Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple of Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and today we are going to be talking about traumatic brain injuries, otherwise known as TBIs. And our guest, Ms. Kelly Tuttle, she has an Instagram and she posted something that was describing it in a very easy to understand manner, which was Think about your brain as a computer.Works great. You drop it once, twice, maybe a few times, and it doesn't work as great. And it may still work, but in different ways. It may have issues, and those issues may happen almost sporadically. You never know what time it's going to be acting in a certain way or not. So, that's just to give you a little background on today's topic, which will be integrating into the military lifestyle, since the military is known to have a high TBI rate.And we're going to get into that conversation, but first, we're going to start with Ms. Kelly Tuttle whose life was changed quite drastically when she received a TBI, which none of us ever expect to, you know, receive, but uh, we're Things happen in life as we're going to talk about here. So miss kelly tuttle, would you please introduce yourself for us?Well, uh, i'm happy to be here. Mr. Whiskey. I'm kelly tuttle. I'm a traumatic brain injury. I like to say warrior and advocate and um, I am a an author and a content creator Because I want other traumatic brain injury warriors to know that there is hope and they're not alone Yeah, so can you tell us a little bit about?what happened and how you got your traumatic brain injury. Alright, so my story starts with the thunderous clap of metal, shattered glass everywhere, people leaving their homes to see what happened. Um, I'd been driving down a rural road and suddenly a car pulled out in front of me and I t boned them. And I thought that, oh, I'll just Shake this off and get back into life.And I tried really, really hard, um, until I finally, um, pushed myself to the point where my brain just shut off and put me to sleep while I was driving home from work and for. Yeah, fortunately my car bounced off the road and that jarring woke me up, um, so that I was able to slam on my brakes and avoid hitting a tree by 12 inches.So with that, um, uh, you would think that my eyes would be opened and I would figure out, oh, I better see my doctor. Oh, no, no, no, no. No, my brain was thinking differently. And so I fortunately had lunch with a, Colleague of mine who was a neurology nurse practitioner, and she was really curious. How are you doing?Because she knew, um, how impactful a concussion can be on somebody's life. And I said, oh, this and that, things that, oh, by the way, I fell asleep at the wheel. And she's like, what? And I said, oh, yeah, it's all good. I just, I just now have to stop on the side of the road and take a nap halfway between home and then I'm okay.I'm like, I might look back on this hindsight is like, wow, that is some men, amazing mental gymnastics. My brain went through to try to keep me. And, um, fortunately she said, no, that's not, that's not a good thing. You need to, uh, see a physical medicine rehab doctor and, um, you know, get a brain scan. And I hadn't done that prior to this.And after meeting with the PMR doctor, um, I started on the right road of recovery. Yeah. So you talked about that, you know, those periods of, um, Can you tell us a little bit about what other symptoms you had or that other people might have? Because it can, you know, form and appear differently in everyone.Right. So, um, there's a ton of symptoms. Um, at the time I was not aware that I had sound sensitivity, but how it showed up was more like having difficulty with concentration at work and focus because of the conversations of other people happening around me. Um, I was unable to listen to music in my car anymore because it was exhausting.It was just draining my brain while I was driving. Um, and if there was a lot of noise or commotion whenever I was trying to focus, like make dinner, um, I would get irritable and I would snap at my family. And it really came down to, you wouldn't put that together with sound sensitivity. Um, but when I saw a specialist, they, um, Had me do, um, uh, a CAFA sound sensitivity questionnaire, and it, um, showed that I had a significant sound sensitivity.And then when I applied using noise counseling technology, earbuds and head and headphones, I was able to concentrate better at work. I had more energy at the end of the day, um, and a lot less irritability. Right. And so you make the point that, you know, it's not something that can, um, Completely devastate your life if you know how to manage the symptoms, which requires figuring out those symptoms.And so, yeah, and I know, um, I think the whole irony of this is that you're, you know, a nurse. And, um, you know, it's almost, almost ironic. Right. So before my car accident, I was a cardiology nurse practitioner for like 20 years. And, uh, so I didn't really know, I knew a little bit about concussions, but I also knew a lot of myths.That, you know, you could get better in two weeks, all you had to do was rest and then you would be fine. Um, in the process of learning how to get better and reading everything I could find on traumatic brain injuries. Thank you Um, I became more passionate about the, the brain and was spending a lot of time learning as much as I could.And I was telling a friend who was, who called to check and see how I was doing about how I was helping myself get better with all the things I had read. And their friend recommended, Hey, maybe you should go into neurology, you'd be a great patient advocate. And I was like, Oh yeah, that's a great idea.And, um, so then I did everything I could to qualify for a job and I was able to start working as a neurology nurse practitioner two years later. Right. So at what point does your book, After the Crash, come into play? Um, I started writing it on my fifth year anniversary of recovery. And, um, you know, you know, when I share my story with people, they would say, Oh, you should write a book.And when I decided to write a book, um, I really wanted my book to, um, Help people get back to work and support their brains performance while at work