Monday Manufacturing Motivation – with Kati McDermith

Nicole Donnelly  00:00

Right now, here we go. Hey, hey, we are live. Better late than never team. We’re here if you’ve been waiting for us, thank you for your patience. You know without Kurt here, we’re just you know trying to make it work but we’re here. We’re here. Please drop a chat drop a note if you’re here. We are so so, so excited to have the wonderful the amazing Katie McDermott on the show today, Katie. Hello, how are you?

Kati McDermith  00:32

Hello, everybody. I’m great. Thanks for having me on, guys. I’m really excited.

Nicole Donnelly  00:37

Yes. And Damon’s here other side, Damon. You us here. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you. You’ve been traveling around the country. You’ve been all over the West Western Land, like everywhere.

Damon Pistulka  00:51

It was fun. It was fun. Yeah. So today we’re going to talk about some good stuff.

Nicole Donnelly  00:56

Good. Are we our I don’t know, Katie, if you notice I’m wearing my purple in honor of Stroke Awareness Month, I guess.

01:05

I didn’t know that. Yes.

Nicole Donnelly  01:07

So I, this is going to be such a great conversation. First of all, I just want to just thank you for your vulnerability and coming on to share your story. And I think that there’s so many people out there that can benefit from this, you know, stroke is the second leading cause of death in this country. And I didn’t realize that every 40 seconds someone suffers from a stroke in the United States, which is huge. I mean, it’s just devastating. Yeah, it’s such a huge, huge public health issue. So I think it’s just such an honor for you to come on the show today and share what your experience has been, and help our listeners really learn and understand and know what they can do to prevent stroke. You know, what are some of the signs that you can be watching out for your loved ones? And, you know, what are some of the risk factors, but before we go there, I have a little bit of an off topic question for you. Okay, on stroke related, okay. And I know when Kurt’s here, he always asks the hero question. So I’m gonna let him keep that one because that’s, that’s a little baby. So my question for you is, okay. I believe that every person has a spirit animal. Okay. Everyone has a spirit animal that is like personality. You know, how you look. Whatever the case may be. Everyone has their own spirit animal and on our team at dmg. Everyone on the team. We all know each other spirit animals. And it is, you know, I’m the horse. We have someone else on the team who’s the owl. We’ve got a cat on the team. We’ve got an eagle. You guys could probably guess who that eagle is. So we’ve got a lot of so I want to know Katie. What is your spirit animal?

Kati McDermith  02:58

I had to think about this one. I want to hear what you guys think my spirit animal would be because maybe you’re a better judge. I was thinking maybe dog because I’m loyal. And I get it. I get happy to meet new people. But for the month of May anyways, I think I’m feeling like a, like a phoenix. It’s been a it’s the first time that I’ve actually spoken publicly about my strokes. So it’s a little bit nervous for me. But um, yeah, I had two strokes. And here I am. So I think a Phoenix will fit. There we go.

Nicole Donnelly  03:35

Love that rising from the ashes and such such courage, such bravery to be able to come on and talk about what you experienced. So cool. I love it. Katie, the Phoenix, you will forever be the Phoenix to me. Okay. mazing. So let’s talk about why what you to tell us a little bit about why Stroke Awareness is so important to you. I would love to dive into your journey, and what your experience has been with with stroke specifically. So tell us about that.

Kati McDermith  04:06

Yeah, it was nothing that I ever expected what ever happened to me. I am a fairly healthy individual or I was anyways, I don’t have high blood pressure or high cholesterol or diabetes, or any really stroke risk factors. So it really was a shock to me and my family and my friends when they found out that I did in fact, have not just one but two strokes in one month. So how it happened or how I recall it happening anyways is i Nothing was different at all. I didn’t feel any different at all. And then all of a sudden I woke up in the middle of night, and I was super nauseous. And I had to get up and throw up. But I couldn’t stand up. And I didn’t and I was so sick and so tired or you know I was having a stroke and didn’t realize it If I didn’t think about what I, you know, like, like what to do, I remember crawling to the bathroom and trying to stand up and I was thinking to myself in my head. Now I’d done it. This is the end of the world, I’m going to hell, because I was I remember like holding on to the door jamb. Like, because I couldn’t, I just couldn’t stay on. It was just the weirdest thing. I did not have the ability to stand and I felt as though I was being pulled out. Yeah, so I thought it was a bad bug, stomach flu. I remember laying on the floor barfing in a bucket. And that’s, you know, pretty much the extent of it. When I look back at my history of posts from when it happened, like when I look back at my Facebook post, I didn’t, I had a headache. I had a really bad headache. And I was struggling with my speech. And I had left sided weakness. But for some reason, I have no idea why I didn’t think I had a stroke. I don’t know why I didn’t even consider it. I took a couple days off of work because I didn’t feel well. And we went back or took a day off. And I went back to work. And my boss thought that I was drunk. And he sent me home. So I went back home. I said, Well, I’m not drunk, I don’t drink this. Matt scusi just, you know, this was back when I didn’t drink. And I went home. And then I came back the next day, and it was the same thing. He kind of harassed me a little and told me I wasn’t walking, right. And I was slurring my speech. And he sent me home. And then he told me that I could not come back unless I could bring back proof that I didn’t that I didn’t have any alcohol in my system. So I went to the ER. And they’re like, holy heck, you’re not drunk? Yeah, my gosh, no, oh, my gosh, no, it was I went to a really small rural hospital. And again, I didn’t have any of the markers. So why would they think it? I was 32? Yeah, and healthy, and didn’t have any major health concerns. So it made no sense that we just kind of pushed it off. And then I had to follow up with my family doctor who was like, right next to my apartment buildings who’s really close. I just ran there on my way back home. And he did the tests, you know, the stick out your tongue. Yeah. And your, you know, hold your arms out, whatever, flunked them all. And he said, Yeah, I think he had a stroke, Katie. I’m like, wow. So yeah, then we went and got an MRI and saw that I had to in my cerebellum to stroke.

