PLEASE READ!
Please note that The Post Concussion Podcast has been closed for new episodes as of early 2024. Concussion Connect is also closed.
Thank you to everyone who was so supportive over the years and I hope these episodes continue to help others as they come across them!
I have set on a new venture (with a pen name - Izzy Barry) you can learn more about here
https://izzybarry.substack.com/
--
Join us for a talk with Seth and Ryan, two brave leaders who have walked the path of PCS. Their journey takes us through the labyrinth of physical and mental symptoms, giving us a look at the profound impacts of concussions.
Educating individuals about concussions is pivotal in paving the road to recovery. Seth and Ryan, through their nonprofit, HeadsUpCAN, are on a mission! We highlight their upcoming event, set to happen at the BMO Field in Toronto, THE SPORT RELATED CONCUSSION EXPERIENCE. It's not a crusade against sports, but rather an effort to equip athletes, coaches, and care providers with the latest information on concussions.
Coaches hold a significant influence in an athlete's life. We explore their crucial role and how they can shape athletes through trying times. Our discussion takes us through the importance of accessible education on concussions and how events like The Sport Related Concussion Experience are instrumental in providing that knowledge.
Learn more about HeadsUpCAN https://www.headsupcan.ca/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Bella (00:03):
Hi everyone.
I'm your host, bella Page, andafter suffering from post
concussion syndrome for years,it was time to do something
about it.
So welcome to the postconcussion podcast, where we dig
deep into life when it doesn'tgo back to normal.
Be sure to share the podcastand join our support network,
concussion Connect.
Let's make this invisibleinjury become visible.
(00:25):
The post concussion podcast isstrictly an information podcast
about concussions and postconcussion syndrome.
It does not provide norsubstitute for professional
medical advice, diagnosis ortreatment.
Always seek the advice of yourphysician or another qualified
(00:46):
health provider with anyquestions you may have regarding
a medical condition.
Never disregard professionalmedical advice or delay in
seeking it because of somethingyou have heard on this podcast.
The opinions expressed in thispodcast are simply intended to
spark discussion aboutconcussions and post concussion
syndrome.
(01:06):
Welcome to the show, seth andRyan.
Ryan (01:11):
We're happy to be here.
Bella (01:12):
So, to start, do you want to tell us a little bit about
your concussion experiences?
Seth (01:21):
Yeah, I guess I'll start and then I'll pass it to Ryan
For me, I grew up playing allkinds of sports hockey, I was a
goalie.
Baseball, really, was like thekind of son that my dad was like
you're going into all thesesports, but football was the one
that I wanted to and I guess Igravitated to the most and was
the most compelled to play, andobviously it was the one that
(01:42):
was the most violent at the sametime.
But I played that for sevenyears.
I fell in love with it, playedit all throughout high school
and it wasn't until my finalyear in grade 12 where I
sustained my first diagnosedconcussion.
There was definitely a lot ofsubconcussive hits throughout
those years.
Obviously it's the same timewhen I'm growing up and maturing
, so all of that kind of playedinto a factor, I guess.
(02:05):
But it was a week before theseason started.
I knew going into grade 12 wasmy last season too, and when I
got that concussion it likeimmediately was just ringing.
I just didn't really know whereI was.
Coach looked at me and said,yeah, you need to get this
checked out, and was diagnosedwith a mild concussion, which,
as we now know, no longer nosuch thing as a mild concussion.
(02:28):
I was told by the doctor you'llbe back at it in no time, but
it ended up taking over a monthto recover.
And it's interesting I wasreflecting on this recently
because a picture came up.
It was 10 years ago when I gotthis injury and grade 12 is like
the year where one chaptercloses and another one opens.
(02:48):
Right, you're finishing highschool, you're going into
university, but for me, all Icould think about was the
chapter that was closing and itwas really challenging because I
put everything into those fouryears of football to play for
this final year to be my bestyear.
I worked so hard to get to thatpoint and then a week before,
it felt like everything wastaken away from me.
But yeah, what came after thatwas not so much physical
(03:12):
symptoms.
Mine presented more emotionallyand I dealt with a lot of
anxiety and depression.
I never had any of that growingup, so it was hard to correlate
the brain injury I got with themental health complications I
was starting to experience.
And although I was back inschool, I wasn't on the field
and my friends and teammatesdidn't understand that.
(03:32):
So there was a lot ofchallenges that really went in
with that and it was really hardto navigate.
I was very, very grateful thatmy parents kind of made sure
that I prioritized my brainhealth, but it was about like
two months of just the unknownof what I was going through.
And it really wasn't until Imet Ryan where I fully
understood the magnitude of myexperience and I think that's a
(03:54):
pretty good way to segue to Ryansharing his story.
Ryan (03:58):
Yeah, so, similar to Seth, I experienced some concussions
in high school and for me I'vehad eight concussions.
Now I'm going to try andcondense the story so it's not
explaining each one, because Idon't think that's necessary,
but I was introduced to theinjury at a very young age.
I sustained my first concussionat the age of seven, I believe,
(04:20):
in a biking accident, and thatwas a rude awakening into what
that can be like from such ayoung age for me and also for my
family.
And moving forward, eight yearsI'm in high school and three
years back to back I'm playinghockey on the high school team,
playing in a rep league as well,and I sustained a concussion in
(04:45):
three consecutive seasons andfor me, hockey was my life and I
was being taken away from it,similar to what Seth was saying,
and the culture I was in aswell was a bit more of a small
town area and a rough and toughmentality that came with it, and
for me it was robbed robbed,not being able to play through
(05:06):
an injury that a lot of peoplethought was play through a ball.
It was very isolating for me andit wasn't something that was
necessarily understood by a lotof people, and I often found
myself when I was trying to comeback to sport and not seeing
the progress that I wanted, andI also was wondering about
myself why can I play throughthis?
(05:27):
I see teammates.
They get hit all the time.
They I've seen people come onto the bench and hockey and they
definitely had a concussion,but they still played.
Why was I different?
And I kept finding myselfasking.
