your story, Maria, it
Speaker 1: really is. I mean, it's just so beautiful to see
Speaker 1: how you've blossomed and you come alive and knowing the
Speaker 1: depths of the struggle that you've been through, it just
Speaker 1: warms my heart. I mean, you are just amazing, and
Speaker 1: I just I know that you're grateful for everything that
Speaker 1: you've achieved, but you've also worked really hard to achieve it.
Speaker 2: I did, and am more frustrated me at the time
Speaker 2: when I healed so much fifteen years after stroke, I thought, man,
Speaker 2: first I was happy, but it's also mad as heck
Speaker 2: because I thought I'd have to suffer for fifteen years.
Speaker 2: I did if i'd known.
Speaker 1: But I know now, amazing, amazing. I know you've said
Speaker 1: that you wouldn't take a minute of it back because
Speaker 1: it made you who you are today. What gives you
Speaker 1: that sense of peace and acceptance now.
Speaker 2: No longer in the eye of the storm and I
Speaker 2: can look I can look at it and see it
Speaker 2: for what it was. That's so powerful, seeing the way
Speaker 2: people shored up for me and stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have a special relationship with your brothers, so
Speaker 1: that's awesome. You've mentioned that this experience has awakened your intuition,
Speaker 1: your empathy. How do those gifts show up in your
Speaker 1: life with coaching people today?
Speaker 2: A lot of times I could hear what they're not saying.
Speaker 2: People say things, but that's not what they mean. Yeah,
Speaker 2: there's a bing, and so it's easier for me to
Speaker 2: see what's really at the root of Yeah, what they're
Speaker 2: telling me.
Speaker 1: That's that's yeah, it's true. You have to kind of
Speaker 1: feel with a lot of people, are they feel like
Speaker 1: you did? They feel like like they did something wrong
Speaker 1: to bring this on, and and just a lot of
Speaker 1: self you know, uh, recrimination, I guess, you know, against yourself.
Speaker 1: And it couldn't be further from the truth. You know,
Speaker 1: you're a victim of circumstances in a lot of situations.
Speaker 1: But it's really up to you to have the fortitude
Speaker 1: to move forward.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think that's got to do with childhood
Speaker 2: wounding and stuff.
Speaker 1: Yes, of course it does. What does living genuinely mean
Speaker 1: to you? And how can the rest of us begin
Speaker 1: to live that way too?
Speaker 2: Being true to yourself. I feel like before the stroke,
Speaker 2: I was just I don't know, I would say, a
Speaker 2: mask of what everybody else wanted me to be. And
Speaker 2: now I just I do what I like a coach,
Speaker 2: I say what I have to say. Sometimes you don't like.
Speaker 1: It, that's okay. You can be you and it's just
Speaker 1: and that's what you always should be. You shouldn't hide
Speaker 1: behind any mask because you're beautiful just the way you are.
Speaker 1: And I mean, we all have our special superpowers and
Speaker 1: our special strengths, and so often we try and and
Speaker 1: suppress that. I just I think that you've been through
Speaker 1: so much, and what does joy look like for you now?
Speaker 2: So different? So if there were not whereas before, I
Speaker 2: don't know. I was in my twenties, so I.
Speaker 3: Used to like partying a lot, Yeah, sure, And they
Speaker 3: used to do a lot of drinking.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: And that's that's the thing I really do today.
Speaker 1: So what do you do for what brings you joy?
Speaker 1: Because sometimes you hear people say, oh, well, you know,
Speaker 1: you gotta live, you gotta have your wine or beer
Speaker 1: or whatever it is that makes people have. But what
Speaker 1: brings you.
Speaker 2: Joy Being at the beach, Being at the beach and
Speaker 2: feeling the sun of my skin.
Speaker 1: Just I love that me too, I can. That is
Speaker 1: my happy place. I will tell you. I I love
Speaker 1: beachcombing and looking for seashells, and I marvel at all
Speaker 1: these little shells. Some of them are like pulverized, and
Speaker 1: yet others are perfect. And it reminds me of kind
Speaker 1: of like people. Right you go through the ocean, you
Speaker 1: go through all your turmoil and things that you go through,
Speaker 1: and some people get pulverized through it, while others come
Speaker 1: out and they're shinier and smoother and just more and
Speaker 1: it just it's just one of my happy places.