Nicole Donnelly  07:43

Wow. So how, okay, so I have a man this. Yeah. So when you were in the bathroom, that first moment, and you couldn’t stand up, and you’re throwing up in the bathroom? How long did that period of time last? Where you were, like, pretty much debilitated. Like when did you start having feeling back in your legs that you could move or whatever, like, what did you do? I

Kati McDermith  08:05

didn’t necessarily that didn’t have feeling in my legs. It was that where my stroke was at. And my cerebellum is what manages your balance. So I had vertigo, and it was the worst kind of vertigo. So I couldn’t so like, while I could stand because I had working legs an arm, I couldn’t stay standing up because I kept being thrown back because of the vertigo, or pulled down or pulled to the side. You know, whatever, you know, whatever it was then.

Damon Pistulka  08:33

And that’s probably why you’re throwing up too because you’re incredibly busy. That vertigo.

Kati McDermith  08:36

Yeah, it was. It was insanity. It was so so bad.

Nicole Donnelly  08:41

Wow. I mean, that is amazing. She’s well, I’m sure at the time you were really upset with your boss, but thank goodness, he that, you know he he said something. So you could go push so that you went to the hospital, right? Well, you’re the first person

Kati McDermith  08:59

who’s ever said that to me. I never even realized that. Thank goodness, he pushed and sent me to the hospital because I never would have gone to the hospital. Otherwise, I just felt weak. Because I thought I was so sick. I was just weak.

Nicole Donnelly  09:13

Think about it if you hadn’t have gone What if it would have gotten worse? Right? So it’s unfortunate that he thought that you were drunk and was sending you for that reason. But you know, in some ways, like almost a blessing in disguise,

Kati McDermith  09:27

right. Makes me feel a ton better. I have not looked at it this whole time. Wow. Yeah. So this happened in 2012. And I found out they were trying to figure out how I could have had a stroke because there is absolutely no reason again, they were like, I whatever. I didn’t have any of the reasons that someone should have a stroke until they did some research and found out that I had a gaping hole in my heart Oh, wow. So when you were in the womb, you have no septum in your heart, it’s kind of open because you need oxygenated blood to come from the mother to get oxygen throughout your body. When you’re born, that it closes. And then your blood has to go into your lungs to get oxygenated to go back up to your brain. Well, indeed, that hole never closed. And quite frankly, in a lot of people, that hole doesn’t ever close. So it doesn’t cause a problem for a lot of people. But ladies who are on birth control, me need to know this. Yeah, so I think that that is what happened, I was on birth control when it happened, or before it happened, I don’t know if I was at at the time. But before it happened shortly before I had been on birth control, should that could have been the cause of the actual class. But clots themselves are naturally occurring in your body. So your lungs job is to grab the class, there’s chemicals in your lungs that bust up the class and then send the oxygenated blood to your brain. But in me, it just would float right on now. Ah, yeah. And

Nicole Donnelly  11:12

that’s because birth control pills is one when I was researching this before, is one of the risk factors for stroke is if you’re taking birth control pills. In fact, I actually have, you know, since we’re taught, I have a blood clotting disorder, and I can’t take birth controls for that very reason. Because I have the same kind of a risk factor. That’s crazy. Katie. Yes. Yeah. So what? Oh, go ahead, Damon.

Damon Pistulka  11:36

No, it’s funny. You say that my family has a history of weed there. I forget the name of it. But I was tested for it. I don’t have it. But I’ve got brothers and sisters that have blood calling that we have a markers in our family.

Nicole Donnelly  11:48

I bet it’s factor five lightning or something like that’s what

Damon Pistulka  11:50

it is. That’s what exactly what it is. I have it. You too. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta be really careful. My sister has it. My parents?

Nicole Donnelly  11:59

Wow, Katie. So two, so you had two strokes. So tell me like, What was your? Okay, what was your reaction when you were in the hospital? And they said, You just we couldn’t confirm you had two strokes? Like how, what was your immediate reaction? And what like, what were you thinking at that time? Were you completely shocked. And just like if

Kati McDermith  12:17

it really was a lot of fear, it was a combination of fear that they were wrong again, you know, and it was it was nothing. And then I gotta go work with this guy who thinks that I’m drunk all the time. But it was also, it was really eye opening to know that I was rather young, and I had two little boys like my boys were not even majors. And I was the sole provider for my family. And it was really scary and stressful. Like, oh, no, we never counted on me going down. I’m the one who holds everything together. No one ever counted on me going down, and no backup plans were in place. So yeah, it was scary. I didn’t know. I didn’t know about and then I found out that one in four strokes are reoccurring. So I was at risk of more strokes. And I was so I was oh, yeah, I was a nervous wreck everywhere I went, I was worried I was having another stroke all the time.

