Life After A Concussion with Benjamin Morton
Show Notes:
If you are living with post-concussion symptoms and experiencing emotional challenges, then today’s episode is for you. The physical and emotional symptoms that people experience after a concussion can be difficult to manage, leaving people feeling emotionally distressed. This was the experience of today’s guest, Benjamin Morton, who sustained an injury while on a work trip in 2015. After the accident, Benjamin went through an immense physical and emotional struggle leaving him feeling alone and hopeless. However, with the support of his friends and family, he was able to persevere and create a new life for himself.
Today, we talk about Benjamin’s injury, the different therapies he has tried, what therapies and medication have worked for him, the importance of a support group, and much more! Tune in to hear more from today’s inspirational guest, Benjamin Morton!
Key Points From This Episode:
• We find out more about Benjamin and the events leading up to his injury.
• What life has been like for Benjamin after the injury.
• Bella and Benjamin briefly discuss the challenges of moving back home.
• Benjamin outlines some of the different therapies he has tried after his injury.
• Bella shares her strangest therapy experience.
• What to look out for when seeking help from a medical professional or therapist.
• Benjamin shares some of the therapies and methods he had success with.
• Why it is important to learn about your injury.
• The emotional challenges Benjamin experienced after his injury.
• Brief discussion about the emotional isolation people experience after a concussion.
• The importance of friends and family as a support group after an injury.
• Bella briefly outlines Concussion Connect and what it aims to achieve.
• Benjamin explains why he felt “robbed” after the concussion.
• We find out how Benjamin is coping currently.
• The takeaway message that Benjamin wants people to hear.
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Transcript - Click to Read
[INTRODUCTION]
[0:00:05.2] BP: Hi, I’m your host Bella Paige and welcome to The Post Concussion Podcast. All about life after experiencing a concussion. Help us make the invisible injury become visible.
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 concussion and post-concussion syndrome.
If you haven’t joined Concussion Connect yet, I really hope you do as this month’s theme is communication. We understand how hard it can be to communicate with those around you, including medical professionals and friends and family. As you're dealing with something so invisible. Make sure you join concussionconnect.com today and join in on our conversation.
Welcome to today’s episode of The Post Concussion Podcast with myself, Bella Paige and today’s guest, Benjamin Morton. Ben suffered a TBI while on a work trip in 2015, his injured self, left him bereft of his own life as he endured the loss of his living situation, romantic partner and friends and ultimately his independence.
Ben recently moved back to Portland, Oregon where he spends his free time running, making music and petting every dog that crosses his path. Ben is by no means completely healed nor does he operate under any assumption that he someday will be. Though, he is finally jumping back into the workforce after six years of indescribable pain and helplessness, Ben wishes so badly that he could go back to 2015 and the years that followed and speak to his old self.
While he understands that he can’t, Ben feels fortunate to be in a position to help others who are currently in the abyss as he once was.
[INTERVIEW]
[0:02:31.7] BP: Welcome to the show, Ben.
[0:02:33.7] BM: Hey, thanks for having me, Bella.
[0:02:34.7] BP: So to start, do you want to tell everyone a little bit about your concussion injury?
[0:02:38.7] BM: Yeah, absolutely. My injury took place in New York City, it was October of 2015 and I was on a work trip and I was at what was called the New York City Pavilion. I was just floating around and it was close to my lunch break and I had a coworker notifying me that there were some free sandwiches at a tent just like right outside the building.
I love free sandwiches, I love food so I enthusiastically ran off the door and it was a rainy day in New York and I took a pretty sharp left turn around a brick building and ran straight into an ill placed steel light fixture and hit the front of my head on it and then subsequent to that, hit the back of my head on the ground below and that was kind of the before and after line in my life I guess and at the time, I think I was just unconscious for a very brief amount of time, just a few seconds.
I remember opening my eyes and my co-worker Russ was just right beside me, making sure I was okay and I thought my teeth had fallen out, that’s what’s so strange. Upon impact, it’s almost like my jaw kept going on without me and I just was like shaking out of control and that went on for an hour and a half but luckily it was on the side of where New York City Marathon was being held so they had some medics on site who came over and did the pretty typical concussion check and they recommended that I go to urgent care.
I did not follow that advice, I just spent the next hour trying to calm my body down and went back to our listing that we were staying out in Manhattan and at the time, we thought it was really kind of funny because yeah, usually when I tell the people the story, they’re like – It elicits two responses. One is, “Were you drunk?” which I wasn’t, I was working and I was very sober and the other being, if I ever got to eat the sandwich, which unfortunately, I didn’t get to do that.