and at school, because I was taken off work for three months after my, um, after I saw that physical medicine rehab doctor, and when it was getting closer and closer to return to work, I was getting more and more anxious because I didn't know what I needed to support my brains performance.I knew my memory wasn't very good. I knew that I got tired easily, um, And so when I wrote my book, I really wanted it to have easy to implement strategies and compensatory tools to support someone to go back to work and school while their brain was healing. And so that's how my book came about. Right, and so it's both a nonfiction memoir and a guidebook, correct?Um, it's more of a, of a guidebook because when I was working with my writing coaches, I, um, really emphasized that I wanted to be really easy to read with the strategies and tools right away, really quick, easy to access for someone after a traumatic brain injury who's having difficulty with memory, is unable to read or not read as long.Um, After my brain injury, I could only read for five or 10 minutes and had difficulty remembering what I read. And, um, so it was real important that it was super easy to read. So the paragraphs are super short. There's breaks in the text to take eye breaks, brain breaks. Um, and so there is a little bit of my story in there because, um, I was encouraged by my writing coaches.To do so, but it's not all about me. It's all about my, um, information for my readers And the book is also on in audible form So if you are if you're if your listeners are having a hard time with reading They can listen to the book instead also Yeah, and I know like we said The symptoms are a little different for everyone, you know the the scale of intensity for them.What? And the reason you and I had gotten connected was because, as we discussed in the intro for the show, a lot of military members have TBIs, a lot of military members have migraine issues, reoccurring headaches, uh, you know, tension aches, and it, you know, the military changes a lot, and since I've been out, it could have changed.But I remember when I was in the military, It was said that if you had received six concussions, you would be separated. Uh, you would no longer be able to serve. Now that number may have changed, or that may have been one of those, you know, myths that sailors spread around in a somewhat hopeful manner.You know to say oh, I only need three more concussions, which I do not encourage, you know Purposely injuring yourself to get out of service if you're really having a bad time They have mental health resources and medical professionals, but that was always stated and I I remember I actually had gotten a head injury like the When you're going up the the stairwells They have like a monkey bar hanging down so that people can you know get down faster Or help support themselves while carrying someone else to get up and you know casually situations or If you had a lot of gear on they had that this monkey bar like hanging down to help support getting up into the hatch You know threw it up the stairwell And one time I just stood up prematurely and straight into that monkey bar And I got sent home that day.I think the next day they had me come back in and I got sent home again because You That they're ringing the tension the uh, talk about a headache that was just you know, right Right in the middle of my head and I thought I was going to bleed. I thought I had, you know, cracked my skull but luckily and what was interesting is they were like, well, we're marking this as a contusion not a concussion and I was like okay, I guess because of the way my eyes were functioning and everything and uh, but I don't know.I have some suspicions that If you mark Your contusions are different than concussions. So, like I said earlier, at the time it was six concussions to get up. Contusions didn't qualify. They didn't count as concussions. So, if medical wanted to keep you in, if your concussions were marked as contusions, Again, that's, that's a conspiracy.You know, that's my theory. Uh, I'm sure it happens, but yeah, it's, uh, it's alarming how many TBIs are actually met when I was at a voiceover conference in Atlanta, I met a chief from a submarine and he had, he had multiple, uh, TBIs, which, uh, you definitely don't want more than you don't want one in general, let alone more than one, and, um, he had visibly, you know, displayed symptoms and, uh, he was telling me all about it.So it's, it's something that happens a lot in the military. In a civilian world too, you know, all you need to do is hit your head the wrong way and that could be through a car accident, it could be through just walking around in an industrial environment or whatever it may be. Yeah, and, um, the concussion or the traumatic brain injury is more, um, can happen whenever the body is Suddenly stopped or it has a jar to it.So you don't even have to hit your head to have had a concussion. It's that, that acceleration, deceleration, Like whiplash, where, because our brains aren't locked into our skulls, they're floating, and when your body is suddenly stopped, it will slam into the front part of your, uh, skull, and then it bounces, and it'll bounce into the back, and so you, that's why the diff, the symptoms are so different, and, um, they're kind of generalized, because it's, A generalized damage of, um, there's, uh, the cortex layer and then the bottom layer to your brain and it's got, um, these, um, like communication lines, um, called axons.And when you have that type of movement that, that I think that the top part is heavier than the bottom part, if I remember correctly. And that shearing is cutting off connections and brain functions and, um, that's so when say a person goes in and gets seen and they have an MRI or a head CT, they'll be told it looks normal.But they won't feel normal and the reason why is because the damage that is done cannot be captured on a Um the typical MRI or CT scanner that we use these days those type of tools They look for brain tumors large bleeds skull fractures that kind of thing So if you have a concussion, it's really based on history and your symptoms and and so forth But not, but there's a lot of, um, uh, misunderstanding