Nicole Donnelly  13:18

Yeah. Oh, well, we have a really great question for Whitney. And I think this is let’s bring this forward. How did no doctor ever catch this hole in your heart before?

Kati McDermith  13:27

Well, it’s fairly normal when you are little, and the doctor is listening. He says that he might hear a murmur. And a murmur is normal for a short amount of time. And that’s what that is that murmur is a sound that your heart makes when when the bloods been through and not going down through your lungs. And so they may have heard it, but they never really listened to it again, in the future. It wasn’t you know, after that, so it wasn’t that big of a deal. Until the stroke, obviously. And they’re like, well, the only thing that it really could be was was, you know, a PFOA a hole in her heart. Let’s go look for that. So they put this big, huge tube down your throat. It’s like a It’s an ultrasound. Remember your ultrasound wand? Yeah. Oh, my throat, oh, my God. Look at my heart, then they inject wait because it’s crazy that they inject bubbles into your IV and you have to bear down and they watch the bubbles Passover.

Damon Pistulka  14:26

Oh my.

Nicole Donnelly  14:28

So this is not like your run of the mill like so basically, you know, I could have a hole in my heart and I would never know it unless some serious event happens where they would test me for it essentially.

Kati McDermith  14:38

Yeah, there is a really easy way for you to tell if you likely have one I think it’s called transient migraine. So if anybody ever gets those like spots in front of their eyes, the auras doesn’t really get a headache with it. That is a transient migraine and that is a pretty good sign that you may have fallen your heart So, those are the migraines that I’ve always stuff always suffered from rarely do I ever get like head pain with a migraine, but I always had these big auras that would just block my vision and I would be down for a you know, a couple hours that it would go away.

Nicole Donnelly  15:15

Wow. Well, we have a lot of people who are sharing some love. I want to recognize we’ve got Dave Chrysler here. Hi, Dave. Hi. Yeah, we’ve got Dan here. We’ve got Nancy O’Leary says what a how scary that was. We’ve got John’s in the house. We’ve got lots of you got and then Julie flogs as I love the Phoenix, and Dan wants to know what he missed. And you don’t worry, you didn’t miss a thing. Diane Ayers here. On here we go. So love seeing everyone here. Very cool, man. So. So how did your so this is a lot, Kati. I’m just digesting?

Damon Pistulka  16:01

Yeah, it really is. Because there’s so many questions, right? There’s so many questions. So questions, if you have a stroke, this is my my question. If you have a stroke, are you predisposed to having more?

Kati McDermith  16:14

Well, they say that one in four strokes are reoccurring. So I so to me, that says that most people probably have more than one stroke. See, now me I didn’t even know I had a stroke before I had my second one. And the only thing that I can recall and my doctor as well is that for a couple of weeks beforehand, I’ve been complaining about pain in my ear interest, which is like, you know, right by cerebellum. So and I had two of them, they’re right there. And they weren’t TAS they aren’t, you know, ones that pass and go, they will go full blown massive strokes, I was down and out for three months. Probably. Yeah.

Nicole Donnelly  16:52

Let’s talk about your recovery. Like, yeah, every like after you were diagnosed? Like what what, what did they have to do? What what did you have to do to rehabilitate? Because I know that can really vary depending on this the seriousness of the stroke, right, it’s kind of like a sparring is a spectrum, right? So yeah, a little bit about what the recovery was like. And what you

Kati McDermith  17:13

had, this is actually my favorite thing to really talk about, as far as my stroke, their concern is how I recovered, because you go through different types of therapy, you know, occupational therapy, speech therapy, physical therapy, whatever. But then, you know, they kind of judge from there, what you need help with. So I had to work on like, my fine motor skills was a really big issue for me, I couldn’t, you know, pinch things with my fingers. I couldn’t grasp them with my fingers anything small. So that was an issue, I couldn’t type I can only type with one hand, my left hand was like, useless for a while. And then so I was going to occupational therapy, which is what works on fine motor skills. And I thought maybe I could crochet and help help with it that way, get some, you know, exercise in my hands that way. And I’ve always been a very good crochet and I and I didn’t want that to suffer. So I’m like, There’s no way I’m going to be able to crochet. And if I can’t use both hands, and I started, practice, and practice and practice that way. And I swear, that’s what got my hands back up to speed was the crochet. It’s got to be,

Damon Pistulka  18:20

you know, there’s a friend of mine, Andrew Deutsch, who had a brain injury, and he started knitting. And he said, it was the thing that got his hands working again.

Kati McDermith  18:29

Yeah, and I can’t knit because it’s two different sides. Like, it just messes with my brain. I can’t knit anymore. I mean, I, I don’t even know, I could probably net a little but not great. It would be it would be very, very important.

