Post stroke, I’ve struggled with much of my normal day to days. Support is needed and having someone to talk to that understands what I am going through is very important.  Up until this summer, I struggled to find anyone who had gone through an experience similar to me that was remotely close to my age. Young stroke survivors in LA have been few and far between. I reached out to so many people and organizations. I found a lot of different people, but the youngest I could find were usually around 55-60 years old. It was a hard and lonely path.

Everything changed after going to a friend’s get together where I met and discussed my stroke and neurological issues with a fellow brain injury survivor at the party named Lauren. She didn’t suffer from a hemorrhagic stroke, but she did sustain a brain injury from a car accident and as a result, she’s been suffering from post concussion syndrome. We talked and talked about the little things like the difficulty to recall certain words, the struggle to feel safe in our own minds and most challenging of all, the way people react to our new deficits. It was one of the most important conversations I have had since recovering from my stroke. It meant the world to me to connect with someone who truly understands what I am going through.

I met up for coffee with Lauren and after a few visits we got a chance to really connect through our mutual experiences with brain trauma. We decided to become our own support system and do something that was not only fun and helpful for both of us, but maybe even helpful to others out there recovering from brain trauma.  As a result, we decided to start a Podcast/Blog/YouTube Vlog called The NeuroNerds.  The whole concept is to discuss everything in nerd culture with other awesome, cool nerds who just so happen to have suffered from neurological issues. We recorded a test run of our podcast this past week and I’m excited to say that it turned out awesome. We are going to be covering a wide range of topics from stroke/brain injury recovery to much nerdier topics such as Star Wars, super heroes from Marvel to DC, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and much more in the world of all things nerd. I am so happy to be able to continue to share my journey along with my nerdom. And I’m even happier to be able to do all of this with my fellow NeuroNerd Lauren. We’ll be announcing when our first NeuroNerd episode goes live very soon.  I hope you guys will join us on our journey of healing through everything nerd.