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Katianne Olson: How The Resilient Brain is Helping Families Navigate TBI Recovery · Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hey folks, bruce Parkman here.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: Welcome to another episode of Broken Brains, sponsored by the Matt Parkman Foundation.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Here on Broken Brains, we're focused on the issue of repetitive brain trauma and the impact it has on our children, our veterans and our athletes, and every week we reach out to amazing people that come on and provide their stories as authors, as researchers, as scientists, as parents, as athletes, as veterans, because as a population, we are completely unaware of what this does to our brains and how it's impacting the mental health of our society.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: This is the most under-researched yet largest preventable cause of mental illness in this country and we need to know more about that, and that is why today we have Ms Katie Ann Olson, who's an Amazon best-selling author and a special education teacher, who unfortunately became involved with this when her husband suffered a TBI and she had to work through that with her husband.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: She ended up writing a children's book on this issue, because children are absolutely impacted either by this phenomenon or by their parents, who have suffered this and the psychological and behavioral issues that come about when we have a damaged brain, and she's an amazing resource for information on this issue and she's obviously lived through it herself.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Ms Olson, I cannot thank you enough for coming on the show today.
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: This is amazing.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I'm super excited, so I appreciate the opportunity.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Cool man.
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Well, let's dive into it.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: So I mean, how did?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Obviously you wrote a book.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: You're an Amazon bestselling author.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Is this your only book, or are there other books out?
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: there.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, this is my only book.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: I joke that it's my the book.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: It's my baby.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, my third baby, yeah, so it's my only book right now.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: You know, it just came to fruition through our own family experience and it was a desperate need in children's literature.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: And I quickly realized that when we were navigating as a family, my husband's traumatic brain injury, so talk about that.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: What, how?
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: As much as you want to.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: You know about your husband.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: So he had a TBI.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: It was really touch and go for a little bit and we really didn't know what was going to happen.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So I got the phone call.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: No wife ever wants to get you know you need to get to the hospital now.
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: This was back in the height of COVID too, so we had to add that whole element of not being able to be at the hospital together.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: But yeah, so it was a pretty scary time, the unexpected call, and that many of us who are navigating traumatic brain injury with ourselves or our loved ones get.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: So it was.
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: It was a scary time for our family.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: And so when you you know obviously, how long did it take before you got your husband back home after, I mean so you know, it's really remarkable when you talk about everyone's unique journey navigating traumatic brain injury, you hear the stories of miracles often throughout, and then you also hear the stories of those who weren't so fortunate.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: My husband was in the ICU for 10 days at a level one trauma hospital before he was transported to Shirley Ryan Ability Lab in downtown Chicago, which is the number one rehab in the world for traumatic brain injuries and it's just an incredible rehabilitation hospital.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: And when we originally had the intake meeting, they're kind of preluding, you know, roughly about four to six weeks.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: You know we won't really know until you know we get him here and assess him and kind of see how he was progressing.
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: And he came home in 11 days on our son's first birthday, which was remarkable.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: We weren't expecting that.
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: And then, yeah, it was.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: It was a good, very bittersweet welcome home.
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: You know you're celebrating your son's first birthday but you're also celebrating life and coming, being able to come back home to your house is.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: It was emotional.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: But then he came back in June.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: So his accident happened in May.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: He came home in June and then he went to what they call day rehabilitation, which is basically Monday through Friday, nine to four intensive speech.
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: You know OT, physical therapy, pain management therapy for from basically June to September, so October, beginning of October.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: So he had a very remarkable recovery and we are grateful for the level of care that he was able to receive, because it was no messing around, it was we're going to business, we're getting you back and it's going to take a lot of work, but they were really remarkable.
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: That's that.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: That's great to hear because, um, you know when, when we start dealing with TBI and the, just the amount of pain and the impact on the family.
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: A lot of times that's complicated by the, the quality of care and the lack of knowledge about you know what's going on inside the brain, because we can't see that right.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: A lot of the, the, the, the assessments that we make are kind of, you know swags, based on you know MRI or whatever.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: So I mean I'm so thankful that you know your husband made it back and and and so what?
