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Kevin Lowe: Have you or anyone that you know ever been impacted by a traumatic brain injury, a TBI?
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Kevin Lowe: A lot of times when we talk about this, we think about football players,
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Kevin Lowe: but it's also just people in real life all the time suffer from what we call
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Kevin Lowe: a traumatic brain injury.
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Kevin Lowe: Today, I'm sitting down with Kelly Tuttle, a lady who is going to give us basically
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Kevin Lowe: a masterclass in traumatic brain injuries.
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Kevin Lowe: She knows it all too well because she's dealt with it herself.
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Kevin Lowe: But what's amazing about her is, well, the knowledge that she brings to help you.
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Kevin Lowe: So again, if you are somebody who has suffered your own traumatic brain injury
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Kevin Lowe: or knows somebody who has, today is a conversation that you don't want to miss.
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Kevin Lowe: This is episode 393 of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.
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Kevin Lowe: I'm, of course, your host, Kevin Lowe. And my friend, I'm excited you're here.
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Kevin Lowe: I'm excited for us to dive into a really amazing conversation with a truly amazing woman.
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Kevin Lowe: Here is my interview with Kelly Tuttle.
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Podcast Theme Music: I got Grit, Grace, & Inspiration on my mind...
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Kevin Lowe: I have the pleasure of being in the studio with none other than Kelly Tuttle.
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Kevin Lowe: Kelly, welcome to the podcast.
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Kelly Tuttle: Hello, Kevin, and thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
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Kevin Lowe: Oh, man, I am so excited for us to get to sit down together and hear about not only your story,
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Kevin Lowe: but honestly, I guess just more so your wisdom that you have to share on this
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Kevin Lowe: major topic of a traumatic brain injury.
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Kevin Lowe: Before we get diving into your accident, your traumatic brain injury,
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Kevin Lowe: I would love to kind of start things off to get to understand kind of where
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Kevin Lowe: you were at in life before the accident.
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Kevin Lowe: Like, what were you doing? What was life like for you?
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Kevin Lowe: And we'll kind of start from there.
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Kelly Tuttle: Okay. Before the crash, I was extremely active and busy person.
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Kelly Tuttle: I had a ton of energy. I annoyed people around me with my energy.
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Kelly Tuttle: And I was studying martial arts.
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Kelly Tuttle: I was training multiple nights a week, a couple hours at a time.
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Kelly Tuttle: On Fridays, I was teaching a women's beginner Brazilian jiu-jitsu class.
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Kelly Tuttle: I was involved in my profession.
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Kelly Tuttle: I, in the past, was like the president of the Sacramento Nurse Practitioners
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Kelly Tuttle: Association, which is a branch off the California Association of Nurse Practitioners
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Kelly Tuttle: and was really involved with that.
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Kelly Tuttle: I had an over-hour commute to work, would put in an eight-hour day,
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Kelly Tuttle: drive home and either do something for my profession or study martial arts or
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Kelly Tuttle: meet friends for dinner and then go home and enjoy a conversation with my family
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Kelly Tuttle: and go to sleep and do it all again. I was constantly on the go.
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Kelly Tuttle: Every weekend was booked with doing things with family and friends and travel.
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Kelly Tuttle: So, yeah, that was me before. Now I'm a sloth.
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Kevin Lowe: So we went from a cheetah to a sloth if we're going to stick with animals. Yes. Yes.
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Kevin Lowe: Oh, my goodness. I love your sense of humor. It is the best.
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Kevin Lowe: So if that was life before, what happened?
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Kevin Lowe: Talk me through kind of the events that when your accident and kind of when
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Kevin Lowe: was this? in terms of timeline in your life when this accident occurred and exactly what happened?
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Kelly Tuttle: So I was driving home after work, was heading to my karate class because I was
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Kelly Tuttle: in intense training to test for my third degree black belt.
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Kelly Tuttle: And on the way home, a driver pulled out in front of me and I t-boned the car.
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Kelly Tuttle: And so there was shattering glass everywhere, the crunch of thunderous metal,
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Kelly Tuttle: people coming out of their house to see what was going on.
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Kelly Tuttle: Ambulance was called, a car was smoking.
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Kelly Tuttle: And I thought, I can shake this off.
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Kelly Tuttle: I'll just shake this off. I'll be better in a couple of weeks and I'll just go on with life.
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Kelly Tuttle: And I didn't go to the emergency room, which I should have.
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Kelly Tuttle: So anybody listening, go to the emergency room.
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Kelly Tuttle: Don't do as Kelly did. And I went back to work the next day and my colleagues
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Kelly Tuttle: who are registered nurses and nurse practitioners were quick to identify that
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Kelly Tuttle: I wasn't speaking right,
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Kelly Tuttle: I wasn't acting right, and said, made me commit to seeing my general practitioner the next day.
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Kelly Tuttle: And I saw my general practitioner, I was diagnosed with a concussion and told,
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Kelly Tuttle: and basically left feeling I'd be okay after two weeks, took a couple weeks off from work.
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Kelly Tuttle: After that, I tried to get back into life and really was pushing the martial
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Kelly Tuttle: arts training, going to work.
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Kelly Tuttle: I was dying of headaches, fatigue, irritability.
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Kelly Tuttle: I was grumpy, saying things that I normally wouldn't say. I said the F word a lot.
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Kelly Tuttle: And then one day on my way home, I fell asleep at the wheel, Kevin.
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Kevin Lowe: Oh, no.
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Kelly Tuttle: Yes. And I woke up just as my car bounced off the road, just in time to slam
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Kelly Tuttle: the brakes before my car ran into a tree.
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Kevin Lowe: Oh, wow.
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Kelly Tuttle: Yes. And so my cuss brain thought, well, what we'll do is we'll not tell the doctor.
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Kelly Tuttle: We'll just keep going on with life and just take a nap halfway in between home.
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Kelly Tuttle: I mean, in my car.
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Kevin Lowe: Totally reasonable.
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Kelly Tuttle: So bad. So bad. Do not support sleeping in your car on the side of the road.
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Kelly Tuttle: That was how my brain was working. And so then I went to lunch and met up with a colleague.
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Kelly Tuttle: And fortunately, she was a nurse practitioner and she worked in neurology at the time.
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Kelly Tuttle: I was a nurse practitioner working in cardiology at the time.
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Kelly Tuttle: Okay. And she was curious about my recovery because she knew I'd had a concussion.
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Kelly Tuttle: And so I mentioned, yeah, I fell asleep at the wheel the other day. And she's like, what?
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Kelly Tuttle: And I'm like, yeah. And so now I just take a nap in between.
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Kelly Tuttle: And she's like, wait a minute. She's like, that is not right.
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Kelly Tuttle: And then she just rattled off all these things I needed to do.
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Kelly Tuttle: I hadn't had a brain scan.
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Kelly Tuttle: I hadn't been referred to a neurologist. and I hadn't seen a physical medicine
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Kelly Tuttle: and rehab doctor, a physiatrist.
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Kelly Tuttle: So I promised that I would do those things. And so I got a brain CT and it was
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Kelly Tuttle: normal. There was nothing.
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Kelly Tuttle: I saw a neurologist and honestly, the visit wasn't very helpful.
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Kelly Tuttle: But when I saw a physical medicine rehab doctor, now they take care of people
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Kelly Tuttle: with brain injuries and spine injuries.
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Kelly Tuttle: And so they're the person you want to see if you have a brain injury.
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Kelly Tuttle: And once I saw that doctor, she knew right away that I had diffused axion injury.
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Kelly Tuttle: And that's what happens when the neurons, the brain cells in your brain,
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Kelly Tuttle: they have little connecting tendrils to each other.
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Kelly Tuttle: And when you have a concussion, those get severed.
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Kelly Tuttle: And when those are severed, then the cells die and that part of your brain stops working.
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Kelly Tuttle: And you have a lot of neural inflammation and cascade of biochemistry stuff going on.
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Kelly Tuttle: So after seeing her, she took me off work for three months.
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Kelly Tuttle: And I did speech therapy, physical therapy, neurophysical therapy.
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Kelly Tuttle: And I just started to get onto the right road of recovery.
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Kelly Tuttle: Because before that, I was on the wrong road.
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Kevin Lowe: Yeah.
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Kelly Tuttle: Obviously, I fell asleep on it.
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Kevin Lowe: Obviously. Yes.
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Kevin Lowe: Wow. So Kelly, I'm curious. So going back to the accident itself.
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Kevin Lowe: So did you not sustain any like physical injuries?
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Kelly Tuttle: Oh, yeah, I did. I had a bruise and swelling on my forehead from the release of the airbags.
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Kelly Tuttle: I had chest contusion from the seatbelt in the airbags. I had a wrist injury.
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Kelly Tuttle: The airbags had ripped open my right wrist a little bit, and I had a huge swelling and burn rash.
