Jaz vs. The Red Dragon: A Stroke Story

Jasmine Loh was enjoying a pleasant lunch at work when the aneurysms hidden in her brain suddenly burst. Her world went blank briefly while the stroke settled into this thirty-something's head. A few minutes later, she reconnected with reality and went back to work to continue validating the performance of semiconductor fabrication equipment.

That was in 2014.

She left her job in semiconductor manufacturing due to her stroke, wrote a book, taught herself email marketing, and now does digital services for friends and clients

In 2021 I met Jaz  through Clubhouse.  She co-hosts an online support group there from her home in Singapore.

I enjoyed hearing Jaz's perspective on her stroke story, her dreams in the early days, and her experience of nearly "crossing over."

You can experience all that, too, in this conversation with Jasmine Loh.

(If you don't see the audio player below, visit http://Strokecast.com/Jaz)

 

Click here for a machine-generated transcript

About Jasmine Loh

Want to know about me?

I am...

- a brain aneurysm stroke survivor and a cancer survivor from Singapore 🇸🇬💪

- Founder of 2nd Chance in LIFE Club 🥰

- a mother of 2 dogs and 2 cats 🐶😻

- left my 19 years MNC corporate career (Systems and Automation Engineer, 2015) 🥳

- Co-founder of Always Awake LLP (yep, turned my side hustle to my main biz) ✌️

I give hope and help self-employed, solopreneurs, entrepreneurs and small business owners to position their brick and mortar businesses online, to get qualified leads and enquiries via building websites, landing pages, funnels, managing their social media marketing and ads campaign. 

Surface my clients’ business that is optimized for online presence, so that they can claim their stake effectively in the digital space by:

1. Increasing their exposure online

2. Generate more qualified leads and enquiries

3. That can convert to sales

Clients who have worked with me over the years, grow with me together as I help them transform their business in stages to where they want.

My goal for them, is that they are no longer that burnt out individuals that’s being bogged down by digital transformation strategies that they are not familiar with, as I am here to help them.

They can reclaim their health and time back, do things that they like and spend time with the people that they love.

———————————————

“Life has no limitations, except the ones you make.” ~ Les Brown

“Today is history in the making.” ~ Jasmine Loh

✌️P.S... 

I’m also looking to connect with folks who are blessed with a 2nd Chance in LIFE after a health crisis.  Let’s inspire, help, support and uplift each other in ways we can. 

There’s so much more to life than just biz.  🥰

Stroke in Women vs Men

Stroke can present differently in women and men.

BEFAST is a good starting point for recognizing stroke in all genders.

A stroke will usually manifest as a sudden loss of or change in :

B- Balance

E - Eyesight or vision

F - Facial Symetry

A - Ability to hold both arms up

S - Speech, slurring, or language

T - It's time to call an ambulance

This list is not comprehensive, especially for women and AFAB folks. It will reflect most strokes, but not all. In the case of Jaz's stroke, it's not as much help.

The American Heart Association also identifies these as symptoms of stroke, especially in women:

General weakness Disorientation and confusion or memory problems Fatigue Nausea or vomiting

Whether it's BEFAST or these additional symptoms, the most important detail remains -- with stroke, time lost is brain lost. The most important thing to do for someone who may be experiencing a stroke is to call an ambulance.

You can read more about the differences in stroke between men and women here: https://www.goredforwomen.org/en/about-heart-disease-in-women/signs-and-symptoms-in-women/symptoms-of-a-stroke

And if you want to learn more about how women are underrepresented in stroke research, you can listen to my interview with Brent Strong here.

Jaz's Dreams

The brain sometime copes with trauma through metaphor. It has a lot of Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra moments. The normal world and perceptions have failed the brain. The body's own blood is attacking or starving the brain. And the brain still tries to make sense of it. And there is some beauty in the horror that comes out of it.

In the case of Christine Lee, when her aphasia denied her access to the word "eggs" it gave her "shell bells" as an alternative.

Jaz's brain, drowning in her own blood, gave her the dream of a red dragon to fight. She scoured the town for power-ups and health solutions, like in a video game. She did battle with the dragon. And the dragon was winning. When it was about to secure its victory, it let Jaz a bit so she could keep fighting. Without Jaz to fight, the was no way for the dragon to live.

The brain is always trying to make sense of the data coming into it, or being generated by other parts of the body. The results can be beautiful, funny, horrifying, confusing, and usually a mix of all of those feelings and more.

Clubhouse

Clubhouse is a free, online platform for live audio discussions. While it started out as an invitation only tool, it's now open to anyone. You just need to download the app to your Android or iOS device and sign up.

Within the tool, there are a bunch of different "rooms" you can join. Each one of those rooms will have one or more speakers leading a conversation that may include anywhere from 2 people to hundreds of people. You can choose to just listen or you can volunteer to speak. You are always free to start your own room as well, on a topic of your choosing.

Topics/Rooms include things like:

Brain Injury Life Profiting from Bitcoin Public Speaking Police Shooting discussions Congressional Politics Meditation Tech News Motivation Work Life Balance Dating NFTs Fashion …and more.

Really, it goes on.

I first joined Clubhouse last spring when Maddie Niebanck invited me.

Each week, Jaz cohosts a room at 6:00 PM Pacific time on Monday Evenings. You can find Jaz's room here on the app https://www.clubhouse.com/club/2nd-chance-in-life

Links

(If you don't see the table of links below, visit http://Strokecast.com/Jaz)

Where do we go from here?

Check out Jaz's website and eBook at http://JasmineLoh.com Share this episode with someone you know by giving them the link http://Strokecast.com/Jaz Subscribe to the free, monthly Strokecast email newsletter at http://Strokecast.com/News Don't get best…get better.