Questions like that take months,sometimes to recover as well,
and it ultimately now I don'tplay hockey at all unfortunately
(05:47):
, and it was a big part of mylife for a while and I will
extend a little bit beyond highschool because I sustained my
fifth concussion in betweenfirst and second year university
and at this time seth and Iwere connected we're about to
move in together at universityand essentially I was playing
hockey pretty much the lastcompetitive hockey that I played
(06:09):
and I got hit out of nowhereand it was a non contact league
as well and that can cushion forme was absolutely brutal
because it was in the summer.
I was managing a retail store,a very small one.
It was pretty much just meworking.
My boss basically forced me towork while I had my concussion
(06:30):
the whole time, and that wasvery difficult to navigate
because I knew I was not not inthe right mind to be able to do
that, and then also, on top ofit, I was told by doctors that I
shouldn't be playing contactsports or hockey anymore, like
at all, like it was a hard cutoff at that point.
So there was a lot going on inmy life in this.
Recovery took a while andthat's what led to seth and I
(06:52):
having these conversations as wereturn to school, where I was
explaining to him what I wentthrough that summer and he was
like oh man, like I really wentthrough a lot with my concussion
that I didn't really realizeand it was definitely related to
some mental health things thatI never really connected to it.
So after we shared thatexperience, it's what's led us
(07:13):
to create heads up canultimately, and Our personal
stories in large part are areason why we do the work that
we do today.
Bella (07:22):
I always like hearing everyone's stories because I
think it's such a big part,especially in this kind of work.
It kind of starts fromsomewhere.
So very often that you meetsomeone in this world that's
like, oh, I just got interestedin school.
It's like, no, they have aconnection, whether it's a
family member themselves, afriend, somehow they've been
affected by brain injuries and,like Seth had said about the you
(07:45):
know nothing mild about aconcussion.
I kind of like that because Iactually have a shirt that we
sell.
It says that because I believein it so much.
You kind of talked about theisolating factor and all that
and that why me factor wassomething that was really big
for me and I mean like huge.
I was like show jumping,traveling, and I was just it was
(08:09):
such a blow when I had friendsthat fell off.
They had had worse incidents,they had had ambulances fly into
a horse show ring and put themon a board and take them out,
but I was the one suffering.
Not that I hadn't been on a fewambulances, but Is really tough
to see that when you're notgetting better, when you don't
understand why you're notgetting better.
(08:30):
All these factors and themental health part isn't talked
about enough.
A lot of people don't know thatit's going to be a part of this
.
You get handed that.
She did the.
If you go and I don't evenmention that half the time that
you could feel like a completelydifferent person.
And if you've never dealt withanxiety or never dealt with
depression, then you have noidea what you're dealing with.
(08:50):
So it can definitely be lifechanging in a lot of ways.
I don't know what is better.
Ryan, you mentioned that you gota complete cut off from sports.
I had too many opinions fromdoctors and I think it's because
I was seeing so many and somewere you need to stop somewhere,
keep going somewhere.
(09:10):
Maybe somewhere it's okay, butif, like, if things bad happen.
So it's really hard for me tomake a decision for myself and I
think if my parents could pick,they would bubble wrap my
entire body and never let meleave the house.
But that's not who I am.
But, like you said, peoplereally don't get it, which is
why I love doing this work.
(09:30):
I have tons of people.
Even to this day, I go to amotocross track and it'll be
covered in mud and slippery andI won't get on and I go, just go
have fun.
I have too many head injuriesfor that like I have to do this,
like I do this, it's risky, Ishouldn't be doing it, let's be
real.
But I still have to be a littlesafer than everyone else.
But people just don't get it.
They just look you like, oh why.
Seth (09:51):
So it is very tough from that I just I found that like
super fascinating because Ithink the decision making
process that one goes throughafter, whether it's a brain
injury or even just like a biglife traumatic event, is
something that very rarely wetalk about, and even very rarely
that I feel like I talk about,but it's something that is so
(10:13):
present Because, you know, forme it's been more like alright,
I gotta start adopting, likemindfulness and meditation and
yoga and things like that.
That kind of ground me and theseare not things that I was
thinking about, you know, beforethat growing up, you know,
especially in high school, likeI never really thought about
longevity and my own like wellbeing.
(10:36):
But then you kind of go throughsomething like this and, having
met Ryan and again has he hadalluded to we had this very Deep
conversation about ourexperiences and although we had
the same concussion, we all ofus have experience a concussion.
All of our experiences are sodifferent.
Right, and I think that was areally big Moment and like a
(10:56):
flip of a switch for me where itwas just like why aren't we
talking about everything relatedto this?
Why is concussions only focusin the severe, like cte concept
and sports, and not the, youknow young athletes that are now
dealing with mental health andthings like that and the
decision making process.
I think that kind of Philosophygoes across so many different
(11:18):
types of boards from how youapproach your concussion, but
even just years after in thedecisions you make, is all just
like very impactful and peopledon't realize that.
Bella (11:28):
Yeah, it is my health effects every single decision I
make, even if it's not theforefront of my decision.
It has to be there because Istill have tons of health issues
after my concussion so theydeal with to this day.
So I have to think that way.
But it's not always somethingpeople think of.
They don't realize how manylike other decision factors
there are in the way before Isay yes to something.
(11:51):
But you two have created afabulous nonprofit heads of can,
and so do you want to talk alittle bit about what heads of
can is?
And then the event that youhave coming soon.
Ryan (12:04):
Absolutely so.
Yeah, heads of can, it issomething that set the night
have been building for probablysix years now, you can say, and
it really happened again, thatcatalyst moment was that
conversation that set the nighthad.
A year after we had thatconversation, we started a
social purpose business where wedonated 15% of all of our
(12:27):
t-shirt sales to concussionresearch, and that's how we
really got our start in thisarea, and I was in our fourth
year of university and sincethen in 2020 so that was 2017,
in 2020, right before thepandemic we actually started our
nonprofit in January, rightbefore covid, and essentially,
(12:48):
we've been building it eversince, and For us, the biggest
reason why we wanted to do thischange is because we really
wanted to double down on ourmission, which is to create
innovative partnerships for thepurpose of concussion education,
awareness and research, and sowe really identified those three
domains is something that wereally cared about exploring,
(13:10):
and the reason why we do it isfor the people who are
experiencing what we hadexperience back when we were in
high school and when thisconversation initially started.
