WEBVTT
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She is sure, she is true, She is straw. She
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is straw, She is true, is true, she is praise,
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prayche is p she is you.
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Hello, everyone, welcome to today's Word of Mom Radio. Here
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on the Word of Mom Media Network. I'm your host,
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dory T Carlo, and you know we are here week
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after week, show after show, breaking those myths at morepreneurs
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and business women, especially those of us building our businesses
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from home that were just dabbling in between bake sales
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and getting our nails done. We're not. We are smart,
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we are savvy, and we are sharing the wisdom of
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women in business and in life. And I'm looking forward
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to bringing today's guest into our author's ali. Kelly Tuttle
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joined the Head Injury Survivors Club, as she described it,
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in twenty fifteen, the night another car pulled in front
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of her as she was driving. It wasn't until three
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months later that she realized something was seriously wrong. Kelly's
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traumatic brain injury TBI, as you've heard it referred to,
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marked the beginning of a new life and a personal
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journey of self rediscovery. A neurology nurse practitioner, Kelly has
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a front row seat to observe patients struggling with many
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of the same things she experienced in her recovery. She
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strives to share her coping strategies and tools and help
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them to continue the work and study while they heal.
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Kelly also wants TBI patients to know that there is hope.
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She got better and they can too, And she and
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I talked about it before the show began. I've actually
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had six whiplashes and four concussions, so her book resonated
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very much with me. So with all that being said, Kelly,
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welcome to Word of Mom Radio.
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Well, thank you for having me Dory.
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It is my pleasure and I would love for you
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to take us on your journey that led you to
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writing your book.
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So my story begins with a thunderous clap of metal
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and the shattering of glass. I was driving home on
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a rural road when another car pulled out in front
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of me and I t boned the car. And I
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thought that even though it was a pretty bad car accident,
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that I would get better and get back into life,
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just shake it off, and I went to work the
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next day. But my nursing colleagues noticed that my behavior
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was different and I wasn't speaking right, so they pressured
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me to follow up with my primary care doctor the
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next day, which I did and was diagnosed with a
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concussion and taking off work for two weeks, and left
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with the feeling that I'd be better after two weeks,
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so I went back to work, was working forty plus
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hours a week, a mom an hour away commute and
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one About two and a half to three months later,
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I fell asleep at the wheel and I woke up
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just in time to slam on the brakes and stop
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my car from running into a tree. And my concussed
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brain then decided that I would instead, halfway in between
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work and home, take a nap, which I don't recommend
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for your listeners. And I never did let my doctor know,
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but so shortly after that I did. I met a
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physical medicine rehab doctor immediately recognize that postconcussve syndrome. Took
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me off work for three months. Then when it was
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time for me to go back to work, I was
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very anxious and freaking out because I didn't know what
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my brain needed. I didn't know what I needed to
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support its performance, and I went and looked at all
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the information had found on the Internet and the boks
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that I had collected to try to figure out to
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put together a toolbag that would help me continue to
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be an efficient employee. And I didn't want anybody to
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go through that. When I looked for the information heard,
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it was hard to find. At the time, I couldn't
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read longer than five to ten minutes without getting headaches
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or forgetting what I read, So it was a real struggle.
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So when I decided to write a book, I wanted
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my book to have strategy they could implement right away
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to help limit their brain injury symptoms and improve their
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memory and focus. And I wanted it all in one place.
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And then it was important for me to have my
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book on audible so that those that weren't able to
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read early in their recovery, they could listen to the
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book rather than just read it. And so that's how
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I came to writing my book.
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I actually liked that you talk about different studies, talk
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about in this book that this person and wrote, and
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give different examples because you took the time to read
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the books to support what you are doing. And I
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think it is very important because being a silent, invisible disability,
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people can't see it, and there's a lot of frustration
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in that because people can lose patience with somebody who
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TBIs can cause you to repeat things, can cause you
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to forget things, You're balanced so many different things. Let's
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talk about that all of the different symptoms that people
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just brush off as oh, I worked too hard today
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or I just didn't get enough sleep last night, and
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these aren't. These are real symptoms to having a TBI.
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So let's talk about that a little Kelly.
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Yeah, so that symptoms can fall into three categories and physical, emotional,
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and cognitive. So, like you said, people could have a
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lot of symptoms, and then they have symptoms that they
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wouldn't necessarily associate with their concussion, like me find a
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sleep at at the wheel. Well, when I was driving,
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I was getting more and more tired because I had
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neuro fatigue. Neual fatigue is a common symptom after a
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brain injury or a concussion. It's not like normal fatigue.
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It's fatigue that is brought on with minimal effort and
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it is not resolved with rest or good sleep or exercise.
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And it's very hard to describe that type of fatigue.
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But if you do not listen to it and pace
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yourself throughout the day in managing your energy levels. Then
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you'll do what I did. You'll fall asleep at the wheel.
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Your brain will shut you down.
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It's amazing because when you talk about neuro fatigue, it
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kind of makes me think of that new mom where
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your brain I used to call it nursing brain. That
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it was like as I nursed my child, they were
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fucking brain cells out of me because I'm not going
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to remember stuff and everything else. But it was that
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different kind whereas now and I know, I know it
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is a result for myself of four different concussions and things.
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I write things down, to write things down, to remind
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myself to write it down. You know, it is no
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longer Oh yeah, I'll write that down later. Forget it.