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: You know, you have this miraculous moment.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: My dad walks through the door, his son turns one.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: You got one candle on the cake.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: How was the journey after he got back?
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, was there?
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: any complications.
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I mean usually there are some.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: You know some issues that because the care for a TBI of that magnitude is is usually long term for a while.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know we were very privileged and I feel like it's super important to address that.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: We were very privileged in having remarkable medical care and we had that village of the medical side alongside of us, along with our friends and family to help support us.
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: You know it was also during COVID we were social, distancing, like it was really a hard time of just our whole world was navigating it.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: So here you are, supposed to be isolated in a time where you need community so significantly.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: That added a huge element.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: But we were fortunate that our community said no, we're here, we're alongside you and we're not going anywhere, which is really really great.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: You know I think it's your first year in our journey was you were just excited and thankful and grateful to be home and alive and your your mindset as a family and I think you know I don't want to speak for my husband but your focus as of what do I need to check on my rehab list or journey to get better and what therapies do I need to do, what?
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: What new holistic therapies could I do to make me feel better and put the hard work in?
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: And I think those first years or months you're kind of just dedicated in your recovery of what are the checkboxes per se that you need to check off.
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: But I think as you pass the year, anniversaries, you realize there are some things that a checkbox can't fix anymore.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: And this is kind of the new norm that you're going to have to navigate of fatigue and exhaustion and just knowing when you had a stamina before and you were able to do things at a high level, and now you're having to be humble enough to say, okay, I need to take a rest.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Or you know I overdid it.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: You know we have two young kids, so you know we're running around.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: You know I overdid it.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: You know we have two young kids, so you know we're running around.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: You know being young parents as it is, so you know, I think it's just giving yourself that space to process that your life has changed and there's grief that comes along with it.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: There's gratitude, there's there's a whole plethora of emotions that go through this.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: But then you're kind of then tailoring off into your own individual journeys to social, like social, emotionally, physically, mentally, and this.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: How do you then come together with those own unique journeys of your own paths, and how do you kind of navigate Okay, this is what our life's going to be like, and and how are we going to navigate that?
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: And I think that's where our paths are crossing away, because we're coming across so many ways to treat the brain that are not basically, you know, they're not out there in the medical.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, when we deal with TBI clinics, we deal with the military, you get three weeks of amazing care, but then you go home to Nebraska, to Omaha, wherever, wherever you live, right, chicago, right, and brain health is not a prioritization in this country, right?
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: And so we do not have scalable, repetitive, long-term brain health that looks at a lot of the modalities that are out there, from brain supplementation to all the technical modalities that are out there that can assist brain healing and health.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: And so it just seems to me that when people get, they have their TBI and hey, I'm alive, it's good.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: The medical community is like great job, we did our job and I go home and then we're on our own.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: We're on our own when it comes to what do I do for the rest of my life?
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: Because you don't have to accept fatigue, you do not have to accept these things.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: We have so many ways because the brain, even though you know it's not, it's, it's been, it's been hard, right, it can, it, can regrow it can it, can it can.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: It can heal, it can continue to to get better.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: We have to.
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: You know it can heal, it can continue to get better.
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: We have to challenge it.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: What have you on the journey right now?
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: What are you looking at as far as post-acute medical care to assist with the improvement of your husband's brain?
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Has he tried anything in the psychedelic space brain.
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Has he tried anything in the psychedelic space?
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so he, we actually.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: When he came home, he was obviously in an intense amount of pain.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: And we were doing.
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know if you've heard of salt cave therapy and dry floating.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: That was crucial for him in those early weeks.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: We were going to do salt cave therapy and halo therapy and basically it's it puts them dry floating, puts you in sensory deprivation and it you're basically floating without getting wet into it kind of looks like a water bed, a nice warm water bed and it just kind of takes pressure off your joints and your pain and it just allows you to just let your brain rest.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: And it was remarkable, I, I really truly feel like in those early weeks it was huge for him to just have a space where his brain could shut off and just quiet and heal and and really, just, you know he, you know he fractured his shoulder too, so he was in a tense amount of pain.