This whole thing for us andthat's the one thing that we
Stay consistent with and the onething that keeps us going with
the work that we do, and it'sultimately led to this event,
and seth and I have alwaystalked about having an in person
(13:34):
event for concussions andproviding people with the latest
information on concussions, andfor this, especially because
our background is in sport, Ithink we wanted to do it in a
sport context.
So there was an incredibleopportunity for us to partner
with A contact at Maple LeafSports and entertainment, and so
we're putting on an event atBMO field in Toronto, ontario,
(13:58):
to be able to provide sports daycolders and athlete care
providers with the latestinformation on concussions and
sport.
And the cool thing about thisevent is that I don't believe
there's ever been a concussioneducation event at a
professional sports stadium inToronto.
I'm not certain about that, butfrom what we've heard, that is
(14:20):
a fact.
And on top of that, we're alsonot trying to talk so much about
how sport is bad.
We're not trying to play thedowner role.
We're trying to actuallyempower people To make better
decisions, to have moreinformation, to actually get the
help that is needed in sport,and I think that's what makes
(14:43):
this unique.
And we're trying to againinform people as much as
possible with the latestinformation on this topic, and
we're excited about it, to saythe very least.
Bella (14:55):
I think that's great.
I really love the event that'scoming.
I will actually be at the event, which is super exciting, and
I'm really looking forward tothat and I'm hoping and get as
many podcast listeners there aswell, and you mentioned that
things that keep you going and Ithink that's a huge part of
this that I just wanted to throwout there, because it's a lot
of work and I can commend bothof you for that Putting an event
(15:17):
together.
I've watched my mom do it foryears, from small fundraising
events to giant events and youknow it is a ton of work.
Doesn't matter the size of it.
It's a lot of planning, it's alot of figuring out what works
best and all that.
So I'm really looking forwardto that.
You mentioned that sport is notbad.
I agree.
(15:37):
I very strongly am pro sport,and I'm pro sport because I
think there's a lot of benefitsto playing sports.
I think it isn't all bad.
But this is where the educationpiece is needed, because if I
had known what I know now, Iprobably wouldn't have had to
stop.
I probably wouldn't have had tostop riding.
I definitely would have takenbreaks when I needed it.
There was lots of times where Ididn't tell anybody what was
(16:01):
going on.
I didn't tell my coaches, Ididn't tell my parents because I
didn't live with them and soit's pretty easy to hide what I
was going through, and becauseall this is invisible.
So that is a huge factor, Ithink, in you know, educating
athletes and parents of athletes, family members of athletes,
coaches, because if everyone hasa better education on it, then
(16:22):
hopefully we can prevent lesspeople from retiring.
We are going to talk more aboutthis event, the speakers, all
the topics on it and how you canregister for it, but before
that we're going to take a quickbreak.
Did you want to createawareness about concussions?
You can check out our entireclothing line through the link
in the episode description or goto our website,
(16:43):
postconcussioninkcom and clickawareness merch from t-shirts,
sweaters, tank tops and multipledesigns, including the podcast.
Nothing mild about a concussionand more.
Make sure to pause this episoderight now and order yours
before you forget, just like Iwould Welcome back to the Post
(17:04):
Concussion Podcast with myself,phillip Hage and today's guests
Seth Mendelson and Ryan Sutton.
So we've been talking about anevent that's coming up which
heads up can both Seth and Ryanare putting on, and so I want to
talk about the sections.
Can you walk us through theevent?
I'd love to hear kind of whyyou picked the topics that you
(17:26):
did and kind of walk us throughit so people can know what to
expect.
Seth (17:29):
Yeah, I can give an outline of kind of what that day
is going to look like.
So, as Ryan had mentionedearlier, we're doing this at BMO
Field and it's going to takeplace on Saturday, september
23rd.
Registration starts at 1.30 andessentially it's like within 30
minutes you have time to justcome in and at 2 o'clock both
(17:50):
Ryan and myself will kind ofintroduce the event and then we
have our first keynote speakerat 2.10, dr Patrick Quaid, who
is a renowned optometrist andrealized just how important
vision and balance is withinconcussion recovery, but
especially with athletes.
We're talking about the eyesand how you have to track
everything, and eyes areobviously connected to the brain
(18:12):
.
So a lot of people don'tnecessarily make that
correlation and I think it willbe a very insightful 30 minutes
of just realizing oh, here'sanother way that I can go and
try and get help for thisconcussion.
And I think that's a big thing.
That this whole event is like abig theme is showing the
different modalities and thedifferent approaches that people
(18:33):
are taking to help athleteswith dealing with this invisible
injury Because, as the three ofus all had mentioned, it was
very challenging to go through.
So after Dr Patrick Quaid speaks, that will go right into our
first panel, which focuses onconcussion risk perceptions and
prevention, and that featuresthree industry experts.
(18:54):
Stephanie Cowell is theknowledge translator at
Parachute Canada.
Dr Kaylee Panak is theassistant professor at
University of Waterloo and hasdone a lot of research within
youth athletes in sports and therisks behaviors associated with
that.
And then Michael Jorgensen is aPhD candidate at University of
(19:14):
Toronto.
He's also worked with RugbyCanada.
After that we'll have a littlebreak for networking and snacks
and stuff like that, and thenwe'll go into the second half of
the event, which we have theexecutive director of the
Coaches Association of Ontariospeaking.
So Jeremy Cross will talk aboutthe importance of education
with coaches and how that isobviously super relevant,
(19:36):
especially when we think aboutsports and these coaches become
like the guardians of theseyoung athletes.
And then that second panel,which we obviously have you a
part of and you're going to talkabout the lived experience and
what it's like as an athlete togo through this, because this
panel is called concussionrecognition, early diagnosis and
active recovery.
So having your perspective isgoing to be incredible because I
(19:58):
think it's going to provide alot of context and I'm sure you
have a lot to talk about in eachone of those areas as well, and
you're going to be on the panelwith Dr Michael Hutchinson, who
is the director for the Centrefor Sport-related Concussion
Innovation, and then you alsoare going to have Kim Browsies,
who is a certified athletictherapist and works at the
Ontario Athletic TherapistAssociation, and Katie Mitchell,
(20:21):
who is also a certifiedathletic therapist,
physiotherapist, runs her ownrehabilitation clinic called
Thrive Neurosport.