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Kelly Tuttle: And then I had lower back
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Kelly Tuttle: hip and knee pain because I slammed on my brakes and that and I was standing
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Kelly Tuttle: on my brake pretty much when the impact happened but fortunately I didn't break
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Kelly Tuttle: anything just a lot of muscle and ligament strain yeah so besides for oh and whiplash,
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Kelly Tuttle: horrible whiplash wow yeah now.
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Kevin Lowe: In terms of your head though it didn't hit anything besides for the airbag
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Kelly Tuttle: Correct correct okay and the so this is how it happens the brain is not fixed
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Kelly Tuttle: in the skull it floats a little bit and so when the body or the head is moving
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Kelly Tuttle: along and is suddenly struck or stopped.
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Kelly Tuttle: So that's called acceleration-deceleration.
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Kelly Tuttle: The brain inside your head actually slams into the front of your skull and then
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Kelly Tuttle: slams into the back of your skull and goes back and forth.
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Kelly Tuttle: And that's how the injury and the damage occurs.
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Kevin Lowe: Okay. Wow. Wow, wow, wow.
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Kevin Lowe: You know, because it's, I mean, the injury, I mean, the accident itself,
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Kevin Lowe: I mean, you think of, I mean, it wasn't like you, I don't know, rolled the car.
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Kevin Lowe: I mean, basically, you had, quote unquote, minor injuries, we could say,
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Kevin Lowe: for a massive car accident.
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Kevin Lowe: And yet, what has us talking today is about an injury that you didn't even realize
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Kevin Lowe: you had until later on, which is kind of fascinating.
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Kelly Tuttle: Exactly. And that is something that does happen to brain injury survivors.
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Kelly Tuttle: So usually when someone gets a concussion, they also will have another injury.
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Kelly Tuttle: Like they will fall down the stairs and break their arm or their leg.
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Kelly Tuttle: Or in a car accident like my own, they'll have really bad whiplash.
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Kelly Tuttle: Whiplash is a good, if you have whiplash, that's a good suggestion that you also have a concussion.
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Kelly Tuttle: And myself I can attest to my
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Kelly Tuttle: biggest focus is getting my injuries healed and then
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Kelly Tuttle: my neck and you really don't know the kind
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Kelly Tuttle: of the impact of the concussion is going to have on you until you really get
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Kelly Tuttle: back into life and that could be you know if if you are a stay-at-home parent
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Kelly Tuttle: being home alone with the children and managing getting to school on time staying
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Kelly Tuttle: on top of appointments and things like that.
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Kelly Tuttle: Or it could be the person who returns to work and you start using your brain
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Kelly Tuttle: where you have to fix things or pay attention during a chaotic environment that
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Kelly Tuttle: you're used to working in.
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Kelly Tuttle: And that's when the symptoms kind of really blow up and come into the picture.
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Kelly Tuttle: Because people go back to work and they're like, I can't focus.
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Kelly Tuttle: I don't have motivation, I'm irritable, I'm snapping at people,
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Kelly Tuttle: I'm forgetting things, my speech is slurring, the lights are too bright, the sounds are too loud.
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Kevin Lowe: Now, what is the difference, I guess, between somebody having a concussion and
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Kevin Lowe: somebody having a traumatic brain injury?
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Kelly Tuttle: It's that they're interchangeable. A concussion is a brain injury.
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Kevin Lowe: Okay. Interesting.
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Kelly Tuttle: Interesting.
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Kevin Lowe: Okay, then. I mean, we hear concussion all the time, but when you think of it
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Kevin Lowe: in terms of traumatic brain injury, you kind of realize that it's the severity of a concussion.
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Kelly Tuttle: Exactly. Exactly. And like some people will say, well, I have brain fog.
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Kelly Tuttle: Well, that's brain damage.
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Kelly Tuttle: Yeah. Brain's not working. It's been damaged. So there are some terms that we
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Kelly Tuttle: do use that kind of soften the blow of what has actually happened.
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Kelly Tuttle: Sometimes I'll use the term head injury because sometimes people aren't ready
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Kelly Tuttle: to hear that they have a brain injury.
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Kelly Tuttle: But the terms in clinical are interchangeable.
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Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Now, how long after the accident did they finally diagnose you with having
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Kevin Lowe: a traumatic brain injury?
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Kelly Tuttle: I wasn't told I had a traumatic brain injury until I was six months out.
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Kevin Lowe: Wow.
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Kelly Tuttle: And that's really bad. You shouldn't allow a patient to go out six months struggling
00:14:09.307 --> 00:14:16.687
Kelly Tuttle: without letting them know what's going on and setting them up for supportive strategies and care.
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Kevin Lowe: And I guess especially when I think of it is the fact that, I mean,
00:14:21.370 --> 00:14:23.830
Kevin Lowe: you were already in the medical field.
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Kevin Lowe: I mean, in the fact of, is that something that's common for people to go undiagnosed
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Kevin Lowe: for a long period of time? Or is that more of a rare thing?
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Kelly Tuttle: I would hope that it is rare, but I think it's more common than rare.
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Kelly Tuttle: And the reason why is there's a lot of misunderstanding about brain injury.
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Kelly Tuttle: In the medical community and in the non-medical community, you know,
00:14:52.510 --> 00:14:54.590
Kelly Tuttle: community that like, you know, people who are not in healthcare.
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Kelly Tuttle: Even when I worked in cardiology, I was aware of strokes and traumatic brain injuries.
00:14:59.870 --> 00:15:03.670
Kelly Tuttle: But, you know, when you think of that, you think of the severe cases, right?
00:15:03.810 --> 00:15:09.530
Kelly Tuttle: You don't think of the mild case, the mild traumatic brain injury that could
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Kelly Tuttle: be just as impactful on somebody's life as a severe brain injury.
00:15:15.630 --> 00:15:20.810
Kelly Tuttle: And then the other thing, too, that I learned, which was interesting,
00:15:21.130 --> 00:15:29.230
Kelly Tuttle: is that there's a new specialty in medicine that is brain injury,
00:15:29.590 --> 00:15:33.590
Kelly Tuttle: or I should say it's concussion medicine, it's brain injury medicine.
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Kelly Tuttle: And these are physical medicine
00:15:36.810 --> 00:15:40.170
Kelly Tuttle: and rehab doctors that are doing extra training
00:15:40.170 --> 00:15:43.370
Kelly Tuttle: to specialize in concussion
00:15:43.370 --> 00:15:46.350
Kelly Tuttle: and traumatic brain injury and this
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Kelly Tuttle: is like less than five years that this has been kind of going on so it is unfortunate
00:15:52.750 --> 00:15:57.590
Kelly Tuttle: that a lot of people who do have concussions or traumatic brain injuries will
00:15:57.590 --> 00:16:00.870
Kelly Tuttle: not be diagnosed because there
00:16:00.870 --> 00:16:04.990
Kelly Tuttle: just isn't that knowledge out there on the front lines of health care.
00:16:05.830 --> 00:16:09.230
Kelly Tuttle: And so unfortunately, you may run into a provider that says,
00:16:09.650 --> 00:16:13.030
Kelly Tuttle: oh, you should be better in two weeks. And you're not.
00:16:13.210 --> 00:16:16.350
Kelly Tuttle: And they say, well, that's not really your concussion. That's your anxiety.
00:16:16.870 --> 00:16:20.850
Kelly Tuttle: Or, well, you know, it's been two years. You're not going to get any better.
00:16:22.010 --> 00:16:25.330
Kelly Tuttle: This is what you have to get used to. And all that stuff's not true.
00:16:27.150 --> 00:16:31.890
Kelly Tuttle: But unless you're lucky and you run into someone like me, who's like passionate
00:16:31.890 --> 00:16:37.730
Kelly Tuttle: about brain injuries, you're not going to get the right information.
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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. So when you finally got the diagnosis, how did things change
00:16:47.070 --> 00:16:49.550
Kevin Lowe: for you at that point in terms of
00:16:50.264 --> 00:16:55.324
Kevin Lowe: maybe treatment or just life in general, what happened at that point?
00:16:55.844 --> 00:17:00.444
Kelly Tuttle: Well, I realized that I wasn't crazy. I thought I was going crazy.
00:17:00.564 --> 00:17:06.364
Kelly Tuttle: I was like, I would be doing my martial arts and I would like tell my foot to
00:17:06.364 --> 00:17:08.384
Kelly Tuttle: move forward and it would step back.
00:17:08.484 --> 00:17:15.164
Kelly Tuttle: I was irritable and I was talking over people and conversation and argumentative
00:17:15.164 --> 00:17:18.304
Kelly Tuttle: and pushing my point, which I never normally wouldn't do.
00:17:18.444 --> 00:17:21.804
Kelly Tuttle: I lost myself of inner peace.
