stroke survivors – Divabetic

12/18/202412/18/2024

Pink Champagne Pay Homage to Luther Vandross

Toni B. featuring Pink Champagne as her Christmas Song of the Week on her fabulous UGONE radio show is a holiday treat! Paulette McWilliams and Ivan Hampden Jr. are absolutely thrilled!

You can catch all of Toni’s amazing shows on Mixcloud.

Here’s a fun little tidbit about Pink Champagne: my lyrics celebrate our dear friend, the legendary Luther Vandross.

Luther had a passion for Art Deco and Art Nouveau furniture and took great joy in decorating his stunning homes in Beverly Hills, Connecticut, and New York with these exquisite pieces.

Plus, did you know his gorgeous stage costumes designed by Tony Chase and Elizabeth Courtney were also inspired by these beautiful styles? I hosted a Luther Vandross: Music & Style event with my friends, Keith Anthony Fluitt, Christopher Faison and James Ervin this past April in New York City.

You can see Luther’s fantastic costumes, artifacts and memorabilia on display at the GRAMMY Museum in Los Angeles until June 2025. The exhibit offers an intimate glimpse into Luther Vandross’ creative process and showcases his ornate stage wardrobe, exclusive performance footage from his popular tours, and a never-before-heard recording of him in the studio.

I was lucky enough to accompany him on a few trips to auction houses where he searched for these treasures, and that’s where the mention of Christie’s Auction House in the lyrics comes from! Thanks for letting me share my memories of my friendship with Luther!

“Luther: Never Too Much,” the documentary film from award-winning director Dawn Porter, chronicles the story of a vocal virtuoso will be available on streaming apps in January 2025.

Using a wealth of rarely seen archives, Luther tells his own story with assistance from his closest friends and musical collaborators including Mariah Carey, Dionne Warwick, Valerie Simpson, Seveda Williams, Fonzi Thornton, Robin Clark, Ava Cherry, Kevin Owens, Lisa Fischer, Carlos Alomar, Max Szadek, and Roberta Flack.

The film relives the many stunning moments of Luther’s musical career, while exploring his personal life, health struggles, and a lifelong battle to earn the respect his music deserved.

Sadly Luther suffered a stroke related to mismanged type 2 diabetes in 2003. The phrase “Every minute counts” is a warning to heed if you suspect someone close to you is having a stroke.

F-A-S-T is an acronym created to teach people how to recognize and remember the most common indicators that someone might be having a stroke. Here is what each of the letters stands for:

T for TIME: Don’t wait or lay down to see if symptoms disappear. Call 911.

F for FACE: One side of a person’s mouth appears to be drooping or their smile looks lopsided. .

A for ARMS: People who are having a stroke usually have difficulty moving arms and legs.

S for SPEECH: Difficulty talking, slurring words, repeating the same words or phrases, or their conversation doesn’t make sense, it may be a stroke.

05/16/202105/16/2021

Why Love Won’t Let Me Wait When Someone Is Having A Stroke

If music has the power to move you, then let the ballad, Love Won’t Let Me Wait, written by Vinnie Barrett and Bobby Eli, and sung by Major Harris, Nancy Wilson, and Luther Vandross, be a reminder to take immediate action when someone you love is experiencing a stroke.

When it comes to stroke, every second counts! Waiting or praying it away are not options if you, a spouse, friend, or family member have a stroke. And what you do in those critical moments can potentially help save someone’s life.

Nearly 2 million brain cells die each minute a stroke remains untreated.

“The most frustrating thing for me as a stroke specialist is that folks will stay home with their symptoms,” said Dr. Carlene Kingston, stroke medical director at Novant Health Presbyterian Medical Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. “They’ll notice that one part of their body isn’t working, and their first call is to their primary care doctor or their spouse. That is never the answer. The answer is to call 911.”

Rapid access to medical treatment often makes the difference between full recovery and permanent disability.

“Several hours passed between the time my boss, Luther Vandross, first experienced a stroke, and I found him,” says Max Szadek.” The time gap hindered his recovery.”

Most strokes are not associated with pain, which often leads people to believe they’re okay, and they wait for the symptoms they’re experiencing to pass. However, with each passing minute, brain cells are dying that will never be recovered.