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If I don't write it down right then and there,
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I don't put it into my phone or put it
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down somewhere. I will not take for granted that I'm
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going to remember because my brain is only going to
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hold so much. And I know that that's part of that,
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and it is a frustrating part of that.
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So memory is a higher executive function that requires a
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lot of pathways and functionings in the brain. To occur,
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and it also takes a lot of energy, and if
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your brain is healing, it's not going to have the
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energy to power those higher executive functions such as memory,
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time management, prietorizing, planning, initiation, and motivation even as you're healing.
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Sleep is really important. It's important for everyone to get
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seven to nine hours of sleep because when you sleep,
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that's when your brain goes to work and with memory,
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that when you're sleeping, that's when you're a hippocampus downloads
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your memory into the cortex of your brain. And if
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you short on sleep, then you short your brain on
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the time to be able to do that, and so
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then your memory will not be as great the next
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day or going forward. So there's a lot of things
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that are involved with memory, and if you're having difficulty
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with the memory after a concussion or a brain injury,
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a speech therapist. A lot of people think speech therapists
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to help with speech, but they also help with higher
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executive functions and cognitive deficits, So they're a really important
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person on your team to recovering after your brain injury.
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Who are other professionals that you should have on your
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team that you normally would not think would be on
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a team for a TBI.
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We'll definitely start off with that physical medicine rehab doctor. Now,
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they're different from a neurologist neurologist. General neurologists normally just
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take care of theesis such as Parkinson's multiple scrossis epilepsy,
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but a physical medicine rehab physician takes care of brain
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and spying injury, and there's even some PMR doctors who
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have specialized in traumatic brain injuries. A neurotherapist can also
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help you with your vision to make sure that your
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eyes can track moving objects. Often after concussion, people will
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complain of dizziness while writing in a car or watching
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an action movie. That movement is what they're having difficulty with,
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and a neuro therapist can help with that. They could
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also help with balance. A physical therapist can help you
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with your whiplash injuries or any other injury that you
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attained along with your brain injury. I think those are
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the top ones that I would recommend right away, and
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then I would recommend if you're having significant sleep disorders
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that you're not able to help you with, or behavioral issues,
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then you would want to consult with a psychiatrist. They
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are great with behavioral issues such as impulsive spending, gambling,
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and pulsive shopping. And then they also help with difficulty
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to treat insomnia's or sleep disorders. And then if you
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have difficulty with kind of grieving the losses after your concussion,
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you'd want to get mental health therapy, get talk therapy,
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which they can help you help with that. And then
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if your role changes in your family, like you were
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the bread winner and now you're not, then a family
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therapist can help you and your family adjust to the changes.
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And then I would also recommend support groups for traumatic
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brain injury survivors and their caregivers. When you go to
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the support group, you learn from people about things that
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helped them recover that might help you. When you pick
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your support group, make sure you pick one that is
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related to the severity of your concussion or traumatic brain injury.
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Make sure you ask if the group is for mild
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traumatic brain injuries or moderate to severe. Make sure it
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fits the type of brain injury that you have. And
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usually they have the caregiver support group at the same
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time as the survivors support group, but those are really
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helpful too.
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Note think about what Kelly said, because getting support is
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really important and there are so many groups out there
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that are there to help with that. We are going
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to take a quick break, say thank you to our sponsors,
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and we'll be back here in just a moment. On
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Word of Mom Radio. She is brave, she is bold,
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she is you, and we want to tell your story.
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Are you ready to share your journey with us on
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register as a guest. We want to tell your story
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because when you win, we all win.
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In twenty seventeen, Unsilenced Voices was formed to help survivors
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of domestic abuse and gender based violence worldwide. The organization
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currently serves Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Ghana, and the USA. In
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twenty twenty two, Unsilenced Voices gifted over thirty three thousand
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dollars to survivors in the USA and in Sire Leone.
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There are over twenty six young girls who have been
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rescued from sex trafficking and domestic abuse and now going
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through vocational training school in order to better their lives.
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We need your help. Donations are critical in order for
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us to continue our work. We also need volunteers to
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help with research and development. Please visit Unsilenced Voices dot
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org for more information.
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And we're back here on Word of Mom Radio. We
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are talking with Kelly Tuttle about surviving a brain injury
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and moving forward in your life, and we're talking about
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her book The Frozen cons of having that invisible disability
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of a brain injury. And I want to talk more
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about that because it is the frustration of as somebody
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who can forget what I'm saying. Sometimes right in the
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middle of while I'm talking, It'll just happen, my brain
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will have that skip now, and I feel the frustration
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of the people around me, and I guess they don't
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really think about the fact that it's very frustrating for
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the person that it happens too. So how do you
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work through that the frustration that you're feeling because of
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the fatigue, because of the headache, because of the things
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that can happen with this invisible disability that just rears
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its head whenever it feels like it.
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And the first things I recommend to my patients is journaling,
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because in your journal, it is it's a safe place
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to put those types of frustrations down and to write
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that symptom down, loss of train of thought, inability to
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find my words, slurry my words, Write those things down
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and then note at the time that that happened. Were
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you tired, were there distractions? Was there a TV on?
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Did someone walk by?
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They?
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You know, these things can break your focus, and so
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what I usually recommend for my patients is to really