So it is a very encompassingevent.
We have a lot of amazingspeakers, including yourself,
that I think we're going toprovide a lot of different
perspectives on what thesport-related concussion
experience is, and I think thatwas a big key focus for us in
(20:44):
terms of a topic that we want toshare with this.
Bella (20:47):
I like that you mentioned the coach's perspective, like
coach education, coach'sperspective, because it's
something that I kind of wish Ihad because my parents could
tell me to stop.
But I think if my coach hadtold me, I would have respected
a little bit more being ateenager being stubborn.
I always say sports are anaddiction and I was addicted to
being a part of it, to competingLike I didn't think of anything
(21:09):
else.
So educating them would havemade a really big difference.
I know when I coached it made abig difference for me.
I was able to tell students tostay off, like no, like that I
drew the line, so their parentsdidn't have to, because
sometimes that creates reallybad relationships in the home
and things like that.
So having a coach do it canmake a really big difference
(21:30):
because there's that respect.
There there's another level oftrust, a different level of
trust.
You believe that your coach hasan education in this factor.
So it can make a really bigdifference.
And coaches do need to beeducated on this because I think
a lot of them don't know.
So that's where this type ofevent can really help An
education on all fronts, notjust athletes, but all the
(21:52):
people around them because theyneed to look out for them,
because athletes have a reallyhard time looking out for
themselves because we can't.
You're obsessed, you're addicted.
Especially as teenagers, youdon't think of anything else.
I always put into my mind, likeif I told a kid what I got told
at 14 years old you're going tothe Olympics.
Kid, let's go.
These are the plans for thenext 10 years of your life.
(22:15):
You can't imagine not doingthat, and that's why it took me
so long to get out of that, andso I think having a team of
people that had known aboutbrain injuries probably would
have saved me a lot of mentalhealth issues as this all
happened.
Because you guys mentionedmental health and, yeah, I can
say I've had a lot of mentalhealth issues in the past.
(22:38):
Everybody on the podcast who'slistened to it knows quite a bit
about it.
But, yeah, I think this event'sgonna be great.
Do you wanna talk a little bitabout some of the other little
benefits things that are gonnago on at the event?
I know there's some prizes andthings like that.
Ryan (22:52):
Absolutely.
I just wanted to say a quickpoint about the coaches before
we move on to that, if that'sall right.
So I have actually done a lotof research in the topic of
coaches and looking into thatand it's so important.
A lot of the research says howimportant it is for coaches to
be informed and also the culturethat a coach can create in an
(23:15):
environment can largely dictatehow an athlete actually goes
through their recoveryexperience.
So, and also for you as a coach, in having that lived
experience when I was doing mymaster's project, that was one
of the things that a lot of myparticipants said was when they
had a coach who actually hadbeen through the injury before,
(23:36):
their experience was a lotbetter and a little bit smoother
, from the mental health side ofthings at least, because they
felt like they had somebody whothey could talk to.
They felt like they hadsomebody who knew the right
lines to draw and who waswilling to work with them with
empathy, and that's so important.
So, yeah, I'm really happy thatyou had that experience as a
(23:56):
coach and that's why we are soexcited to have coaches come to
this event, why we wanted theCoaching Association of Ontario
to have a speaker, and alsowe're excited to announce or
share that all coaches who arecertified by the Coaching
Association of Ontario willactually gain three professional
(24:18):
development points.
They're actually called threeNCCP PD points, but essentially
they're professional developmentpoints and so by attending our
event, all coaches who areregistered will actually be able
to get those professionaldevelopment points.
So we're really excited aboutthat, for sure.
We also have door prizes, whichwe're really excited about.
(24:40):
Some notable door prizes thatwe'll be having is we'll be
doing giveaway for Toronto MapleLeafs tickets, which we're
really excited about, and on topof that there'll be signed
Argos jerseys available for thedoor prize.
And then there's a few otherdoor prizes, which is really
exciting.
Seth (24:58):
Yeah, I would say, you know, just adding on to the
coach aside too because, like, Ithink one of the biggest
reasons why we wanted thecoaching community is because
coaches can bring the best outof us as athletes, but they can
also have an imprint in our lifeand because they play a role,
model, type of influence.
(25:18):
And I think you know for me,when I suffered my concussion,
like my coaches looked at me asit was a sign of weakness and I
was never viewed the same wayand that also played a big
factor into why we wanted tohave coaching representation
there and the coaching communityto have those professional
development points, as Ryanmentioned.
In a lot of ways it's just fullcircle moment for what I think
(25:42):
we all went through and toactually have them want to come
out and gain something from thisevent.
And the fact that we're doingthis at BMO field, I think makes
it that much more of a uniqueexperience.
And on top of that, likeeveryone that comes to this
event gets admission to a CFLgame later that night.
So it is in tandem with theArgos versus Hamilton and Tiger
(26:05):
Cats game at seven o'clockBattle of Ontario, which will be
really fun.
So I think there's a lot ofvalue beyond just the education.
Like Ryan and I really wanted tomake this an experience, like,
yes, it's called the sportrelated concussion experience,
but this event in itself we wantto be an experience.
There's a lot of opportunitiesfor networking, for coaches
within the community or athletictherapists and, you know,
(26:28):
medical providers, but alsoparents, and I think this event
again like the theme that wekind of kept coming back to when
we want to put this together.
Obviously it's very excitingthat it's at BMO field and we
get to connect with industryexperts and connect with people
like you, like all of that.
It's very exciting and almostlike a altruistic benefit that
(26:48):
comes from it, but more so it'swe didn't have access to any of
this when we were going throughwhat we went through, and to be
able to provide that directly topeople who, by coming to this
event, will get the latestinformation on concussions,
which is constantly evolving.
It's not like, all right, wenow know what a concussion is.
You're fine, like you can gowith this information Like this
(27:10):
is constantly evolving.
What we knew 10 years ago is nowconsidered myths.
Right, like, everything that weprobably all went through were
probably bad practices comparedto what we know now, but the
reality is people are stillusing them.