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: I mean, mean, I remember us first walking in and we were like he couldn't even open the front door, like he was just an immense amount of pain.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: And over time, you know it, really I do feel like helped just give his body the rest he needed and just to, you know, turn his brain off from what just happened to me I need to get home to my kids and my wife, to how am I to get back to work?
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: And just kind of just taking that, all those thoughts spewing through his head and just giving him a time to just rest and let his brain, you know, work through, you know rebuilding his pathway.
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: So I do think I, I, I would, I recommend it to anybody.
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: You know, I know there's not a lot out there yet.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: But you're right, there's a lot of um out of the medical world, uh, therapies that are out there, that um, we so happened to.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Just a friend knew that she just opened up this new salt cave and she had this available and she was like, hey, I really think this would help and you know, we were very fortunate, you know, but it was really.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: There is a lot out there.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: You know, hyperbaric chambers are really big right now.
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: Red light therapy, you know, and it's hard because you have to be sure that you are still going to the right people who know what they're talking about, because I think there's big buzzwords that come out and everyone's like, oh, everyone, that this, all this red light therapy is equivalent or all these hyperbaric chambers are, you know, equal.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: So I think there's a balance of making sure you're really finding the right people and that they're well versed in brain injuries and making sure that you know it's a best fit for you.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, there's there's a lot out there, but you know it also it it falls on the caregivers and having that network to know what's out there.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: So, yes, I spent many nights researching.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: And that's the.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: That's the point, that's what we tell people is that you are your best advocate for yourself, your husband or your child.
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: And without the research I mean so many things that we're finding out right now that we didn't know when our son took his life that are out there that can improve brain health and, besides what we know, the root causes are.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Well, obviously, this journey has compelled you to not just share your story, but to educate and create awareness.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: So where did you come up with the idea to write this amazing book and create awareness.
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: So where did you come up with the idea to write this amazing book?
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so we were in the rehabilitation hospital and I was just browsing through the Life Center library and I was trying to think of ways.
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: You know, I, the night I came home from the emergency room my daughter was almost four at the time and I remember just sitting there the next night being like how am I going to explain this to her?
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: And I'm very well versed in disabilities, right, that's my career, you know and I I sat there looking at her being like what am I going?
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: How am I going to break this down for an almost one year old and an almost four year old?
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: you know it's not going to be home for a while and I remember being like, okay, children's books I know there's, I mean, children's books, and literature is so powerful and even adults take away great messages from it.
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: And I was up online on Amazon and in our public library being like books about brain injury for kids you know, resources for brain injury to explain to children.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: And I kept hitting these dead ends and I it was that moment where, you know, when we got to the rehabilitation hospital, you know I was like here I am in the number one rehab hospital in the world and I'm at their library.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: And I went to his doctor and I was like there's nothing out there for kids.
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: And I remember the resident looked at me.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: He goes, yeah, you know, it is a really big need right now.
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: He goes and I'm like, well, that's got to change.
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: And he looked at me he goes, you'll do it.
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: And I looked at him like right now, like no way.
• 15:18
  Speaker 2: But I think in that moment, when I had my own conversation with my kids and realizing the desperate need for representation for this, it was that aha moment of like.
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: I mean the statistics alone 2.8 million, which I think is even grossly underestimated People go through this yearly and I'm like I can't be the only one who has been in this very exact moment and kept hitting dead ends.
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: So, you know, I waited a little bit because I felt it was right for me to not write the book in that moment.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: I waited a couple years to kind of see what did life look like, you know, post rehab and once you leave the rehab hospital, and kind of what does that norm look like now, a couple years post, and I felt it was time, you know, I felt like I had enough lived experience to kind of see the whole gamut of the experience.
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: And, yeah, I looked at my husband and I said, hey, I really think I'm being led to do this and he's like let's do it.
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: And he's supported me a hundred percent of the way, uh, with it.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, it's been a wild journey, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't change it for a minute.
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: So tell our audience what's.
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: What's the book about?
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, the resilient brain, brain, uh, it's a children's book but I really say really anyone can benefit from it.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: So it really goes through what a brain injury is, how it can, how it can happen.
