0:02

Instrumental Music Playing

0:10

Welcome to BINDWAVES, the official

0:12

podcast of the Brain Injury Network

0:14

of Dallas. I'm Brian White,

0:17

BIND's Executive Director. On

0:19

each episode, we'll be providing insight

0:21

into the brain injury community. We'll

0:23

be talking to members and professionals regarding

0:26

their stories and the important role

0:28

of BIND's Clubhouse. We work

0:30

as a team to inspire hope, community,

0:33

and a sense of purpose to survivors,

0:35

caregivers, and the public. Thank

0:38

you for tuning into BINDWAVES. Let's

0:40

get on with the show.

0:42

Hi, I'm Carrie, a stroke survivor and

0:44

a member of BIND.

0:45

And I'm Kezia, stroke survivor

0:48

and member of BIND as well.

0:50

And today on this episode,

0:52

you're going to hear me and Carrie just

0:54

having a chit chat. We're going to be talking

0:57

about really what happens

0:59

after a brain injury and how the brain

1:01

injury really just affected our day

1:03

to day life. After

1:06

a brain injury, really the day to day life just

1:08

became very challenged. And a

1:10

lot of the times we didn't even think about

1:12

it. We think about, like, what happens

1:14

at the hospital, what happens at rehabilitation,

1:18

what kind of Occupational Therapists did

1:20

we have that really helped us in recovery,

1:23

Speech Therapy, Physical Therapy.

1:25

But when we get home, a

1:27

lot of things happen that we didn't

1:29

even think about, our family didn't think about,

1:32

um, and our friends didn't think about.

1:35

So we're going to be talking about that. And as

1:37

you hear in every episode, you realize

1:39

that a brain injury and after a brain

1:41

injury, just our life changes.

1:44

Um, so we're going to talk about today

1:47

on this episode and then the next couple of

1:49

episodes you're going to be hearing about

1:51

it. Um, just day to day life

1:54

and day to day life skills that

1:56

we just had to relearn about it.

1:59

So I hope that you guys find this episode

2:01

really interesting and that you enjoy

2:04

the conversation between Carrie and I.

2:07

So, I guess it's my turn. Um, so that's

2:09

one thing I think a lot of people don't really think

2:11

about is how much really things change.

2:14

So just for me, and for a

2:16

lot of the survivors that are members here at BIND,

2:18

I know, They had a similar experience

2:20

to me. So my stroke caused

2:22

my left side of my body to be

2:25

completely paralyzed. My arm didn't move,

2:27

my leg didn't work, my ankle, my knees didn't

2:29

work, my ankle didn't work. Nothing worked,

2:31

so I couldn't stand. Obviously,

2:33

I couldn't walk. I couldn't use my left

2:35

arm, my fingers. So

2:38

in, while we're in the hospital, that's what you think about. That's

2:40

the first thing we learn how to do. We

2:42

learn how to just stand. And

2:45

they call it weight shift, so that you're not just standing

2:47

all on your good leg. You're standing

2:49

balanced proportionately on both legs,

2:51

which is very challenging and hard.

2:54

And for me, because of the way my ankle

2:56

rolled, I had to get what we call

2:58

an AFO, it's an Ankle Foot Orthotic,

3:01

to even, before I could even take my first

3:03

steps. So that's a lot of things

3:05

you have to learn about, is, you know, not everyone

3:07

needs an Ankle Foot Orthotic, but that doesn't,

3:09

like, so like, you don't need it. Most people with their

3:11

foot like this, mine does

3:14

this, I can't put it down flat. So I have

3:16

a brace, for lack of a better

3:18

word, that keeps my foot flat.

3:21

So that was a new change for me, because

3:23

I still cannot walk without that brace.

3:25

That gave me the independence to be able to walk.

3:28

But when I first went home to live

3:30

with mom and dad, you know,

3:32

I, could not really

3:34

walk. I was, I barely could transfer

3:36

from my wheelchair to the bed,

3:39

from the bed to the wheelchair to the car, that

3:41

kind of stuff. So. Mom would have

3:43

to roll me to the bathroom,

3:47

get inside the bathroom, pick

3:49

me, you know, help me stand up, and then we would have

3:51

to, she would have to walk me

3:53

into the shower to sit on the shower chair, help

3:55

me take this AFO off, and

3:58

then unfortunately, actually, she had to

4:00

help me shower, because again,

4:02

my left arm didn't work, so, that's a lot

4:04

of fun 38 years old and having your mom

4:06

shave your armpits for you. I do

4:08

not recommend.

