Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman

Gail Waitkun on TBI Recovery, Brain Health & the 7 Steps That Changed Her Life

• Bruce Parkman • Season 1 • Episode 63

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What does it really take to rebuild your life after a traumatic brain injury?

In this compelling episode of Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman, host Bruce Parkman speaks with Gail Waitkun, a TBI survivor, brain health advocate, and educator, who shares her journey of resilience, recovery, and reinvention after a life-altering brain injury.

Gail opens up about:

  • The hidden struggles of living with a traumatic brain injury
  • The 7 steps to recovery that guided her healing journey
  • How nutrition, mindfulness, and neurofeedback played a role in restoring brain function
  • The emotional challenges of TBI—identity, relationships, and navigating everyday life
  • Why education, early diagnosis, and holistic care are vital for recovery success

This episode is a must-listen for survivors, caregivers, clinicians, and anyone interested in the power of the human brain to recover and adapt.

🎧 Available now on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts
 📲 Don’t forget to follow, like, share, and subscribe to support TBI awareness and help others find hope through healing.

 

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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gailwaitkun/

Produced by Security Halt Media

SPEAKER_00:

Hey, folks, welcome to another edition of Broken Brains with your host, Bruce Parkman, sponsored by the Mack Parkman Foundation, the national voice for repetitive head trauma and how repetitive impacts and repetitive blast exposure for kids and athletes and our veterans is impacting the lives of millions of Americans and focusing, and the foundation focuses on advocacy, education, legislation, awareness so that we become informed. And on this podcast, we further that knowledge by interviewing researchers and doctors and athletes and moms and coaches and literally everybody from the space, technology experts, because the phenomena of repetitive blast trauma or repetitive brain trauma is not taught in our medical, nursing, and psychological courses. So that the people that we trust, our coaches, our doctors, our nurses, our psychologists, are not trained on identifying when this is an issue. Because if it's not properly identified, then it's mistreated. And then we have even more pain and suffering that we have to go through. On this podcast today, another amazing guest. And our guest today is Mrs. Gail Wakin. Has I said it right, ma'am? Waken?

unknown:

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01:

Waitkin.

SPEAKER_00:

Waken. Ah, Waiton. There's a T in there. I got to get my get my glasses on there. Speak for me. All right, Gail Waken is a nationally recognized advocate for brain health author and survivor who turned her greatest challenge into a global mission. After a devastating accident that ended her path as a nursing student and athlete, Gail spent five years in isolation fighting to reclaim her life from the inside out. What emerged was not just recovery, it was a roadmap that is now transforming lives. She is the author of Heal Your TBI, the seven-step approach for recovering from a traumatic brain injury, an Amazon bestseller endorsed by Dr. Mark Hyman, the New York Times bestselling author and functional medicine leader, who called it a great approach for understanding what it is like to be inside the head of an individual who has had a TBI with helpful solutions for recovering from a brain injury. Gail's upcoming book, Your Brain Is Lying to You, expands her mission beyond recovery, revealing how anyone, whether healing from trauma or battling self-sabotage, can retrain their brain for resilience, confidence, and purpose. Oh, we got a lot to talk about there. Known as the TBI translator, Gale bridges the gap between complex brain science and real-world strategies, helping individuals, parents, and athletes navigate the silent struggle for brain of brain injuries. Her programs and tools focus on eliminating isolation and building step-by-step systems for rewiring the brain. A certified institute for integrative nutrition health coach, a certified institute for integrative nutrition health coach with a background in education, Gail combines her expertise with her lived experience to deliver to deliver results that theory alone can't match. She has taught in Maine's public schools, coached competitive sports, and built a successful 15-year business in skincare and wellness before her injury changed everything. Today, Gail is on a mission to ensure that no one with a brain injury is discharged without a plan and to empower people everywhere to challenge the lies that their brain tell brat that their brain tells them and most importantly to win. Welcome to the show, Gail. We are so excited to have you on this.

SPEAKER_01:

This is uh I'm thank you. I'm really excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, let's dive into it, man. So what obviously we had uh a TBI, we had an incident that got you on this path of helping so many people. Tell us what happened to you.

SPEAKER_01:

I was in a car accident and it was uh whiplash. And because I had had so many concussions before in my life, it took three days and then it morphed into a traumatic brain injury. And all the symptoms that you would read about for a traumatic brain injury manifested within me. I stuttered, I slurred, I lost my sense of taste, my sense of smell, my vision was messed up. I mean, I was just a mess and I lived alone. I couldn't smell the eggs burning on the stove that I'd forgotten I'd put on, you know, it was uh it was an interesting time for sure. But um, that brain injury showed me how broken the system is, really. And that became my mission to reinvent recovery.

SPEAKER_00:

And before that, you said you had numerous concussions before you even suffered the car crash. What were those concussions? What were those concussions from? Were they sports or some other food?