People were all in Ontario andpeople still don't know about
Rowan's Law, like, there are somany things, as you're in this
community and this industry,where you realize the need for
(27:33):
education, for accessibleeducation is so prevalent and so
important, but yet there aren'ta lot of opportunities.
And that's why this podcast isamazing, because it provides a
resource for people and we'rehoping our event is that same
type of resource for them.
Bella (27:48):
Yeah, I really like that factor and it is true that
coaches can have differentinfluences on you.
Actually, I think what I thinkback is probably why I was able
to retire the last coach that Iworked with.
She had had a brain injury asevere, like a very bad TBI and
she was back to it competing andeverything.
But she got it.
When I said I had a day Icouldn't ride, it wasn't like,
(28:10):
oh, you need to.
It was like, oh, yeah, okay,like you can just come hang out
if you want.
Like you don't even need to geton, we'll ride.
Like we'll ride all the horses,you know.
That support, I think, almostallowed me to feel okay about
retiring.
But it definitely is a hugedecision to make as an athlete
and it's a huge decision to makeat any level of being an
(28:30):
athlete.
But one thing for me is I spentmore time awake with my coaches
, trainers and all that than Idid with anybody else.
Like that's who.
I spent all my time with them.
I didn't spend time withanybody else.
So it definitely can belife-changing, for sure, and
that's why I think this is soimportant, because it changes
your life.
Concussions can change your life, whether you slipped and fell,
(28:53):
or you're an athlete or you arejust.
You know, have nothing to dowith sports, but you still get
hurt.
But having an education andunderstanding what's happening
to you or what to do about itcan really change your life.
Finding access to thateducation that's useful is also
really helpful because when youdo googling, it's really hard to
(29:13):
find the things that you need,which is why these events are so
great.
So we have talked about a lot.
The sport-related concussionexperience is just in a few
weeks.
There will be links to it andthe show notes and everything,
so everyone can find it.
We have a discount codeavailable as well.
Everybody can send me messagesabout it if they have any
questions, because I will bethere.
If you just want to come tomeet me, I'm totally okay with
(29:34):
that too.
Is there anything else you, too, would like to add before we
end today's episode?
Seth (29:39):
More, so would like to kind of ask you a question.
Obviously, we've heardthroughout this conversation,
you know, about your ownexperience.
But what made you want to be apart of this event?
Because we're thrilled to haveyou, but we'd love to get here,
like why.
I guess you want to come, youknow, and share your experience
with everyone in our communityas well.
Bella (29:59):
Yeah, for sure.
I think for me, the biggestthing is I find I love all the
medical professionals.
I wanted to be one for a while,but I think that's because my
entire journey, 90% of themedical professionals miss the
big picture because they hadn'tbeen through it in the same way.
They have been through it.
(30:20):
Maybe they've had a concussion,they had a few weeks off, but
it changed my life.
To this day, I have fourchronic illnesses because of my
concussions, and so theyre-routed my entire life and
still do so.
I think, being able to speak onit as a retired athlete and
athlete, I think it's reallyimportant to give back, and my
(30:40):
goal with all of this has alwaysbeen to prevent people from
making the same mistakes I did,because I made a lot of them,
and if I can prevent otherpeople from making mistakes,
then you know I did what I wassupposed to do.
From all of that I learned,because all the mistakes I made
definitely made this a lotlonger of an experience than it
needed to be.
So, yeah, that's definitely why.
Seth (31:03):
Yeah, no, that's amazing.
I think that perspective andthat insight is so important and
why we really want I know a lotof ways be the voice of lived
experience, which is no pressureand saying that but it's
because I think so many of us gothrough the mistakes and the
trials and tribulations and hadwe been better prepared or more
(31:25):
educated maybe I mean we'reobviously not saying something
that it would preventconcussions entirely but the way
we go about it and our recoverydefinitely wouldn't have been
as harmful as it may feel.
And I think that's really a bigthing for this event as well
that we want to touch upon,because I know Ryan and I, it's
definitely something we've beenvery passionate about for the
past six years and still are andjust happy to kind of bring the
(31:48):
community together for this.
Bella (31:50):
I want to thank you so much, both of you, for joining
us today, and I can't wait forthe event.
Seth (31:56):
Can't wait to have you.
Ryan (31:56):
Yeah, can't wait and thanks for having us.
We really appreciate being onhere and, yeah, just really
commend you for the work thatyou do.
It's really important and forpeople who, like ourselves, who
have been through the injury, wereally appreciate it.
Bella (32:12):
Need more than just this podcast.
Be sure to check out ourwebsite postconcussioninccom to
see how we can help you in yourpost concussion life, from a
support network to one-on-onecoaching.
I believe life can get betterbecause I've lived through it.
Make sure you take it one dayat a time.
Hi everyone.
I'm your host, bella Page, andafter suffering from post
concussion syndrome for years,it was time to do something
about it.
So welcome to the postconcussion podcast, where we dig
deep into life when it doesn'tgo back to normal.
Be sure to share the podcastand join our support network,
concussion Connect.
Let's make this invisibleinjury become visible.
(00:25):
The post concussion podcast isstrictly an information podcast
about concussions and postconcussion syndrome.
It does not provide norsubstitute for professional
medical advice, diagnosis ortreatment.
Always seek the advice of yourphysician or another qualified
(00:46):
health provider with anyquestions you may have regarding
a medical condition.
Never disregard professionalmedical advice or delay in
seeking it because of somethingyou have heard on this podcast.
The opinions expressed in thispodcast are simply intended to
spark discussion aboutconcussions and post concussion
syndrome.
(01:06):
Welcome to the show, seth andRyan.
Ryan (01:11):
We're happy to be here.
Bella (01:12):
So, to start, do you want to tell us a little bit about
your concussion experiences?
Seth (01:21):
Yeah, I guess I'll start and then I'll pass it to Ryan
For me, I grew up playing allkinds of sports hockey, I was a
goalie.
Baseball, really, was like thekind of son that my dad was like
you're going into all thesesports, but football was the one
that I wanted to and I guess Igravitated to the most and was
the most compelled to play, andobviously it was the one that
(01:42):
was the most violent at the sametime.
But I played that for sevenyears.