4:09

Yeah, it must be very uncomfortable for sure.

4:12

I actually don't have, like

4:15

now through recovery, I don't have that experience,

4:17

but right now they were talking about getting in

4:20

bed, and just

4:22

like, those kinds of changes.

4:24

When I first got out of the hospital, um,

4:27

In the hospital, obviously, I had the bed that

4:29

they would like, turn on and move

4:31

up a little bit. I

4:33

had surgeries and

4:36

I had to wear a helmet. And

4:39

I didn't realize, and neither did my parents

4:41

realize, that moving back to,

4:44

at the time, my apartment, my

4:46

bed was too flat and

4:48

I had to get pillows and

4:50

I had to be told that I

4:52

had to stay still in my

4:54

sleep. And I'm like, I

4:57

sleep on my, like, arm, like,

4:59

normally. I don't sleep on

5:01

my back, I don't sleep on my belly.

5:04

Like, I move in my sleep. But

5:06

at that time, I, my parents had to

5:08

be educated that due

5:10

to the surgery that I had, and

5:12

that I didn't have part of my, my

5:15

skull, my cranium. I

5:17

was not allowed to move in my sleep. So

5:19

I had to like, get trained on how to

5:21

sleep going back home. Oh, that's

5:24

crazy. Yeah, and it was so uncomfortable.

5:26

I honestly don't even move in my sleep

5:29

till this day. Like, I think I just

5:31

like, think about it. And I, I

5:33

mean now I do move like a little tiny bit,

5:35

but I don't move that much because I had

5:38

to stay still, and I had to have pillows.

5:40

And then when I moved to Texas, I actually got a new

5:42

bed that like I can use a little controller.

5:43

Yeah, now

5:45

they have those nice beds that everyone has that they

5:47

can sit up, put up their feet. Like, they've

5:50

turned regular beds into hospital beds.

5:51

Yeah, so I got one of those beds to make

5:54

it easier. For all the other months,

5:56

I still had to have my helmet, but it's so crazy.

5:58

Do you have to sleep with your helmet on?

6:00

No, thank goodness. Um, no,

6:02

I had it, I had to take it off and

6:04

in Texas, it's so hot.

6:06

Oh, and I can only, well, that's the thing is like, I don't

6:08

sleep with my brace on. I don't, I don't

6:10

need it to sleep and it's much more comfortable

6:12

without it. But if I wake up

6:14

in the middle of the night and need to go to the bathroom,

6:17

well, I have to take the time to put it back

6:19

on to put my shoes on because

6:21

it's plastic. So it's not like I can just put it

6:23

on and go walk into the bathroom on a slippery floor.

6:26

Yay, I'm going to fall again and make another brain injury. So

6:28

no, you don't want to do that. Um,

6:30

so that's, that's a lot of things you didn't think about.

6:32

And then this is another one that

6:34

I give people a hard time about,

6:37

or not people, but guys, when

6:39

people were talking about, you know, you have to relearn how to dress,

6:41

you have to relearn how to dress yourself. Like a lot of people don't

6:43

think about because of the left side paralysis.

6:46

I have to put my left arm

6:49

in the sleeve first. And

6:51

then my right arm, and then pull it over my head. Same

6:53

with my pants. The left leg has to

6:55

go in first, and then the right, the

6:57

right leg, because it just, it doesn't work

6:59

if you don't, I mean, we used to do a,

7:02

we had an event at our Gala years ago where

7:04

I would, we brought, like, button up shirts,

7:06

and we would, we would have our guests

7:09

try to put it on. We would say, okay, pick an arm, and

7:11

you're paralyzed. Now put this shirt on.

7:14

And they would always put it on the good arm first.

7:17

And then they couldn't figure out how to get their shirt on. So, a

7:19

lot of fun. A lot, a lot of fun. Not really.