Damon Pistulka  18:45

But you’d like you said the crocheting helped you to to retrain your brain. Definitely

Kati McDermith  18:50

it was and also because I’m right handed anyway. So I was able to do that hard manipulative part with my right hand, but my left hand was to hold the work, but it holds your attention. I Nicole, you know, this, yes. So when your left hand holds the tension, it kind of messes everything up. So, so while I would do that, but then I would also kind of hold it in my mouth, you know, to kind of help my hand and pull it over. And then eventually my hand gets strong enough and I was able to do it again. It’s not perfect. But you know, my, my left side is a lot stronger. I had to kind of learn how to walk better. You know, my left side was so weak so my left leg kind of drug a little bit so I had to work on that. My Vertigo is is an ongoing issue that I still deal with. It’s, you know, permanent damage in my brain. So I still deal with the vertigo and the nausea. And I do I still do physical therapy for my eyes. My eyes don’t cross which causes problems. Your eyes are supposed to cross you can see things close up and far away. So you can change your Yeah, so I can’t cross my eyes. So I have to I do physical therapy for that still. I did speech therapy for a while. Yeah. There’s just a lot of, there’s a lot of things you can do. And it’s just, you got to get it done. They say that you have like, like, it’s a three month thing, like you do the bulk of your recovery in the first three months. And then you do, the other half of your recovery will be between like three and six or three and nine months. And then after that, you’re pretty much done, you don’t get you don’t come back after that. That’s why it’s so important to recognize the stroke right away. Not only get those clot busting drugs to stop it, but also to deal with these deficits. Right away.

Nicole Donnelly  20:34

Yeah, the sooner it sounds, that you can you can work on your recover the recovery, the better your long term outcomes going to be. I have a question for you. Like, it hadn’t been so hard when you were crocheting and you something that you’ve just known and then to not be natural anymore. Like, what did you do to get through restoration?

Kati McDermith  20:53

I was so sad. It was so depressing. And because I just kind of my friends and my family we all you know knit and crochet and I was always the go to girl for the crochet. Do this for me. How do I do this? How do I do that? And actually, the day before I had my stroke, I was teaching a friend of mine how to crochet. So I it was sad. It was sad. It was really disappointing. I remember my mom had a stroke about a year before I did. And she struggled to and she was really depressed. And I you know, I don’t really work on it together, I guess. And I’m not as good as I used to be. But you know, whatever. That’s,

Nicole Donnelly  21:35

that’s amazing that you and your mom have experienced something similar. Did you find that that brought you together? Did you find solidarity with her knowing that you guys have kind of gone through something similar together?

Kati McDermith  21:44

I always felt solidarity with my mom. She’s my best friend. And I do everything she does. So

Damon Pistulka  21:53

some things maybe

21:54

this is one more thing that we found.

Damon Pistulka  21:59

Nice to be able to do we want to go there.

Nicole Donnelly  22:01

Yeah. Well, you know, Whitney is so full of great questions. So I want to just say ingress here. She’s I want to thank air. She’s here. Hi, Inger, thanks for joining us. Okay, we

22:12

relate to anchor Don’t worry. Yeah.

Nicole Donnelly  22:15

And then Whitney has a great question. She was just asking, Did you Mom during your recovery? You do? And what did you have to? Like? How much were you having to go to physical therapy? And what did you do when it came to like taking care of the family?

Kati McDermith  22:32

It was rough. I had to get help. I had a neighbor who was fantastic. And she helped me out a lot. We’re in the same apartment building together. She just lived right next to me. So there was one time where we thought I was having another stroke. She came over and she thought I was having a stroke and she called 911. And it just my blood sugar dropped. Yeah. So um, so you know, I did have some help that way. You know, my kids were little they tried to help they just tried to be a little bit more, you know, tender and gentle with me. And they tried to help you know, and boys loving their moms like they do they’re a little bit they like to dote on me. They still do they protect me from don’t stress out, man. I cannot have you having another stroke.

Nicole Donnelly  23:17

That’s me. I love it. So tell

Kati McDermith  23:22

that this weekend to man don’t stress out you can’t have another stroke. I can’t handle that.

Nicole Donnelly  23:28

Well, it’s sounds like this. I mean, it doesn’t sound like this completely caught you by surprise. And I think totally, I think that’s something obviously your risk for stroke does increase the older you get. But it does happen to young people. You know, Sharon Stone is one example. She had a stroke when she was Sheesh, she was fairly young at the time was like 23 years ago, and she had recovery. You know, so there is a 50%

Kati McDermith  23:52

rise in strokes and boys under the age of 12. Really? It’s I mean, yeah, there is no age where you’re safe. Babies have strokes. It happens. You know it there’s there is no safe age, and there really is nothing that you can do to stop it from happening. Because if you’re gonna have a stroke, you’re gonna have a stroke. Yeah, exactly. You’re clearly your health doesn’t have anything to do with it. Mm hmm. Yeah, sometimes a little. Yeah. I mean that. Not all the time. But yeah.

Nicole Donnelly  24:27

Well, he body’s here. Let’s say hi to Bonnie. And Bonnie. Glenn says thoughts and prayers are with UK

24:35

20. Thank you.

Nicole Donnelly  24:38

So let’s talk about how you can recognize the signs because I think something stroke is something really like for you for you know, for us to be aware so that when we’re with our loved ones we can recognize right away because obviously the sooner that you get help, the better your recovery is going to be, the better your outcome so it’s all about like speed, getting to health care quickly. I like those. And I think there’s a really cool acronym. It’s called be fast.