I fell in love with it, playedit all throughout high school
and it wasn't until my finalyear in grade 12 where I
sustained my first diagnosedconcussion.
There was definitely a lot ofsubconcussive hits throughout
those years.
Obviously it's the same timewhen I'm growing up and maturing
, so all of that kind of playedinto a factor, I guess.
(02:05):
But it was a week before theseason started.
I knew going into grade 12 wasmy last season too, and when I
got that concussion it likeimmediately was just ringing.
I just didn't really know whereI was.
Coach looked at me and said,yeah, you need to get this
checked out, and was diagnosedwith a mild concussion, which,
as we now know, no longer nosuch thing as a mild concussion.
(02:28):
I was told by the doctor you'llbe back at it in no time, but
it ended up taking over a monthto recover.
And it's interesting I wasreflecting on this recently
because a picture came up.
It was 10 years ago when I gotthis injury and grade 12 is like
the year where one chaptercloses and another one opens.
(02:48):
Right, you're finishing highschool, you're going into
university, but for me, all Icould think about was the
chapter that was closing and itwas really challenging because I
put everything into those fouryears of football to play for
this final year to be my bestyear.
I worked so hard to get to thatpoint and then a week before,
it felt like everything wastaken away from me.
But yeah, what came after thatwas not so much physical
(03:12):
symptoms.
Mine presented more emotionallyand I dealt with a lot of
anxiety and depression.
I never had any of that growingup, so it was hard to correlate
the brain injury I got with themental health complications I
was starting to experience.
And although I was back inschool, I wasn't on the field
and my friends and teammatesdidn't understand that.
(03:32):
So there was a lot ofchallenges that really went in
with that and it was really hardto navigate.
I was very, very grateful thatmy parents kind of made sure
that I prioritized my brainhealth, but it was about like
two months of just the unknownof what I was going through.
And it really wasn't until Imet Ryan where I fully
understood the magnitude of myexperience and I think that's a
(03:54):
pretty good way to segue to Ryansharing his story.
Ryan (03:58):
Yeah, so, similar to Seth, I experienced some concussions
in high school and for me I'vehad eight concussions.
Now I'm going to try andcondense the story so it's not
explaining each one, because Idon't think that's necessary,
but I was introduced to theinjury at a very young age.
I sustained my first concussionat the age of seven, I believe,
(04:20):
in a biking accident, and thatwas a rude awakening into what
that can be like from such ayoung age for me and also for my
family.
And moving forward, eight yearsI'm in high school and three
years back to back I'm playinghockey on the high school team,
playing in a rep league as well,and I sustained a concussion in
(04:45):
three consecutive seasons andfor me, hockey was my life and I
was being taken away from it,similar to what Seth was saying,
and the culture I was in aswell was a bit more of a small
town area and a rough and toughmentality that came with it, and
for me it was robbed robbed,not being able to play through
(05:06):
an injury that a lot of peoplethought was play through a ball.
It was very isolating for me andit wasn't something that was
necessarily understood by a lotof people, and I often found
myself when I was trying to comeback to sport and not seeing
the progress that I wanted, andI also was wondering about
myself why can I play throughthis?
(05:27):
I see teammates.
They get hit all the time.
They I've seen people come onto the bench and hockey and they
definitely had a concussion,but they still played.
Why was I different?
And I kept finding myselfasking.
Questions like that take months,sometimes to recover as well,
and it ultimately now I don'tplay hockey at all unfortunately
(05:47):
, and it was a big part of mylife for a while and I will
extend a little bit beyond highschool because I sustained my
fifth concussion in betweenfirst and second year university
and at this time seth and Iwere connected we're about to
move in together at universityand essentially I was playing
hockey pretty much the lastcompetitive hockey that I played
(06:09):
and I got hit out of nowhereand it was a non contact league
as well and that can cushion forme was absolutely brutal
because it was in the summer.
I was managing a retail store,a very small one.
It was pretty much just meworking.
My boss basically forced me towork while I had my concussion
(06:30):
the whole time, and that wasvery difficult to navigate
because I knew I was not not inthe right mind to be able to do
that, and then also, on top ofit, I was told by doctors that I
shouldn't be playing contactsports or hockey anymore, like
at all, like it was a hard cutoff at that point.
So there was a lot going on inmy life in this.
Recovery took a while andthat's what led to seth and I
(06:52):
having these conversations as wereturn to school, where I was
explaining to him what I wentthrough that summer and he was
like oh man, like I really wentthrough a lot with my concussion
that I didn't really realizeand it was definitely related to
some mental health things thatI never really connected to it.
So after we shared thatexperience, it's what's led us
(07:13):
to create heads up canultimately, and Our personal
stories in large part are areason why we do the work that
we do today.
Bella (07:22):
I always like hearing everyone's stories because I
think it's such a big part,especially in this kind of work.
It kind of starts fromsomewhere.
So very often that you meetsomeone in this world that's
like, oh, I just got interestedin school.
It's like, no, they have aconnection, whether it's a
family member themselves, afriend, somehow they've been
affected by brain injuries and,like Seth had said about the you
(07:45):
know nothing mild about aconcussion.
I kind of like that because Iactually have a shirt that we
sell.
It says that because I believein it so much.
You kind of talked about theisolating factor and all that
and that why me factor wassomething that was really big
for me and I mean like huge.
I was like show jumping,traveling, and I was just it was
(08:09):
such a blow when I had friendsthat fell off.
They had had worse incidents,they had had ambulances fly into
a horse show ring and put themon a board and take them out,
but I was the one suffering.
Not that I hadn't been on a fewambulances, but Is really tough
to see that when you're notgetting better, when you don't
understand why you're notgetting better.
(08:30):
All these factors and themental health part isn't talked
about enough.
A lot of people don't know thatit's going to be a part of this
.
You get handed that.
She did the.
If you go and I don't evenmention that half the time that
you could feel like a completelydifferent person.
And if you've never dealt withanxiety or never dealt with
depression, then you have noidea what you're dealing with.
(08:50):
So it can definitely be lifechanging in a lot of ways.
I don't know what is better.
Ryan, you mentioned that you gota complete cut off from sports.
I had too many opinions fromdoctors and I think it's because
I was seeing so many and somewere you need to stop somewhere,
keep going somewhere.
