A Brain Injury is A ‘Brain Injury’ | Ana Hernandez
Show Notes:
As a speech-language pathologist, Ana knew the theory behind cognitive rehabilitation, but facing the reality post-surgery was a journey she hadn't anticipated. Join for an eye-opening conversation where Ana shares the nuances of her recovery, highlighting the shared struggles of those rebounding from traumatic brain injuries.
We discuss sound sensitivity and the challenges of determining how much to rest during brain recovery. Discover how the subtle aid of earplugs, can significantly enhance quality of life by tempering the barrage of auditory stimuli. And it's not just about the silence – it’s about understanding the full spectrum of rest, from the physical to the sensory, and learning how to truly disconnect in order to feel better. This episode is a treasure trove of strategies and heartfelt insights that anyone touched by brain health issues will find invaluable.
Connect with Ana
Instagram: @adultstuttering
website: www.adultstuttering.com
Follow Post Concussion Inc on Social Media to stay up to date on the podcast
-
Please note episode transcriptions may not be 100% accurate!
Bella Paige
Host
00:02
Hi everyone. I'm your host, Bella Paige, and after suffering from post-concussion syndrome for years, it was time to do something about it. So welcome to the Post-Concussion Podcast, where we dig deep into life when it doesn't go back to normal. Be sure to share the podcast and join our support network, Concussion Connect. Let's make this invisible injury become visible.
00:26
The Post-Concussion Podcast is strictly an information podcast about concussions and post-concussion syndrome. It does not provide nor substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on this podcast. The opinions expressed in this podcast are simply intended to spark discussion about concussions and post-concussion syndrome. Welcome to episode number 130 of the Post-Concussion Podcast with myself, Bella Paige and today's guest, Ana Hernandez.
01:11
Ana is a speech-language pathologist of eight years who provides personalized support for Adult Stuttering. Ana grew passionate about this area after she recognized a gap in dignified care, for Adelton didn't fit into the typical box of speech therapy target populations. This inspired her to establish her own private practice adult stuttering in 2021. In late 2022, Anna faced a life-altering challenge, with the sudden diagnosis of a brain tumor leading to a profound shift in her perspective. A survivor of brain surgery, Her recovery journey is uniquely shaped by her expertise in cognitive conditioning as a speech therapist. Beyond her professional endeavors, Ana finds joy in Pilates, classic books and exploring Chicago's various restaurants. She is also very often in Texas visiting her family and enjoying Texas queso. Welcome Ana. So, to start today, do you want to tell us a little bit about your background?
Ana Hernandez
Guest
02:10
Yes, absolutely so. I, about a year ago, had a traumatic brain injury. I was diagnosed pretty suddenly with a thankfully benign brain tumor. So everybody always asks me what it's called the central neuropsytoma. I didn't know anything about brain tumor names before any of this, but apparently people know a lot. So that's a specific brain tumor that I had About a year ago.
02:40
I walked into work one day, had a little bit of a stressful morning, but nothing out of the ordinary. I had a lot of meetings to prepare for, so I started to prepare for my meetings. I had a headache, which was a little bit unusual, but they'd been going on for a couple of months by that point and I went upstairs. Things started to go kind of dark and I had a seizure and the school that I was working in called the ambulance. They took me to the hospital and they pretty quickly found a golf ball sized brain tumor very much in the middle of my brain. If you think of your brain and you think of, like you know, the fluffy pink stuff not fluffy but curly pink stuff and this is under all of that, like right, really really deep under there, I had a golf ball sized brain tumor and something called my brain ventricles and I don't remember much of this week but I was hospitalized for a week and within that week they, you know, diagnosed the tumor, found out specifically what it was, operated and then on day seven I was discharged and because of where the tumor was and the kind of surgery that they did, my entire brain was wildly swollen in the MRIs, like immediately post-op and even six months afterwards my brain was so swollen. So everything was affected and I'm about a year maybe 13, 14 months out of the brain surgery and it's been a full year of just managing what I can do, what I can't do.
04:29
It used to change all the time. It's getting more stable now. But just imagine, all of your senses were just completely overstimulating, everything was so overstimulating. We don't realize how much our brain does until it can't do those things and I'm sure a lot of people listening to this can relate. But yes, it's quite a concussion. But I think a brain injury is a brain injury is a brain injury and when your brain is affected we probably all experience a lot of differences but a lot of similarities too. It's a wild wild ride.