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: Um, we talk about the different parts of the brain and what those parts control, and then also it gets hurt that section, what they might have difficulties with.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: We talked about feelings that you might have seen someone go through a brain injury and just talking about the rehabilitation process.
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: It goes into different therapists like physical therapists, occupational therapists and kind of the rehab journey and what that might look like.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: And really the biggest message is just to be how to be resilient and how to come together and, most importantly, hope.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Because I think a traumatic brain injury can bring so much darkness and I was very intentional on how I designed it because I wanted the book to be bright, because I think when you're in that moment you hear so much of like we don't know how your recovery is going to go and you hear all those hard conversations of unknown.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: And I really was intentional to design the book to give families and children and anyone navigating at that.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: The brain is powerful and it can relearn things and it's scary but there's hope on the other end of it and really it's just.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: I say it's a guide, it's kind of for someone to literally, if they're going through it, to know from A to B kind of the whole gamut of traumatic brain injury and what you need to know and how you can come together and overcome it.
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: You know, I just noticed you have the right color shirt on today, so that's really good.
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: It is you too, yeah love it.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: So no.
• 18:15
  Speaker 1: But you know, what I think would be great is right now we get a lot of calls from parents that are trying to talk to their kids about not playing contact sports, and the kids are into it.
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: Now we all know that this is not healthy.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: It's not healthy for children with developing brains.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: You know we were losing way too many kids.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: It's the largest preventable cause of mental illness in this country.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: And when you're talking to Johnny, you've got to play football, or Susie, who wants to head soccer balls Right, or girls that want to play contact sports with boys, and in the parents are trying to get the point across that I love you and your brain is all you have.
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: I think your book could be a remarkable prop for them to communicate the value of their brain and why we have to do a better job taking care of it, because you know, and they asked me okay, yeah, that, that's that'd be good we have had.
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: We, you know, and they 100.
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, that that's um, that that'd be good we have had, um, we, you know.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: We get calls all the time, parents like my child, who they, you know, parent.
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: We love our kids, man, and when they want to do something, aren't you know?
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: we want to say yes, right but, here is something they want to do because their friends are doing it or the coaches have asked them.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: You know, in our son's case, right, and they're like but how do I say no?
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: With love, and part of it we tell them is try to get the point across to their kids that you're not going to be a child forever, you know?
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, always.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, sooner or later you got to grow up, which is, you know.
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: My son was always trying to grow, said look man, you're never going to be.
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: You're going to be an adult for the rest of your life.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Be a child as long as you want, right, yeah, so, and it's really.
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: It's a great point, though, because I think you know I will be fully transparent.
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: It took my husband's brain injury to be serious about helmet wearing and when I'm riding a bike, and it took me to see my husband literally navigating a brain injury to seeing his brain and the ripples of his brain on this huge, massive TV.
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: For me, I mean, I will be honest, I even took for granted my own brain, and so we had to go through this, because I think it's so innate to just keep going about your day and not really realizing your brain is literally letting you be the reason why you're up and breathing and walking every single day, and it unfortunately like it took me to be like, nope, if you're riding a bike, you're wearing your helmet, and even for me too, you know, and I think, until you're in that situation where you're seeing your brain not work like you knew how it used to, or watching someone that you love look at a black and white picture of an animal and not be able to say what it was, it makes you be like, oh my gosh, you don't realize that, and I think you know it definitely has changed my perspective.
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: You know I love sports.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: I've been an athlete my whole life.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: But, yeah, it's changed my decision making of what I allow my kids to do now from a contact sport aspect and, yeah, and I think my kids now understand that because they've seen their dad go through that and they know how important protecting our brain is now.
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: But it is a hard conversation because I don't think there's enough out there.
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: You know teenagers don't want to wear a helmet, they want to look cool.
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: I don't think there's enough out there.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: You know teenagers don't want to wear a helmet.
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: They want to look cool, and you know they don't want to be the you know the nerd who's wearing a helmet on their bike or on their, you know now their electric scooters, which those things are.
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: You see kids, you know adults, you're like, these things are mini motorcycles, but you know I think my kids now yell out the window, play your home.
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: I think my kids now yell out the window play your role, like they.