[0:04:29.6] BP: Yeah, well, it’s also interesting because Injuries, they just happen everywhere. Whenever people hear concussions, they think sports or something, it’s like the first thing that come to their mind and I always have to remind them that it’s really not just sports, it’s every walk of life.
Like you walking around the corner and it’s kind of everywhere and we don’t always realize that falls and slips, walking into things, things flying in the air at us. We’ve had quite a variety of guest so far with the variety of injuries and you said you didn’t go to the ER, which actually isn’t that rare. A lot of people don’t because they don’t realize that anything’s that serious, they’re like, “Oh well, I didn’t feel great but it’s not like I had a broken bone so why would I go?”
[0:05:16.8] BM: Yeah, exactly, yeah.
[0:05:17.8] BP: The mindset’s different. You said that’s kind of when your life changed. What kind of life changes did you deal with since your injury?
[0:05:26.4] BM: Yeah, so shortly after that, I went back to Portland a few days after and my family and close friends knew something was off. I was having sensitivity to light, I couldn’t work at my computer. That was where my job was being at a computer about eight to 10 hours a day. I couldn’t do that, I was having brain fog and unfortunately for me, that resulted in me having to eventually resign from my job and move back in with my parents down in Salem, which is just an hour south of where I had been living and gone to college and worked.
But yeah, I guess the experience for me was at first, I was dealing with sensitivity to light and brain fogs, some nausea, some of those classic symptoms I think and then those for the most part really started to clear up about a month or two but I was still having these awful headaches and almost felt like an icepick in my neck and those were the two most glaring symptoms along with some vision problems. I was diagnosed with some pretty severe conversions insufficiency but yeah, sorry, I’m getting off track but yeah, that was the sort of the trajectory of those symptoms.
Unfortunately, the headaches and the neck pain and the vision, those ones I still deal with daily but I’m able to manage them much better.
[0:06:38.9] BP: Yeah, for sure. Having to resign went from work as hard and especially moving back in with your parents. I’m sure you can attest that once you’ve lived on your own, I know I’ve moved back in with my parents when I got sick and then also, when I was in between houses and that was the worst.
[0:07:00.5] BM: Yeah, totally.
[0:07:03.4] BP: It’s great but it’s like, you’re so used to having your own space and all of a sudden, that’s gone.
[0:07:09.5] BM: Totally and I love my parents.
[0:07:11.1] BP: It can be like a hit.
[0:07:12.4] BM: Yeah. That’s what’s tough though.
[0:07:13.1] BP: It doesn’t matter, you can love them and still not want to live with them.
[0:07:17.5] BM: No and thanks Mom and Dad for all of your support but yeah, they’re the most sweetest folks but yeah, I think that’s just, that’s a really huge adjustment to make when you’ve already, as you’ve said, have left the nest.
[0:07:28.8] BP: Yeah, I love my parents and even living with them isn’t that bad but it’s still not the same. After that injury and then symptoms started to continue what type of therapies have you tried?
[0:07:43.6] BM: Yeah, I saw a few doctors right off the bat and they typically gave me pain killers, which is really terrible and I hate to know that right now there’s people who are having concussions and that’s the first thing they’re being treated with. I was often prescribed with physical therapy which is great. I think that’s often times a great place to start but I did that.
Luckily I was able to eventually leave the pain killers, I couldn’t sleep so I was having huge – that was, still continues to be one of the worst symptoms. Before the injury, I could sleep so well, it just came so easily but they – so I took some benzodiazepine, I was on Ativan and I guess that’s what’s really still sad sometimes is if I go through really hard time with pain, I got to revisit that medication which unfortunately, on top of the brain fog, you already have a concussion, it’s just kind of compounds that and I guess I would say if you could avoid Benzo’s, please do.
Along with that, outside of – I guess in the medication realm, I did Botox, Imitrex, Aimovig, not a whole lot of success with any of those and not to dissuade anyone from trying them. I think they can be really beneficial for certain people but I did chiropractic care, I did vision therapy. I saw an acupuncturist who, he was pretty, probably the most bizarre treatment I got, he sliced my foot with a scalpel, thinking it would relieve pressure in my head so yeah, I don’t always, not sure if he’s a sadist or something but yeah.
