EHH_Marcia Moran: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.
Everyone Hates Healthcare Intro:
For many people today, healthcare feels like we’re behind enemy lines. The system is geared to take care of us. But why do we feel like we’re in it alone? Everyday stories are a powerful way to shine light on the gaps that make it feel this way. I’d like to welcome you to Everyone Hates Healthcare, where we bring you real people’s healthcare stories unfiltered. And now your host, Michael Swartz.
Michael Swartz:
Hey everybody, Michael Swartz here, and I want to welcome you back to the show. Today, we have Marcia Moran. Marcia was a successful business strategist who has been building her business over the last 20-plus years. She thought she had life by the tail, but little did she know she was in store. After suffering a major stroke in 2014 at the age of 53, Marcia applied her skills in planning and strategy as she strived to become whole. Over time, she learned to walk again, but Marcia struggled with aphasia, a language disorder that, if not cured by the second or third month of recovery, it is almost impossible to overcome. She nearly conquered it three and a half years post-stroke, proving that you can sometimes find a different answer to your particular problem if you continue to look. After feeling the need to share hope to stroke survivors and their caretakers, Marcia created Stroke FORWARD. She believes learning to become her own health advocate one step at a time and exploring holistic methods for healing are keys to her recovery. Marcia now speaks and shares her message of hope, inspiration, healing, and a way forward as she goes across the nation. Marcia, welcome to the podcast. Very excited to be speaking to you.
Marcia Moran:
So I’m delighted to be here, Michael. It’s so incredible to be speaking to you.
Michael Swartz:
So why don’t we start off and learn more about what, tell us a little bit about your life prior to your stroke.
Marcia Moran:
I guess I had a normal life. I have a house in Virginia with my husband. I have, I had a cat, six birds, and a business, and my business is going actually pretty well. And I didn’t think of myself as anything but normal. And then I woke up one day and I knew something was off, but I wasn’t really sure what was wrong with me, and so I went back to bed, and that was really the worst thing I could do.
Michael Swartz:
And this was all of a sudden. Did you feel anything before you woke up and went back to sleep? Was there anything that you look back and say maybe something was up?
Marcia Moran:
Yeah, so two weeks before I had been to the movies with my husband and we had been eating popcorn and I know it had a lot of salt, and I had really high blood pressure that night. And I went to the emergency room and they gave me nothing and sent me home. And I think that was my carotid artery, probably had started tearing at that point, but nobody knew that.
Michael Swartz:
So you go to sleep. What happened? Did it happen in the sleep? It.
Marcia Moran:
I don’t really know when it happened. It did happen while I was sleeping. I woke up, I felt off. I texted my friend Rachelle that I would be meeting her for breakfast, and I noticed that I couldn’t read the text, and what, oh, I must be tired or something. So I put the phone down and I rolled over, and at that point, I noticed a really severe headache, and despite the pain, I fell asleep. And the next time I woke up, I knew I was in real trouble because my right side of my body was completely paralyzed.
Michael Swartz:
Oh, my goodness.
Marcia Moran:
Yeah, exactly. So you know that you’re in real trouble, well, exactly. So I actually fell out of bed and dragged myself across the carpet using my fingers, got to the door, and I had to reach up and open it. And I was too short to open it because I was laying on the floor and my right side was so paralyzed that I couldn’t reach the doorknob. But finally, I don’t know, and I don’t know how, but I finally did reach it and stuck the door open. And eventually, I crawled down the hall and totally ran out of …. And I knew that my husband would come up for something to drink, so I’d be seeing him sometime during the day, and at that moment there was a loud crash and I don’t know what it was, but he came up and he saw me and said, Marcia, are you okay? And I can’t talk, I didn’t know that until then. And so he said, can you talk? No. And so he called 911, and the paramedics were very prompt, and I’d say it was about 10 minutes before they got to the house.
Michael Swartz:
Wow, so what, you get to the hospital, what was that experience like? You’re all of a sudden out of nowhere, paralyzed. And did you know what happened at that moment, or was it while at the hospital?
Marcia Moran:
When the paramedics came through the door and looked at me, they said, when did she have her stroke? And that was the first time my husband or I thought of the word stroke. So I was actually unconscious by the time they got me to the hospital. And I remember waking up and I was dressed in a hospital robe and I had a needle in my arm and my husband was by my side, and I thought, as long as he’s here, everything’s okay, and I went back to sleep. They had done some tests on me and knew that I’d had a stroke and it was a pretty severe stroke, the size of a quarter. So if you’re having a stroke, you lose 1.9 million neurons a minute.