(09:10):
Maybe somewhere it's okay, butif, like, if things bad happen.
So it's really hard for me tomake a decision for myself and I
think if my parents could pick,they would bubble wrap my
entire body and never let meleave the house.
But that's not who I am.
But, like you said, peoplereally don't get it, which is
why I love doing this work.
(09:30):
I have tons of people.
Even to this day, I go to amotocross track and it'll be
covered in mud and slippery andI won't get on and I go, just go
have fun.
I have too many head injuriesfor that like I have to do this,
like I do this, it's risky, Ishouldn't be doing it, let's be
real.
But I still have to be a littlesafer than everyone else.
But people just don't get it.
They just look you like, oh why.
Seth (09:51):
So it is very tough from that I just I found that like
super fascinating because Ithink the decision making
process that one goes throughafter, whether it's a brain
injury or even just like a biglife traumatic event, is
something that very rarely wetalk about, and even very rarely
that I feel like I talk about,but it's something that is so
(10:13):
present Because, you know, forme it's been more like alright,
I gotta start adopting, likemindfulness and meditation and
yoga and things like that.
That kind of ground me and theseare not things that I was
thinking about, you know, beforethat growing up, you know,
especially in high school, likeI never really thought about
longevity and my own like wellbeing.
(10:36):
But then you kind of go throughsomething like this and, having
met Ryan and again has he hadalluded to we had this very Deep
conversation about ourexperiences and although we had
the same concussion, we all ofus have experience a concussion.
All of our experiences are sodifferent.
Right, and I think that was areally big Moment and like a
(10:56):
flip of a switch for me where itwas just like why aren't we
talking about everything relatedto this?
Why is concussions only focusin the severe, like cte concept
and sports, and not the, youknow young athletes that are now
dealing with mental health andthings like that and the
decision making process.
I think that kind of Philosophygoes across so many different
(11:18):
types of boards from how youapproach your concussion, but
even just years after in thedecisions you make, is all just
like very impactful and peopledon't realize that.
Bella (11:28):
Yeah, it is my health effects every single decision I
make, even if it's not theforefront of my decision.
It has to be there because Istill have tons of health issues
after my concussion so theydeal with to this day.
So I have to think that way.
But it's not always somethingpeople think of.
They don't realize how manylike other decision factors
there are in the way before Isay yes to something.
(11:51):
But you two have created afabulous nonprofit heads of can,
and so do you want to talk alittle bit about what heads of
can is?
And then the event that youhave coming soon.
Ryan (12:04):
Absolutely so.
Yeah, heads of can, it issomething that set the night
have been building for probablysix years now, you can say, and
it really happened again, thatcatalyst moment was that
conversation that set the nighthad.
A year after we had thatconversation, we started a
social purpose business where wedonated 15% of all of our
(12:27):
t-shirt sales to concussionresearch, and that's how we
really got our start in thisarea, and I was in our fourth
year of university and sincethen in 2020 so that was 2017,
in 2020, right before thepandemic we actually started our
nonprofit in January, rightbefore covid, and essentially,
(12:48):
we've been building it eversince, and For us, the biggest
reason why we wanted to do thischange is because we really
wanted to double down on ourmission, which is to create
innovative partnerships for thepurpose of concussion education,
awareness and research, and sowe really identified those three
domains is something that wereally cared about exploring,
(13:10):
and the reason why we do it isfor the people who are
experiencing what we hadexperience back when we were in
high school and when thisconversation initially started.
This whole thing for us andthat's the one thing that we
Stay consistent with and the onething that keeps us going with
the work that we do, and it'sultimately led to this event,
and seth and I have alwaystalked about having an in person
(13:34):
event for concussions andproviding people with the latest
information on concussions, andfor this, especially because
our background is in sport, Ithink we wanted to do it in a
sport context.
So there was an incredibleopportunity for us to partner
with A contact at Maple LeafSports and entertainment, and so
we're putting on an event atBMO field in Toronto, ontario,
(13:58):
to be able to provide sports daycolders and athlete care
providers with the latestinformation on concussions and
sport.
And the cool thing about thisevent is that I don't believe
there's ever been a concussioneducation event at a
professional sports stadium inToronto.
I'm not certain about that, butfrom what we've heard, that is
(14:20):
a fact.
And on top of that, we're alsonot trying to talk so much about
how sport is bad.
We're not trying to play thedowner role.
We're trying to actuallyempower people To make better
decisions, to have moreinformation, to actually get the
help that is needed in sport,and I think that's what makes
(14:43):
this unique.
And we're trying to againinform people as much as
possible with the latestinformation on this topic, and
we're excited about it, to saythe very least.
Bella (14:55):
I think that's great.
I really love the event that'scoming.
I will actually be at the event, which is super exciting, and
I'm really looking forward tothat and I'm hoping and get as
many podcast listeners there aswell, and you mentioned that
things that keep you going and Ithink that's a huge part of
this that I just wanted to throwout there, because it's a lot
of work and I can commend bothof you for that Putting an event
(15:17):
together.
I've watched my mom do it foryears, from small fundraising
events to giant events and youknow it is a ton of work.
Doesn't matter the size of it.
It's a lot of planning, it's alot of figuring out what works
best and all that.
So I'm really looking forwardto that.
You mentioned that sport is notbad.
I agree.
(15:37):
I very strongly am pro sport,and I'm pro sport because I
think there's a lot of benefitsto playing sports.
I think it isn't all bad.
But this is where the educationpiece is needed, because if I
had known what I know now, Iprobably wouldn't have had to
stop.
I probably wouldn't have had tostop riding.
I definitely would have takenbreaks when I needed it.
There was lots of times where Ididn't tell anybody what was
(16:01):
going on.
I didn't tell my coaches, Ididn't tell my parents because I
didn't live with them and soit's pretty easy to hide what I
was going through, and becauseall this is invisible.
So that is a huge factor, Ithink, in you know, educating
athletes and parents of athletes, family members of athletes,
coaches, because if everyone hasa better education on it, then
(16:22):
hopefully we can prevent lesspeople from retiring.
We are going to talk more aboutthis event, the speakers, all
the topics on it and how you canregister for it, but before
that we're going to take a quickbreak.