[0:09:03.6] BP: I never had that happen, no. I’ve done acupuncture with the electrodes where they attach like pulse so the needles pulse but no knives.
[0:09:15.6] BM: No knives, I know, yeah, I think he just come back with his computer and he’s like, “Let’s try something” and that was the last time I saw that acupuncturist but yeah, I feel like it’s such a long list of treatments that yeah, a lot of medications. I’m trying to think, antidepressants, I went on several antidepressants that often times I think like, those are tough because they –
It was just like a side effect wasn’t even their main purpose but it was just something that they could yeah, sorry, I’m about to get muddy in that but yeah, it went on several antidepressants.
[0:09:46.6] BP: No, it’s okay, you’re not the only one, remember? A lot of survivors, lots of people going antidepressants. Lots of people consider it and then don’t go that way and it’s tough because there’s a lot of stigma around it but they really can help and I definitely think they exist for a reason. Out of all the things you tried, like getting your foot cut open.
[0:10:08.2] BM: Oh my gosh, yeah. That didn’t make the cut.
[0:10:09.8] BP: That reminds me. The craziest one I ever went to, I called it a witch doctor and she was an allergy specialist and my dad had been told by a few people that she had like, cured things for them, you know? Or family members or distant cousins and he’s like, “Well, it’s worth a shot.” We went to this lady’s house and she had all these vials and so I thought I was going to get tested with all these things and it seemed like a good way to reduce some symptoms.
Because we figured, maybe I’m allergic to some things and if we can reduce anything in my life for my brain just to calm down then it was worth it. All these vials and once she did, she held my hands, I had to hold my thumb and two of my fingers together and then she would tap the vials on my wrist but she didn’t open them. They were sealed and then, if my hand broke open, she said I had a reaction but I always felt like she was forcing my fingers to open.
[0:11:11.1] BM: Yeah.
[0:11:12.7] BP: My face during this, like this was a few hours and my dad’s sitting in the corner and he’s like laughing and he’s like, “She doesn’t really believe in this stuff, she’s pretty scientific-based, evidence-based theories” and it’s just like, he’s laughing so hard in the corner and then at the end, she took all these vials, put them on some metal plate and then tapped me with a wand thing.
[0:11:34.3] BM: Oh my god. Like that really helps, okay.
[0:11:37.4] BP: I wanted to just run out but we paid – this was not cheap and it wasn’t what my dad thought it was, it wasn’t what I thought it was.
[0:11:46.6] BM: No.
[0:11:46.5] BP: Allergy specialist, this was not expected but it’s so funny because the things that you're willing to try when you’re suffering is just pretty much anything. You're just like, “Oh yeah, why not?” right?
[0:12:00.5] BM: Oh my gosh, I bumped up against that every time which is, I was at the end of my rope and I really was just willing to try everything and it’s kind of dangerous spot to be because I don’t know, my parents always had the expression like, “When you have a hammer, everything’s a nail.” I think I’d go to see people who really – their expertise was not within the realm of head injuries and TBIs but yet they felt very confident in throwing whatever sort of – yeah, disciplines they have.
[0:12:26.7] BP: Yeah, what I – it’s funny because what I learned was anytime I walked into a new medical professional or profession of some sort, if the first thing they said within the first 20 minutes was they could 100% make me better and I wouldn’t have to worry about this anymore, I would never see them again because that was too confident for me.
The science isn’t there yet, that’s a lot of confidence, how about you just tell me you’re going to help but don’t tell me you know, like 100%, this will all be better and it’s like, hey, I have been doing this for a long time of seeing specialist, talked to some of the top researchers in the world and that makes me nervous. Whenever someone tells you, “I’m going to fix you” maybe go in the other direction.
[0:13:17.1] BM: Quickly have the keys out but yeah, the liars.
[0:13:21.0] BP: Yeah. So, out of all the crazy things you tried, what do you think held best?
[0:13:26.3] BM: Gosh, you know, kind of what you’re saying, there’s never like a quick flipping of the switch and it’s so strange talking to you now because I imagine, if you took Ben from 2016 and had him listening to this, he’d be like, “What? What did he try?” I need – he’s looking for that epiphany and there’s no, I wish I could just vie one thing, it’s been like a breakthrough, as far as head injuries –
[0:13:46.3] BP: Yeah.