SPEAKER_01:

It was combined. You know, the the one that sticks in my mind the most uh, I guess dramatic that people would too, really. One was when my dad was shoveling and uh he was shoveling loam and and I just he's shoveling and I'm running up to him excited, and the shovel went right into my right into my head. Yeah. And so that was that was a mammoth event. And then I think it was probably two years later, two or three years later, I was presented a beautiful, we called them English bicycles back then. You know, they had the the brakes on the on the handlebars. On the handlebars.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. And my dad gave me strict instructions as to, you know, how to apply the brakes and what the way he told me not to do it was exactly the way I did it. When I went tearing down my friend's driveway, really excited to go home because my mom was going to take me horseback riding. I loved horses. That's where other that's where I get my body.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, right? So I went tearing down the driveway, and then, oh my goodness, I forgot that rock was there. We lived on dirt roads. We were in North Situate, Rhode Island. And um I went down the driveway and then there's the rock. And I put the handbrakes on abruptly, and of course, I go flying over the handlebars and land on that rock. And I was knocked out for three hours that time. So I spent almost the entire summer in my parents' bedroom, you know, with the darkened shades, and the kids would all come and line up at the bedroom door and bring me gifts that I couldn't, you know, do the coloring books. But they were kind and caring. And yeah, so that was a couple of them. I skied, downhill skiing, and uh, we raced. I had uh four brothers and sisters, and my parents were on the National Ski Patrol. So we were on all the different mountains in New England for free. My dad's best friend, Bill Henry, had a sporting goods store, so it didn't cost them anything to equip us. So we did all the sports, you know, we did all those things. And uh when the car accident happened, I was on my way to a meeting. I'd just gotten out of class at nursing sch in nursing school. And uh yeah, I uh I drove home, but then things just got really bad. They wanted me to go to the hospital, and I argued. I said, No, no, I'm fine, I'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00:

So after you're after your incident, yeah, because, well, I mean, depending on whether you're gonna be chasing ambulances and looking for a big paycheck, or they're saying, you know, being a you know, somebody that's played a lot of sports and been through a lot of uh issues like yourself, saying, ah, I'm good, I'm gonna drive myself home, and not understanding, you know, what could be going on inside your head. So you drove yourself home. How long was it before you noticed that things just weren't right?

SPEAKER_01:

I knew they weren't right soon afterwards because I was gonna go to the meeting anyways. God, okay My trunk's pushed in, the front of my car is damaged, but I'm going to the meeting. And I got to the place where it was, and I was in the parking lot and I forgot what I was there for. And I just drove around and so I thought, no, I better go home. So I went home and then things got more complicated because my computer was in the trunk of my car, which I needed to get out. You know, it's so funny when you're hurt and then your brain's not working right, the things that you do, depending on who you are at the time, dictates what happens next, right? So I I drive my broken car to the car repair shop where they argue with me, and I had a rental car delivered through my insurance company, and then I drove myself to the hospital. That's what happened.

SPEAKER_00:

What when you got to the hospital, I mean, obviously, that what they give you a TBI diagnosis or did, you know, what what what did they do to evaluate you? Because we're getting to the crux of the problem here, which is, you know, it just depends on how the treatment went. But, you know, what was your experience at the hospital from a treatment perspective? Because it sounds like that was part of what drove you on this mission.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, the short story, I did have with contrast, you know, but they said I was fine. Now we know that a CAT scan MRI can give a false uh negative reading. And that's very common according to Dr. Paul Henry Wand, doc who wrote the concussion cure, and he became my neurologist. He's in Florida. I was in Maine and couldn't find anyone who really understood my complaints, including my primary care doctor. So I I I went on a hike from my desk to find someone who would help me. And that ended up being Dr. Wand down in Florida. But it's it's interesting how this injury manifests in so many people and how it's misdiagnosed. And how people who are truly in angst over their inability to feel somewhat normal or, you know, this yearning to go back, it's not so much yearning to go back, it's yearning to adopt to whatever's happening inside your mind so you can function in the world the way you used to function, which is why now I'm I'm advocating for reinvention. You know, I want people, that's why I've developed a system I'm calling the reinvention blueprint, so people can move forward instead of getting stuck in the I can't do this or, you know, why can't I do this? We can do a lot of things. And I understand there are people at different in different phases of their reinvention, but I think everyone stands a great chance to recover because I've seen it and I've worked with people who have done it. Our brains are really fascinating. And when you think about it, they control every aspect of our being, inside and out, how we, you know, and because we all present differently in all those different ways you can think of, that's how different our brains are. So to expect a doctor in an emergency room looking at your test results to be able to proclaim where you are on a tr, you know, on a spectrum is really not much help. Because what's going to be of a great help is if we are able to communicate with those who are there ready to help us, what our problems are. And most people can't do that. And that's, you know, my first book was Heal Your TBI, The Seven Steps to Recovering from a Traumatic Brain Injury. Then I wrote a second book because I thought that, you know, the first book was misguided, misdirected, although it's turned out to be a great book and has helped a lot of people, so I've been told, but um, and seen. But my second book, I, my target market was people who were caring for people with brain injuries so that they could be informed as to what's going on for that person. But I realized that we really needed a way, a tool to help the person say what's wrong with them. Because every time I went to the doctor, it was the same dance. Walk in the door, sit down, how are you doing? Take your blood pressure, tell me what's on your mind. Meanwhile, when I'm getting driven to the doctor, I'm thinking, oh, I've got to remember to tell him that my vision is real wonky in my left eye, but then it changes when I do whatever and that this is wrong and this is wrong. I had a list of things, but I'd get there, and because the doctor had his regimen, it sort of knocked me off balance cognitively, so that I didn't mention all those things. And then I drive home frustrated, thinking, oh my goodness, I didn't, I didn't ask about this and I didn't tell him that. So I I wrote my journal for people to be able to keep track of their symptoms on a weekly basis so that when they go to the doctor, they can take it out and say, Here, could you read this while we're here so that we can we can uh get this stuff taken care of?