00:17:22.424 --> 00:17:30.244
Kelly Tuttle: And so once I figured out it was because I had a brain injury, I was like, oh, oh, okay.
00:17:31.444 --> 00:17:32.784
Kelly Tuttle: Yeah, not nuts.
00:17:36.824 --> 00:17:41.664
Kelly Tuttle: It's because my brain is broken. And so then my communication with the people
00:17:41.664 --> 00:17:45.444
Kelly Tuttle: around me changed. It's just like whenever I got grumpy or snapped or whatever,
00:17:45.584 --> 00:17:50.324
Kelly Tuttle: I'd go, I would be able to say, oh, I'm sorry. That was my brain talking, not me.
00:17:52.544 --> 00:17:57.024
Kelly Tuttle: Can I just have a moment to, you know, focus on whatever I was trying to do?
00:17:57.244 --> 00:18:00.324
Kelly Tuttle: Yeah. Yeah. So it makes a big, big difference.
00:18:01.184 --> 00:18:08.504
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. So what did you end up doing as far as treatment to try to help this?
00:18:08.504 --> 00:18:14.844
Kevin Lowe: And I guess in with that question is what kind of treatments are available for people?
00:18:15.804 --> 00:18:21.604
Kelly Tuttle: If you're having cognitive symptoms or speech symptoms, like you're having difficulty
00:18:21.604 --> 00:18:27.684
Kelly Tuttle: with planning, with focusing, learning, reading, or finding your words,
00:18:27.824 --> 00:18:30.564
Kelly Tuttle: you need a referral to a speech therapist.
00:18:31.824 --> 00:18:37.304
Kelly Tuttle: If you have any other injuries such as whiplash you need a referral to physical
00:18:37.304 --> 00:18:41.664
Kelly Tuttle: therapy because if your whiplash isn't taken care of it's going to be difficult
00:18:41.664 --> 00:18:46.844
Kelly Tuttle: to control your headaches your post-concussive headaches and you're going to
00:18:46.844 --> 00:18:50.904
Kelly Tuttle: feel off balance and that could be put you at risk for another fall.
00:18:51.795 --> 00:18:57.255
Kelly Tuttle: The other thing is to have your eyes checked. So start off with an optometrist
00:18:57.255 --> 00:19:00.015
Kelly Tuttle: just to see if your prescription has changed.
00:19:00.135 --> 00:19:02.655
Kelly Tuttle: And that's just the issue because you can have blurry vision.
00:19:02.915 --> 00:19:06.715
Kelly Tuttle: You can have double vision. You can have issues with difficulty reading.
00:19:07.015 --> 00:19:12.355
Kelly Tuttle: And if your optometry visit is you're told your eyes are fine then and you're
00:19:12.355 --> 00:19:18.075
Kelly Tuttle: having double vision or eye pain or anything like that, you need to see an ophthalmologist.
00:19:18.075 --> 00:19:21.855
Kelly Tuttle: And you do need a referral to see an ophthalmologist. and
00:19:21.855 --> 00:19:25.055
Kelly Tuttle: if you're still struggling you're feeling off balance you're
00:19:25.055 --> 00:19:28.435
Kelly Tuttle: having difficulty with light sensitivity difficulty with
00:19:28.435 --> 00:19:31.195
Kelly Tuttle: reading you're not able to read off the
00:19:31.195 --> 00:19:37.255
Kelly Tuttle: laptop as long as you used to before your head injury then consider seeing a
00:19:37.255 --> 00:19:44.435
Kelly Tuttle: behavioral optometrist and they can look and see how your eyes are functioning
00:19:44.435 --> 00:19:48.555
Kelly Tuttle: together and how they're communicating with your brain.
00:19:48.875 --> 00:19:52.535
Kelly Tuttle: Those are some of the things that I think of off the top of my head.
00:19:52.795 --> 00:19:57.595
Kelly Tuttle: Now, things that you can do independently are start journaling.
00:19:57.775 --> 00:20:02.395
Kelly Tuttle: I'm a big proponent of journaling because it'll help you get,
00:20:02.575 --> 00:20:07.775
Kelly Tuttle: figure out what your symptoms are and what makes them better and what makes
00:20:07.775 --> 00:20:11.275
Kelly Tuttle: them worse. So you can limit the things that make them worse.
00:20:11.395 --> 00:20:15.755
Kelly Tuttle: So say you have sound sensitivity, You can use noise counseling.
00:20:16.195 --> 00:20:20.275
Kelly Tuttle: Earbuds or headphones to help you concentrate and focus better at work.
00:20:20.695 --> 00:20:28.915
Kelly Tuttle: And then I also recommend an anti-inflammatory nutrition and exercise.
00:20:29.135 --> 00:20:33.935
Kelly Tuttle: You don't want to seclude yourself in a dark room.
00:20:33.935 --> 00:20:38.695
Kelly Tuttle: You can do that for the first 48 hours, but after that, you should start getting out,
00:20:39.015 --> 00:20:44.755
Kelly Tuttle: moving around, because the more you exercise, the better the brain is able to
00:20:44.755 --> 00:20:50.135
Kelly Tuttle: clear out the dead cells and start rebuilding new connective highways in your brain.
00:20:50.875 --> 00:20:54.135
Kelly Tuttle: And then I also recommend practicing mindfulness
00:20:54.135 --> 00:20:56.995
Kelly Tuttle: after a head injury a lot of people
00:20:56.995 --> 00:20:59.655
Kelly Tuttle: get stuck in their heads and they're alone in their
00:20:59.655 --> 00:21:04.915
Kelly Tuttle: heads with ruminating thoughts and negative thoughts and feelings of failure
00:21:04.915 --> 00:21:11.175
Kelly Tuttle: and worthlessness loneliness and mindfulness will help you get out of your head
00:21:11.175 --> 00:21:17.275
Kelly Tuttle: and into the present moment and that helps with the healing too okay.
00:21:17.275 --> 00:21:26.035
Kevin Lowe: Now in terms of things like what you described of like being at karate training
00:21:26.035 --> 00:21:31.315
Kevin Lowe: and like you try to kick your foot forward and it goes backwards or you spontaneously
00:21:31.315 --> 00:21:36.555
Kevin Lowe: busting out with the f word like what helps with that kind of stuff
00:21:37.247 --> 00:21:42.247
Kelly Tuttle: So exercise will help the brain and the body reconnect over time.
00:21:42.447 --> 00:21:48.787
Kelly Tuttle: So definitely moving is, and the moving can just be walking.
00:21:49.427 --> 00:21:50.027
Kevin Lowe: Okay.
00:21:50.207 --> 00:21:54.207
Kelly Tuttle: Simply just going out for a walk, walking, trying to get a little walk every
00:21:54.207 --> 00:21:59.727
Kelly Tuttle: day, and then slowly increasing your exercise as you tolerate it.
00:21:59.847 --> 00:22:02.727
Kelly Tuttle: Because some people after a head injury, and I did have this,
00:22:03.327 --> 00:22:05.607
Kelly Tuttle: will have exercise intolerance.
00:22:05.607 --> 00:22:09.087
Kelly Tuttle: Before my car accident i was able to train
00:22:09.087 --> 00:22:11.887
Kelly Tuttle: a couple hours with no problem and then
00:22:11.887 --> 00:22:15.047
Kelly Tuttle: after my crash i could only
00:22:15.047 --> 00:22:20.227
Kelly Tuttle: do like a kata for two minutes and then i was short of breath and had a pounding
00:22:20.227 --> 00:22:26.667
Kelly Tuttle: headache and so you just have to depending on where you're at like some people
00:22:26.667 --> 00:22:31.327
Kelly Tuttle: they don't have that exercise and tolerance so they can go right back to what
00:22:31.327 --> 00:22:34.807
Kelly Tuttle: they were physically doing before their head injury.
00:22:35.007 --> 00:22:39.287
Kelly Tuttle: And then some people are unable to do that. And if you're unable to do that,
00:22:39.407 --> 00:22:41.267
Kelly Tuttle: then you're going to have to increase it slowly.
00:22:41.427 --> 00:22:45.147
Kelly Tuttle: You may have to work with a physical therapist to figure that out or your general
00:22:45.147 --> 00:22:47.867
Kelly Tuttle: practitioner or your brain injury specialist.
00:22:48.447 --> 00:22:53.547
Kevin Lowe: Okay. Okay. One other question. When you speak about the journaling,
00:22:53.967 --> 00:23:00.507
Kevin Lowe: do you encourage just journaling in general or specifically focusing on being
00:23:00.507 --> 00:23:03.947
Kevin Lowe: sure that you're journaling about like how you felt that day,
00:23:04.187 --> 00:23:08.367
Kevin Lowe: what, you know, impacted you, what went well, what didn't go well.