7:22

I actually met, um, a

7:25

woman, I don't know if she was like my

7:27

age now, like in her 30s. And

7:30

she had a stroke. And it

7:32

was so hard for her family to

7:34

believe that part of

7:37

recovery is learning

7:39

how to put your your eyeliner

7:41

on and I was just like,

7:43

oh my goodness this is

7:45

so true. Like I forget about

7:47

those steps and early on in my recovery

7:50

is how to do my makeup. You know,

7:52

like I don't it's not very visible, but

7:54

like I actually can't feel part of my hand

7:56

on my right side I can't feel these two. These

7:59

two fingers, I can't feel that much. And

8:01

the third one, I can, I can kind of feel

8:03

it. But like on this side, I

8:05

can't. So it's like, I burn myself

8:08

a lot. But yeah, it's so

8:10

hard that like these are things you learn like

8:12

in your, you know, in the teenage year

8:14

and your practice and how to get things right. You

8:16

know, dress yourself up and then like at

8:18

some point something can happen

8:21

and then you forget and then you have to

8:23

relearn these skills

8:24

I know that that for me was I mean like

8:26

makeup. I don't wear a lot anyway, so I

8:28

just went I don't need it but like

8:30

putting on a bra again That was absolutely

8:33

horrific didn't want to do that. Unfortunately, you still

8:35

need to wear them I guess but

8:37

you know, whatever but the my thing my biggest thing

8:39

like when you talk about the makeup and making yourself look pretty

8:42

I've always had You long

8:44

hair like shoulder length or longer and

8:46

so that I could in the summer like Kezia said we're in Texas.

8:49

So in the summer I can put it in a ponytail

8:52

well. How

8:54

do you? Put your

8:56

hair in a ponytail when

8:58

you only have one hand? Can't

9:01

figure it out. I've been trying to work on it So now I have short hair

9:03

because trying if you think about it, most

9:05

people have big brushes,

9:07

when they blow dry their hair, they curling irons,

9:09

flat iron, flat irons. They have all this stuff

9:12

to make to fix their hair. I

9:14

just blow dry my hair and go on about my day.

9:16

'cause yeah, it's, it's just those things you don't

9:18

think about that you have to totally relearn, like

9:20

you wouldn't think you would have to relearn how to walk,

9:23

how to dress yourself, how

9:25

to take a shower.

9:27

Yeah,

9:29

and these are things that you don't really know

9:31

you have to relearn until you go back home

9:34

and step into places that you no

9:36

longer have a nurse next to your side. You

9:38

no longer have, like, a therapy that's

9:41

helping you walk again. Um,

9:43

and then for me, like, one of the biggest things

9:45

that I had to relearn, and not only

9:47

myself, but also my friends,

9:50

my family, is my

9:52

challenges in speaking. Uh,

9:54

when I was actually in

9:57

rehabilitation, um, in Chicago,

9:59

I, uh, I thought

10:01

they had these dogs there

10:03

for me to make me feel happy, and

10:06

like, I could pet dogs.

10:08

It was great, but I later

10:10

understood that these dogs

10:13

are coming to me, so I can practice

10:15

speaking with these cute

10:18

cuties, these dogs, so

10:20

cute, uh, and really

10:22

learning how to say words correctly,

10:24

because the dogs will not follow what you're saying

10:26

if you don't say it correctly.

10:29

Oh, I didn't think about that.

10:33

And then also, just like, what do

10:36

I want them to do, right? And

10:38

it was just very interesting for that. And

10:40

then obviously, like, I got a dog in Texas,

10:43

Halo. If no one knows Halo,

10:45

you will at some point. She's

10:47

my bestie, and that was kind

10:49

of it. Like, if this worked for me at rehabilitation,

10:52

how can it work for me at home? Um,

10:55

being able to speak with her and really,

10:58

learn along with me on how

11:00

to talk, um, was really

11:02

big. And then also just communicating

11:05

with my family, that was really difficult.

11:08

I think in a hospital, in rehabilitation,

11:11

you're seen as you need help.

11:13

You're seen that way. Uh,

11:16

but at home, you're, like,

11:18

I was looking, right?

11:20

I look normal, right?