[0:13:47.3] BM: You and I talked about this but a head injury such a multi-headed monster and for me, my symptoms were like headaches, neck pain, jaw pain, brain fog, vision, so I think for the neck, there’s this thing called an Occipivot. I don’t want to do a plug for it but it’s really great if you want traction on your neck and if you're like me, you just want to purchase something that’s cheap, that’s like hey, maybe that could help and that’s what you're looking for, that’s a great place to start and I thank my sister and my mom for introducing me to that.
I think running, I got – I couldn’t run after my injury, that was something I really enjoyed before, any form of exercise, really. But after a year or two, after my injury, I was able to run again without throwing up and being really dizzy. Exercise is huge, I think now there’s so much knowledge and literature around your autonomic nervous system and trying to calm down your body because I think if you’ve had a head injury, typically you’re just like, always over adrenalized and I think exercise is a great way to get back to it a more stable place so I encourage that –
[0:14:48.6] BP: Yeah.
[0:14:49.7] BM: Yeah, I think that’s huge. It’s tough with some of these things because some of these, I guess treatments, you can’t really pursue until maybe you’re in a place to do them again but another thing is reading if you can. I couldn’t read after my injury as well as –
[0:15:01.5] BP: Me neither.
[0:15:02.8] BM: Yeah and it is still a struggle but there is one book called Back in Control that was kind of my pain bible as well as The Body Keeps a Score, that one is more popular and I think the more you can learn about obviously specifically head injuries because that’s huge, if you can get specific with that as possible but also just pain and realizing why you are having it and trying to carry on with your life with that pain.
It is hard but I think there’s a lot of professionals and both of those books help me immensely in that realm.
[0:15:32.2] BP: Yeah, I think it’s important to share –
[0:15:34.1] BM: Sorry, I said Botox. That is probably the last, the fourth thing is Botox. I still get Botox every three months but yeah, that’s helped with me.
[0:15:41.0] BP: You know what? If it works for you, I believe that’s all that matters and I think it’s important to share everything. I know there was one point doctors had me in a neck brace actually. Whenever my headaches were really bad, they would want me to wear a neck brace for a certain amount of time to relieve pressure off my neck and I do remember it helping but also I did not like wearing a neck brace because I found them so uncomfortable but it actually did relieve when I had a lot of neck problems.
At the start it did relieve like a lot of pressure especially in the back of my head, I would feel it after I wore the neck brace it would feel better and so you know what? Sometimes those little things are worth trying because they don’t have a lot of negative consequences if they don’t work.
[0:16:26.3] BM: Right, exactly.
[0:16:28.0] BP: It doesn’t really matter if you try it or you don’t but it doesn’t hurt you, which I kind of like those types of things talking about those lots on the podcast, it is nice to try things that have a limited side effect because if they are like me, I get every side effect in the book, so it’s nice for that and it is nice that you shared the books and things like that. Like you said, understanding what you’re going through can be really helpful and it can be really helpful for the mental side of things.
We’re actually going to get into the mental side of things next but with that, we’re going to take a quick break.
[BREAK]
[0:17:11.5] BP: Support the podcast, if you truly love the podcast, please consider supporting us through our tip jar. Find the “support the podcast” link in our episode description. All tips are greatly appreciated.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[0:17:29.4] BP: Welcome back to The Post Concussion Podcast with myself, Bella Paige and today’s guest, Ben Morton. Something we’re going to talk about now is the emotional side of things because it is kind of my favourite part of all of this because I don’t think it is talked about enough and so you already mentioned that not being able to sleep with something you weren’t expecting, what else surprised you about experiencing a concussion?
[0:17:55.4] BM: Yeah, you know I am so glad we’re talking about this. This is always the stuff that I want there to be more light shed on but I think for me what’s so tough Bella is like I was so social prior to my injury, not only with my coworkers, both my family and my close friends and that’s really tough. I think I had some personality changes and along with those, I would just become so anxious and so depressed.
I think I definitely had some history with anxiety and depression but nothing to that extent and that severity but after my injury, I would go to hang-out with friends and I would be so rattled. It was almost like I was going to present like I never loved public speaking, so I think that is how my body treated it even if I was going to see two friends who I never before get nervous around, I would just be shaking almost uncontrollably and sadly, that would result in me just either cancelling or showing up for just 10 minutes and having to just bow out and go to a dark room with an icepack or a warm compress.