SPEAKER_00:

So what was it when you first got initiated? Something drove you to write that book, right? So what was it, what was it, you know, the the diagnosis and treatment that you went through? And then what were the gaps in care that just weren't satisfactory that caused you to say, look, I've got to fix this, man. I've got I I'm on my own here, right? And a lot of us with TBIs or you know, brain-related damage, having suffered it myself and and knowing what my son went through and couldn't talk about, are dealing with those silent struggles in those head in your heads. But you have to you have to recognize that they're there. So what was it about after the accident that that that that whole diagnosis and treatment program? What was lacking there that that led you to write that book that's helped so many people?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, you know, I did see all these things that were not right. You know, I had spent a great deal of time with my parents as they were bowing out. And I saw that when people had procedures done, you know, no matter how small it was, we needed a wheelchair to come and get them out of their room and bring them down to the front door, despite the fact that they could walk and laugh and tell jokes. You know, so when I'm diagnosed with a brain injury, they hand me two pieces of paper that say, Here you go. If you notice any of these things, call your primary care doctor. And then I I walk out the door of the emergency room with a brain injury by myself, I live alone, I get in my car, and I drive myself home. And I don't remember how I even got home, but I did. And then over the course of those days, you know, things started to go sideways. You know, my balance went. I fell down the stairs, I broke a rib, I ended up in bed by my, you know, with nobody knowing that I'm injured in bed now, can barely breathe, and oh my gosh, I don't know how people do it who's who have broken ribs. That is a painful ordeal.

SPEAKER_00:

They I've heard them in rugby, yeah. They're they're no fun. They aren't.

SPEAKER_01:

My goodness.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yeah. So tell us about the book. Okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01:

The book, what happened was I'm sitting around by myself and I'm doing the best that I can with what I have, and I realize that I need to get out of this box that I'm in. I need to get out of it. And how am I going to do that? Well, I need to find some people. I need to talk to some people. I know I can't talk to the doctors because I've tried that. And I know I've been to the to the brain specialty center in Portland, Maine, and they had me do a bunch of ridiculous things that no one should be asked to do at that point of their injury. So, and and they tried to evaluate me and do speech therapy when I'm stuttering and nothing's working right, and all that does is frustrate you. And, or me anyway, maybe other people not so much, because we're all different, right? But I was so frustrated with everything. And so I thought, you know, I can't be the only person sitting in my house, in a house with a brain injury and having this trouble. There are other people out there, and they need to know what to do. So we're gonna figure it out together. So I started, um, I started getting education on my computer. I went to classes. I attended the Institute of Integrative Nutrition, which I was told that it's a 10th grade level, and I had the worst time with that curriculum and had to bow out after being in the course for several months and asked if I could return when I could handle it. And keep in mind, you know, I was a great student before all this and, you know, I had many, many capabilities. So I just kept pushing because I didn't no one what happened was my doctor said to me one day, he said, you know, you're 60 years old. And and he would always remind me of one of his patients who was an engineer and who had had a head injury and who never got better. He just kept getting worse. And for some reason, my doctor thought he needed to share that story with me every time I went to see him. And then on this one day, he said to me, You know, Gail, you just might not get better.