11:22

So how do I explain that to people and how

11:24

do I, uh, have

11:27

my family understand that, especially if

11:29

like, for example, my brother wasn't at

11:32

the hospital a lot. He didn't see me that

11:34

in a traumatic kind of way, but

11:37

he needed to learn how to have the

11:39

patience to talk to me and

11:41

how do I treat

11:43

myself with grace and with

11:46

patience for me, myself, like how do

11:48

I talk and how do I communicate

11:51

what I need? Um, because in the,

11:53

um, Hospitals, all of

11:55

those people are very aware

11:57

of patients and help and how

12:00

to help people, right? They're the doctors,

12:03

the nurses, the therapists

12:05

that have this day to day experience, but

12:07

our family doesn't. So, it was definitely

12:10

a challenge, um, being back

12:12

home. So, it was,

12:14

it was very difficult.

12:16

No, it is. I mean, and, like, I didn't have

12:18

communication issues to say,

12:20

you know, but you still have to relearn

12:22

how to communicate and socialize with other

12:24

people. I mean, that's a big thing is because people

12:27

look at you different, people want to treat you different,

12:30

like my, even my parents, I had to, and

12:32

y'all probably heard me say it some on the

12:34

podcast before, but I had to reset boundaries.

12:37

I mean, I moved home, a 38 year

12:39

old independent woman, who now is a 38

12:41

year old woman, wheelchair bound

12:44

and needs a lot of help and they

12:47

no longer saw me as that 38 year

12:49

old independent woman. They saw

12:51

there, I don't even know what age they probably were trying

12:54

to treat me as, but a teenager,

12:56

let's just say that, that needed help with everything.

12:58

Not a toddler, but, you know, but

13:00

consonant, do you need anything? Can I help

13:02

you? What can I do for you?

13:04

What do you, what do you need? You

13:06

know, and I, it just caused frustration

13:09

for me, and I didn't know what to do,

13:11

so it took a while before I realized

13:13

that I had to sit them down

13:15

and say, Okay, we have to talk like

13:18

adults, we have to have a real communication,

13:20

you know, and talk about how we're gonna

13:22

work around in this house. You need to give me the

13:24

chance to be independent. Now,

13:27

if you see me doing something unsafe,

13:29

absolutely come and stop me, but If

13:32

I want something, I will ask for it.

13:34

You don't have to constantly ask me, do I want

13:36

something?

13:37

Yeah. Yeah. And before I talk

13:39

a little bit, I do want to remind all

13:41

of our listeners that you can

13:43

contact us and tell us what

13:45

you want to hear from us and what you want to learn

13:48

about brain injury. It could be anything

13:50

like today. It's just a conversation about

13:52

day to day life and how it changed

13:54

after the strokes that Carrie and I had,

13:57

but it could be any like that. And then we just

14:00

always. I believe that you guys will follow

14:02

us every Thursday on your favorite platforms.

14:05

Um, I was going to say about

14:07

your, um, experience with boundaries.

14:10

Uh, we've had actually In the future,

14:12

in a couple of weeks, you are going to listen

14:14

to us, um, like you

14:17

listeners. We're going to listen to episodes

14:19

that are talking about these topics

14:22

from our guests. Uh, one of our

14:24

guests actually is a,

14:27

um, chaplain. Chaplain.

14:29

Chaplain at UT Southwestern. Yeah, and

14:31

he talks about these experiences he's

14:33

had, uh, with, survivors,

14:37

but also with the caregivers? And how do you, how

14:39

do you do with that? Right? It's really interesting,

14:42

for sure. Um, and

14:44

then also, I think on

14:46

behalf of the communication

14:48

with families and the brain

14:51

injury survivors, when do you

14:53

say that you need help? It's very difficult.

14:55

Um, but also like, for

14:58

on my end, um,

15:01

I don't have any, um,

15:04

mobility issues, but really, how

15:06

do I get back to where I was before

15:08

at managing my own money, managing,

15:11

like, my own scheduling,

15:14

what I want to do with my days,

15:16

um, that was very difficult. How

15:18

do I take my medicine? I went from never

15:20

taking medicine to all of a sudden taking,

15:22

like, so many medications. medications,

15:25

and when do I pick them up from my doctor?