00:23:08.867 --> 00:23:14.907
Kelly Tuttle: Exactly. So I usually recommend starting out with the, with the date and then
00:23:14.907 --> 00:23:16.507
Kelly Tuttle: writing how well you slept.
00:23:17.047 --> 00:23:20.207
Kelly Tuttle: Sleep's really important for the brain to, to heal.
00:23:20.467 --> 00:23:24.287
Kelly Tuttle: A lot of people think that the brain isn't doing anything when you sleep,
00:23:24.387 --> 00:23:27.407
Kelly Tuttle: but that's actually when it really goes to work, cleaning house,
00:23:27.947 --> 00:23:34.807
Kelly Tuttle: downloading memories, softening stressful information that came in that day.
00:23:34.987 --> 00:23:39.007
Kelly Tuttle: So it helps with emotional control and mood modulation.
00:23:39.687 --> 00:23:45.747
Kelly Tuttle: That's when the lymphatic kind of part of the brain opens up and really just
00:23:45.747 --> 00:23:51.607
Kelly Tuttle: flushes out the brain and cleans out toxins and radicals and things like that.
00:23:52.067 --> 00:23:57.707
Kelly Tuttle: So sleep's really important. So I recommend journaling, how well did you sleep last night?
00:23:58.247 --> 00:24:03.027
Kelly Tuttle: And if you didn't sleep well, why you didn't sleep well and changes you can
00:24:03.027 --> 00:24:04.187
Kelly Tuttle: make to improve your sleep?
00:24:04.287 --> 00:24:08.487
Kelly Tuttle: Or is it time to talk to your doctor about getting help with your sleep?
00:24:08.927 --> 00:24:14.527
Kelly Tuttle: And then kind of writing down how you're feeling. So did you wake up with a headache or dizziness?
00:24:14.947 --> 00:24:20.587
Kelly Tuttle: Did you wake up tired? Do you feel like today's going to be a good brain day or a bad brain day?
00:24:20.767 --> 00:24:28.567
Kelly Tuttle: And then putting down like a list of one to three things you want to accomplish during the day.
00:24:29.695 --> 00:24:35.835
Kelly Tuttle: And then at the end of the day, journaling and just saying like, well, how'd the day go?
00:24:36.155 --> 00:24:39.615
Kelly Tuttle: Did something, did you have a bad conversation with someone at work?
00:24:39.755 --> 00:24:40.875
Kelly Tuttle: Does someone make you mad?
00:24:41.195 --> 00:24:47.795
Kelly Tuttle: And then what led up to that? And then reflecting on, well, if this happens again,
00:24:48.215 --> 00:24:53.835
Kelly Tuttle: what tools or strategies that I got from my speech therapist or my counselor
00:24:53.835 --> 00:25:00.315
Kelly Tuttle: or my psychologist that I can use to help cope with that in the future and have a better outcome?
00:25:01.535 --> 00:25:06.915
Kevin Lowe: Very very interesting the the journaling is something i never would have thought
00:25:06.915 --> 00:25:12.875
Kevin Lowe: of and yet it makes sense on so many levels of not only having this thing to
00:25:12.875 --> 00:25:18.955
Kevin Lowe: track but also i would imagine just the process of writing is another way of
00:25:18.955 --> 00:25:21.415
Kevin Lowe: just working the brain exactly
00:25:21.415 --> 00:25:24.355
Kelly Tuttle: So there yes there is research
00:25:24.355 --> 00:25:27.835
Kelly Tuttle: that supports that the act of writing is something
00:25:27.835 --> 00:25:30.855
Kelly Tuttle: that helps prevent dementia and it
00:25:30.855 --> 00:25:34.175
Kelly Tuttle: really reconnects the brain and stimulates
00:25:34.175 --> 00:25:40.295
Kelly Tuttle: creativity and and things like that so the writing of the journal is very important
00:25:40.295 --> 00:25:46.315
Kelly Tuttle: and you know sometimes you'll have loss of coordination and that will help you
00:25:46.315 --> 00:25:51.035
Kelly Tuttle: know find coordination after a brain injury and that would really help with that.
00:25:51.035 --> 00:25:57.555
Kevin Lowe: Yeah now obviously this i'm sure this is very dependent upon each person's
00:25:58.475 --> 00:26:03.195
Kevin Lowe: But asking you personally with your own situation and then others that you've
00:26:03.195 --> 00:26:09.515
Kevin Lowe: seen, how long can people expect recovery to take?
00:26:10.475 --> 00:26:13.935
Kelly Tuttle: So it's, yeah, like you said, it's different with everyone.
00:26:14.555 --> 00:26:19.515
Kelly Tuttle: Not everyone has the same symptoms. And what we often say is once in,
00:26:19.535 --> 00:26:24.435
Kelly Tuttle: in healthcare, once you see one traumatic brain injury, you've seen one traumatic brain injury.
00:26:24.435 --> 00:26:27.495
Kelly Tuttle: So everyone is is different
00:26:27.495 --> 00:26:30.695
Kelly Tuttle: but normally I will tell my
00:26:30.695 --> 00:26:33.655
Kelly Tuttle: patients well you should get better you know
00:26:33.655 --> 00:26:40.695
Kelly Tuttle: in a couple months but some people don't see recovery for six months to two
00:26:40.695 --> 00:26:48.255
Kelly Tuttle: years but even after the two-year point there is still improvement in function
00:26:48.255 --> 00:26:53.195
Kelly Tuttle: it's just really subtle and the improvements are really far apart,
00:26:53.475 --> 00:26:57.815
Kelly Tuttle: whereas the healing is really accelerated in that two-year period,
00:26:57.815 --> 00:27:01.715
Kelly Tuttle: but it still continues after the two-year period.
00:27:01.715 --> 00:27:07.455
Kelly Tuttle: So I like to remind my patients not to lose hope after that two-year anniversary.
00:27:08.495 --> 00:27:16.135
Kelly Tuttle: And we're starting to learn more about this as more research comes up out about neuroplasticity.
00:27:17.015 --> 00:27:25.835
Kelly Tuttle: And that isn't out there on the front line, but it's slowly trickling into clinical practice.
00:27:26.055 --> 00:27:35.035
Kelly Tuttle: And neuroplasticity is that if you continue to try to get back to your baseline.
00:27:36.155 --> 00:27:38.575
Kelly Tuttle: Your brain won't be the same.
00:27:39.633 --> 00:27:43.073
Kelly Tuttle: But in the injured parts, those cells will die.
00:27:43.453 --> 00:27:50.633
Kelly Tuttle: They won't come back. But your brain will want to reconnect and go around those spaces.
00:27:51.193 --> 00:27:56.213
Kelly Tuttle: And the more you take care of your brain, support your brain health,
00:27:56.513 --> 00:28:01.453
Kelly Tuttle: do the things you love and enjoy, the brain will reconnect.
00:28:02.153 --> 00:28:08.293
Kelly Tuttle: Now, it won't be the same, you know, but it will be better.
00:28:09.653 --> 00:28:12.953
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. What about for you personally?
00:28:13.253 --> 00:28:16.993
Kevin Lowe: What was that recovery journey like for you?
00:28:17.233 --> 00:28:22.653
Kevin Lowe: How long would you say that it took for you to really start noticing some differences?
00:28:23.293 --> 00:28:27.553
Kelly Tuttle: When I started noticing, you know, that's the other thing about the journal
00:28:27.553 --> 00:28:32.553
Kelly Tuttle: is you can look back and see how far you've come.
00:28:33.353 --> 00:28:38.233
Kelly Tuttle: And I don't know exactly when it was, but I went back to kind of read my journal.
00:28:38.233 --> 00:28:45.453
Kelly Tuttle: But right after my car accident I couldn't make coffee and toast at the same time for breakfast,
00:28:46.333 --> 00:28:49.313
Kelly Tuttle: because I would start the toast and
00:28:49.313 --> 00:28:53.413
Kelly Tuttle: then forget it was there and then I would make my coffee and then I would sit
00:28:53.413 --> 00:29:00.733
Kelly Tuttle: on my couch and go why am I hungry or I would remember my toast and forget my
00:29:00.733 --> 00:29:05.793
Kelly Tuttle: coffee I would leave the coffee cup somewhere in the house and I couldn't find
00:29:05.793 --> 00:29:07.313
Kelly Tuttle: it and my husband's like,
00:29:07.653 --> 00:29:10.153
Kelly Tuttle: why is there all this dried bread in the toaster?
00:29:15.073 --> 00:29:22.293
Kelly Tuttle: You know, I was back at work full time, probably six months after the car accident.
00:29:22.553 --> 00:29:26.893
Kelly Tuttle: So yeah, I went from not being able to make toast and coffee to being able to
00:29:26.893 --> 00:29:29.013
Kelly Tuttle: return to work within the six months.