SPEAKER_00:

Not the diagnosis, the diagnosis that anybody wants to hear.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I thought to myself, you know, people only know what they know. What does he know? What does he know? And so I thought, you know, I'm gonna go find out. And one of the uh after the Integrative Institute of Nutrition, when I when I got through that and learned all about how powerful food was, I mean, I always knew it to be that way, but now I had some science. And uh I loved that. And I connected with a doctor, Dr. Shauna Menard, who had bowed out of her radiology role at a hospital up in Canada and decided to start coaching people who wanted to coach other people in certain health areas because it's her opinion that doctors are overworked, underpaid, don't have time, and patients need to be able to ask questions and they don't have time to answer them. In my opinion, most of the doctors can't answer questions about brain injury recovery anyway. So it's it's okay. And I don't and I'm not knocking them. The poor guys and women who've gone to medical school weren't given a curriculum in brain injury recovery.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it's they don't get too much on it. Did they refer you? I mean, were you seeing a neurologist through all this time? Or they made they were they helpful at all? I mean, it's the uh you know, it's uh I mean it you should have been seeing one. I mean, uh but it sounds like if you were, they weren't really doing their job either, helping you out.

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Powell Well, no, I I saw Dr. Wand in telemedicine is who I saw. And that that was it. And um Dr. Menard had written a book, and I was in her Zoom meetings with other coaches, and now I could not speak without stuttering, but I was there. And she took me aside and she said to me, you know, you're going to coach people in brain injury recovery because you know more than anyone else right now. And that really stuck with me. And I didn't believe it for the longest time until I did.

SPEAKER_00:

The um No, and and that makes perfect. I mean, that makes perfect sense. But but so in your book, you write this book, you got seven steps. Are those seven what are those seven steps? How did you identify them as being a helpful guide to people? I mean, obviously, people have been uh you know have been so helped by your book, but you felt you felt the need to write this. I had to write a book because there was no book out there for parents to understand the impact of contact sports. There's none. There was not one. I wrote it, you know, and so I understand when you find these gaps, the need and the desire to educate people, because you know there's 2.5 million TBIs in this country year, and a lot of them are from car crashes. So you I add to your point, you're absolutely not alone. You're not the only car crash indecent, you know, you know, car crash victim out there suffering from brain-related problems. And if, you know, and and it's and and treatment still hasn't caught up. I mean, brain health is not a priority. The brain is still out of space for most of us. It's the final frontier when it comes to health science and understanding, my opinion. So uh tell us about your book. Um, it sounds, you know, the you know, it sounds like it's it's a must-read for anybody that has brain injuries.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, the seven steps are simply steps that address all aspects of our daily life. And, you know, from rest, relaxation, getting sleep, um, pursuing interests, making yourself attend to pleasurable activities and ferreting out those things that bring you peace and taking time to do them. Nutrition is huge. And I know you know this. And it's so it has been overlooked by many medical professionals. And I can only imagine how many people have been given a list of things that are healthy and low glycemic index or whatever. But, you know, we do need our omegas, we need to have some healthy fats. Our brain consumes an immense amount of our caloric intake and needs it. And to not know about these things is is criminal, really. So I was committed to sharing what I learned about and what I figured out actually to be of help. One of the things that was a huge help to me was having two dogs and spending at least twice a day outside in the woods. And at first my balance was so poor that it was dangerous. And I had to go with a friend. And I also didn't have a sense of direction. So I really needed to go to the house. But in the first time I went by myself, I was glad I had the dogs because they knew how to get back. But I actually get disoriented. So, you know, I just put all these things down, things that I knew would be helpful, and as along with these different modes of treatment that doctors didn't tell you about, you know, neurofeedback, HBOT, you know, all of these things that we need to have insurance cover and massage, everything that could help someone get their life back. And it's different for everyone. And I've seen this when working with people. What works for one person doesn't necessarily work for another. So that's why I like my journal because it's a it's a good way to ferret out what the problems are. And then there are certain things that we know can help people once we identify those parts of their brain that are in need. So neurofeedback is great for that. So fantastic when you do it, you know, the Loretta database, and there's a Dr. Steve Stockdale. Have you talked to him yet?

SPEAKER_00:

I have not, ma'am.

SPEAKER_01:

Steve Stockdale is in Colorado, and he's been working with the Army, the United States and military for 30 years with the neurofeedback. And I don't know how I found him, but I did, and he's become a great friend. And he is a resource just for all kinds of things, brain-related and brain recovery. He's in Colorado Springs, and he advocates for blood work being done right away and functional medical doctors involved and getting levels on things and not indiscriminately taking vitamins, supplements. We take what we need, and once we get a fill of it, perhaps, you know, you don't take as much anymore, and all of that good stuff. You know, finding a balance within our body, and there's one therapy that I did that I didn't receive it till I think it was about five years, and it was cranial sacral therapy. And I thought that it was I thought I might as well try it. And once I did it, I was so relieved. Did you ever try cranial sacral?