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: It unfortunately took this experience for them to really you know, advocate for them.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: You know for themselves now, and I wish it didn't have to be that way, but I do think it's a bigger conversation of.
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: It's hard for you to see it now, but I'm doing this out of love and protection because you know it's not that it there's just so much out there that could happen.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: But it's a balance, right, I'm not going to put my kids in a bubble.
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: They are going to continue to do things in their life and be in sports.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: But you know, here's the thing I could be walking across the street and get a brain injury and there's nothing I can do about that.
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: But I think it's important of being conscious of what you're willing to allow and what you're willing to balance and making sure that you're educating kids young and early on why it's important to protect your brain, and just reminding your brain is the reason why you're breathing, you're walking, you're reading, you know you're talking and I think we at times all forget that and you know.
• 22:52
  Speaker 2: I think it's important, an important conversation for families to start having, especially early on, and I hope the resilient brain can do that.
• 22:59
  Speaker 2: It's not only for those navigating traumatic brain injury, but also it's an awareness piece.
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: I think that's equally just as important to have not only supporting families who are going through this, but also how do we build awareness around this invisible injury and give it representation that it needs on bookshelves for these conversations to start happening, even for the youngest of readers.
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: And I think one of the things that you're bringing up is that when you said, hey, I took my brain for granted, is that we all do and you know, and when it comes down to contact sports, we can control.
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: You know the exposure that those brains take and we know it's not healthy, and that's why we're pushing parents to go brain safe sports.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Not wrong with sports.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Hell, I'm 63, I'm still playing rugby.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I'm all about smacking the dude, but I didn't start until I was 29.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Right, and and and and, but we're.
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: You know right, yeah and uh and um and um, but we're.
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: You know what we are doing to our child's brains is now becoming understood, that this I mean what we're.
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: You know, these kids that are in high school and college sorry about that that have played you know football for 15 years, or hockey and and or, like my son, wrestling and football and all this stuff.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: You know we're just a little bit too crazy about the sports, but we need material that outlines the fragility and value of that brain To your point.
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: How important.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: I think we're talking about a whole nother children's book here on.
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: You know, repetitive injuries, contact sports, repetitive impacts, or how vulnerable is your brain.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: Why do you need to take care of this brain?
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: You know, because it is.
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: You know it defines everything that we become and everything we are, and I mean so.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, unfortunately, we meet so few people that can turn tragedy into good right, into a lesson, right, and you've had a lot of blessings, obviously, on your journey from the level of care to obviously sounds like your husband came back, you know, and is back Right, instead of some of the more unfortunate stories that we hear, and I'm 100 percent for you to take that and turn it into a, you know, into a book to educate and aware I mean it's amazing, because, you're right, we don't have.
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: I mean I had to write no kidding the only book on contact sports for parents in my grief.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: I had to wrote, I wrote, I wrote 200 pages because I did not know you couldn't play back-to-back contact sports.
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: I thought it was all about the helmet and the pads and the whole nine yards.
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: And what we're understanding now is that even after a TBI whether your child has a concussion nobody in this country is going back 30 days later to see if you can do a post-concussive survey, a PCS.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: It doesn't take place yet it's recommended by doctors or whatever.
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: And parents are like, ah, he's cleared two weeks Back in the field.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: Buddy, let's go.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Man, rah, rah, rah.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: And we're we're not prioritizing the brain.
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: I mean it's um, you know, it's just uh.
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: I think that's where you know, in your opinion.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: I mean, like the doctor checks your heart when you go in for the assert.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: You know you do the annual physical.
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: They check your heart, they check, you know, your kneecap.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: They tap your kneecap, they check your lungs, right.
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: This makes all this work, right.
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: Exactly?
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: What are we doing up here?
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: When are we going to start taking a look and asking questions hey, have you had any head injuries?
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: Do you get hit in the head a lot?
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: You know contacts, domestic abuse.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: You know we, by prioritizing brain health, oh my, what we could do to incarceration rates and recidivism and all these other social ills that we have right now.
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: It can impact all of that and you're helping us out.
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah it's.