00:29:29.733 --> 00:29:35.513
Kelly Tuttle: Now it wasn't perfect, because the first two years that I went back to work,
00:29:35.813 --> 00:29:38.893
Kelly Tuttle: all I did was sleep. If I wasn't at work, I was sleeping.
00:29:39.173 --> 00:29:44.453
Kelly Tuttle: So I would go to work, I would come home, I would take a two hour nap,
00:29:44.853 --> 00:29:50.113
Kelly Tuttle: I would get up for an hour and eat, get ready for work the next day and then go back to sleep.
00:29:50.333 --> 00:29:56.773
Kelly Tuttle: And then on the weekends, I slept 12 to 14 hours and sometimes taking a two
00:29:56.773 --> 00:30:01.293
Kelly Tuttle: hour nap in between that just so I could go back to work on Monday.
00:30:01.573 --> 00:30:03.953
Kelly Tuttle: And that's how I spent my first two years.
00:30:04.393 --> 00:30:04.993
Kevin Lowe: Wow.
00:30:05.753 --> 00:30:12.953
Kelly Tuttle: Yeah. And then my third year, I was able to start walking and exercising on
00:30:12.953 --> 00:30:14.873
Kelly Tuttle: the weekends. So that was huge.
00:30:15.313 --> 00:30:15.913
Kevin Lowe: Yes.
00:30:16.473 --> 00:30:22.193
Kelly Tuttle: The big improvement. And then my fourth year, I was able to start hiking,
00:30:22.733 --> 00:30:29.373
Kelly Tuttle: going on hikes and stuff like that and kind of doing some short travel out of town.
00:30:30.128 --> 00:30:33.408
Kelly Tuttle: And then by my fifth year, I started writing my book.
00:30:33.708 --> 00:30:39.608
Kelly Tuttle: And I think writing my book was really helpful in my recovery because I had
00:30:39.608 --> 00:30:41.268
Kelly Tuttle: to learn so much. I wasn't a writer.
00:30:41.428 --> 00:30:44.368
Kelly Tuttle: I was a nurse practitioner. You know, I was in health care.
00:30:44.988 --> 00:30:48.008
Kelly Tuttle: And we don't write. We chart. And it's really bad.
00:30:50.428 --> 00:30:54.668
Kelly Tuttle: It's really bad. It's not good reading. so
00:30:54.668 --> 00:30:57.688
Kelly Tuttle: i had to learn a lot about writing and marketing
00:30:57.688 --> 00:31:02.168
Kelly Tuttle: and technology and sharing documents on google and all that stuff and i've continued
00:31:02.168 --> 00:31:08.948
Kelly Tuttle: to do so since and i feel like that has really helped with my healing and my
00:31:08.948 --> 00:31:13.468
Kelly Tuttle: the way i function i my speaking's better but you know every once a while you'll
00:31:13.468 --> 00:31:17.648
Kelly Tuttle: hear me slur my words or not or i'll lose my train of thought or i can't find my word.
00:31:18.128 --> 00:31:23.848
Kelly Tuttle: And I'm not back to my martial arts training because I don't have the energy for that.
00:31:24.308 --> 00:31:27.708
Kelly Tuttle: But I'm back to start, you know, starting to exercise.
00:31:28.068 --> 00:31:33.648
Kelly Tuttle: So it has been a long journey and I'm just going to keep working at it and improving
00:31:33.648 --> 00:31:39.168
Kelly Tuttle: it and, you know, enjoying life as best as I can with the things that I have.
00:31:39.668 --> 00:31:45.468
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. I think something that I want to definitely draw attention
00:31:45.468 --> 00:31:51.688
Kevin Lowe: to is the fact that I'm going to assume most times it's a slow process.
00:31:51.928 --> 00:31:58.108
Kevin Lowe: We live in a world where we want everything as soon as possible.
00:31:58.108 --> 00:32:02.288
Kevin Lowe: We live in a world where we think everything is fixable.
00:32:02.468 --> 00:32:05.768
Kevin Lowe: We just need a pill to take and it will fix it.
00:32:06.008 --> 00:32:10.988
Kevin Lowe: But when you just spoke, you weren't talking about days or weeks or months,
00:32:11.248 --> 00:32:13.908
Kevin Lowe: we just heard you talk about increments of years.
00:32:14.508 --> 00:32:24.548
Kevin Lowe: And I can't help but think we have to draw focus to that is the fact of it is a slow ongoing process.
00:32:25.308 --> 00:32:29.548
Kelly Tuttle: Yes, it's a journey. It's a new journey. It's a new chapter in your life.
00:32:30.191 --> 00:32:35.611
Kelly Tuttle: A lot of brain injury survivors, they feel like that they died the day of their
00:32:35.611 --> 00:32:42.851
Kelly Tuttle: brain injury and that they are somebody new and it is a process.
00:32:43.111 --> 00:32:46.531
Kelly Tuttle: And with that is there's a grieving process, right?
00:32:46.771 --> 00:32:52.551
Kelly Tuttle: Because you lost some health advantage you had before, whether it was your energy
00:32:52.551 --> 00:32:54.271
Kelly Tuttle: or your focus or your vision.
00:32:54.271 --> 00:33:01.071
Kelly Tuttle: And you really do have to go through that grieving process and you're going to need your,
00:33:01.631 --> 00:33:05.671
Kelly Tuttle: family your friends the support of probably
00:33:05.671 --> 00:33:11.091
Kelly Tuttle: talk therapy psychologist a psychiatrist like if you're having difficulty with
00:33:11.091 --> 00:33:16.771
Kelly Tuttle: your mood management or your sleep a psychiatrist is the best person to go to
00:33:16.771 --> 00:33:23.591
Kelly Tuttle: if you're failing the first line or typical treatments for those issues and so,
00:33:24.671 --> 00:33:26.431
Kelly Tuttle: It is a process.
00:33:26.871 --> 00:33:31.031
Kelly Tuttle: I do talk about it in my book. I call it Letting Go.
00:33:32.911 --> 00:33:38.711
Kelly Tuttle: One day, for some strange reason, I wanted to go outside and journal.
00:33:39.451 --> 00:33:43.191
Kelly Tuttle: In my journal, I drew a line down the middle of the paper.
00:33:43.711 --> 00:33:47.671
Kelly Tuttle: On the left side, I put all the things I lost, like,
00:33:48.520 --> 00:33:54.460
Kelly Tuttle: or that were important to me before that car accident. And then I created a
00:33:54.460 --> 00:33:58.120
Kelly Tuttle: list of all the things I'd gained from my brain injury.
00:33:58.360 --> 00:34:03.660
Kelly Tuttle: And so some of those things were like a more slower pace, more mindful,
00:34:04.260 --> 00:34:10.220
Kelly Tuttle: present lifestyle, more compassion and understanding for others around me,
00:34:11.040 --> 00:34:14.120
Kelly Tuttle: just enjoying and embracing a simple life.
00:34:14.280 --> 00:34:18.100
Kelly Tuttle: And then when I looked at the list of who I was before, Or, you know,
00:34:18.400 --> 00:34:23.120
Kelly Tuttle: I was like, you know, that some of these things are not important to me more.
00:34:23.600 --> 00:34:30.220
Kelly Tuttle: And some of these were not healthy either. And so when I compared the two lists,
00:34:30.320 --> 00:34:31.280
Kelly Tuttle: I was like, you know what?
00:34:31.340 --> 00:34:34.940
Kelly Tuttle: I really like who I've become after this brain injury.
00:34:35.220 --> 00:34:42.360
Kelly Tuttle: I think this is a better person than I am. And I think that I'm going to live a more fulfilled life.
00:34:43.060 --> 00:34:47.120
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. A question that I just thought of when you were going through
00:34:47.120 --> 00:34:54.920
Kevin Lowe: that is coming from my perspective of when I went blind, I grew up riding dirt bikes.
00:34:55.720 --> 00:35:00.040
Kevin Lowe: And yes, I mean, that was that was my life.
00:35:00.200 --> 00:35:06.480
Kevin Lowe: And so I have had to grieve the loss of that.
00:35:06.940 --> 00:35:12.880
Kevin Lowe: And I wonder if you had to deal with that with with martial arts.
00:35:13.720 --> 00:35:20.300
Kelly Tuttle: Yes, yes. I mean, I lived, ate, and breathed martial arts before my car accident,
00:35:20.300 --> 00:35:23.780
Kelly Tuttle: and that loss was significant.
00:35:24.100 --> 00:35:29.060
Kelly Tuttle: And the thing, too, that you and I both lost, I wanted to point this out to
00:35:29.060 --> 00:35:36.940
Kelly Tuttle: your listeners, is when you dirt bike or when you do martial arts or you play tennis or ski.