15:27

How do I ask? I don't understand what these,

15:30

these, this medicine is for. Um,

15:33

it was definitely difficult, um, just learning

15:35

how to control your own day to day life.

15:38

Um, and that's something that we had

15:40

to relearn, and not only us, but also

15:42

our patients. Our family, our friends, um,

15:44

that are going to be there supporting us. And, hey,

15:47

do you remember that you need your, your seizure

15:49

medication by 8 a. m.? Um,

15:52

your blood medicine needs to be at the same time.

15:54

If not, your, your INR

15:57

is going to be different. So

15:59

Yeah, that's true. And you don't think about that,

16:01

but, you know, everyone goes from, yeah. Maybe

16:04

taking an aspirin in the morning to, you know, and now

16:07

that's actually something they teach you in the hospital

16:09

is they get the weekly

16:12

pill boxes out and you, you

16:14

have to practice before you get

16:16

discharged. Practice that, but then

16:19

you also have the, you

16:21

have to figure out how to remember to,

16:24

when you're low, Reorder

16:27

new prescrip reorder your prescriptions and

16:29

it's, you know, that sounds so simple

16:31

and so easy for everyone normal day

16:33

to day, but the thought processes

16:35

that have to go into us remembering,

16:38

I mean, just remembering things

16:40

in general. I know my short

16:42

term memory was a big deal in the beginning,

16:44

too. Um, but I, you

16:46

know, everybody has to find their own coping skills.

16:49

So, for me, from coping skills, what

16:51

I learned, I mean, I don't know what people did

16:53

years ago when we didn't have smartphones. I

16:55

would email myself from my

16:57

phone, like when I was here at BIND

16:59

and I knew I needed to do something when I got home, or if I

17:01

was out wherever I was, I needed to do something when I

17:03

got home, I would email myself.

17:07

So, when I got home and checked my email,

17:09

I'd go, Oh, that's right. I need to reorder

17:11

this pill. Or, I need to do this. Or, I need

17:13

to check that. So, I mean,

17:16

and again, everyone's different. But, every brain injured

17:18

survivor has to relearn all

17:20

the basics that you don't think about. And some of,

17:23

like, we have one friend, Carl, well, y'all know Carl,

17:25

Carl H. He's been a co host with me. He

17:28

likes to say, um, We're the children and

17:30

the staff here are the adults. Because,

17:32

after a brain injury, You do feel like a

17:34

child again because you're relearning everything,

17:37

how to walk, how to talk, how to eat,

17:39

and I didn't even mention that earlier, how

17:41

to eat. So for a lot of stroke survivors,

17:44

um, I'm not going to say

17:46

this right and my speech therapists are going

17:48

to come back and get me, but that's okay, um,

17:50

but because of the way the esophagus

17:53

is and whatnot, and I don't know if it was

17:55

because of the facial droop I had

17:57

on the left side because of the paralyzation. Um,

18:00

they worry about you being able to swallow

18:02

and choking yourself to death. So,

18:06

you have to go through a swallow test before

18:08

you can eat real food. So, I started out

18:10

on like, thickened liquids. Just nasty,

18:13

nasty stuff. Um, thickened liquids

18:15

and pureed foods. You know, and then you gradually,

18:17

you know, you have to take these tests. You swallow barium,

18:20

they watch, you know, where it

18:22

goes. And if you're swallowing correctly, I think I

18:24

took it twice before I was allowed to eat real

18:26

food again. So, I mean, again, you know who, who

18:29

that hasn't had a brain injury thinks that you have to relearn

18:31

how to eat? Or how to just

18:33

swallow water. Like, I couldn't even drink

18:35

just water. I had to eat ice chips in the

18:37

very beginning.

18:38

Yeah, I, I definitely get it. Like,

18:41

there's just different steps of

18:43

recovery. Like, what step are you

18:45

on? And, and, and, and, recovery takes

18:48

your whole life. Like, you just have to relearn

18:50

things that you didn't think you would have to relearn.

18:52

Right. Yeah, I mean, I

18:55

honestly don't re don't

18:57

remember very fully, like, my first couple

18:59

of days in the hospital. But,

19:02

I remember very clearly,

19:04

like, my into recovery

19:06

and me believing in myself.