Kati McDermith  25:06

Well, let me tell you this though, Nicole, it didn’t used to be be fast, it used to just be fast. And that’s what I always knew. I was I wasn’t CNA, when I was, you know, when I was like 20. And we knew how to look for a stroke, we knew this stuff. And so it was like one of those things where it was like, I didn’t recognize it in me, because I didn’t realize that the B and the eye are also important. So the acronym like you said is B fast. So the B stands for balance. And that’s where I come in, that’s where you have those balance issues, because a stroke is a is a stoppage of the oxygen or the blood flow to a particular part of the brain. So wherever this wherever this lack of blood or oxygenated blood is at is where you have the brain damage. So for me again, with my cerebellum, which manages a lot of things, but mainly your balance. So that would be the be the eye is eyes. So if you notice that you have gone blind in one die, or you can’t turn an eye or you get a you know, just a black spot on one side or the other, those are signs. The F is face, face is a really good towel, because even if you’re having a minor stroke, the face still droops. So it might be mild. But if you look at somebody and they’re not symmetrical and their face strips, you can see mine does to steal my, this side kind of hangs down a little, you know, drifts down further than this one. So it’s just it’s it just happens. So fit Yeah, face droopiness is a big side, a big sign they say one sided, but you know could be both too because you could have a stroke, two strokes that wants to both sides would go down. A is for arm, so arm weakness or leg weakness, again, one sided. So if you know you ask somebody to hold their arms out like this, and if one just drops, or doesn’t hold, that’s probably a stroke. S would be for speech, speech difficulty and a lot of people are familiar with this. It doesn’t always happen like gobbledygook, sometimes it just doesn’t make sense. And, or if they’re just confused in general, and then the T is for time, because time is really of the essence it is it’s so important for you just to call 911 Even if you suspect it and you don’t know for sure, call 911 Get the help these people need because as soon as they can get those those clot busters in you it just puts the the oxygen back oxygen and blood back to that part of the brain and we’ll start to fix it so to heal it so on right away

Nicole Donnelly  27:49

reduce the amount of brain damage that you have to recover from. That’s awesome so everyone be fast so balance eyes, right so balance if some if you’re feeling like uncoordinated or you’re someone you’re with is feeling that way eyes you’ve got blurry vision, that’s a you know, that just comes on quickly, right? And then I think another part of that is like really strong headache that just comes on really fast. I think was one of the other things I said so B eyes and then F is for Face drooping. A is for arms. What about arm numbness? Is it just weakness or numbness to Katie?

Kati McDermith  28:29

I don’t think it was numb. But if I remember because I do this a lot. I think people notice me doing this a lot. It’s a different feeling. I remember I don’t remember it being numb. I’m sure you know, maybe that is part of it too. I don’t remember it being numb. I remember feeling weird. Like it’s not attached to me. It was just weird.

Nicole Donnelly  28:49

Yeah. Man. So are and then then s speech, your speech and then time. So call quickly. So everyone out there listening, this is such great information to just always have, you know, ready and aware of so that whenever you’re with your family, your friends, wherever you can be aware and be able to assess the situation really, really quickly is is you know, you’re not healthcare providers, but we can sure be alert to what’s happening and be able to call those people and get someone so be fast. And it’s such such great advice. Here. Oh my gosh. Oh, man.

Damon Pistulka  29:32

Yeah. Yeah. Because this is a serious stuff. And yeah, I bet your children, your children know now what to look for. Yeah. And they can tell you put your arms out

Kati McDermith  29:45

make sure Yeah, well, my husband, he’s the worst. I’ll be like, Oh, I don’t feel good. And he’ll stick your tongue out. If you stick your tongue out and it goes to the side or you can’t stick it out. So yeah, he does that all the time. Or he’ll be like put your arms Oh, But the other one was to touch your nose. You mean like this? You know? Yeah, I couldn’t do that. I’d be like.

Damon Pistulka  30:08

Yeah. It’s great, though. Because I mean, what you said, you could tell you stick your tongue out at me. How long does it take? 10 seconds, you can go ring a 911 screwing around. I mean, every everything everyone says about stroke, he’s like, time, time, time time get there

Kati McDermith  30:29

like this. It just happens. And that clot or that burst, whatever it is, it’s still happening. You got to break that cloud up. You got to break it up so that you can get the blood and oxygen to it.

Nicole Donnelly  30:45

Yeah, we’ve got some great comments coming in. So Quinn says annual physicals and checkups are so important. Absolutely. I think, you know, talking about prevention, some things and I’m sure it’s just like limiting your alcohol. You know, smoking, obviously, is a huge risk factor, making sure that you control. Yep, birth control. So yeah, be thinking about that, because birth control does increase your risk for blood clotting. And then, of course, exercising is a great thing to prevent stroke. So thank you, Gwen. And then Bonnie says, this is such important life saving information. Thank you for sharing. I just, I think this is just so brave and courageous of you, Katie to come on in a public space like this and share what it’s such a personal health journey that you’ve been on. And I just commend you for having the courage to share this. There’s so many people out there that are listening, that are going to benefit from what you’ve shared today that now know what the risk factors are and what the signs are and how to watch for that maybe they would have never known so what you’re doing is incredibly courageous, because it’s but it’s also just helping so many other people out there. So thank you. And then Bonnie says everyone should save this to refer back to it. I agree. 150%. Inger says such great info. Thank you, Katie, we must be alert and aware of how strokes can come on. Thank you in or you’re absolutely right. And then John comments, husband. Yeah, he’s doing.