Speaker 2: It is really good. And I love hiking. I love traveling.
Speaker 2: So it's not like the things I was doing before
Speaker 2: the stroke. It's very different now.
Speaker 1: So let's talk about that. What's one word to describe
Speaker 1: who you were before your stroke? All right, okay, that's cool,
Speaker 1: that's fair. That's well, it's one hyphenated. And what about
Speaker 1: one word to describe who you are today?
Speaker 2: Authentic?
Speaker 1: Mm hmm, genuine, right, right. How do you have a
Speaker 1: quote or a mantra that's carried you through your recovery.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't say ever montraally carried me through. However, I
Speaker 2: did your quote when I began to coach that I
Speaker 2: thought was so cool. It's a quote by Mark Twain
Speaker 2: and it goes, the two most important days in your
Speaker 2: life are the day you're born and the day you
Speaker 2: find out why.
Speaker 1: Oh that is beautiful. I don't think i've ever heard that.
Speaker 1: That's really I'm gonna remember that that one. The day
Speaker 1: you were being the day you found out why it's
Speaker 1: your soul's purpose. Right, that's beautiful. What's a song that
Speaker 1: feels like your personal anthem. M hm, may something comes on? Yeah,
Speaker 1: any song?
Speaker 2: What is that song by the Beaches? A little song
Speaker 2: by the Beatures that I'd love to play a lot.
Speaker 1: Really Okay, Oh, there's lots of songs by the Beg's
Speaker 1: Stay It Alive. I was just gonna say, don't how
Speaker 1: about something you wish people understood about stroke survivors.
Speaker 2: Everybody's stroke is so different. Something I wish people had
Speaker 2: known before to treat me as when I was acrosssied
Speaker 2: in a wheelchair, everybody assumed there was also bef or something.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they would be.
Speaker 2: Like when they spoke to me, they would speak to
Speaker 2: me like I was poor, like I was half deaf,
Speaker 2: and I was like, you don't have to do that.
Speaker 2: Actually fine. In my head, that just looked different.
Speaker 1: Oh, you know, it's it's funny that you say that,
Speaker 1: because I think people don't know how to talk to
Speaker 1: someone in a wheelchair with no matter what they have,
Speaker 1: what disability they have, and a lot of times they
Speaker 1: almost make them feel invisible. They don't see them. And
Speaker 1: I think because of the journey I've been on, one
Speaker 1: of the most profound things I've noticed is that I
Speaker 1: see people, but more than see them. If I see
Speaker 1: someone in a wheelchair, I will go up and compliment
Speaker 1: their purple tires on their wheelchair. I would never have
Speaker 1: done that before, not because I didn't notice it, but
Speaker 1: because I felt awkward or I didn't know how to
Speaker 1: but how to communicate what I was feeling without feeling
Speaker 1: inadequate myself. And now I realize that it's not about
Speaker 1: my inadequacies. It's about showing up for someone who just
Speaker 1: may need to know that I've noticed, I've seen them,
Speaker 1: and it can make their day again. And felt, Yeah,
Speaker 1: if you could go back to that hospital room, what
Speaker 1: would you whisper to your twenty five year old self.
Speaker 2: There's a reason for this and it's gonna be okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so hard to realize that when you're in
Speaker 1: the moment, isn't it. Well.
Speaker 2: The lucky thing for me is because I had no reference,
Speaker 2: I did.
Speaker 1: That's a good thing. Oh my god, Maria, your story
Speaker 1: reminds us that even when the body breaks down, the
Speaker 1: spirit knows how to rebuild. You've shown us that healing
Speaker 1: isn't just about walking again, it's about speaking, living and
Speaker 1: loving again. I'm so grateful that you're showing the world
Speaker 1: what genuine courage looks like. Can you tell our audience
Speaker 1: how to reach you if they want to learn about
Speaker 1: the program that helped you.
Speaker 2: So the best place I'm not in a social media
Speaker 2: much because I have a bit of a social media allergy.
Speaker 2: So the blest pace to find me is at my
Speaker 2: web page, genuinely Maria, and you can book a discovery call.