SPEAKER_00:

No, I my wife knows about that. I have not come across that yet. Uh, talk to us about it. It sounds like a pretty amazing therapy.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the craniosacral therapy is a very gentle therapy. And one would think that it's not doing anything. I thought, what could this possibly be doing? But you you lie in a bed, and I had a doctor, and he explained to me that it's very important that you have someone who's been trained in the up ledger method, that there are a lot of people out there now that brain injury recovery is becoming fashionable in some therapeutic settings, you know, you need to be make buyer beware, you need to make sure that you have someone who's been trained in the up ledger method. And what what the whole thing is about when you're getting receiving this for a brain injury is that when we when we get clocked in the head, it knocks uh knocks the bones of our skull out of alignment. So you have the sutures, right, of your cranium, and they can be a skew. And when they're a skew, it affects the way your cerebral brain fluid flows. So if it's not flowing the way it's supposed to, and you're trying to correct yourself using some type of therapy, it may not be effective because this isn't straightened out yet. So you can do all these things out here, but they're not going to work unless you just you have an your body has an integrity to it. Your skeleton has to be in alignment. And that includes, most of all, your cranium. And I hear very few people talk about this, and that it bewilders me because I personally experienced the change. And it was huge.

SPEAKER_00:

No, and we have had people, we've had at least one chiropractor come on the show and talk about the atlas, which is the very top of the spinal column and how, if that's out of whack, and most, you know, there's special tools that chiropractor used to put that in a lot in rack. And I have heard that that from you know, being able to process cerebral uh CSF, right? Cerebral uh fluid is um CSF, cerebral spinal fluid, and get that flowing up and down to allow the brain to clean itself out and um and improve brain health is key. So no doubt that what you're talking about works. Now, you are the TBI translator, right? We have 2.4 million TBIs in the year. So, you know, let's talk about young adults, teenagers and below. Parents come to you, my kids had a TBI, it could be a concussion from a sports incident, could be a bike accident, could be a car accident. What are some of the things you'd ask them to focus on so that they can do a much better job given the fact that concussions are, you know, they're kind of treated like headaches nowadays, right? I mean, don't get me wrong, there's a new focus on them, but you know, it's two weeks for the most part, and you're back. We're not doing post-concussion surveys on our kids. We're not doing a lot of things that we could be because we don't not comprehend, even at the medical level, how you know, how dangerous its concussion actually is. You know, it's a it's an injury to the brain. And it's not to be taken as lightly as I took them, and as many people do take them now. So we have a concussion, it is an MTBI, could be even a serious concussion, could be a TBI. What are some of the things you tell our parents out there to focus on? And for you know, the adults too. I mean, obviously there's things that you know we need to do better. What do you what are some of those?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, initially they need to uh eliminate screens and stay away from computers, and they may need, they absolutely are going to need glasses that will protect their eyes from the computer. They must not engage in social media groups where people are crawling all over each other and supporting each other in their bewilderment. I had to stay far away from those groups. I would dip in and out to see, to get a temperature, read the room, so I would be able to go off and find solutions because I'm a solution-driven person. I don't want to sit around and talk about what's not working. I want to identify what's not working and I want to go find, find the answer for it. And for everyone, there's a different answer. For instance, one family contacted me, Stanford, Connecticut. Their son had been in an accident. They'd found my book online, Heal Your TBI. And the mother and I had three Zoom meetings. I was concussed at the time, still pretty bad, but I was determined. So what I would tell people is go find someone to help. Go find something you can do. Go find something you can do and you feel comfortable doing and you enjoy doing and do that. And you may have some difficulty with it, but if you're in a comfortable environment, what will happen is your brain will start having to work around those blocks to help you to do what it is you want to do. If that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so challenge your brain.

SPEAKER_01:

You have to challenge your brain and you must challenge yourself. You can't sit around licking your wounds, so to speak. You have to you have to get on with it. And I think people and I I certainly am not saying that you can't acknowledge the loss because it's a huge loss. And I think, you know, for a lot of people you need a period of time to do that. But, you know, maybe five minutes for me was good enough. And then I was like, Gail, let's get and I think it's a personality thing. So what do I tell parents? I have to get a read on the I have to get a read on the child because every single one is different. And I taught public school for and and I taught art. So I had the ability and the opportunity to see different learning styles in action. And I loved that job. And I I I love kids. You know, everyone has their own need and their own um their own preferred way of absorbing, taking in information. So I don't think there's any one thing, but what I tell all parents is you have to get the the diet straight right away. You have to get all the sugar out. You have to eliminate anything that's creating inflammation. And that includes toxins in the environment. You know, when you stand over your car when you're filling it up with gas, those fumes are coming up. I mean I I try never to be near that because you don't want to be breathing in that stuff. And there open up your kitchen cupboard underneath and how many things do you have under there that are toxic? And when you use them, that's bad for us. There are body products that are bad for us. They're, you know, shampoos and soaps and you know someone said to me once, well what can I do? And I said, well, you know, just eliminate everything and start from scratch, you know, just find something that works and is non-toxic when it comes to any personal products or cleaning products because there are a lot of them now. And our mattresses do you realize the mattress you sleep on emits toxic gas unless it's, you know, a certain type.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, no, it's that and that's all important, but you know, parents want to understand, you know, what can I do for my child? And a lot of parents right now don't have access to concussion specialists, right? Which is what we you got to find somebody that understands concussions, right? And then you brought up MRIs earlier, right? MRIs are always the number, you know, you go to an emergency room you get an MRI. Well we know that MRIs and CT scans only see major brain bleeds. They cannot articulate or visualize the damage like an FMRI, a QEG, or some of these other scans that are now available can do. So you know parents are always looking like, what can I do in addition to what, you know, that I don't want to, I don't believe in this two weeks anymore, right? This is how parents talking to us. I want to know that my child is ready to go back to play or go back to school. Are there any pieces of advice you could provide our parents on when you think in your mind, when when is the TBI really healed? You know, when when when should you not say it you know healed, but when can you go back to work?