00:35:37.924 --> 00:35:41.184
Kelly Tuttle: You are in the moment and that's called mindfulness.
00:35:41.524 --> 00:35:48.364
Kelly Tuttle: You are focused on what your body feels, how the turn of the dirt road feels,
00:35:48.384 --> 00:35:53.484
Kelly Tuttle: the bump, the jump, you know, those kinds of things. You're not worried about other stuff.
00:35:53.744 --> 00:35:57.884
Kelly Tuttle: You're not, you're not listening to the negative thoughts in your brain or,
00:35:58.064 --> 00:36:01.544
Kelly Tuttle: or you're worried about what's going on at work. You're just there in the moment.
00:36:01.884 --> 00:36:06.164
Kelly Tuttle: And when you lose that, not only do you lose that hobby, that love,
00:36:06.284 --> 00:36:12.404
Kelly Tuttle: that passion, but you lose that practice of mindfulness and being in the moment.
00:36:12.764 --> 00:36:16.144
Kelly Tuttle: And when you're recovering from whatever it is,
00:36:16.284 --> 00:36:22.944
Kelly Tuttle: it could be an injury or an illness, you have to find a way to get that practice
00:36:22.944 --> 00:36:28.804
Kelly Tuttle: back because mindfulness and getting out of your head is so important to your recovery.
00:36:29.344 --> 00:36:36.904
Kelly Tuttle: And so I lost that. And I was talking about that loss with a counselor and she
00:36:36.904 --> 00:36:40.344
Kelly Tuttle: said, yeah, you've lost your mindfulness practice because I was talking about
00:36:40.344 --> 00:36:44.304
Kelly Tuttle: the loss of sense of peace inside of me.
00:36:44.864 --> 00:36:47.524
Kelly Tuttle: And she recommended adult coloring.
00:36:48.124 --> 00:36:52.624
Kelly Tuttle: And I was like, what? Wow, this is cool. So I went and I started doing adult
00:36:52.624 --> 00:36:58.204
Kelly Tuttle: coloring and I was able to practice to relearn how to be in the moment,
00:36:58.404 --> 00:37:02.784
Kelly Tuttle: that mindfulness, that sense of getting out of my head,
00:37:02.964 --> 00:37:08.924
Kelly Tuttle: not listening to the negative swirling of thoughts and voices and getting more
00:37:08.924 --> 00:37:15.724
Kelly Tuttle: in touch of the present moment where I was gratitude for the things I had.
00:37:16.224 --> 00:37:19.484
Kelly Tuttle: So if you lose your hobby,
00:37:19.764 --> 00:37:24.504
Kelly Tuttle: your passion or whatever it was, whether it's dirt biking or martial arts,
00:37:24.684 --> 00:37:28.424
Kelly Tuttle: when you're in your recovery, you're going to need to find a way to practice
00:37:28.424 --> 00:37:33.944
Kelly Tuttle: that even though you can't physically do your hobby or your practice yeah.
00:37:35.124 --> 00:37:39.264
Kevin Lowe: I love that. And I, I don't know that I've ever even really thought of it in
00:37:39.264 --> 00:37:42.964
Kevin Lowe: that way before, but it makes total sense.
00:37:43.164 --> 00:37:45.004
Kevin Lowe: And, and I completely agree.
00:37:45.264 --> 00:37:51.044
Kevin Lowe: Now that kind of ties in with, with a question I wanted to ask you is what was
00:37:51.044 --> 00:37:54.544
Kevin Lowe: the kind of like the short term and the long term,
00:37:54.804 --> 00:38:01.784
Kevin Lowe: like impact on your relationships, on friendships with your career?
00:38:01.784 --> 00:38:06.064
Kevin Lowe: What you know how would you kind of summarize that
00:38:06.064 --> 00:38:09.384
Kelly Tuttle: That is a really good thing to bring up kevin yeah
00:38:09.384 --> 00:38:12.764
Kelly Tuttle: so unfortunately brain injury survivors do
00:38:12.764 --> 00:38:16.004
Kelly Tuttle: lose friends yes and because that
00:38:16.004 --> 00:38:19.004
Kelly Tuttle: you know you can't keep up so i lost a lot
00:38:19.004 --> 00:38:24.224
Kelly Tuttle: of my martial arts training partners i have a handful still in my life and i
00:38:24.224 --> 00:38:31.324
Kelly Tuttle: treasure them and my kids lost out on play dates because i didn't have the energy
00:38:31.324 --> 00:38:37.664
Kelly Tuttle: to socialize and to take them to their martial arts training or to,
00:38:37.684 --> 00:38:39.884
Kelly Tuttle: you know, any parties or get togethers.
00:38:40.204 --> 00:38:46.884
Kelly Tuttle: I missed out on my children growing up that first two years because I slept all the time.
00:38:47.444 --> 00:38:52.244
Kelly Tuttle: And my husband had to quit his job because he had to be, you know,
00:38:52.384 --> 00:38:57.764
Kelly Tuttle: take over the childcare and the house stuff, just so I could,
00:38:57.844 --> 00:39:01.184
Kelly Tuttle: you know, cobble myself together to get to work every day.
00:39:01.324 --> 00:39:05.944
Kelly Tuttle: To pay for the roof over our head and I was the carrier of our healthcare benefits.
00:39:07.002 --> 00:39:12.422
Kelly Tuttle: So, and even now this day, I can't network with people at work.
00:39:12.622 --> 00:39:19.002
Kelly Tuttle: Like if they want to meet after work, like say for drinks, I can't go because
00:39:19.002 --> 00:39:20.682
Kelly Tuttle: I'm exhausted at the end of the day.
00:39:20.802 --> 00:39:25.562
Kelly Tuttle: I need to go home and, and rest up and, and get to bed on time.
00:39:25.942 --> 00:39:30.542
Kelly Tuttle: So there, there is a lot of that loss, but the people that stay in your life
00:39:30.542 --> 00:39:33.322
Kelly Tuttle: through all that, they're like the best.
00:39:33.482 --> 00:39:36.882
Kelly Tuttle: They're the ones you can call at three in the morning to get you bailed out of jail.
00:39:37.742 --> 00:39:38.642
Kevin Lowe: Yep. Yep.
00:39:41.982 --> 00:39:42.422
Kevin Lowe: Yes.
00:39:43.542 --> 00:39:48.442
Kelly Tuttle: So there is that. Yeah, there is that loss and it's hard. It's really hard.
00:39:48.862 --> 00:39:55.222
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Yeah. I'm so glad, honestly, that you brought up that whole topic of family
00:39:55.222 --> 00:39:58.662
Kevin Lowe: dynamics, because, you know, I've always said with, you know,
00:39:58.762 --> 00:40:00.462
Kevin Lowe: what happened to me that I say,
00:40:00.562 --> 00:40:02.902
Kevin Lowe: what happened to me didn't just happen to me, it happened to a family.
00:40:03.322 --> 00:40:07.902
Kevin Lowe: And when I listen to you just talk, I say, it's the same thing for her.
00:40:08.322 --> 00:40:13.922
Kevin Lowe: Same thing is what happened to you. It happened to a family and you guys still
00:40:13.922 --> 00:40:14.982
Kevin Lowe: have gotten through it together.
00:40:15.742 --> 00:40:20.982
Kelly Tuttle: Yes. Yes. And I think, you know, I have a really great husband and it was really,
00:40:20.982 --> 00:40:25.302
Kelly Tuttle: you know, I don't know if this, I should say fortunate, but it was fortunate
00:40:25.302 --> 00:40:29.402
Kelly Tuttle: that this happened, you know, really late into our marriage.
00:40:29.402 --> 00:40:31.482
Kelly Tuttle: We've been married now 30 years.
00:40:31.942 --> 00:40:36.442
Kelly Tuttle: And so we had a lot of practice with communication and, you know,
00:40:36.622 --> 00:40:39.442
Kelly Tuttle: working as a team before this happened.
00:40:39.702 --> 00:40:45.022
Kelly Tuttle: And, you know, some people when this happens, they do, they lose their marriage
00:40:45.022 --> 00:40:47.142
Kelly Tuttle: because of the personality changes.
00:40:47.662 --> 00:40:52.582
Kelly Tuttle: Maybe they have angry outbursts. They can, you know, become violent.
00:40:53.372 --> 00:40:57.352
Kelly Tuttle: You can lose your job because you get irritable and you say the wrong thing.
00:40:57.792 --> 00:41:04.012
Kelly Tuttle: So, yeah, it can be really devastating. Some brain injury survivors will treat
00:41:04.012 --> 00:41:06.732
Kelly Tuttle: their symptoms with alcohol and drugs.
00:41:07.292 --> 00:41:14.332
Kelly Tuttle: And there's a huge traumatic brain injury population in people who are in prison.