19:09

And I was a runner before the stroke.

19:12

Um, and I literally signed

19:14

up for the Chicago Marathon. I

19:17

was still in the hospital, but I was

19:19

like, well, I can walk now, you know, I can

19:21

walk now. So I'm sure by October

19:23

I will be a runner, right? So

19:26

I didn't understand my limits, my

19:28

physical limits, but also

19:30

like, even when I was already

19:32

in Texas, understanding my cognitive,

19:35

uh, disability, well, not fully

19:37

disability, but my, how the stroke

19:39

changed my, my

19:42

functional, like, skills, like,

19:44

how, how, when am I going to be able

19:47

to manage a, a, a team?

19:50

Um, and that was very difficult.

19:52

And like, how do I multitask? How can

19:54

I think about big solutions

19:56

in a big picture kind of way? Um,

19:59

that was definitely very difficult. And

20:01

we also have a great episode coming

20:03

up within this couple of

20:05

weeks about someone that just became,

20:08

was able to start working. Um,

20:11

even when he was in recovery at

20:13

a, a recovery, like, I

20:15

don't know if we can say this, but CNS, um,

20:18

how was he able to manage recovery

20:20

and being able to go back to work? And that's

20:22

really just questioning and understanding

20:25

your own skills and what level are

20:27

you in and being very clear on yourself

20:30

and then also who you talk to, right?

20:32

Um, that was a very interesting conversation

20:35

that we had. How do you do that?

20:37

Um, and then also just the people

20:39

around you being, um, supportive

20:42

and he had some pretty cool, a

20:44

pretty cool boss that was able to stand

20:47

with him.

20:48

It is, I mean, there's all those little

20:50

things and I, and I know, um, we

20:53

kind of touched on it and I'm going to go back,

20:55

but like, we talked a little bit about

20:57

socializing and friendships and communicating,

21:00

but unfortunately after

21:02

a brain injury, I'm not going to say this happens

21:04

to all brain injuries, but to a lot of us, we

21:06

realize that. I'm

21:09

not going to say we lose friends, but people don't

21:11

know how to deal with you, so they just find it

21:14

easier to not. So,

21:16

making new friends is fine and it gets easier,

21:18

um, especially if you're like Kezia

21:20

and I, I'm pretty social anyway, doesn't

21:22

take much, but, um.

21:24

Yeah, but honestly, like,

21:26

I was like a little social, social

21:29

butterfly, like, everywhere. I talked to everyone,

21:31

and it does look like I talked to everyone,

21:33

but I had a great sleep last night.

21:36

I definitely make sure to get my eight

21:38

hours of sleep, beauty sleep, before,

21:40

um, talking to all of

21:42

the listeners, talking to you, talking

21:45

to all brain injury survivors here at

21:47

BIND. Uh, but if I'm not,

21:50

like, relaxed, like, slept

21:52

well, if I just didn't wake

21:54

up to have a good day with all my energy,

21:57

like my whole brain charged to 100,

22:00

it is so hard. It is so hard,

22:02

and the socializing part was definitely

22:04

hard too understand

22:07

I think on my end because I

22:09

was like always judging myself like,

22:11

oh my god I went to get pizza

22:13

in Chicago. My mouth is already really

22:16

like so hungry for pizza but anyway

22:19

I went to go get pizza with my friends and it was

22:21

like the first time I was in pretty

22:24

comfortable going into social platforms

22:27

and go somewhere with a lot of people. And

22:29

I was with these amazing women that

22:31

were there to support me through my recovery,

22:33

to support my friends, I mean my family,

22:36

to learn about aphasia and all of

22:38

these things. And I was like,

22:40

I'm so ready for this. And then I get

22:42

to this pizza place in Chicago, and

22:44

it was packed. And there was music

22:47

and it looked so fun.

22:50

But at that time I somehow found

22:52

myself in the corner with

22:54

amazing women there supporting me. But

22:56

just, I was having such a hard

22:58

time to keep up with the conversations.

23:02

And that day I was like, I can't do this.

