After a brain injury, it is really common to struggle with identity when your abilities and entire life changes. Today, we are talking about finding yourself again after your injury, even through the symptoms and changes. Cristabelle interviews inspiring TBI survivor Madi Grose, who shares her story and encouragement on how to cope with living with a significant traumatic brain injury. We also discuss how to find joy and happiness, even while walking through the very real feelings of grief and sadness. This is an uplifting episode as you'll hear Madi's joy radiate through the entire conversation!

Overstimulation and brain fog can be frustrating both for the survivor and for the people around them. This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, Taryn Barlow is here to teach us some tools on how to evaluate our environment, lifestyle, and symptoms to figure out the source of overstimulation. We talk about practicing Sensory Awareness, how to have a "battle plan" of strategies to help, and the importance of being patient with yourself.

It can be hard to hold onto hope when it feels like there are just setbacks around every corner. Listen as Cristabelle shares her heart on this and how to continue moving forward, even when things are really hard. You are not alone.

A major part of living with brain injury can become the doctors appointments, therapies, and healthcare system - but it doesn't have to be overwhelming.

This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, listen to an inspiring survivor story as Dillon Berenty shares his journey of hope through brain trauma. After a concussion, Dillon was taken to the hospital, and through the scans a brain tumor was discovered. Six brain surgeries later, and a 10% chance of survival, Dillon is beating the odds every day. He shares some of the symptoms, struggles, ways he has learned to adapt, and how he has learned to keep perspective through it all. This is an uplifting story that is sure to encourage you, wherever you are at on your journey.

Hormones can become disrupted after a brain injury. This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, Melissa Biscardi is here to share current research and dive deeper into what this looks like for females, including the menstrual cycle, menopause, birth control, and more. We also discuss practical steps you can take if you think you or your loved one's hormones may have been affected.

Living with a brain injury, some days hope is the only thing that gets you through.

This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, Cristabelle is joined by her mother, Cyndie Braden, to speak about lessons they have learned over the 14 years of brain injuries. They speak vulnerably about some of the difficult aspects of the journey, while also sharing the growth in the family, caregiver, and survivor perspectives. You will also hear clips of Cristabelle from 10 years ago in 2012 speaking about her injury, at around the 5 year mark, as we reflect on 10 years of Hope After Head Injury.  

Communication is so important to our world, but it can be drastically affected for brain injury survivors. Difficulties include word finding, forming ideas, expressing oneself, understanding nonverbal cues, and more… so let’s work to understand this deeper and talk about some tips that can help!

This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, we are diving into the connection between communication and cognition, and how this can be affected after brain injury. Katherine Noyes is a Speech Language Pathologist who is here to guide us in learning tools for improvement for executive functioning and communication. We also discuss tips for family/caregivers to help the survivor get their goal of communication across, as well as the non-verbal side of social cues, difficulty understanding sarcasm, and more.

Brain injury affects the whole person - and every injury is different. That is why it is so important to learn as much as we can about current research and rehab practices.

This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, Melissa Biscardi from Rehab Lab is guiding us through pillars of concussion care to learn about different pieces of recovery that we may not have known to address. This includes: Autonomic Nervous System, Nutrition / Supplements, Psychological Support, Soft Tissue / Manual Therapy, Rehab + Memory / Cognition. We will also discuss how to find the right clinician. You’ll leave this episode with some takeaways that can help you to find where to go next in your recovery journey.

After 17+ concussions, Nick Krantz found himself at the end of his rope, having been told by many medical professionals that there wasn't really anything he could do, and he would just have to live with the symptoms. It was then that he discovered that there is so much more to brain injury recovery than he ever knew, and he began a journey of learning to overcome PCS, including nutrition, mindset, balancing hormones, exercise, and more. Today, Nick shares his story of overcoming PCS and finding hope in recovery.

After a concussion or brain injury, the function of the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) can be commonly disrupted. This can cause a dysregulation between the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system - leading to increased symptoms.

This week on the podcast, Natasha Wilch is back to explain the ins and outs of the ANS as it relates to brain injury. She will also explain dysautonomia and POTS, and share some practical tools to improve autonomic function.

How can the "invisible" injury affect our self worth? Survivors often don’t realize their own identity as separate from their brain injury. Living with symptoms for so long can take a toll on mental health. It's also easy to take in how other people view the "invisible" injury and let it negatively impact how we view ourselves. But you are more than your injury, and there is hope for improvement!

This week, Cristabelle Braden goes deeper into some lesser known pieces of her own story, candidly sharing some of the harder parts to talk about including mental health struggles, navigating social cues, abuse and trauma, and more.

Something often overlooked in brain injury recovery is the effect of trauma or PTSD on the survivor. Trauma symptoms can have a lot of overlap with brain injury symptoms, as both stimulate the Autonomic Nervous System. Dr. Jen Blanchette helps us to uncover what this overlap can mean, and explains how addressing trauma can often be a missing piece that can really help to further along brain injury recovery.

Dr. Roy Wilkins is an expert in sleep medicine - and a brain injury survivor himself! This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, we discuss some specifics on how to sleep better after a brain injury. Dr. Wilkins also shares important information on sleep hygiene, what a sleep study will do, and hope that there is help available.

This is Part 2 - check out last week’s episode to hear an introduction on how sleep affects the brain and sleep disturbances after brain injury, along with more of Dr. Wilkins personal journey with TBI.

Dr. Roy Wilkins is an expert in sleep medicine - and a brain injury survivor himself! This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, we will learn the importance of how sleep affects the brain. Dr. Wilkins also shares some of his own journey with TBI, along with why there can be sleep disturbances after a brain injury.

This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, married couple and survivor/caregiver duo Terry & Drew Niemann are here to inspire us and talk about some of the challenges and lessons learned on their journey. We also discuss mental health, depression, mindfulness, and the importance of communication from both sides.

Drew & Terry also host their own podcast called "A Battle Within" - hear Cristabelle's interview on their podcast on Ep.120 "There is Always Hope" https://abattlewithin.com/120/ and check out their podcast on all platforms!
Connect with them: @a_battle_within

This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, fitness professional David Freeman, who has also had concussions from playing football, helps us to connect to our values and strengths and shares some tangible things we can do to improve our recovery and overall wellness.

While each brain injury is unique, there are things we can do to treat it - as you find what works on your personal path of recovery.

This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, Dr. Molly Parker shares her personal concussion experience, including advice for work/life/symptom balance, routine, and boundaries. Then, we dive into the different types/sub-types of concussions, understanding your individual symptom profile, how to find the right provider, and more!

What does “normal” mean anyway? Jeff Huxford was a family medicine doctor in northwest Indiana for ten years before having to retire due to complications from a traumatic brain injury (TBI). He has since become a blogger, author, and speaker - and his story is currently being turned into a feature film!

Brain Injuries are invisible. You can't see them on the outside, and that's one of the reasons awareness is so important. They can be overlooked, misdiagnosed, or mistreated, and survivors feel the burden. 

This week on Hope Survives® | Brain Injury Podcast, Cristabelle shares some of her personal brain injury story, and how she has seen awareness improve over the last decade - along with encouragement for how you can make a difference by bringing awareness right where you are.