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: You bring a great point up because I think you know you said in your grief you wrote your book and I think I think for those who have navigated this, you know, I think in some sense this book was healing for me because I brought so much of those feelings of sitting my two kids down and I didn't want anyone to have to go through that and I was well educated in disabilities and I knew these therapists and I knew I was on the other side of the table of these meetings instead of being the one leading these meetings.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: So I was fortunate to other side of the table of these meetings instead of being the one leading these meetings.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: So I was fortunate to have that career exposure.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: But I thought, man, people who don't have that, where do they even begin If they don't have a team?
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: Who's having a team meeting saying, hey, let's go over these scans, let's go over what the schedule looks like.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Here's the reasons why we're doing X, y and Z and here's kind of a long-term goal.
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: I mean, we were so lucky to have that and I never wanted anyone to feel speechless like I did because I thought, man, this is so common and how was there nothing out there and I think the think, the sense it was, it was my own way to healing, to just.
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: You know, it's not easy to be resilient and it's not easy to.
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: You know, rah, rah, this is great.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: I mean, there are still hard times, you know.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: There's times where you know I've looked at my therapist and I'm like I don't even know how I got through this.
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: You know, because I think there's there's there's so much power in vulnerability and I think it's important to also acknowledge that, yes, I've been able to do this and turn this massive spin around, but it hasn't been easy either, and that's okay.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: And nothing about this is easy, nothing about this is clear cut and linear, and I think there's power in building a community of that vulnerability, because I think social media does this too.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: You, you want to be like everything's great, this is perfect, you know we're recovered and but no, there's, there's a lot that people deal with.
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: You know that this adds a whole nother element to and I think it's important to hold space for them that everyone's journey is so unique and I think, because traumatic brain injury is such an invisible injury, it makes it that much harder too.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: But I think there's power in words and I think there's power in community, and that's what I hope the resilient brain can do and just giving people hope, because there's a lot out there and it's scary and there's not a lot of resources of what does life look like outside of this.
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's great organizations, but you know, making sure they're connected to those, and I think that's why you know the foundation that you're running is great, because it's helping build that community and just having a space of vulnerability, which I think is just as equally important.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: Well, I wish I would have waited two years to write my book.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: I was an angry dad, so actually I'm working on a revision right now.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: There's your sequel why waiting or protecting your child's brain is so important.
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: And you're right, you cannot.
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: Kids are kids.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: They're going to get a concussion.
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: They're, they're, they're going to fall down.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, they're children, right, they're going to do it.
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but the intentional exposure of these brains is what needs to to to be stopped in order to protect the child and give them the best future, right, that's.
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: We owe them the best future possible and I think we can all do a better job Plan it.
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: But yeah, and I really wish, I wish everyone could look at an image of their brain and watch a functional MRI and see their brain working while they're talking, because I think that would.
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: That was my aha moment and I think it was an aha moment for my husband too, but I think that was our, my, an aha moment for my husband too, but I think that was our, our hot, my aha moment of wow, like I'm literally seeing the ripples of your brain.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: Like I'm literally seeing your brain stem.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: What do they call that?
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: You know, because that'd be a great thing.
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: You know, it'd be a great part of any uh, you know physical.
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: You know it's like, hey, let's look at your brain to get you to understand.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: You know, stop damaging this thing, diseasing it you, or whatever you're doing with your drugs.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: You know what.
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: It was literally just part of our what we call like a family meeting at the rehab center.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: So they went through basically all of his imaging and we went through of, like, this is where your injury has happened.
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: Here's your brain bleeds.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: You know they were very detailed and kind of building us of like okay, your frontal lobe was impacted here, your temporal lobe was here, here's where your you know, your brain bleed was decreasing over time, and so that was really powerful for for us to really just hear all the facts.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Here is where you're at and here's our plan moving forward.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: And it was.
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: We had a remarkable medical team.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: They were beyond incredible and I think that also helped us know where we're at.
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: And you know it wasn't a defined like okay, this is what it is, because they have brain injuries you can't just be marked at well, this is your injury, this is what it's going to be, you know they were really yeah, and I think holding space of medically this is what this could mean.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: But let's see how you heal and let's see how you know we're going to keep working on x, y and z, and you know, my husband had a very customized plan for his, his rehabilitation, and I think you know it was.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: He got there on Monday, tuesday morning, he was doing therapies and they didn't they didn't mess around and they got him working.
