1001:1 The Cory Wiessman Story – Motivational Post

I just finished watching 1001:1 The Cory Wiessman Story on Amazon Prime. It’s a true-life story of Cory Wiessman who was a great basketball player who is in the prime of his life, a freshman in college who had a stroke. It was not a fatal event and he is still alive to this day.

The acting was spot on in the movie. I have seen strokes both in people and animals and they are not pretty. It’s important to know the warning signs of a stroke and to get medical help as quickly as possible, that increases your odds of survival. There are two types of major strokes – wet & dry. Wet meaning active bleeding and Dry being a clot that formed. There is also a TIA which is a mini stroke and could possibly mean that a full major stroke will follow. It’s important to get immediate medical help regardless if you are having a major or mini stroke.

This movie brought back memories and it made me cry, laugh and do both at the same time. My late husband suffered a Wallenberg stroke after having foot surgery. His surgeon gave him too much clotting medicine. He was at home recovering because most procedures done in hospitals are on an outpatient basis. A Wallenberg stroke goes after the center of balance in the brain. He was told that he would never walk again and to that he said bullshit. He told the doctors and nurses that he would walk out of the hospital and indeed he did.

My understanding is that with all strokes there is re-learning involved, meaning that you have to learn to do things that you already knew how to do but because of the interruption in your brain it forgets. My late spouse had to learn to get his center of balance back and to walk. There were some speech issues but he overcame them pretty quickly. This unfortunate situation was an eye-opening example to me that proved you really can do anything you put your mind to do. With most medical situations be it a stroke, cancer, broken bones or something else your attitude plays a large part in your recovery. This wasn’t the only medical situation he recovered from, he also beat colo-rectal cancer and believe me when I tell you the odds were truly stacked against him. The doctors hoped to buy him a year or two at most but they wound up saving his life. His body was altered and our lives were forever changed by both the stroke and the cancer but we survived. Kind of scary to think about but it’s true.

Looking back at both of these situations now, I wonder if these were examples that happened to show me the way in that I can move a mountain and overcome adversity. Hell, I have done just that. However, I am constantly thinking about what lies ahead and if I will ever meet a guy. This movie helped give me a refresher. The easy thing to do in any frustrating situation is give up and it’s so tempting. However, you build character and learn things about yourself if you keep on pushing.

Life is the card dealer and just like in a card game it’s how you play your hand that determines if you will win or lose. A gambler and card playing guy I am not. I’m not sure who needs to hear this but don’t give up with what you are dealing with. Give it time, think, talk to others, pray, meditate, journal or blog, point is do something to release the pressure & tension. Most of all give yourself permission to take time for you. Go do something that you enjoy, you can’t think about something 24/7 365 so intensely, if you do you will burn out or make a bad or wrong decision. Rest is something that we all need and it’s something that we need to afford ourselves just as we all need time off or time away. Just because you take a break, doesn’t mean your giving up. I’ve learned a lot of lessons in life the hard way but those are the lessons that you tend to remember the most.

I’m not 100% sure how I come across to everyone and maybe that’s not something I need to know. I experience doubt but at the end of the day I have proven to myself and others how strong I am and that is something I will forever be proud of. You’ve probably heard this more than once in your life but if I can make it through the hell of not only being a caretaker to my late spouse but to also surviving his loss, I can tell you that you too can make it through your situation whatever it might be. It helps to have friends of which I feel like I don’t have any but at the end of the day all you really need is yourself. It’s easy for me to type words that are essentially saying pull yourself up by your boot straps and keep on moving. It’s another thing to put that into action. Even I have problems with it from time to time. However, if you would have told me what my future would entail at say age 30 (when life was a bed of roses), I would have told you there is no way I will make it. In a few months I will be 50 and it’s tough to fathom that I am at the middle point in my life for all intense and purposes but I made it.

The movie talks in a couple places about how everything happens for a reason and nothing happens by chance.  I subscribe to that theory. You might now always know the reason why, there are many things that I have questions about that I will probably never get answers to. I can tell you what I didn’t know at the time of my spouse’s death is that he was taken from me because he was done teaching me what I needed to know on how to survive in this world. It was time to stand on my own two feet with no safety net and either sink or swim. I needed to start living my life instead of living in someone’s shadow. It’s scary because the world is cold & cruel. I’ve made it and so can you.

The biggest struggle for me that contributes to my depression is the fact that I am all alone. I know that if I can build a network of true friends and find that special guy that is out there for me then everything else will fall into place and I might just be lucky enough to once again find true happiness. It’s something that once you find it, you often take it for granted but when you lose it, you wish that it never left and that you appreciated it much more.

At the end of the day, we all want to be loved and accepted. It would be nice to be wealthy, live in a mansion and have a staff of people to attend to every aspect of your life but for 99% of us that isn’t going to happen. We all have a much greater chance of getting love and acceptance, once we have it, we should all truly be grateful and feel fulfilled. It’s important to grant the same to others.

If it’s your sexuality that you’re struggling with, things will fall into place for you once you learn to accept who you are and to love yourself. I’m not saying it’s going to be easy but I can tell you that with time people mature and aren’t nearly as cruel as they can be when they are younger.

I hope these words help someone and perhaps give you inspiration to keep on fighting. If you are looking for a movie to watch for sure put the Cory Weissman story on play, you might cry you might not but you can’t help but walk away from the movie being inspired.

My disclaimer … I am not a medical doctor or medical professional.  I am also not an expert with life but am happy to provide advice to anyone who asks.  I don’t claim to have all the answers, despite the fact that it appears to me that I am really good at solving other peoples problems.  I think we all have that thought from time to time.  It is important to seek opinions of others when making some decisions or choices in life.  The opinion of others can help one arrive at a decision. Life is a game of risks and choices. We all take a risk getting out of bed and we only get out of bed because we made a choice to. In order to live you must have a reason to get out of bed, if you don’t that is when you will cease to exist. As an example look at the person who is a workaholic, if/when they retire in a short time they pass away.  It’s because they no longer have a reason to get out of bed. 

While we all may not have the riches of money, the popularity of being famous or have valuable possessions.  We all have been given the gift of life, use that gift to it’s fullest, treasure those friends & family that you love so much and don’t put anything off.  Live your best life because we only go around once that I know of, might as well make it the best you possibly can.  You can only control you and your destiny.  You are the very best version of you that there is and no one else can be you.