Michael Swartz:
And do you know how many neurons you have?
Marcia Moran:
I don’t.
Michael Swartz:
I’m sure a lot, but anything with million is a lot of anything.
Marcia Moran:
Yeah, it’s a lot of anything. I think that if I’d been in the house by myself, I would have died.
Michael Swartz:
In that crash, sure, you wonder as well. But I wonder what that was, it sounds like somebody was looking out, knocking something down.
Marcia Moran:
I don’t know what it is either, so I don’t know what caused it, but I’m glad it was, because every minute takes another 1.9 million neurons away. So I’m glad that he caught me when he did.
Michael Swartz:
So how long were you in the hospital for?
Marcia Moran:
So I was in the hospital for five days. I was in the rehab hospital for two weeks. I had home healthcare for six weeks, I had two weeks off and then I had outpatient care for about two months.
Michael Swartz:
And when you get into rehab, so you’re out of the hospital now, what, did you regain your ability to talk? What, where were you physically, mentally, emotionally, after this?
Marcia Moran:
Yeah, so I could speak a little sometimes. So I had aphasia and it was actually from the Broca’s area, and so I could hear what everyone said to me, but I couldn’t speak back. So I could speak back sometimes, but it was like there was this, I knew exactly what I wanted to say, and I couldn’t say it, so I had to think of something different to say. So there were like two people in my head trying to figure out how to speak, and sometimes I said nothing, sometimes I could a little bit. Walking? I was actually able to walk with a cane by the time I left.
Michael Swartz:
By the time you left the hospital or rehab?
Marcia Moran:
The rehab hospital. And I’m saying I was walking with a cane, it actually took a year and a half, so I hired a physical therapist for a year after insurance was started, to work with me, and after the year I feel like I can walk normally, or at least people looking at me think I walk normally. I don’t really, I have some pain in my right side still, but it’s so minimal that I don’t even really pay attention to it anymore.
Michael Swartz:
How did you find the physical therapist? Was like, what was, how did you find the right physical therapist to, once you’re going through learning how to walk, what, was it a recommendation? How did you go about finding the right one for you?
Marcia Moran:
So there is a physical therapy, I’m going to say, studio, not too far from here. And I interviewed, if you guess, I call it an interview, but I talked to the guy and I liked him a whole lot. And my husband said, no way, you’re not going there, and said, hmm okay, so I said, fine. So I found a physical therapist that worked at the local women’s club. He said that one’s okay. I don’t know if it was because, I don’t know, I guess he felt more comfortable with me going to the women’s club, and I found that I really liked her. There’s something so engaging about her. So I cried almost every time I went to see her and she was like, that’s okay. If you feel like you have to cry, you have to cry. And I guess I feel that made me feel better because I couldn’t help myself.
Michael Swartz:
Yeah, she was helping you through, and it’s, you we’re on a journey. During this time, as you’re going through physical therapy, you said that you were not able to talk, you had aphasia. What was going through your mind? Did you think you were ever going to be able to talk again? Because, like, right now we’re having a conversation and you sound normal. So it is pretty incredible for you to be able to speak after going through that. But in that moment when you were going through it, did you, what was going through your mind?
Marcia Moran:
I wanted to speak again. And so, the National Aphasia Association also said that if you aren’t cured within the first two or three months you probably will have aphasia for life, and I don’t like that statistic.
Michael Swartz:
It’s not a very encouraging one.
Marcia Moran:
And I think it’s not really true if you look around, so I actually figured I’m going to work until I find something. And a year or two after my stroke, I found a chiropractor who does laser treatment and I went out, so if it would do me any good and he said, I don’t know, it’s been a long time since your stroke happened and it may help you, it may not, and the only way you will find out is you try it. And so I tried it and it actually did work, but I still had aphasia, it was just better. And I would say that at that time, through laser treatment, I learned to communicate at the conversational level of, hi, how are you? The weather’s fine, it’s raining, it’s whatever. So I could probably talk at that level, but when you went deeper, like if I was interviewing for a job and you were talking about the things that you do in a job, there was no way I could communicate that. If you were someone I didn’t know and you were talking about the weather, I might not be able to talk to you either. It was just really weird. And I had, like I said, the two sides of my brain, the one that knew exactly wanted to say to somebody and the one who couldn’t form the words. So three and a half years after my stroke, I had a doctor tell me about neurofeedback, and he’d just gotten neurofeedback into his office. And he said, I think this is something that would really help you. And so he told me to visit their website, and I did. And in there, it talked about people that have been injured on the outside of the brain, it’s not a stroke, but there are traumatic brain injury survivors. 85% of them get better through this neurofeedback and so.