I think that is the saddest thing about this injury sometimes is its really lonely and I think I felt a lot of shame and guilt around my injury. I think I still do and I am working on that. I definitely need continue going to therapy for that but yeah, I think that’s the toughest part is you just want to connect with humans and this injury exist and lonely but you almost can’t. It’s like your body and your mind are a huge hindrance to that and yeah, sorry not to –
[0:19:16.6] BP: No, it’s okay. We get really dark and deep I have my guest a lot actually. As my brother told me, he’s like, “Yeah, some of it is really dark and some of it is not” I’m like, “Yeah, it is a happy balance” because that is kind of what the injury is and like you said, it is very isolating and it really can be because one, your brain is kind of telling you that you are usually the only person in the world experiencing this.
I don’t know how that happens but that is often how it feels. It kind of feels like everyone else around you is carrying on and you are not and you can’t and no matter what you do or maybe you push really hard for a few months or a few weeks and then you crash and then you realize that you’re not healthy and you know it is a vicious cycle that you can get put in with this and it’s really tough to deal with and the emotional things are not easy.
One of my favourite things that you actually said to me when we talked before was you couldn’t see the next page in the book and I really like that line and I think it was a really good way to explain this and do you want to touch on a little bit on how that felt?
[0:20:25.5] BM: Yeah, you know I can’t help but think of my family and my girlfriend now, my close friends is like I always tell them they helped me see through to the next page and I’ll be really candid about it, I hit some suicidal lows. I did, I didn’t want to live and early on in the injury, I was wearing the same clothes all the time. I wasn’t seeing my friends, I smelled bad, I had the luxury and the safety net of my parents to keep me from having to deal with the really harder consequence of having to be withdrawn from your life but I think I just owe so much to them.
I can’t report to be where I’m at today because of myself, I feel like they put me on their backs and I owe those people, that support group, that support system, sorry, to help me see through to that next page. I think you’re right, there is so many times in this injury where you just have to chop up your time like I guess I am just going to wake up tomorrow and be excited about coffee or maybe you can’t have coffee because of this injury you’re with.
Sometimes I could and so maybe it’s just like I’m just going to wake up tomorrow and go listen to some birds outside and there’s a lot of moments like that for me where I’m just trying to like, “How do I wake up that next day?” I have no purpose, I have been – I felt robbed at these parts of my life and it sucks because you look around and all of your friends get to carry on with things and they’re getting married, they’re getting jobs and doing all of the instrumental things in life that are really fun to celebrate that you are missing out on.
But I guess on that I’ll just say trust the timing. I always see that like it’s on the Internet somewhere but just trust the timing of your life, which is a little silly but really it’s a huge sentiment that I think we all need to absorb.
[0:22:00.4] BP: Yeah and I like that you mentioned how supportive your family was because I mentioned that a few times on this show that my family was overly supportive. You know, they are always checking on if I was okay, they’re always trying to find therapies and things for me to go to. They are still like that to this day, they’re always kind of checking in and something that we offer now is Concussion Connect and that is a support group for everyone because some people don’t have that family.
We don’t all have that support networks, we are trying to create that virtually across the worlds instead so that people would still have someone to reach out to and someone who understands what you are going through because despite the fact that I had that support group, they didn’t understand and they tried. They tried very hard to know what I was going through but they couldn’t know, they didn’t go through it and so at least they didn’t go through it the same way. They definitely went through some of it.
[0:22:59.2] BM: Yeah, absolutely. That’s huge, I am so glad you are doing that.
[0:23:03.5] BP: Yeah and you mentioned that suicidal thoughts and things and a lot of people who have listened to the show know that I am an attempted suicide survivor and I think it’s important for people to realize that you can have that support network and still feel that way. People always think, “Oh you have a great family, you have siblings, you have a partner like why are you depressed?” and people don’t always understand that those things are great and they can help you pull out of those deep thoughts but they don’t always prevent them.
Lots of people in your life that might be suffering, it’s important to check in on them because just because it seems like they have a big support network doesn’t mean they’re feeling okay.
[0:23:47.7] BM: Yeah, absolutely.
[0:23:49.7] BP: You said you felt robbed, can you explain a little bit more of how that felt?
[0:23:55.3] BM: Yeah, I think I just was so – grown so accustomed to my life, you know? Just the routine of it and having the job. At the time I was in a relationship and I love my brother and his amazing wife and I just sort of had this life that I have come to know in Portland and slowly all of that was ripped from me and I think now I can speak in a way – yeah, I don’t know, it was so difficult. The time was really bitter at the time and I think I saw myself strictly as a victim.