SPEAKER_01:

At what point can you say, all right, I am ready to re-engage with life, whether that's work, whether that's play, or whether that's school I think uh neurofeedback is a great tool for ascertaining whether or not that would be time because it will, you know, the QEEG will show the Q E G will show not the neurofeed the Q EEG will show what the state of the brain is. And it can show as you know mini brain bleeds. And and so a spec scan as well. You know, Dr. Daniel Eymon talks about the spec scan and the power of the spec scan but I do b I I believe that is a they that is the test that should be done. It shouldn't be subjective, you know, how are you feeling today and if you can react fast enough. I mean that's that's one thing. But the actual state of the brain, I mean it's curious to me and disappointing that we can we can see the state of the health of a heart or a lung or a kidney or but we don't look at the brain. Why aren't we looking at the brain? And and there are ways to do that as we know. So it needs to be done and we just shouldn't guess as to when Mary can go back onto the soccer field or John can get back on the court. It shouldn't be guesswork. It doesn't have to be guessware and that's why I want to see baseline testing done on all athletes at the start of the season and I don't mean uh I don't mean a quiz, you know, on what they think about you know you know that you can fail so you look good when you're concussed, right? You know it's uh but I want them to have an actual test, you know, that shows oh this brain is in this state of health and then when they get clocked we can see the difference. And then when they get better we can see that they've gotten better.

SPEAKER_00:

It shouldn't be guesswork it doesn't have to be and you bring up a great point is that because of our ignorance and how the brain functions and our inability to see deep into the brain like you mentioned a broken arm or something we are guessing. And we can't guess with our kids' brains anymore. Okay? We can't guess with our athletes' brains because guess what? When we guess wrong and they go back out the damage is even more severe. You got second, you got you know you, you know, we know that the you know and that as soon as you have a concussion matter of fact I just learned this yesterday there was a study done in Finland if you get one concussion right you have a 15% less chance of even getting into college. Just one concussion. I mean that was a study on a on a huge huge set of subjects out there. So concussions are serious. I mean they can impact the rest of our life I mean you know I still suffer from the impact of the concussions I have you're still probably you know still suffering from some of the ones that you had back in your life but it's all about improving brain health optimizing brain health and then being very rigorous and very forgiving as to when we're going to re-engage because to your point we shouldn't be guessing. I mean it it it's crazy the point is for guessing is all but let's talk about you know brain health and and you brought up a good point. You go to the doctors they can see my heart they can see that but they can't see the brain how how do we fix that I mean for the baseline it sounds like the QEG or a similar scan parents can get that done by their for their children. And now they've got a baseline that you can't and you can't argue with that right Tom here's your QEG here's your picture and here it is now we're done okay we're done you're you're going you know we're done with the sport for the season maybe until your QEEG reads a lot uh better are you coming across any technologies out there that are making let's say brain assessments brain evaluations any easier or getting them actually into the doctor's office where they're we're aware of some technologies that can literally put a helmet on your head and you can get a printout of a brain printout with recommendations. You coming across anything like that out there?