Michael Swartz:
85?
Marcia Moran:
Yeah, so I went in and I tried it, and the first day I talked better. I had 16 sessions and I talk normally now. It took 16 sessions and it doesn’t last …, but essentially, you go in and he puts gum in your hair.
Michael Swartz:
Interesting.
Marcia Moran:
So he sticks electrodes in the gum. So I have two positive …, two negative, and the ground. He turns the neurofeedback machine on and I felt nothing, like nothing. I’m going, okay, is he teasing me? And so essentially, the neurofeedback machine pulses one one-hundredth of a triple-A battery. Pulses are so small that go into your head that most people don’t feel anything. But it, I’m going to say, teaches your brain to reorganize itself into a pattern where you’re not stuck in your … So I had PTSD and it knew it and it got me out of it. But the interesting thing is the two brains that I had, that were trying to talk, merged into one again.
Michael Swartz:
From this treatment, that’s.
Marcia Moran:
From this treatment.
Michael Swartz:
So were you nervous the first time …
Marcia Moran:
No.
Michael Swartz:
Getting it?
Marcia Moran:
No, I didn’t know if it would work.
Michael Swartz:
Yeah.
Marcia Moran:
But I didn’t think there was anything wrong with it. Now, if I had some reservations about whether it would hurt me or not, I probably wouldn’t have taken it.
Michael Swartz:
Even with the 85%?
Marcia Moran:
I think I would have given it some serious thought, yeah.
Michael Swartz:
It’s just incredible that something like that exists and I’ve never heard of it. I’m sure a lot of the listeners haven’t heard of it. And luckily you had a chiropractor who was front and center. So were you out, when you were going through this process, were you looking for other alternative treatments? You said you were looking for something.
Marcia Moran:
Yeah, and he knew it, so that’s why he suggested I give it a try. It was a new treatment for him. So neurofeedback has been around probably for 20 years or more and nobody knows about it. He’s the first person in Virginia who offers it, and it’s called Microcurrent Neurofeedback.
Michael Swartz:
So you start this treatment, you’ve, you’re walking again, 16 treatments and you’re able to speak again. What was next? What was, where were you at that point? Like, you’ve went through this incredible long and I’m sure, arduous journey that you didn’t know where you were going to come out on and you get this unbelievable treatment. What was next for you?
Marcia Moran:
So that made it into my book. So I actually started writing a book called “Stroke FORWARD: How to Become Your Own Healthcare Advocate One Step At A Time” a year after I had my stroke, and I wrote very slowly, it took me a day to write two paragraphs in the beginning. It was not only that I had aphasia, and so I couldn’t necessarily think of how the word, couldn’t think of the word, but it was also I couldn’t type very well. So although my left hand typed okay, my right hand was out of place a lot of time, so I had to delete, delete, delete.
Michael Swartz:
And it didn’t deter you though.
Marcia Moran:
It didn’t, and in fact, I think part of my being able to understand what I read, that was helpful. If I hadn’t been able to read and understand, that would have been really unhelpful, but I could understand it, and if I could just get it down on my screen, that would be perfect, but of course, it did work out that way very much.
Michael Swartz:
But you did it. You wrote this book, it took you a few years, and what kept you going? What, people that might be in a situation, whether it’s they’re, they just went through something like this or maybe it’s another health event, like what drove you? How did you stay positive? What was the secret to, as you call it, Stroke FORWARD?
Marcia Moran:
So I think I really wanted people to know that there are some things out there that most people don’t tell you about, but there are things out there that you are aware, that you can maybe overcome your aphasia or some other thing that you’ve got, you should at least keep trying until you find something that works for you, if you care. Maybe there’s nothing that works for you, the moment you give up looking, I think you start losing hope for everything.
