Episode 4: Chapter 2 - Robbie Frawley - Treatment, management strategies and learning about 'neuroplasticity' (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 treatment I received initially, useful management strategies and the important learning about neuroplasticity.

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:

• ^00:35 - Find people who can help you and get a referral. I was lucky and was referred early by my GP to Grace McKellar Trauma Rehabilitation Centre in Geelong,
• ^03:59 - The team at Grace McKellar gave me a variety of management strategies which were important throughout my recovery. These included:
  • 'Pacing' - being aware of your limited energy supply during recovery and choosing carefully what and how you do things so that you don't run your tank empty,
  • Reducing work (until I could grade back up),
  • Incrementally increasing & reintroducing activities (Graded re-acclimatisation). The brain and the body adapt to graded acclimatisation incredibly well,
• 14:15  If you don't feel like you are making progress, try to stand further back and look over a longer timeframe to really assess if things are heading in the right direction,
• ^17:30 - Other helpful management strategies they taught me:
  • Introducing structured mini breaks (to recharge throughout the day). Grounding myself by closing my eyes and listening to the sounds around me,
  • Breaking up tasks to do them in small bite size components and allowing time to recharge between them,
• 22:30 - Meditation has been really helpful in recovery and normal life. I like the 'calm' app but try a few and find one you like (e.g. 'headspace', 'smiling mind', balance'),
• ^24:22 - I'd highly recommend reading (or listening) to the book 'The Brain that Changes Itself - Norman Doidge). The stories in this book provided light and hope that I could get better and taught me about the concept of neuroplasticity.

^Robbie's main tips