Speaker 1: Oh not interested in that sounds so genuinely Maria dot
Speaker 1: com and that would be awesome. And as always I
Speaker 1: usually close with a poem written by my son Scott,
Speaker 1: but I've got some exciting news that i want to
Speaker 1: share with our audience. I'm I've written a book, and
Speaker 1: my book is about my journey. It's about what I've
Speaker 1: gone through from losing my son and how I've come
Speaker 1: through to the other side. But more than that, it
Speaker 1: also tells his story. It encompasses all of his poems,
Speaker 1: which we'll give you an insider's view as to what
Speaker 1: was going on in his mind or the mind of
Speaker 1: a lot of teenagers at the time. He was really
Speaker 1: well versed in getting his feelings out through poetry. And
Speaker 1: I've also have been their letters that I wrote to
Speaker 1: him during my healing process through a narrative healing class
Speaker 1: I wrote. And so on November eleventh, I'm going to
Speaker 1: announce a special offer to our listeners to purchase my
Speaker 1: book before the genuine the general public. Han. It's SOS,
Speaker 1: a lesson on love, loss and Revival, and I'm going
Speaker 1: to just read the prolog to you guys to give
Speaker 1: you a little taste of what you'll find. Sam. Three
Speaker 1: booming thuds shattered the silence at one seven am, waking
Speaker 1: me from a deep sleep. The sound wasn't the drip
Speaker 1: of a faucet or the hum of the fridge, but
Speaker 1: fists pounding metal, demanding entry. I ran down the stairs,
Speaker 1: my heart pounding, yanked open the door. Two officers stood
Speaker 1: framed in our porch light, their hats in hand, faces
Speaker 1: full of sadness. Time slowed, the hallway tilted somewhere. Our
Speaker 1: dog whimpered. A single sentence fell between us, seven words
Speaker 1: that carved my world in half. I reached for the doorframe,
Speaker 1: for air, for my son. What you hold, or will
Speaker 1: hold in your hands, is the story Scott and I
Speaker 1: now tell together. Scott, my beautiful boy forever sixteen, speaks
Speaker 1: here through his poems. I speak for the letters I
Speaker 1: wrote in the quiet hours, through memories that both ache
Speaker 1: and glow, and through the pieces of a life I
Speaker 1: had to keep living when his stopped. These pages are
Speaker 1: soaked in tears, but they are also stitched with hope.
Speaker 1: I offer them as a place where you can set
Speaker 1: down your own tears, your own sma, your own tremors,
Speaker 1: and feel a little less alone. You'll hear three voices
Speaker 1: woven together, my raw memories, the letters I whispered to
Speaker 1: Scott in the dark when I couldn't sleep, and his
Speaker 1: own words, the poems kept exactly as he wrote them.
Speaker 1: Together they form a braid of grief and love, of
Speaker 1: loss and resilience, and the bond between a mother and
Speaker 1: son that even death couldn't break. Scott died by suicide
Speaker 1: just before his seventeenth birthday. His poems or snapshots of
Speaker 1: a young heart figuring out the world, unguarded, unpolished, alive.
Speaker 1: My letters trace the uneven path having someone who's both
Speaker 1: gone and everywhere. I like to believe this book is
Speaker 1: proof of something I hold to here, that no matter
Speaker 1: how far apart we seem, love finds its way back inside.
Speaker 1: You'll find our soaring highs, are shattering lows, and everyday
Speaker 1: moments that now shine with extraordinary meaning. I hope our
Speaker 1: conversation here reminds you that your light matters, that it
Speaker 1: sparks tender, honest talk about mental health, that it nudges
Speaker 1: you to hold your people closer. And thank you for
Speaker 1: choosing to walk beside us. November eleventh, you can go
Speaker 1: to my web page Serena Dansker dot com. I'll be
Speaker 1: on Facebook, on Instagram and on TikTok, and I will
Speaker 1: be giving you all the ins on how to get
Speaker 1: a copy of my book. Thank you so much for
Speaker 1: joining us, and Maria, thank you so much for being here,
Speaker 1: and to our listeners to SOS stories of survivors. I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful for you. And remember, even after the silence,
Speaker 1: your voice still matters. I'll see you next week. Sh