Bella Paige
Host
05:11
It is. It's actually. I think you're the first individual we've had actually on the show in over a hundred episodes that it wasn't traumatic brain injury or we've had a few, I think, aneurysms and things like that, but you're the first tumor actually, I think.
Ana Hernandez
Guest
05:27
Well, I'm honored.
Bella Paige
Host
05:30
You know, hey, it's important, I think, to address everything and, like you said and I always talk about that too a lot of the time the initial part of recovery after something like that is much more severe, but the long-term effects a lot of the time they're really similar. Where, you know, we have issues with noise and light and speaking to others and things like that. So that is actually something we're going to talk about today. And so you mentioned the senses.
Ana Hernandez
Guest
05:53
Yes, do you want to kind of dive into that and if there's something else going on, right and so I think part of something important to share is like I'm a speech therapist and you know people don't really people assume that speech therapy is like either for little kids or for people with Alzheimer's, but really it encompasses a lot.
06:16
I specifically a really big special interest of mine is like I'm not just studying and it's part of like a neurodiversity. But why I bring up that I'm a speech therapist is I, as I've been going through my recovery, I've like been through such different stages of different brain abilities and not abilities and it was. There was so much that I'd learned about in grad school that I never thought I would. I didn't I didn't really expect to work with it and I really never expected to experience it, especially not in my 30s, like maybe once I'd gotten a lot older. But I was watching myself go through what I'd learned about in schooling and it was. It was definitely unreal, to say the least. It was like watching your textbooks in a movie in a really weird way.
Bella Paige
Host
07:15
Yeah, that'd be definitely a unique experience for me. It started when I was really young, but there was no like, no reference, no idea, like I didn't know what it was like to not have a memory. I didn't know what it was like to not be able to talk to people or, you know, have a headache every day. I think as a kid I had probably experienced headaches a few times. So it's definitely interesting when people is like you know, your career path intercrosses with something that you get hurt with. Like we have a few there's a few especially on social media where they're big into physical therapy and things like that but they have had concussions, so now they talk about it and it's interesting watching them from like a different perspective. Like I didn't even learn about this in school and now they're learning about it. They're like why didn't I, why didn't I learn about this in school? Crosses their mind too right.
08:06
So it's always interesting.
Ana Hernandez
Guest
08:08
Of course, zero out of 10 recommend having a brain tumor and having brain surgery. But I'm very thankful to have been a speech therapist when it did happen, because there was a lot that I kind of I was like, okay, this is happening, I kind of understand it, even though I was very impaired.
Bella Paige
Host
08:29
I like the zero out of 10. Yeah, I'm like negative 100. I don't recommend a concussion at all or brain injury, brain tumor. No, just you know, if you can not injure yourself, I recommend that. But so I want to go back to those six senses. You kind of mentioned some. You know how the senses were definitely affected. So do you want to kind of walk us through on how that helped your recovery in general?
Ana Hernandez
Guest
08:53
Yes, so we have to think of our brain as, like I mean, your brain is in this dark box and it's only access to the outside world are your senses? And I know I mentioned when we were on the phone planning this, I mentioned six senses, but actually once I did some digging, there are more, it's closer to like nine. So we know the usual five, you know seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, touching. But there's also kind of your sense, like your sense of balance and like spinning, so like To imagine this being very severely affected. Think of someone with a vertigo. Their sense of balance is like fully, fully out.
09:35
There's also your sense of like interception, kind of internal feelings, like hunger, needing to go to the bathroom, pain. There's your sense of proprioception, or your orientation and space, like that also includes kind of like pressure, pressure on your body, like imagine giving someone a hug, how do you sense how much you're squeezing them, or how do you sense how much you push against a wall, for example. And then there's also your sense of emotions, which we'll talk about it a bit more later. But emotions are actually very, very complicated and it's not just, you know, happy, sad, okay, easier, but once things get really involved and complicated. That I'm sure anyone with a brain injury can relate to like having a really emotional conversation or where you're having to kind of guess the emotions of others. That takes up so much more brain energy than a more simple conversation that isn't as emotionally involved.
Bella Paige
Host
10:43
Oh yeah, I can just think of, even if I've gotten like heated I had a lot of anger issues during all this or if I'm upset talking to someone, there's times where I can't find the words there's no words, like nothing comes out. Like if I get really upset, like it's like you become tongue tied, like there's nothing coming out. I'm just like I, you know, like in, like the, you can just like picture it in my mind where like nothing comes out, no matter how much is flooding through my brain. And you know it really is powerful, cause when I was angry it was the opposite. It's like a river flowing. I love words, yeah, so it's definitely really interesting.