• 32:16
  Speaker 2: So that was that was that moment, though, where I was like oh, my gosh, like wow, I mean seeing his brain like it is the most.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: The only way I can equate it is when you're seeing your baby on an ultrasound right, and you're seeing the limbs and then move and then hiccup.
• 32:35
  Speaker 2: You know, it brought me back to those moments when I was pregnant with my children, and it was just as much as remarkable in that moment because you don't necessarily see that, but that was my aha, and it was a scary time, because you're also seeing, wow, your brain is whoa, you're seeing the fractures, you're seeing it's intense, you know, like taking that all in.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: But for me, that was my powerful moment of okay, we, we there are things that we can't fix.
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: You're going to have these fractures, you're going to have this, but what are we going to do to, you know, really work on this and improve what we need to?
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: And that was that.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: That meeting will, I think, forever be a moment in our journey where that was the turning point of okay, we're going to get through this and we have an incredible team behind us to do that.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: And you have an incredible marriage.
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: I mean you're still together with the kids.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: That's so amazing and I'm so thankful that your aha moment you know your tenacity, perseverance, I mean we need our caretakers, man.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: I mean we do.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: I mean I went through my own issues a couple years ago.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: We all have you know, and if it wasn't for our amazing spouses, you know, not only would we not be here.
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: Our marriages, our kids, everything is all tied together.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: I think that you know, your aha moment is absolutely led to wonderful and healing.
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: You know, not just a book, but where have you taken this?
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: Have you, are you doing anything else in the space right now, are you?
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: talk to us a little bit about Katie-Ann, right?
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Where can our audience find you?
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: What do you have going on?
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: You know, come on, let's brag about Katie-Ann for a bit.
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: What a very hard thing um to do.
• 34:14
  Speaker 2: But no, right now, um, we're working on getting into rehabilitation hospitals, uh, children's life centers in the hospitals, um really connecting with families who are needing a resource, uh, getting into public libraries, school libraries, um, and then also right now, we're in the process of um to make the book accessible.
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: So we just got the book printed in Braille for those who have visual impairments or who are blind, and then we're going to be working on getting the storybook interpreted in American Sign Language, along with captioning for those who are deaf and hard of hearing.
• 34:48
  Speaker 2: So the special ed teacher in me is like how do we make sure that everybody, regardless of their disability can have access to it.
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: So that's kind of the next big journey of what's next for the resilient brain unit just really getting it into the hands as many people as we can and just building awareness and also supporting families who are navigating it right now.
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: Good for you and if there's anything we can ever help as a foundation, we definitely like to list your book.
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: On our app, we do have an app now in the Google store called HeadSmart, google and Apple, and we always have links for parents, because if we're not educating ourselves, nobody's going to educate us, and when it comes to the brain we are.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: You know, we need education, we need awareness, and books like yours are absolutely going to be part of that and help us lead the way.
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: Ms Olson, I cannot thank you enough for coming on the show this has been an amazing experience and man.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: God bless you and what you're doing and I can't wait to read the book.
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: I've got it all printed out right here.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I wish you all the best of luck in your journey.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: Please stay in touch with us and we will do everything we can to spread awareness about your wonderful book and the path that you're taking with your family.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know, I'd like to close with this because it's my favorite quote by Maya Angelou, where she said do the best you can until you know better, and then, when you know better, do better.
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: And I think that's what our mission, bruce, you and me, is just when you know better, you do better.
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: And I think that awareness piece is so crucial and I'm excited to partner with you and work together because there's power in numbers together.
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: So I appreciate this opportunity for sure.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Fanny, you're doing what you can to alleviate pain of others, which is just a gift, and I wish you all the success in your journey.
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: We will be reaching out, Ms Olson, thank you so much.
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: Another great episode of Broken Brains.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: And don't forget folks.
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: You can go online, get your free book right and then get Ms Katie Ann Olson's book.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: We're going to be listing that URL on our website.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: We'll be pushing it out on social media and, Katie Ann, thank you so much.
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: Thanks, you too, thank you.