I think there was a lot of that mentality but I also think there is just so much hurt and there was so much pain and I was covered in a lot of lies about myself and yeah, I just felt robbed of that and I think everyone does this to an extent but we kind of measure ourselves up to other people and I think it was really difficult when you have nothing to report. You know this injury, you are just trying to hold your ground.
You are just trying to hold steady as best as you can and you’re treading water and I think that’s what’s tough is you talk to people who maybe months later want to reconnect and they have all these fun things, these shinny things to report and you probably are just excited to be there talking to them and not just having an ice pack on your neck in the dark or whatnot. So yeah, I think robbed in that sense.
[0:25:12.9] BP: That’s fair, “How is your week? My week was in bed so…” you know that is tough. I know I had a tough time with it. I had a lot of anger and resentment towards a lot of those things and it’s tough because you say like you kind of feel like all these moments in your life are supposed to happen at that point and then they don’t and it is a really common feeling right now with COVID and all that’s going on in the world right now. That the world is kind of like living with a concussion and you are isolated and you are distant from people and you don’t have that much to report on because you haven’t done that much.
[0:25:52.3] BM: Right, exactly. There is no pretending. I think that kind of levelled the playing field of like, “Okay, now we can all, I guess, stop pretending and putting up the façade.”
[0:26:02.2] BP: Yeah, for sure and so you went through all of that and it’s been a few years, so where are you at now? How are things?
[0:26:10.8] BM: Yeah, so I am living back in Portland, which is so exciting. Even a year ago Bella, if you ask me that I’d be like, “There’s no way. There is no way”, so I am living back in Portland, I still talk to my parents, we’re so close. It’s not like we cut ties and then I left and I love my girlfriend.
I am starting a new job actually Monday, it’s just about four or five days from now and it is the first time I’ve joined back into the workforce in about six years, which is – I have done a little silly jobs like watching people’s houses and walking dogs and things like that but this is a huge win for me in that world and it’s for anyone listening who feels like, “Oh I don’t have a job so my worth isn’t there” that’s so not true.
I can’t say that enough, it’s weird I’m going to work again but I realized my worth didn’t like maybe there’s a temporary boost in my serotonin but I am not like, “Oh my gosh, my worth is back and I am riding off into the sunset” so there is not that but I am living with my amazing girlfriend who is really, she tolerates my symptoms and that’s really sweet and I am social immerse in a way that I wasn’t years ago, which is great.
[0:27:20.1] BP: I think it’s so great that you are getting back to work and you’re right, a lot of the time I think it is just a society thing especially in North America that your career is who you are. A lot of people have put a lot of identity on their career like if this is what they do for a living that tells you everything about them and it is definitely not true but it is definitely a common misconception about how our world runs.
I know it’s like when you first meet someone or you talk to someone, within the first hour one of the things they ask is, “What do you do for a living?”
[0:27:54.8] BM: Oh that question as you are saying it, it’s well, yeah.
[0:27:58.1] BP: It’s true though, “What do you do for a living?” you know it is such a common question and I don’t think people think much about it. It’s just like, “What do you do?” because you know, everyone works and we can’t all work all the time. I’ve had to take a lot of breaks from a lot of things and I told my girlfriend the other day because I ended up in the hospital, I said, “I would like my health to stop directing where my life can go” and it’s tough sometimes and things get better and things improve.
I’d never thought I’d be doing this and I am sure you going back to work, you didn’t – I am sure there were times where it didn’t seem like that was going to happen but things can improve, things can get better but it is a rollercoaster to get there and you just have to keep going one day at a time and so Ben, is there anything else you would like to add before we end today’s episode?
[0:28:49.4] BM: You know, I think I would just ask people to be gentle with themselves and extend some grace to themselves. I know that’s hard, I am still working on that but yeah, I think just be so patient. Just be patient with yourself and try to just as you said, take it day by day and take as much pressure off yourself as you can because it really is a marathon and there’s going to be some ups and downs but it is just the good things will come and yeah, just hang in there, please.
[0:29:17.2] BP: Well, I just want to thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your life post-concussion.
[0:29:25.5] BM: Hey, thank you so much for having me Bella.
[END OF INTERVIEW]
[0:29:31.1] BP: Has your life been affected by concussions? Join our podcast by getting in touch. Thank you so much for listening to The Post Concussion Podcast and be sure to help us educate the world about the reality of concussions by giving us a share and to learn more, don’t forget to subscribe.
[END]
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