00:41:14.692 --> 00:41:15.232
Kevin Lowe: Wow.
00:41:15.792 --> 00:41:21.712
Kelly Tuttle: Yeah. And so, yeah, it is very, very impactful.
00:41:22.812 --> 00:41:28.192
Kelly Tuttle: And you know like I said before it's very impactful for those who have severe
00:41:28.192 --> 00:41:33.272
Kelly Tuttle: brain injuries but it can be super impactful also for those who have just a
00:41:33.272 --> 00:41:34.572
Kelly Tuttle: mild traumatic brain injury,
00:41:35.232 --> 00:41:41.192
Kelly Tuttle: so none of that stuff should be ignored it should be you know it should be monitored
00:41:41.192 --> 00:41:46.592
Kelly Tuttle: normally when I have a patient has a new concussion I follow up with them within
00:41:46.592 --> 00:41:50.952
Kelly Tuttle: a couple weeks and then a every month and then every three months and every
00:41:50.952 --> 00:41:53.612
Kelly Tuttle: six months and then every year after that,
00:41:53.952 --> 00:41:58.192
Kelly Tuttle: depending on how impacted they were by their concussion.
00:41:59.232 --> 00:42:04.892
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. I want to get to your book, but before we do, I hadn't planned on asking
00:42:04.892 --> 00:42:07.772
Kevin Lowe: you this question, but just the direction of our conversation,
00:42:07.772 --> 00:42:11.792
Kevin Lowe: I wanted to bring it up is, and I don't even know if this is true.
00:42:12.032 --> 00:42:17.812
Kevin Lowe: So obviously I'm going to turn to you to tell me is I have heard that people
00:42:17.812 --> 00:42:22.372
Kevin Lowe: with traumatic brain injury, they're at greater risk of suicide.
00:42:23.611 --> 00:42:24.371
Kevin Lowe: Is that correct?
00:42:25.131 --> 00:42:32.091
Kelly Tuttle: Yes, very much so. You're at higher risk if you have a history of mental health
00:42:32.091 --> 00:42:33.691
Kelly Tuttle: illness before the injury,
00:42:33.691 --> 00:42:39.591
Kelly Tuttle: but the injury can also cause mental health issues because the brain isn't functioning
00:42:39.591 --> 00:42:40.791
Kelly Tuttle: the way it's supposed to.
00:42:40.951 --> 00:42:46.571
Kelly Tuttle: So the injury can also affect the way your brain manages your hormones and the
00:42:46.571 --> 00:42:50.551
Kelly Tuttle: distribution of the chemicals such as serotonin and things like that in the
00:42:50.551 --> 00:42:55.471
Kelly Tuttle: brain. And so that's why it increases your risk of developing anxiety or depression.
00:42:56.011 --> 00:43:01.211
Kelly Tuttle: And then throw on top of that, say, loss of friends, loss of work,
00:43:01.631 --> 00:43:07.271
Kelly Tuttle: loss of ability, loss of a marriage, starting to drink, starting to do drugs.
00:43:07.271 --> 00:43:11.071
Kelly Tuttle: It could be this really negative spiral.
00:43:11.391 --> 00:43:18.851
Kelly Tuttle: And so it's very important to identify somebody who has a brain injury and to monitor them.
00:43:19.191 --> 00:43:23.071
Kelly Tuttle: Their general practitioner should be monitoring, just like someone who has high
00:43:23.071 --> 00:43:25.031
Kelly Tuttle: blood pressure or who's had a stroke.
00:43:25.031 --> 00:43:28.151
Kelly Tuttle: You don't know how things are going to play out and
00:43:28.151 --> 00:43:30.811
Kelly Tuttle: the person doesn't know how it's going to play out they shouldn't be
00:43:30.811 --> 00:43:33.811
Kelly Tuttle: out there on their own figuring this out because
00:43:33.811 --> 00:43:37.151
Kelly Tuttle: they don't have a brain that works right right so they don't think right like
00:43:37.151 --> 00:43:43.931
Kelly Tuttle: me oh let's sleep at the side of the road you know yes and if i had a doctor
00:43:43.931 --> 00:43:47.891
Kelly Tuttle: that called me and said hey what's going on that would have been picked up a
00:43:47.891 --> 00:43:53.071
Kelly Tuttle: lot sooner yes and later that you know if if she had followed up bucked me and said,
00:43:53.171 --> 00:43:55.651
Kelly Tuttle: hey, how are you doing? Are you back at work? How's it going?
00:43:56.051 --> 00:43:59.751
Kelly Tuttle: And if I had said, well, I'm really irritable and the lights are bothering me
00:43:59.751 --> 00:44:04.611
Kelly Tuttle: and I'm getting tired at the wheel, then I could have been prevented from falling
00:44:04.611 --> 00:44:06.771
Kelly Tuttle: asleep at the wheel. I mean, I could have killed myself.
00:44:07.251 --> 00:44:07.731
Kevin Lowe: Yeah.
00:44:08.231 --> 00:44:09.331
Kelly Tuttle: On accident, you know?
00:44:09.631 --> 00:44:15.851
Kevin Lowe: Exactly. Of course. Now, for somebody listening who's maybe a family member
00:44:15.851 --> 00:44:20.651
Kevin Lowe: or a friend of somebody who they know who is suffering from traumatic brain injury.
00:44:21.011 --> 00:44:27.991
Kevin Lowe: Is there any type of signs, signals, anything that they should look out for
00:44:27.991 --> 00:44:35.071
Kevin Lowe: with their friend, their family member of signs that maybe they need to try to get them help?
00:44:35.371 --> 00:44:39.211
Kelly Tuttle: Yeah. So if they're, you know, if they're, if they're irritable,
00:44:39.591 --> 00:44:43.671
Kelly Tuttle: if their personality has changed, if they're not sleeping right,
00:44:44.131 --> 00:44:48.031
Kelly Tuttle: having insomnia or they're waking up in the middle of night?
00:44:48.811 --> 00:44:56.111
Kelly Tuttle: If they're not doing well at work or not in school, are they having issues with coordination?
00:44:56.351 --> 00:45:01.051
Kelly Tuttle: Do you see them kind of walk into walls or doorways?
00:45:01.171 --> 00:45:08.131
Kelly Tuttle: I mean, there's a lot of symptoms that if you watch for them, you can pick them up. But,
00:45:09.109 --> 00:45:12.969
Kelly Tuttle: The other thing, too, is that, you know, the person with a brain injury may
00:45:12.969 --> 00:45:15.029
Kelly Tuttle: not want people to know what's going on.
00:45:15.129 --> 00:45:19.109
Kelly Tuttle: And so they're they're not just asking, hey, how are you doing?
00:45:19.269 --> 00:45:22.549
Kelly Tuttle: Isn't isn't going to suss out if there's an issue.
00:45:22.969 --> 00:45:29.609
Kelly Tuttle: You have to just kind of watch their behavior and how they act and things like
00:45:29.609 --> 00:45:32.209
Kelly Tuttle: that to kind of pick that up.
00:45:32.209 --> 00:45:38.769
Kelly Tuttle: But what would be really helpful is just becoming aware of the multiple symptoms
00:45:38.769 --> 00:45:46.089
Kelly Tuttle: of brain injury and just to kind of watch for those symptoms and to ask about those symptoms. Okay.
00:45:46.469 --> 00:45:52.569
Kevin Lowe: Okay. Wonderful. Wonderful. My hope already in our conversation today is that
00:45:52.569 --> 00:45:58.369
Kevin Lowe: somebody listening today is either getting immense value or they know somebody
00:45:58.369 --> 00:46:00.789
Kevin Lowe: who they are already ready to share this episode with,
00:46:00.889 --> 00:46:04.789
Kevin Lowe: because I can't hope but think that what you're sharing today is something that
00:46:04.789 --> 00:46:08.949
Kevin Lowe: anybody needs to hear who knows somebody who's suffering.
00:46:08.949 --> 00:46:15.809
Kevin Lowe: Because, I mean, this is all such amazing, amazing information that you're sharing.
00:46:15.809 --> 00:46:19.549
Kevin Lowe: So I just right away want to thank you so much for it.
00:46:19.729 --> 00:46:24.929
Kelly Tuttle: Oh, it's my pleasure, Kevin, because I don't want what happened to me to happen to others.
00:46:25.389 --> 00:46:30.809
Kelly Tuttle: I don't want people to feel like that they're alone and I want them to know there is hope.
00:46:31.389 --> 00:46:39.069
Kevin Lowe: Yes, yes, absolutely. Well, speaking of that, I guess, is what prompted you?
00:46:39.289 --> 00:46:44.389
Kevin Lowe: Here you are. We've learned. I mean, you're a career woman. You're a wife. You're a mother.