The national standard for treating ischemic strokes is to administer a tissue plasminogen activator or tPA. This clot-busting medication can potentially reverse the symptoms of stroke within 60 minutes of a patent’s arrival at the ER.

The faster the medication is administered, the better the outcomes are for stroke survivors.

If you do nothing else, act quickly to call 911 and tell the 911 dispatcher, ‘I think I’m having a stroke or ‘I think my loved one is.'”

Use the letters in “F.A.S.T.” to spot stroke signs and know when to call 9-1-1.

F: Face Drooping: Does one side of the face droop, or is it numb? Ask the person to smile. Is the person’s smile uneven or lopsided?

A: Arm Weakness: Is one arm weak or numb? Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?

S: Speech: Is speech slurred? Is the person unable to speak or hard to understand? Ask the person to repeat a simple sentence.

T: Time to Call 9-1-1: If the person shows any of these symptoms, even if the symptoms go away, call 9-1-1 and get them to the hospital immediately.

If you get your spouse, friend, and/or family member to the hospital when symptoms start, the likelihood of surviving and not having any disability much more significant.

05/11/2021

We Love Catherine Schuller!

Barbra Streisand singing ‘Being Alive’ from her The Broadway Album, you’ll hear it on next week’s Diabetes Late Nite podcast, is inspiring this post. Seriously, the combination of Barbra’s voice, lyrics from a popular Broadway musical, and the sunshine streaming through my window at 7 AM are like a multi-vitamin for an older gay gent like me.

If there’s any truth to the saying or Madonna’s Vogue song lyric ‘beauty is where you find it then it’s clear I found it in Catherine Schuller. From the most moment we met, back in 2005, she has been a powerful, positive, and empowering force in my life. Always stylish, always upbeat, always sparkling! She has helped me to define and refine Divabetic’s GLAM MORE, FEAR LESS philosophy. Together found a way to stamp out the shame and blame associated with a diabetes diagnosis by making people feel better about themselves right now, not tomorrow. It’s funny how a bit of mascara, a bright-colored feather boa, and the hook to your favorite disco tune can push the clouds away.

I have plenty of reasons to love Catherine just for her work as Divabetic’s Image & Style Advisor on Divabetic’s national tour of Makeover Your Diabetes outreach programs. Her ability to comfort, care, and cheer on all types of divas (type 1, type 2, LADA, gestational, and prediabetes) was remarkable. But love beams are shooting straight out of my heart because of the passionate way Catherine lives after experiencing a stroke. I don’t think a day goes by that she doesn’t make the most of every moment.

During the pandemic, when I wasn’t sure if it was Monday or Thursday, Catherine managed to give Dr. Birx a run for her money! She took up my challenge to demonstrate many ways to tie a scarf on one of Divabetic’s past Zoom programs.

Next week Catherine joins me for the two-part stroke prevention webinar, Keep Your House A Home, for the Frazier Coalition for Stroke in Philadelphia. My good friend and health champion, Senior Health Educator for Center for Urban Health at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Neva White DNP, CRNP- BC, CDCES is organizing it.

Catherine plans to share her powerful testimony about advocating for her health after experiencing a stroke. After her husband told her to go upstairs and lie down, she told him in no uncertain terms to call an ambulance so she could get to a hospital. Her wise decision to seek help right away and not wait is why her recovery has been so excellent. Fortunately, Catherine’s quick thinking is precisely why she able to receive the stroke drug tPA. This potent clot-busting medication, tPA, may save critical brain tissue if a patient arrives at the emergency room within three hours of experiencing stroke symptoms. And there’s a new study that suggests that the traditional three-hour time window is too short. Combining data from multiple clinical trials, Maarten Lansberg, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurology and neurological sciences at Stanford, and colleagues from Belgium and Germany have shown that treatment can benefit patients up to 4.5 hours experience their first symptom. Their findings were published online on May 21 in the journal Stroke.

The timing of treatment is essential because giving a blood thinner like tPA during a stroke can cause bleeding inside the brain. The longer a patient waits to get treatment, the more likely the risks of treatment will outweigh the benefits.

My life and the lives of many others were devasted by Luther Vandross’s stroke, related to his mismanagement of type 2 diabetes. I can’t turn back time and change his outcome, but hopefully, you can change yours. Let Catherine Schuller inspire you to GLAM MORE, FEAR LESS, and advocate for your health today, not tomorrow!