“Be patient with yourself. It may take longer than you think.”
Nilsa Reyna
A stroke in your mid-30s. A maze of medical appointments with no answers. 6 years of searching for a diagnosis. Brain surgery. Anxiety. And recovery.
Actor, writer, director Nilsa Reyna is creating performances centered around her own health journey with the hope that it helps other people connect with their own stories.
Read on for more…
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I met Nilsa many years ago when she was running a theater company, working a full-time day job at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and acting. One evening at our monthly creativity salon, she shared an early draft of a an autobiographical one-woman show she was creating based on her story of experiencing a stroke in her mid-30s, with seemingly no risk factors present.
And despite tests, scans, appointments, and research, no one seemed to know why it had happened, or more importantly, how to prevent it from happening again.
Listen to the episode to get the full story of how Nilsa decided to be her own advocate and keep searching for answers as to what was happening inside her brain.
Connect with Nilsa
Twitter: @nilsareyna
Learn more about Moyamoya
One of the rarest forms of occlusive cerebrovascular disorders encountered in neurosurgery is moyamoya disease. Fragile blood vessels proliferate around a blocked artery in an attempt to bypass an occlusion. Their appearance on a cerebral angiogram resembles a “puff of smoke” or “moyamoya,” a term coined by a Japanese team who first described the disease.
Stanford Moyamoya Center: http://med.stanford.edu/neurosurgery/divisions/moyamoya.html
Here are some ways I’d love to connect
- Send me an email and let me know what you have created from your own trauma or health journey. So no like formal survey or anything. Just email me. You can write it or record a voice memo on your phone and attach it to the email.
- Join my Facebook Community where we create social support for content creators with inspiring prompts, opportunities for you to share your work, talk about money and more.
My favorite hashtags #thecreativeimpostor #creativewomen
Email or Voice (send me a question to answer on the show!)
Facebook Group The Creative Impostor
Facebook Page @andreaklunder.creative
Instagram: @andreaklunder
Oh HEY! I’m on LinkedIn now… dropping pro podcasting tips, insights, and stories. Connect with me there and let me know you’re a Creative Impostor listener.C
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