Kati McDermith  32:10

They do they all do. My husband and my sons and my friends. They’re, they’re just always checking on me. You know, if I’m walking a little funny, someone says something. Do you feel okay? So? Yeah, yeah.

Nicole Donnelly  32:23

He says, appreciate your vulnerability. You’re helping a lot of people. So funny. So tremendous. Yep. So what do you think? How can people get involved? Katie, I know it’s Stroke Awareness month, this month? What are you doing like now that you’ve been through this journey? What are some things that you do to kind of like, get involved? Or how can people get involved in this in their communities? Or is there anything that you would recommend for people who may be have people in their family who have suffered from stroke? Maybe that’s something we can talk about is like, what can family and friends do to support stroke survivors? And what what are some things there?

Kati McDermith  33:01

I have not found like any, like community outreach or anything, which is really disappointing because I still actually search for help with, like, my, my budgeting, I struggle with numbers. So like I all the time, Miss up any numbers, like dates and times, if they’re all numbers, I’m gonna mess them up, you know, if I see him, so, like, I’ve been trying to find help with some things. And sure, it’d be nice if my bank would like, help me and check my stuff out and make sure I’m doing okay with my numbers, which is really a bummer that I can’t find it. So I have just been helping others who are suffering who have suffered from the stroke and are still suffering. For example, one of my neighbors down the road, he had a massive stroke, and I help him out, I helped make some meals, whatever, but then he always needs help with his computer. So I’m the it girl told me that come and help them with with his stuff like that. But yeah, I just, you know, help people out if you know people who have had had strokes, help them and give them time. And you know, they might need help walk in their cart out to the, to their car, they might need help picking up a eggs, you know, they might need a hand opening a door like you just don’t know. So you know, I don’t know that’s, I guess that’s the best way that I can do just be aware and help others out.

Nicole Donnelly  34:25

Katie, the manufacturer girl and the it girl, I love it. It’s amazing. And I think it’s just so great that you have kind of like taken it on yourself to try to find others who have gone through it to try to see how you can help them. What does your family do to support you now? I know your husband it sounds like he’s really like involved in making sure that I’m okay. Yeah.

Kati McDermith  34:53

Yeah, I don’t I don’t know how they support me. They just, it’s you know, it’s just it’s been so long, it seems like I just don’t even notice that there’s such a difference. But I think that they give me a lot of space to, to be forgetful or to have, like weird outbursts of emotion. These are all things that people suffer from who’ve had them thrown. If I can’t spit my words out, if I’m having a hard time finding that word in my head, they just give me a second, they don’t offer ideas or suggestions, they just give me a second, you know. So those are the kinds of things that they do.

Nicole Donnelly  35:31

It’s wonderful. They’re giving you a lot of grace, which is such a huge thing for and skill for them to learn. Yeah, incredible to have grace for you. And then also, you’ve probably learned a ton of grace for yourself to know. No,

Kati McDermith  35:48

but aren’t we all really our own worst critic? Yeah, I just learned that you never know how strong you really are. Until being strong is all you have. I just, I didn’t tell. I couldn’t like just take off and not be a mom and not be an employee and not be, you know, a daughter, you know, I had to still be those things while I was going through my stroke, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way to be honest with you. So you just have to you just get strong in you learn?

Nicole Donnelly  36:21

How does that experience and that’s how does that shape your mindset and have changed you as a person going forward when you face new challenges or problems, or your Gosh, it’s

Kati McDermith  36:33

so frustrating. And I think I speak for all stroke survivors here, it is so frustrating when you cannot do something that you used to be able to do. So, you know, when my neighbor Owen, when he gets upset that he can’t figure something out, he just has these outbursts and he throws things or whatever. And I get like caught up and stuff or I get I get overwhelmed or I get hot or something, you know, and then I just break out in tears, I can’t help it. So

Nicole Donnelly  37:09

I love that though. Because you’re giving yourself the space to feel it. Like you’re not saying it’s not okay for me to feel this way. You’re letting yourself feel the frustration and validating it. And then then you can process it and move on. I remember my grandmother bless her heart, she passed away from Lewy body dementia, which happened very suddenly, for her I don’t. And I’ll never forget, we went on a we went on a trip together. And it was the first time I had seen her in years before she started to deteriorate really quickly. And on that trip, we kind of realized she was deteriorating. And it was really hard to watch her, like, not be able to the frustration she had with things that she couldn’t choose to be able to do that she couldn’t do. And I just had so much empathy for her just, you know, in that moment that she you know, she just wanted to so bad be able to, you know, walk but she couldn’t walk the same way she used to be able to. So I think that’s so great to just think you know, to have empathy for for the people around us like that. So

Kati McDermith  38:08

I haven’t been able to ride a bike since then. And that’s a real bummer for me too. So there’s that. And then also, like when you go to get your driver’s license, or to renew your driver’s license, they asked if you’ve had a stroke in X number of years, or if you’ve ever lost consciousness. So you got that. So I didn’t have my driver’s license for a for a couple of years. And then like if you go to the gym, and you want to do a membership, and you have to sign that form. I you know, they know about that. And they say oh, no, no, no, no, you can go to physical therapy at your doctor’s office, because our insurance is not paying for you on your face. Yeah, so Yeah.