Michael Swartz:
So people that, let’s say they want to look, but they don’t know where to even start. What would you advise them?
Marcia Moran:
I guess it depends on what they’re actually dealing with. So I’m dealing with aphasia. So I needed to go out of the normal treatment plan because I didn’t get treated for this by my doctors. I was treated for this by chiropractors. So you have to get out of the step of the normal treatment plan and start asking questions. And I was really happy with the guy who gave me laser treatment because without that, I don’t know if I’d have been around to pick up the neurofeedback, I might have given up.
Michael Swartz:
How did you, what led you to getting treated by chiropractors? I, again, me, personally, I’m not a doctor, I am new to this, and really, what do you do after a stroke? But what led you to a chiropractor? I think of a chiropractor and I hear, your back is messed up and that. So getting out of your treatment plan, what led you to that?
Marcia Moran:
So it was something, I met a guy at a luncheon for business people and I went to the luncheon to try to learn how to talk. And the first time I was there, they made me stand up and I had a minute to tell people what I did. And so to the best of my ability, I told them that I was a stroke survivor and I was there just to talk. And this guy came up and he said, I had a car accident about a year ago, and I started seeing this chiropractor who just was laser treatment on me, and I think it might be interesting for you. Okay, so I stumbled into him by accident.
Michael Swartz:
That’s incredible, it’s incredible, and I think it just shows the importance of, whether it’s a stroke or whatever you’re going through, to find people to talk to, find your support group. And so tell us a little bit about Stroke FORWARD. You went through this experience. I love how you say, Becoming Your Own Health Advocate. Tell us a little bit about what the book is about. And it was an unbelievable thing for you to put together and power through, and.
Marcia Moran:
Yeah, it took me a long time to write it, and I was done writing it and I read it and I went, this is really terrible. So I put it aside and about six months later I said, okay, I’m going to rewrite it, and I rewrote it, and I read it again and it’s better, but it’s still not good. So I put it aside probably for three months that time and then picked it up and I read it again and rewrote it and at that point I thought, now it’s better. So my problem with the book in the beginning, is that I told the story that had no emotion in it. So …, and who wants to read that? Nobody. The second time I wrote it, I had more emotion in it until I got to my family, and then there was no emotion. It’s, okay, you have to really dig deep and be vulnerable to people. And that’s what it did is, it by being vulnerable, the book, actually, I think is pretty good. So it’s told by me, my husband, my sister, a couple of friends, some doctors, so it gives everybody’s different perspective on what they thought. And I think that’s really important because most people think about things from their perspective and nobody else’s. So my husband and I, we had the same event, but we have different feelings about what really happened, that’s important. Again, my sister has different feelings about what happened. So it gives you insight into what your own family and friends are going to be thinking about, and it probably gives you something to talk about, right?
Michael Swartz:
It sounds too, it’s not only for somebody who might’ve went through a stroke or a major health crisis, it seems like it would be really good for families, for people that are going through it and wanting to see it from the lens of somebody who’s been through it.
Marcia Moran:
Yeah, and then, so, my husband and I had no clue as to what you should do when you’ve had a stroke, no clue. So he’s in the hospital and not really thinking much about the care I’m needing, and he realizes when I’m choking one day that somebody really should be thinking about me, right? And so what happened was the hospital had, their kitchen had set up a chicken for me when I was supposed to be on a liquid diet because.
Michael Swartz:
That’s great.
Marcia Moran:
Yeah. So because I’d been paralyzed, and that means that the muscles move or don’t move throughout half of the body. So when I think about paralysis, I’m not necessarily thinking about the inside muscles, too, but they’re also paralyzed.
Michael Swartz:
And you don’t think about that, you’re right, it’s, right.
Marcia Moran:
And actually, 65% of stroke survivors have dysphagia, which is the inability to swallow correctly, so it’s pretty high. So when I was swallowing this liquid water, I guess I call it, so I drink it down looking forward, I turn to the left and swallow, and I look forward again. So when I had this chicken, I was going, first of all, it’s not really good. It’s like ew, food, and I was chewing and I got something caught. And I don’t remember how they got it out of my mouth, probably they stick their fingers out, but somebody said, my husband, you should have been really careful with that and told us that she got food because she could choke and we’d never know that she was choking because her cough sensor’s on. It’s like, that’s the first time he heard that. Okay, now I’m scared because now I know that she could choke in front of me and die, and I had no way of knowing.