SPEAKER_01:

You know the main Veterans Association has put in the technology that uses the cue and neurofeedback which is tremendous and according to the two neurologists I mean Dr. Stockdale is a neuropsychologist and Dr. Paul Henry Wand is a neurologist of 30 years. He swears by the a holy triumvirate of the HVOT, the neurofeedback and then the pneumotine so Dr. Wand is not big on drugs but pneumotine is one drug that he says everyone needs to use and pneumotine is a drug that was developed for pregnant women's high blood pressure and then they found out that the pregnant women were only receiving relief from the neck up so they stopped using the pneumotine now it's interesting because when I was first diagnosed with my injury and spoke with Dr. Wan almost 10 years ago he he was using the pneumotine back then and he shared with me a titrading schedule for it. He he used it's a schedule a prescription to use it off label. And I I looked it up online 10 years ago and I found the story about the pregnant women and how it was developed and all that. If you look it up now they're using it for people who've had strokes which is great. So but Dr. Juan says it doesn't matter how long ago your injury was anyone can benefit from his prescription is titrating's of course he he's not practicing medicine anymore so you know he can only talk about it. I mean he can't prescribe it for anybody now because he he's left he's left that field. He's doing something different Yeah. So but uh it's a remarkable drug and I I'd like to share with the audience about a young man whose family that contacted me and I said I had the argument with them about whether or not I could help him because you know I was stuttering and he was on a ventilator and in home because his mother and father were told by the staff at the Stanford hospital that he wasn't he'd been on life support for four months and he had been in a car accident. And the doctors told the family that he wasn't going to be very good and they wanted to just disconnect him. And the mother said you know as all mama bears dude don't be messing my kid yeah yeah he's coming home he's coming home so they went home and the father got online and started looking and they found me and I said you know I don't know what to do but you can call Dr. Wand and they called Dr. Wand and Dr. Wand did telemedicine with them and he put Miguel on pneumotopine and Miguel who was out for four months woke up four days later after starting the pneumotine and some people say I've talked to a neurologist who said oh that has nothing to do with anything well okay that's her opinion. I just know that you know he he woke up and he just graduated actually what a great story.

SPEAKER_00:

So let's talk about your second book your brain's lying to you all right and we because one one part of and I don't know the exact synopsis of the book but we do know that post TBI you have your treatment phase now you have to deal with yourself right you you might be changed and you might have the opportunity change right you might have the opportunity to grow and so when we talk about you know we never talk about PTSD post-traumatic stress we like to talk about post-traumatic growth people that have overcome adversity such as a TBI and much like yourself that have gone on to do amazing things for other people so let's talk about that your brain's lying to what's the premise of the book and I know before you'd mentioned something that it it has to do with caretakers and getting them to understand the brains of I guess the injured person. So tell us about that book and how it's helping people as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Well the book is not yet out your brain is lying to you. So your brain it will be out within the month and it's also got a a workbook that will come with it called the reinvention blueprint. And the idea behind the book is that you know we have to reinvent our we have a lot of people talk about brain injury recovery, but we don't want to recover what we had. We we want to reinvent we want to build on what we are and all of that if you were to go back you wouldn't want to be there anyway because so much more how many people have you talked to Bruce who tell you that their brain injury brought them a whole new life and a whole different perspective and so many things that they never even imagined. I mean who was it uh Gary Busey who who could I mean it's an extreme example but who could speak in the rhymes you know just speaks in rhymes and how that's how his brain works now it's rather magical actually and I think that everyone needs to be provided the opportunity to reinvent themselves with you know my reinvention blueprint system actually and it just because of the way that I see people and have interacted with people and helped thousands of students actually find their way to themselves not to my idea of who they should be but help them uncover everyone has such magic within them. We just have to get it to the forefront identify what what m what works for you, what interests you and then we plug those in and then we work in that direction. It's something that works for everybody in a different way if that makes sense. You know I like to identify everyone as being as unique as they are and bring that forth and in doing so that helps people live a full and much more improved life and you know there's something I always take I talk to people all the time is everything that happens to us is an opportunity even a TBI.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay and there are unfortunate circumstances that happen to all of us could be a death like my son could be a brain injury it could be the loss of a loved one it could be a divorce could be a separation whatever it is it is an opportunity that God has put in our place to make a decision. What are we going to do now? And that every opportunity that we have in our lives the opportunity to and to your point reinvent is there in front of us. Whether we take that we open that door whether we take that option to move forth in a positive direction and to find ourselves the person that God intended us to be this the TBI is all part of that. You know there's people out there to say everything in life is preordained. You're supposed to have that TBI because otherwise you can't get to this point if you don't get challenged if you don't have that. I find that to be you know I don't even think that's optimistic. I am a very big fate faith guy but I do think that your point on reinventing yourself is very powerful because we are challenged with TBIs. We are challenged with anything could be healthcare could be COVID could be whatever right but everything is an opportunity to come back bigger and badder and better than before. And so I have no doubt that your book is going to have an amazing impact on those out there because people need to know that when you're challenged it's not the end of the world it's the start of something new and for us it's the start of a new world. It's the start of a new world it's the start of a new chapter. Now what are you going to do with it? Are you going to sit there and and and you know rewrite the chapter and live in the past that you can't change and worry about a future that you can't change either are you going to live in the now are you going to take the moment and are you going to drive on so I'm looking forward to reading your book and then get to know more. So as we get ready to close the show out I always give you know our guests the chance to talk about themselves. Our audience wants to know what are you doing? What are you going to do next? We can talk about the book how do people find you how do people contact you so they can remain in touch with you and your and your remarkable levels of expertise to help them out in what could be a time of need that they don't even know exists right.