Nicole Donnelly  38:47

Gosh, I mean, just think about what you’ve overcome and what you’ve had to learn over again, like with the with the fine motor skills, learning how to type again, learning how to walk better, all of those things. That to me, that’s just like resilient. Like, that’s just armor for us that going forward. Like man, look what I overcame, I’m so capable and able to tackle whatever, you know, God puts in my way, because I’ve done it before. And he’s given me all of the capability and the mindset to be able to, to do whatever is going to come my way. And I just think what a wonderful experience in that sense to be able to be blessed with the resilience to be able to see that you know, I love it. Katie, you’re an inspiration. Yep, so we’ve got some really great comments. Gail is here. Hi Gail. She said Grace was her 2022 word. I love that and Katie, you’re absolutely a rock star manufacturing you’d get you get do get strong and you learn that and then. Let’s see. And then Whitney says I can only imagine how frustrating that must be to know deep down what you want to say but not be able to do it all and that would be somewhere

Kati McDermith  40:00

It is so especially for somebody who is so wordy like me, and I’m talking or it happens most when I’m like, you know, on the spot or nervous or stressed out or whatever happens at the worst times, and I can’t find my word Nabil, like, just cruising along in a sentence. And I’d be like, No, and I, I think about it, it takes it takes a while. So it? Yeah, it is. It can be frustrating. But it was I guess it was pretty cool to learn everything again. Not cool. But now, now that I look back, you know, relearning things really solidified it in my mind, I guess. So, you know, maybe if I have another stroke, I don’t have to worry about trying so hard to get back. Because I’ve already come back one. Yeah,

Nicole Donnelly  40:43

exactly. You’re just like building that, like resilience. It’s, I had someone on my podcast, he was he’s a chiropractor. And he wrote a book about stress, I’ll never forget this, I thought it was so brilliant. He said, People talk about stress as if it’s a negative thing. But really, we all need a little bit of stress, it’s healthy to have a little bit of stress. And he was saying that the if you think about the most successful people, they’re able to handle a great amount of stress. And it’s not. And the reason they are is because they’ve had these incremental learnings where over time, they just develop the ability to handle more and more stress, you know, so it’s not like, obviously, nobody can handle from like a little bit of stress, all of a sudden, like, whoa, max out like, this is stressful. But it’s like those little like things that we can even intentionally do to like, add stress in a healthy way and little by little to be able to develop develop that and I just thought that mindset was just, I was so fascinated, like

Kati McDermith  41:41

building muscle strengthening your muscles. Yeah, you just need a little bit of stress in there. Just the well.

Nicole Donnelly  41:48

Yes, a little, you know, and even in your case, when you had this massively stressful event, you know, think about like how, even still, you still were able to overcome it. And, you know, now you’re capable of handling so much more because of it. So,

Kati McDermith  42:05

I’m so glad I got my heart fixed finally, two years ago, two or three years ago, in June. So it was a long time coming when, when I first had my stroke, they weren’t able to just fix that hole. They didn’t. It wasn’t like allowed. So, um, yeah, things have changed, I entered into a trial that was cool that you go in and you literally draw a name out of a toilet hat, you know, you draw or draw a little thing out and it was either you got to enter to the trial, or you had to do aspirin therapy. And the trial would be to get this implant that would close the hole in the heart, but the other one being aspirin therapy is as a blood thinner. So because you have a stroke for a certain amount of time, you have to be in a blood thinner. So I was on Coumadin for six months, maybe something like that. And then after that it was just aspirin therapy. And I never did have reoccurring stroke. So the aspirin therapy work aspirin is great, everybody take an aspirin every day unless your doctor tells you not to take an aspirin every day. So then I had to just dip for years without doing anything with my heart and then finally I got a phone call from someone saying you know I think you can get your your heart fixed a girl that I knew in Missouri, something similar happened to her and she got her specs and I’m like how’d you get your fix? Did you get the trial and she’s like there’s no trial anymore. The trial is over it was successful. Now everybody gets to have their whole fix

Nicole Donnelly  43:34

Nice. Done and that was great. Oh, that’s awesome. Nice relief to be able to have that taken care of.

Kati McDermith  43:43

Yeah, and they only had to go up through my leg with the camera in the beginning they were saying that they would have to do open heart because they had to get to the septum and I had my whole step down was not there. I just did not have a step by you know, it was the complete loss and things. I don’t even know what it was. So yeah, now I have a big ol metal bar in the middle of my heart. Wow.

Nicole Donnelly  44:09

There you go. Love it man. You can so much love Kate Yeah. You are truly an overcomer 100% agree. And then your says honestly we all have stress but what matters most is how we approach and manage it very well said you’re absolutely right in your love that. And then Diane always has such wonderful stories to share. I feel like every time we come on I know she has two family members that had a stroke, one from not taking their heart medication for fibrillation issues. And then one had a bleed. And so support for family and stroke patients is so important and not readily available. Katie or Trailblazer love you for sharing. You are amazing. Thank you, Diane, I think to that point that there are folks out there that are older that are at increased risk for stroke, you know, and so it is really empowering Um, that, you know, if you have diabetes, for example, which is a risk factor for stroke, if you have high blood pressure, if you have high cholesterol, if you are a smoker that you’ve got to make sure you take your medication, right. So if you’re diabetic, you got to take, you know, your, your medication that you’re, you know, don’t sleep on that stuff, that’s going to help you so like for those people that do have those risk factors, and one in three Americans, one in three Americans has either diabetes, or high blood pressure or high cholesterol. So you know, that’s a lot of people that are, you know, that really need to be paying attention to this stuff. So I love that. Diane, thank you for Sherry,