Michael Swartz:
Yeah, and I’m sure, like, what did he do? What was that evolution like?
Marcia Moran:
He paid attention to everything that went on around me from that point on. So if there were questions that he had, he asked them. If he disagreed with something that they were going to do he said no, although I don’t think he really did disagree with anything. I don’t remember, and that’s something else, so I would remember what people told me the moment they were in the room, but the moment they left, I had no clue. He was the one that, remembering everything. So he learned about how to become his own healthcare advocate every step by being there every day, and I bet he learned. So I guess that I think this is a tremor and there’s much that is not in here, but at least people have something to go on and say, okay, those are things I need to think about.
Michael Swartz:
Yeah, no, I think, I love that you got in this book all the different perspectives because it does take a team. It’s not just you going through. It, but, you getting, you writing a book is just incredible after going through, you being able to speak, and that support system. So hearing and seeing through the lens of your support system, I think, is a really powerful way and I’m sure resonates with a lot of people.
Marcia Moran:
Yeah.
Michael Swartz:
So through this whole journey, this experience, from having the stroke to learning how to walk, to being able to speak again, to writing the book, what, when you look back, what insight did you gain from it? What insight can you provide the listeners in terms of whether they’re going through a stroke or just anything?
Marcia Moran:
I would say for stroke survivors, they have to work on whatever they’re driving towards. So is it talking? Is it learning how to walk? Whatever, they have to work on it every single day. And you might not make much progress and it may seem really slow, but looking back, I feel like I’ve made a lot of progress and it did take a long time, but I am really proud of what I got accomplished. For the caretakers, they need to remember that they need to take care of themselves first, and then they can take care of the stroke patient. Because they need to understand that stroke is a long-term disability, and so, if they hurry and only take care of a stroke patient, eventually they burn out and that’s the wrong place for them to be.
Michael Swartz:
That’s great insight and it really is important, I think, for both sides, for anybody who’s going through a health crisis, not give up hope and also for the people that are taking care of themselves. You’re there and you’re going to help support them. And this isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. Where can people, where can the listeners find you? Can they, if they have questions, where can they find the book? Where can they find you?
Marcia Moran:
Okay, so they can find the book on Amazon.com, so it’s Stroke FORWARD, and they just put it in their browser.
Michael Swartz:
Yeah, we will, and listeners, put all the links in the show notes.
Marcia Moran:
My website is StrokeForward.com. They can contact me at Marcia, that’s M A R C I A @StrokeForward.com, and I would be really happy, if they have any questions, if they could contact me. I’ll see if I can help them.
Michael Swartz:
Done, and I think I know that there’s people listening that are probably in a position where reaching out to you and asking questions, what you’re doing is helping so many people, helping people through the long journey. And there’s nothing more powerful than somebody who’s been through the experience. I would take her up on it. If you have any questions, want to talk about something, you should definitely reach out to Marcia.
Marcia Moran:
No, please do.
Michael Swartz:
Marcia, before we end, is there anything you want to leave the listeners?
Marcia Moran:
I think the most important thing I could tell stroke survivors is that there is always hope, and the way you get to build on that hope is to work on finding whatever it is you’re looking for every single day, and seriously, it takes a long time, but it will happen. And for caregivers, just be patient. I know sometimes you may be a little bit tired of hearing the same thing over and over, but just be patient.
Michael Swartz:
Hope and patience. You know, I think that’s simply powerful. Marcia, I appreciate you taking the time and it’s been a pleasure hearing your story, and thank you.
Marcia Moran:
You’re welcome, it’s been a pleasure meeting you.
Michael Swartz:
And listeners, thank you for tuning in, and see you next week.
Michael Swartz:
Hey listeners, thanks for tuning into another episode of Everyone Hates Healthcare. If you have a healthcare story, we want to hear it. All you got to do is shoot me an email with My Healthcare Story in the subject line to MyStory@HealthKarma.org. Also, check out all the episode notes, resources, and more ways you can take control of your healthcare. All you got to do is just visit HealthKarma.org/Podcast while you’re on there, help us out. Don’t forget to drop us a rating a review and share it with all your family and friends. Can’t wait to see you next week.
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