Robbie (Post Concussion Syndrome): Chapter 4 - Major learnings

Stories of Recovery

Episode 4: Chapter 4 - Robbie Frawley - Major learnings (PCS).

In this episode I tell my story of recovering from post concussion syndrome (PCS). It took me 7 years to fully recover, but if I knew at the start everything that I know now, I believe it would have taken me only a fraction of this time and that’s why I want to share these learnings with you. I hope that they give you some hope and they help you with your own recovery.
In this chapter I talk about the major learnings which got me from the plateau I'd been at for years, onto the path to full recovery.
My brilliant guest interviewer on this episode is Associate Professor Tasha Stanton. Tasha is the Osteoarthritis Research Theme Lead for IIMPACT in Health at the University of South Australia and a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Fellow.

Tasha is a clinical pain neuroscientist with original training as a physiotherapist. Her research focusses on pain and she has a specific interest in pain education, osteoarthritis, low back pain, cortical body representation, somatosensation and body illusions using virtual and mediated reality. In short though, she’s one of the leading pain researchers globally, and it was ultimately through meeting Tasha and learning some lessons from her field of pain science that helped me to find the final steps back to 100%.

Full transcripts and show notes are available for each chapter on the podcast website: storiesofrecovery.buzzsprout.com
Shownotes:

• 01:45 - As I improved I began to reintroduce more physical activity and social activity,
• 02:30 - My tolerance to 'impact' (such as jogging) was still proving problematic,
• 03:15 - My housemate (a physio at the Warrnambool hospital) had studied a subject focussed on 'pain science' within her degree at the University of South Australia. She was aware of a group called the Pain Revolution who were going to be visiting town to give presentations about neuroplasticity and pain science. The group was started by leading pain scientists from UniSA in an effort to raise awareness and education within the community (and of health professionals) re. current scientific knowledge about pain,
• ^08:10 - I now see the learnings from pain science (as explained in Lorimer Moseley and David Butler's book Explain Pain) as being completely relevant, translatable and applicable to my experience recovering from post concussion syndrome and potentially for other chronic neurological conditions which we discuss within this podcast series,
• ^11:10 - Tasha and I discuss DIM-SIM therapy in more detail and explain why it matters,
• 15:30 - I moved to Melbourne and worked with an exercise physiologist at the Epworth Concussion Clinic to try and acclimatise to impact,
• 20:00 - Getting a few light knocks to the head which resulted in symptom exacerbation made me question if the symptoms I was experiencing were warranted or if something else was going on, and if any unhelpful neuronal crosswiring had developed as explained in The Brain that Changes Itself and to me by a neuropsychologist years earlier,
• ^26:55 - I share a simple tool that the neuropsychologist taught me that was a game changer for me in my recovery and introduce you to 'Bertie',
• 30:30 - A week later I had the opportunity to put the technique to the test (and another helpful 'grounding' technique) and it proved life changing.

^Robbie's main learnings