Kati McDermith  45:37

you know, you said in the beginning that stroke was the fourth leading cause of death, I found out that stroke is the leading cause of disability. Oh,

Nicole Donnelly  45:49

yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Because I’m imagine the recovery time for it. In your case, I think he probably there’s some people that have such massive strokes, it’s just I can’t you know, I have a dear friend of mine, actually, who was very high performing. He was like an executive, you know, very, you know, high functioning. And he had a massive stroke at probably 39 years old, very similar. You just out of nowhere, had a stroke. And after that, he went through recovery and everything, but he wasn’t able to go back to because of where the stroke was. I think it was like right here, his frontal lobe.

Kati McDermith  46:27

Oh, yeah. That’s your attitude and your mood. And yeah, exactly. So

Nicole Donnelly  46:31

he, you know, he’s, he’s been on long term disability he hasn’t been able to work for over a decade, you know, so you’re absolutely right. That is definitely something. And so anyway, this has been such an amazing conversation. I am so grateful to you, Katie for coming and sharing your story. And I think it’s so inspirational for so many people here who, you know, have family members who have maybe struggled with this and just how they can be supporting their family members, how they can be aware of the signs. Any final thoughts, Katie, as we wind down the show today, any final, you know, words of wisdom you could share about? No,

Kati McDermith  47:13

not really, I guess. Let me say? No, like I said, you never know how strong you really are. Until being strong is the only choice. So

47:25

that’s why so

Kati McDermith  47:27

just Yeah, sometimes. My brother used to always tell me what are you gonna do Katie shrivel up and blow away? Yeah. Yeah. So face it, face it and fight it.

Damon Pistulka  47:38

Face it and fight it.

47:42

And find it while you are. Alright. Where’s the mic? Who’s dropping it?

Damon Pistulka  47:46

Yeah. Katie has been dropped.

Nicole Donnelly  47:49

Like, I feel like I can’t take this is like that’s like Kurt’s thing you guys just have reverence for Kurt. You know? Yeah. I love that. You got to say it one more time for us. You said it was the two F’s, you’ve got to say to what did you

48:08

face it and fight it? Faces and

Nicole Donnelly  48:10

invite it? Yeah, they sit and fight it. So for everyone out there right now, because I forgot it. You know, we are all going to encounter those unexpected trials of adversity that are gonna be thrown in our face. Like what happened with Katie, every single one of us here has had them. And we can expect that they’re gonna happen again. I think that’s like, life, right? Yeah. So I love your advice, Katie, face it and fight it. Whatever comes your way, just prepared to face it and find it. And fast. And be fast. Love it. Well, I think Diane has a really great comment here. I want to show here before we close out the show, face it and fight it. Her dad was told he would never walk again. And he said watch me and he walks and drives today. Yep. Love that. That’s beautiful. Thank you Diane for sharing. That’s a really great way.

Kati McDermith  49:00

I’m a watch me girl too. Oh, really? Exactly.

Nicole Donnelly  49:04

What a great way to end. And I think that the message that I hope people take away is just the incredible hope and positivity that you’ve brought to this show. And so your experience in your journey is just you just are so full of hope and sunshine and positivity, and just faith in the future. And so I just think hopefully everyone walks away with a little piece of that, Katie magic and they take it with your whole Thank you. Thank you, Damon. Take it away, brother.

Damon Pistulka  49:38

Katie, thanks for sharing your story. I mean, it’s it’s really powerful. It’s powerful. And thanks especially to for sharing be fast because I think one of the things that I didn’t realize sitting down here today, first of all, I knew you had to go to get to the you know, help quickly with a stroke but I had no idea how to, you know, just that quick assessment secure Tang out doing those things. Super helpful there. Thank you so much. And then the inspiration, mu your personal fight and coming back and the things that you did and the challenges you face. Just thanks so much. It makes me cry. What’s cool? I mean, we all we go through things that we don’t even realize. And I think hopefully we’ve we’ve looked at what you’ve gone through because you didn’t realize it when you’re going through it, how momentous it is, from the outside, because you’re in it. And just thank you. Thank you.

Kati McDermith  50:34

Well, thank you for giving me a safe stage to talk about it. This is the first time I’ve ever talked about it publicly. So like this, so this is off on my thanks for giving me a space to do it. Because I’m talking about all month so now I feel

Nicole Donnelly  50:49

this hopefully this won’t be the last time you talk about it. Because your story and your experience. There are people out there that needs to hear it more people. So just keep on you know, every time you share it, you’re gonna get a little bit more confidence. And you know, it’s such a powerful and inspiring journey you’ve been on so thank you.

Kati McDermith  51:08

Thanks, guys. Thanks, everybody, for hanging out listening.

Nicole Donnelly  51:11

Thank you guys for coming today. We appreciate all of you so much. Thanks for bringing all the katie loves she deserves every second of it. She’s such a fierce Trailblazer. So thank you guys. We hope you all have a wonderful rest of your day. See ya. Hi. Thank you. Okay,

Damon Pistulka  51:29

how do I I think we have to just leave leave studio. That’s all we got to do.