11:21
And so how did, like you know you knew about these senses? Of course we always think of the five senses and you've done a little bit more research. So how did knowing about the senses kind of help your recovery approach? Did you think about it a little differently? Cause I don't think a lot of people put senses and recovery together. You know, like they think they can't see, but they think of it separately. They wouldn't put like, oh, all my senses are off, like I don't think that is something even I've ever like put together before and I kind of like it so.
Ana Hernandez
Guest
11:51
I really do think I have a lot of history of like working with, like neurodiverse populations. Neurodiverse just means that your brain works a little differently or a lot differently. It just works differently. So the way that someone processes senses might be different. I remember, especially in the early days, some food would taste a little different. Sound was still to this day. Sound is what I'm most sensitive to and it's what I try to control the most. But if we try to control whatever senses we can and kind of control how much comes into our brain to keep it from getting overworked, over-simulated, I am very big on prevention. For my day or for my week, I think I mentioned that sound to me is the most exhausting. Earplugs are everywhere. If I am even driving home, we don't realize how much extra sound there is, even driving in a car.
Bella Paige
Host
13:01
Oh yeah.
Ana Hernandez
Guest
13:02
So much more than you realize. So I put my earplugs in, and if I want to listen to music then I'll just turn it up a little bit louder. But at least the outside noise is muffled down, so there's a little bit less input.
Bella Paige
Host
13:15
Yeah, that's interesting. I think controlling the sound sometimes is weird. I don't know if that's where I know, that's kind of where you were going, but you mentioned always having headphones. First of all, I know all that because I used to have. They look like little tube capsules, like almost like a little lighter, and they were attached to like my purses, everything Cause like I didn't go anywhere without it and like I've gotten better. But I still think there's sometimes where I'm out somewhere. Oh, I kind of wish I still had those with me, cause I could use them.
Ana Hernandez
Guest
13:46
Were yours, just out of curiosity. Were they the loop?
Bella Paige
Host
13:50
earplugs. So loops I don't know if they existed when I had brutally bad noise sensitivity. So I had something called earpieces. I really recommend them. But then I also got something else. They were called vibes. So the first ones I ever had were called vibes and they were just for concerts I think it's where they were developed and so I had those. And then I had earpieces, which are actually they have like a special rating for like helping people with sound and so they have different inserts for where you are. So I like those, cause I could put different ones in if I didn't really want to hear anything or if I wanted to like have a conversation with them in. But then I've heard of loops. Loops have kind of gone a little viral in like the cause they look nice. I think that's like their biggest selling feature.
Ana Hernandez
Guest
14:38
I have. I would just get whatever was available at Target. And then I found an Amazon brand that I liked the most because they're the squishiest and I think they block out the most and everyone recommends like a fancy brand and I'm like guys, I have these in every purse I own and I have them at my full-time job, I have them here at home, I have them in my car. They're littered everywhere so that I can have them whenever I want them. So I stay with like very cheap ones because I want them everywhere. I don't want them to plan for them.
Bella Paige
Host
15:11
I don't know how expensive the loop ones are, but the earpiece ones I think were like around $20. So like and I think they're a little bit more, if you want like the caps off, that's the pimples of that, could they go in. And it comes with like backups and stuff and I still use them. I use them for I go to racing for like dirt bikes, car racing, so like really loud things, where I believe everybody should be wearing them. But I wear them no matter what. And it's really nice because I'm not wearing like those big muffly headphones like everyone else. I'm just wearing like these little ones. I find they help me a lot so I can walk around, I get to have a conversation with them in and like I recommend yeah, just have them everywhere, because then you don't feel like you're missing out.
Ana Hernandez
Guest
15:51
If you don't have them, they're there when you need them. I fully agree. I like to think about it as just trying to control any of your senses, like hearing, is a little bit easy with like headphones, headphones or earplugs, keeping them. I keep them everywhere. I literally buy a $5 thing that has like 30 in there and I keep them everywhere. They're just easy to grab. And then when we think of, I feel like I'm very preventative with rest.