00:46:44.989 --> 00:46:48.509
Kevin Lowe: Suffered a traumatic brain injury. And then you decide, you know what?
00:46:48.609 --> 00:46:49.829
Kevin Lowe: I think I'm going to write a book.
00:46:54.069 --> 00:46:58.389
Kelly Tuttle: Well, I did have some of my friends encourage me to do so.
00:46:58.389 --> 00:47:03.969
Kelly Tuttle: But why I wanted to write my book was because the two weeks that I was supposed
00:47:03.969 --> 00:47:09.609
Kelly Tuttle: to return to work after my time off for three months, I was freaking out.
00:47:09.829 --> 00:47:13.529
Kelly Tuttle: I didn't know how I was going to go back to work. I didn't know what my brain
00:47:13.529 --> 00:47:17.389
Kelly Tuttle: needed to support its performance at work.
00:47:17.729 --> 00:47:23.629
Kelly Tuttle: And I scoured tons of books and online sources, and I was super anxious,
00:47:23.629 --> 00:47:27.249
Kelly Tuttle: and I didn't want anybody else to go through that.
00:47:27.249 --> 00:47:31.369
Kelly Tuttle: So when I decided to write a book, I didn't want to write a book just about
00:47:31.369 --> 00:47:32.989
Kelly Tuttle: brain injury or my story.
00:47:33.249 --> 00:47:41.069
Kelly Tuttle: I wanted it to help people get quickly in one spot, the tools and strategies
00:47:41.069 --> 00:47:45.469
Kelly Tuttle: they would need to help them go back to work and to go back to school.
00:47:46.261 --> 00:47:52.401
Kelly Tuttle: And to get back into life. So it was really important that my book was quick
00:47:52.401 --> 00:47:59.521
Kelly Tuttle: to the point with strategies that can be implemented right away for the brain injury survivor.
00:48:00.121 --> 00:48:04.721
Kelly Tuttle: And after my brain injury, I also was an avid reader before.
00:48:04.721 --> 00:48:08.801
Kelly Tuttle: And then after I could hardly read for five minutes without getting a headache,
00:48:08.801 --> 00:48:11.641
Kelly Tuttle: or even I couldn't even remember what I read.
00:48:11.841 --> 00:48:18.361
Kelly Tuttle: And so it was important for my book to be on Audible so that people could listen
00:48:18.361 --> 00:48:20.761
Kelly Tuttle: to it and not have to read it too.
00:48:21.081 --> 00:48:26.341
Kelly Tuttle: So those were two important things. It had to be quick to the point for strategies
00:48:26.341 --> 00:48:29.461
Kelly Tuttle: that can be implemented and it needed to be on Audible.
00:48:30.501 --> 00:48:34.001
Kevin Lowe: Amazing. And remind me, the name of your book is After the Crash?
00:48:34.681 --> 00:48:40.201
Kelly Tuttle: Yes, After the Crash, How to Keep Your Job, Stay in School, and Live Life After a Brain Injury.
00:48:40.901 --> 00:48:44.641
Kevin Lowe: Amazing. And so that is available for anybody to do on Audible.
00:48:44.641 --> 00:48:48.161
Kevin Lowe: And if they wanted a regular copy, where could they go?
00:48:48.461 --> 00:48:55.061
Kelly Tuttle: Any store, any indie store. You can also get it off my website at kellytuttle.org.
00:48:55.841 --> 00:49:01.941
Kelly Tuttle: And yeah, it's at Amazon. You could get an e-book form too off of Amazon if
00:49:01.941 --> 00:49:05.301
Kelly Tuttle: you like to read stuff off your tablets.
00:49:06.021 --> 00:49:13.441
Kevin Lowe: Okay, amazing, amazing. Well, Kelly, I guess I would love just to end with asking
00:49:13.441 --> 00:49:19.741
Kevin Lowe: you for the person who's listening today who maybe they're in the thick of it.
00:49:19.901 --> 00:49:23.781
Kevin Lowe: Maybe they're struggling, whether or not it's even related to something like
00:49:23.781 --> 00:49:27.541
Kevin Lowe: a traumatic brain injury in some other type of medical situation.
00:49:27.541 --> 00:49:31.181
Kevin Lowe: It's something that just has them in the thick of it.
00:49:31.281 --> 00:49:36.541
Kevin Lowe: And maybe they're at that point where they're just frustrated.
00:49:36.741 --> 00:49:40.901
Kevin Lowe: They want to feel better. They want their life back. They want things to be good again.
00:49:41.381 --> 00:49:49.461
Kevin Lowe: Do you have any kind of last kind of message of hope to give them to keep them going?
00:49:49.761 --> 00:49:54.421
Kelly Tuttle: I would definitely recommend not looking forward.
00:49:54.841 --> 00:49:59.121
Kelly Tuttle: So the journaling, like I said, I'm a big proponent.
00:49:59.481 --> 00:50:03.761
Kelly Tuttle: Your journal's great. It won't care how many times you cuss at it.
00:50:03.941 --> 00:50:06.701
Kelly Tuttle: It doesn't talk back. You can write anything in it.
00:50:06.701 --> 00:50:11.001
Kelly Tuttle: But the nice thing is, is when you're having those days where you're losing
00:50:11.001 --> 00:50:15.161
Kelly Tuttle: hope, you're frustrated, you're angry with your progress of your healing,
00:50:15.461 --> 00:50:20.461
Kelly Tuttle: you can look back on day one and see how far you've come.
00:50:20.621 --> 00:50:23.241
Kelly Tuttle: And that will help sustain you.
00:50:23.621 --> 00:50:30.861
Kevin Lowe: I love it. I love it. Kelly, you are an amazing woman. Your story is incredible.
00:50:31.401 --> 00:50:36.841
Kevin Lowe: Thank you. And just the insights that you shared today, I truly hope it reaches
00:50:36.841 --> 00:50:41.561
Kevin Lowe: the right person at the right time because I believe full-heartedly that
00:50:42.121 --> 00:50:48.081
Kevin Lowe: The conversation today can change somebody's life. And I am honored to have
00:50:48.081 --> 00:50:51.121
Kevin Lowe: had you on the podcast to share all that with the person listening.
00:50:51.601 --> 00:50:56.081
Kelly Tuttle: Well, thank you, Kevin, for having me on. I'm honored to be on your podcast.
00:50:56.181 --> 00:50:59.901
Kelly Tuttle: I really love the work you've been doing. It's fantastic.
00:51:00.621 --> 00:51:03.821
Kelly Tuttle: Thank you for letting me share my story with your listeners.
00:51:04.501 --> 00:51:08.121
Kevin Lowe: Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you. And for you listening today,
00:51:08.661 --> 00:51:11.101
Kevin Lowe: please be sure that you check out today's show notes.
00:51:11.101 --> 00:51:15.421
Kevin Lowe: I will leave links to all of the information that Kelly just shared with us
00:51:15.421 --> 00:51:19.981
Kevin Lowe: so that you can get a copy of her book, whether on Audible or one of those old
00:51:19.981 --> 00:51:22.921
Kevin Lowe: school books where you actually pick it up and read it in the hand.
00:51:22.921 --> 00:51:25.821
Kevin Lowe: And so whatever your style, links are in the show notes.
00:51:26.001 --> 00:51:30.081
Kevin Lowe: The most important thing that I want you to do right now is if there is somebody
00:51:30.081 --> 00:51:36.161
Kevin Lowe: you know in your life, in your world, who you know that they themselves or somebody
00:51:36.161 --> 00:51:38.361
Kevin Lowe: they know is going through something,
00:51:38.661 --> 00:51:42.421
Kevin Lowe: whether a traumatic brain injury or just some type of medical issue,
00:51:42.821 --> 00:51:44.921
Kevin Lowe: go ahead and share today's episode with them.
00:51:45.261 --> 00:51:48.401
Kevin Lowe: That would mean the world to me. I know it would mean the world to them.
00:51:48.401 --> 00:51:52.681
Kevin Lowe: And I feel like that's the best thing that any of us can do is just to show
00:51:52.681 --> 00:51:56.181
Kevin Lowe: somebody we care enough by sharing something with them that we think can help.
00:51:56.481 --> 00:52:00.781
Kevin Lowe: So with that said, my friend, I'm of course your host, Kevin Lowe and this was
00:52:00.781 --> 00:52:03.041
Kevin Lowe: another episode of Grit, Grace and Inspiration.
00:52:03.341 --> 00:52:07.581
Kevin Lowe: I hope you enjoyed today's episode and I look forward to seeing you next time.
00:52:08.201 --> 00:52:12.901
Podcast Outro Theme Song: I will not fear the storm, My hope's well defined, I walk by faith, not by sight, I won't be resigned... Rising higher every day, all doubt's left behind 'cause I got Grit, Grace, & Inspiration on my mind!