23:04

And I still have a hard time doing that. I

23:06

prefer one on one conversations

23:09

because I truly can gather

23:12

the conversation to 100 percent

23:15

and traveling and meeting my

23:17

friends, I need

23:19

that like 100

23:21

percent and my full attention

23:24

to that. And I would love to

23:27

meet in a pizza place with a bunch of people,

23:29

with music, with, with, you know,

23:31

but I would need to stay in Chicago for like

23:33

the full year to like, you

23:36

know, be able to do that again. And at

23:38

first I felt so bad. Like they probably

23:40

think that I don't want to be here. They probably

23:42

think that I'm ignoring, they probably think I'm

23:45

being bored, but really that's not

23:47

the issue at all. It's just the

23:49

difficulty of conversing

23:51

in large spaces.

23:53

Now, and Kezia, that's a good point. I mean, you're,

23:55

you understand that? I don't

23:57

quite understand that, but I have a really good friend

23:59

who also had a stroke. And

24:02

noise is a trigger for him. I mean,

24:04

it causes panic attacks, anxiety attacks.

24:06

It's actually caused a couple of extra TIAs.

24:09

So, like, if we go out to a restaurant and the music

24:12

is really, really loud, um, He can't

24:14

concentrate anymore. He puts on noise

24:16

cancelling headphones like this. He may

24:18

even just have to leave, you know, and we understand that,

24:20

like, and he's a big hockey fan,

24:22

but I can't take him to the hockey game with me because

24:24

it's just too loud. It's too stimulating.

24:27

Um, some of our brains just can't

24:29

recover to that point where we can handle that

24:31

much stimulation. That seems

24:33

normal to anyone else. I mean, can you imagine being

24:35

a big rock concert fan and

24:38

after a stroke, you can't go back to a

24:40

rock concert. A, it's too loud, too

24:42

much music. Too many people.

24:45

I mean, I worry about people for my balance that

24:47

someone's going to just knock me over. So, I

24:50

know that it's kind of scary,

24:52

but we just, like we said, we want to

24:54

just kind of share a little bit about our lives.

24:56

We know you've learned a lot about us over the

24:58

time, um, but the next

25:00

couple episodes after this one are, like we

25:02

said, you'll be hearing from a different couple of

25:04

people, like the chaplain who's on communication,

25:07

a gentleman who had a stroke, who's gone back to work.

25:09

We have, um, I don't remember who else we,

25:11

um,

25:12

Yeah, we have all these conversations about day

25:14

to day life and how things have changed after

25:17

a brain injury.

25:18

Yeah, communication and coping skills

25:20

and just different things like that too.

25:22

Yeah, I do want to thank all of you

25:24

listeners for connecting with us and just listening

25:26

to our conversation on Thursday. We

25:28

really appreciate all of you guys watching

25:31

our episodes on Thursdays. I do also

25:33

want to remind you that anything that you want to learn

25:35

from BINDwaves, just contact us.

25:38

So thank you so much.

25:39

Again, like Kezia said, and if you want to contact

25:41

us, that email is [email protected].

25:46

Um, you can also follow us on Instagram

25:48

at bindwaves and then you can check out

25:50

our website thebind.org/bindwaves.

25:55

There is also a, probably

25:57

there's a link to our email, and there is a

25:59

form there if you would like to become a podcast

26:01

guest to fill out and say what you want to talk about,

26:04

what you think needs to be heard or said

26:06

and shared, and as well if you're looking

26:08

to be a member of BIND, there's a form there to fill

26:10

out. So again, just check out all that

26:12

good information.

26:13

And don't forget to like, share,

26:16

and subscribe to your, on your favorite platform

26:18

for BINDWAVES. You could also tell all your friends

26:20

and family to follow us. And

26:22

obviously go onto YouTube to check it out

26:24

and see our faces.

26:27

And again, thank you. And every Thursday

26:29

you can find us on all your favorite platforms. So

26:31

until next time.

26:33

Until next time.

26:34

We hope you've enjoyed listening to BIND Waves and

26:36

continue to support BIND and our non profit mission.

26:39

We support brain injury survivors as

26:41

they reconnect into the life, the community,

26:44

and their workplace. And we couldn't do that without

26:46

great listeners like you. We appreciate each and

26:48

every one of you. Continue watching. Until

26:50

next time. Until next time.