about concussions, not only in the, uh, military, but out in the private, uh, private section.Um, I've experienced that. I've heard people say things that are wrong. And, um, and it's really because, um, concussion, we've known about concussions for years, but It hasn't really been known to the public until that movie was made, Concussion. Um, and then there's currently a movement, um, within the physical medicine and rehab community, where, um, doctors are specifically, uh, training for a concussion medicine.A traumatic brain injury medicine extra certificate and that hasn't been out very long. So you really when you see someone for your concussion or your head injury, you need to ask them. Hey, um, What's your experience with? Patients with traumatic brain injury because you really want to make sure you're talking to someone who has experience and knowledge about it Um, or who's really passionate about it.You don't want to talk to someone who doesn't have that knowledge and then, and then have them mislead you down the wrong road of your recovery. Yeah, for sure. It's a, it's a weird thought. I think that the brain is free floating. I wonder if it would be better if it wasn't, but I'm not, you know, we'd have to make some.human test dummies and try that out and see if we lock their brain in place. But yeah, I know they're, they're always coming out with new data for football players and hockey players specifically. I think they get more concussions than anyone. And um, yeah, I mean, usually it's not good data. You know, they're showing And it changes all the time, but they're showing, I mean, severe brain damage years down the road.And a lot of these guys don't even realize they have concussions, or they just work through it, or it doesn't show till later on. Like you said, it sounds like it's hard to detect initially unless you have those visible symptoms. But if it's not showing on those scans because it's just like little soft damage to the tissue or whatever it may be, so.That's definitely something. That is overlooked and definitely needs a lot more research, and I know they're always trying to Optimize and create more efficient and safer gear for motorcycle riders, for football players, for hockey players, and At the end of the day, there's only so much you can do to Protect guys who are hitting their heads against one another, you know but I do applaud that they're trying to always make it better and safer and We talked, I, I, well, I used to run a show, no longer exists, but I was on a different show and we talked about this one motorcycle company that they actually have you send in your helmet after a crash and they'll send you like, um, a brand new one half price.And what they do is they scan it, they research it, like, where did it crack? Where did it get damaged and how can we improve its design? So it's great to know that people are out there. trying to make injury prevention, concussion prevention, TBI prevention, you know, all the more prominent. I think that's great.And so Ms. Tuttle, what's it looking like for you from here as, you know, a brain loving advocate? Where do you see your life going from here? I know you've been guesting on podcasts and you wrote your book. Uh, is there, is there more to it or what's your plan? Yeah, so in the works right now, I'm putting together an online self paced, um, learning, um, program where someone can, um, sign up and learn, um, how to smooth their road back to work and use a lot of the strategies and tools that I have learned over time that helped me.And with the, um, program, I also, um, developed a, a journal because I think it's really important that Brain Injury Survivors journal, uh, because it helps, um, discover their symptoms and then, um, Figure out what's making it seems to be making their symptoms worse. And then it's also, um, a good way of Getting out your mental load onto paper so that because things seem more scary if they stay in your head But if you put them on paper, you're able to get a better perspective on it And then the other thing is, it's a great tool to be able to see how far you've come in your recovery.Especially on a really bad day where you're frustrated, maybe you see your buddies, you know, continuing to do well, but you're at home, you know, um, resting after, you know, a tough day at work. Um, you get really bummed out that, you're limited in your abilities to get back into life. But if you look back and see how far you've come, that, um, really can, um, improve your outlook for sure.And then, um, because my, my book was published in 2023, since then I've learned new things. And so, um, I have new content that I want to share. And I, um, the program will include, um, an ebook that I wrote that, um, talks more about, um, returning to driving after a traumatic brain injury. And then, um, advocating getting, um, accommodations and things like that at work.So those are the things that are on, uh, in the works as I continue to create. My content on my youtube channel and um, you can also find me on tiktok too, and like you said instagram Awesome. Yeah, ladies and gentlemen, we'll have all that information in description below So if you're someone who has suffered from atbi, I think you have or know someone who has Definitely go check out that information send it to them or you know research yourself to better take care of our loved ones and your loved ones who You Or suffering like we said they might need to be treated a little bit differently to help them Focus to help them grow to help them recover and to prevent any further damage.So Ms. Kelly Tuttle, thank you so much for coming on the show I appreciate what you do because you are fighting for a group that is much larger than we think but also not You know big enough to get that recognition. So I really appreciate you fighting for this small group of of people that As, as you call them, the Head Injury Survivors Club.So I appreciate you advocating for them and for everyone's brain health and for putting this information out there. Well thank you and I, I appreciate the work you're doing with your podcast and, and reaching out and helping people with their mental health issues too, that's awesome.