SPEAKER_01:

No that's really kind of you and I I I appreciate the opportunity to be here and share what little I know but you know I I want everybody to remember that recovery it's it's not about going back and it's about reinventing forward, right? As we just said and so my work that I hope to share with millions is is about giving people not only hope but this is a practical system to help change a story and reinvent what's possible after brain injury because there's so many choices. And you know what I'll be doing is spreading the good word about that and other things. I've people can look up my work I'd encourage them to go to the California Business Journal, Rick Weinberg, the owner and the editor of that, who was very much involved in sports commentating for a long time you may know the name he gave me the lead story on a few occasions and we've kept them as imperfect as they were at the time because if you if someone were to look at my work they'll see that it's changed over time because my brain's changed and it's it's come back to so much better, right? You know I'm in the imperfections I I'm letting them stand there and I'll stand on them. You know I'm not I'm not standing in my story. I want to stand on it. And I want everybody else to do the same because there's so much that we don't know. And one of the things I want everyone to keep in mind is that we only doctors only know what they know. We only know what we know and if something doesn't feel right go find the answer because it exists and it's there. This is uncharted territory and with the millions of brain injuries and only 2000 neurologists in the country and people waiting three and four months for their first neurology appointment and then they get in there and I mean that's a whole other thing. I mean it's time for people to share what they know that's what you're doing here. And uh and I I'd love to help with that. So get the word out and pull all the information in together and help people get back on track. I'm on all the social media with my name and also it the website reinvention blueprint dot com and hailyourtbi.com so those are those are where I live on online and uh and I I I enjoy being contacted and answering questions for people. I'm not a doctor but I certainly am really good I'm I'm I'm a I'm a little badger when it comes to like digging out you know stuff that we need to find out to help someone. I love doing that. I just love doing that. And uh I'd like to keep doing that.

SPEAKER_00:

Well thank you so much for being that badger because I don't know what they say honey badger don't take no bluff or whatever right back in the day. So no we need badgers because if it wasn't badgers for badgers like you we wouldn't be changing the way that things are right and shifting the paradigm to create more awareness of how fragile and vulnerable and critical our brain is and any ding to it impacts us in so many other ways and and that are profound and we need to respect you know we need we need to respect what God's given us he only gave us he only gave us one and it doesn't really have a lot of protection so we got to keep things moving. So to our audience out there another great uh another great guest I mean please go get this you know anybody's had a TBI go get Gail's book it's online it's probably is it on Amazon can you buy it on Amazon Gail?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah you know if people go online and they just put in Gail Waitkin in a Google search it'll bring up a whole page of choices and one of them will be my books on Amazon and that's the best way to find my books on Amazon actually.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. So go do a Google search and I'll pop up and then just you can read the journal articles and everything and we all know people yeah we get a book we all we all know people that that need that book. So thank you so much for coming on the show. As we close out folks don't forget we'll have an after action report like we do in the military of our repetitive brain trauma summit the only one in the world second one being held in September we've got the U.S. Special Operations Commander we've got uh Lee Steinberg the most successful sport agent ever speaking on the issue of repetitive brain trauma Dr. Mark Gordon Dr. Jim Kelly Dr. Dan Pearl a host of other experts in wellness brain optimization brain treatment professional players veterans it is the brain networking event to be at please join us there. September 24th Big Mac for Mac Day that's the day that our boy left us we all go to McDonald's we get a Big Mac get ready take a picture with that Big Mac in your hand and send it into our Facebook page every year hundreds and thousands of people just do it. It's amazing how that's grown just to not only honor our boy but his legacy which is this podcast and people like Gail that come on. Army Navy game in December huge fuel concert all you can eat all you can drink all the money goes to veterans mental health please join us out there. We got VIP tickets tickets we're partnered with Horse Soldier Bourbon and Blue Fusion you know the Bourbon Blue Fusion remarkable data analytic company that uh is trusted by law enforcement and uh the U.S. military to do amazing things with data. Both of them are going to be sponsoring this event. It's gonna be massive we're gonna have VSOs, veteran support organizations, patients, NFL players come on out, say that last two things don't forget to get your free book off the website the only book for parents I had to write that darn thing. And then the the safe the get smart head smart app on the Google and Apple store again the only app out there for free concussion related with repetitive ed impacts out there. So folks as we close down remember take note of what we've been talking about. This issue is important it is critical it costs our society so much pain and we can do better. We can all can do better. God gave you one melon take care of that thing. God bless you all we'll see you on the next episode of Broken Brains. Take care