16:20
So, for example, this past weekend I went to my very first concert since my injury, because I'm still sensitive to sound and I knew that would just be way too much. So that was kind of the only thing I could do this weekend and that's okay. And I just made sure to get a lot of rest before and then, when I was there, still had my earplugs in. But when we talk about rest, I've heard a bit of this podcast and I know no one likes the dark room because it's you know. You want to still be able to live. You're right.
Bella Paige
Host
16:53
It's okay in moderation, like if you know, like if you have an awful day and light is too much and you need to lay down, that's okay. It's just that getting stuck in it, right? We don't want to get.
Ana Hernandez
Guest
17:05
we especially don't want to be told to go lay down in the dark room. We don't want to be. Please don't tell us.
Bella Paige
Host
17:12
Now, that's a medical standpoint, not as a like do this and you will get better, as in, do this and rest and then come out and recover, right, and so thinking about that dark room.
Ana Hernandez
Guest
17:23
Why does it work? That dark room gives us rest. Because we're decreasing that simulation and I think we have to be smart about how we take rest. Taking rest can just be, you know, closing your eyes for even a minute and sitting silently. Or even if you do take let's say you need to take five minutes yourself. Five minutes yourself, we might just because of the air that we live in we might naturally grab our phone and start scrolling and like is that a little pleasant? Yes, because it's, you know, manufactured dopamine. It's just an easy, easy hit of that and all that exists for our phones, like when we're scrolling through, how much movement is happening on that screen. There's so much that we can't control, it's just going at us.
Bella Paige
Host
18:15
Essentially, I love that you brought that up, though, because I actually mentioned in a few podcasts ago I think I just got like put in there for a quick second, or maybe it was on social media. If you can watch TikTok or Instagram re-ellows or YouTube shorts, then your brain is more capable than you realize. I think a lot of the time people get really stuck like I can't, I can't, I can't, but then they can scroll through social media. So if you can process all of that information, the sound, the text that's usually on the screen, you're reading it, you're reading the comments and then you're scrolling to the next one If you can do that, you're more capable than you might realize.
18:54
So sometimes it's realizing instead of putting our energy into TikTok. I'm very like it's funny because I started using TikTok but I'm anti-TikTok. I'm anti-TikTok to a point. I think like you should set a timer, like I'm gonna go on it for 15 minutes and I'm gonna get off, because there's a hole that you get sucked into and you don't realize that time keeps going around you when you're watching these videos. But it's really good for like a confidence thing and realizing that if you can scroll through these videos, then you can also do more than just what you think you can do.
Ana Hernandez
Guest
19:25
I fully agree and I even notice a difference, and I tell this to my friends who, you know, don't have brain injuries. I literally feel a difference between when I wake up. If I do, you know, turn off your alarm. We all I'm sure most of us use our phone for an alarm. But sure, turn off your alarm but then don't touch anything else, get started with your day, get up, get moving and then, only, you know, look at it until you really have to Starting your day with over-stimulation. Your brain feels really different and I really really feel that I've felt it very strongly during my recovery.
Bella Paige
Host
20:11
Oh yeah, I bet it's interesting how you know. You said you're like a year out. That's not in brain injury terms, not in a crazy amount of time, but it's still a long time. It's a long time when you're the person going through. It Doesn't seem like a long time when you're somebody who's been through it for years, like I have, but it is still a very long time. And I think sometimes people don't realize that, like when we talk on the show we're like years in, years in, years in.
20:38
But sometimes the hardest the beginning is just really, really hard. You know that first adjustment to life and you know figuring out things and communicating with people when you're after brain injury or anything like that. And so I really wanna get into you know your speech therapy specialty today and talking about. You know tools for conversation and talking with people. But before that we are gonna take a quick break. So usually right now we'd have a break, but due to the recording length of the episode with Anna being so long, I didn't wanna cut out valuable information in the next half.
21:14
You can catch our talk on speech next week, thursday, february 15th. If you have ever considered your hormones might be an issue, our new hormone course has just launched on Concussion Connect today, so make sure you sign up to learn at your own pace from the incredible expert Chelsie Moore. See you next week.
Need more than just this podcast. Be sure to check out our website, postconcussioninccom to see how we can help you in your post concussion life. I believe life can get better because I've lived through it. Make sure you take it one day at a time.
The Post Concussion Cookbook is getting amazing reviews!
This cookbook was something I had been looking for! It pairs nutritional information specific to concussion recovery with tips for symptoms, and the recipes are delicious!! My husband and teenager loved it too! Very grateful to have this resource! - Halli
OTHER CONTENT YOU MAY LIKE