Did you want to createawareness about concussions?
You can check out our entireclothing line through the link
in the episode description or goto our website,
(16:43):
postconcussioninkcom and clickawareness merch from t-shirts,
sweaters, tank tops and multipledesigns, including the podcast.
Nothing mild about a concussionand more.
Make sure to pause this episoderight now and order yours
before you forget, just like Iwould Welcome back to the Post
(17:04):
Concussion Podcast with myself,phillip Hage and today's guests
Seth Mendelson and Ryan Sutton.
So we've been talking about anevent that's coming up which
heads up can both Seth and Ryanare putting on, and so I want to
talk about the sections.
Can you walk us through theevent?
I'd love to hear kind of whyyou picked the topics that you
(17:26):
did and kind of walk us throughit so people can know what to
expect.
Seth (17:29):
Yeah, I can give an outline of kind of what that day
is going to look like.
So, as Ryan had mentionedearlier, we're doing this at BMO
Field and it's going to takeplace on Saturday, september
23rd.
Registration starts at 1.30 andessentially it's like within 30
minutes you have time to justcome in and at 2 o'clock both
(17:50):
Ryan and myself will kind ofintroduce the event and then we
have our first keynote speakerat 2.10, dr Patrick Quaid, who
is a renowned optometrist andrealized just how important
vision and balance is withinconcussion recovery, but
especially with athletes.
We're talking about the eyesand how you have to track
everything, and eyes areobviously connected to the brain
(18:12):
.
So a lot of people don'tnecessarily make that
correlation and I think it willbe a very insightful 30 minutes
of just realizing oh, here'sanother way that I can go and
try and get help for thisconcussion.
And I think that's a big thing.
That this whole event is like abig theme is showing the
different modalities and thedifferent approaches that people
(18:33):
are taking to help athleteswith dealing with this invisible
injury Because, as the three ofus all had mentioned, it was
very challenging to go through.
So after Dr Patrick Quaid speaks, that will go right into our
first panel, which focuses onconcussion risk perceptions and
prevention, and that featuresthree industry experts.
(18:54):
Stephanie Cowell is theknowledge translator at
Parachute Canada.
Dr Kaylee Panak is theassistant professor at
University of Waterloo and hasdone a lot of research within
youth athletes in sports and therisks behaviors associated with
that.
And then Michael Jorgensen is aPhD candidate at University of
(19:14):
Toronto.
He's also worked with RugbyCanada.
After that we'll have a littlebreak for networking and snacks
and stuff like that, and thenwe'll go into the second half of
the event, which we have theexecutive director of the
Coaches Association of Ontariospeaking.
So Jeremy Cross will talk aboutthe importance of education
with coaches and how that isobviously super relevant,
(19:36):
especially when we think aboutsports and these coaches become
like the guardians of theseyoung athletes.
And then that second panel,which we obviously have you a
part of and you're going to talkabout the lived experience and
what it's like as an athlete togo through this, because this
panel is called concussionrecognition, early diagnosis and
active recovery.
So having your perspective isgoing to be incredible because I
(19:58):
think it's going to provide alot of context and I'm sure you
have a lot to talk about in eachone of those areas as well, and
you're going to be on the panelwith Dr Michael Hutchinson, who
is the director for the Centrefor Sport-related Concussion
Innovation, and then you alsoare going to have Kim Browsies,
who is a certified athletictherapist and works at the
Ontario Athletic TherapistAssociation, and Katie Mitchell,
(20:21):
who is also a certifiedathletic therapist,
physiotherapist, runs her ownrehabilitation clinic called
Thrive Neurosport.
So it is a very encompassingevent.
We have a lot of amazingspeakers, including yourself,
that I think we're going toprovide a lot of different
perspectives on what thesport-related concussion
experience is, and I think thatwas a big key focus for us in
(20:44):
terms of a topic that we want toshare with this.
Bella (20:47):
I like that you mentioned the coach's perspective, like
coach education, coach'sperspective, because it's
something that I kind of wish Ihad because my parents could
tell me to stop.
But I think if my coach hadtold me, I would have respected
a little bit more being ateenager being stubborn.
I always say sports are anaddiction and I was addicted to
being a part of it, to competingLike I didn't think of anything
(21:09):
else.
So educating them would havemade a really big difference.
I know when I coached it made abig difference for me.
I was able to tell students tostay off, like no, like that I
drew the line, so their parentsdidn't have to, because
sometimes that creates reallybad relationships in the home
and things like that.
So having a coach do it canmake a really big difference
(21:30):
because there's that respect.
There there's another level oftrust, a different level of
trust.
You believe that your coach hasan education in this factor.
So it can make a really bigdifference.
And coaches do need to beeducated on this because I think
a lot of them don't know.
So that's where this type ofevent can really help An
education on all fronts, notjust athletes, but all the
(21:52):
people around them because theyneed to look out for them,
because athletes have a reallyhard time looking out for
themselves because we can't.
You're obsessed, you're addicted.
Especially as teenagers, youdon't think of anything else.
I always put into my mind, likeif I told a kid what I got told
at 14 years old you're going tothe Olympics.
Kid, let's go.
These are the plans for thenext 10 years of your life.
(22:15):
You can't imagine not doingthat, and that's why it took me
so long to get out of that, andso I think having a team of
people that had known aboutbrain injuries probably would
have saved me a lot of mentalhealth issues as this all
happened.
Because you guys mentionedmental health and, yeah, I can
say I've had a lot of mentalhealth issues in the past.
(22:38):
Everybody on the podcast who'slistened to it knows quite a bit
about it.
But, yeah, I think this event'sgonna be great.
Do you wanna talk a little bitabout some of the other little
benefits things that are gonnago on at the event?
I know there's some prizes andthings like that.
Ryan (22:52):
Absolutely.
I just wanted to say a quickpoint about the coaches before
we move on to that, if that'sall right.
So I have actually done a lotof research in the topic of
coaches and looking into thatand it's so important.
A lot of the research says howimportant it is for coaches to
be informed and also the culturethat a coach can create in an
(23:15):
environment can largely dictatehow an athlete actually goes
through their recoveryexperience.
So, and also for you as a coach, in having that lived
experience when I was doing mymaster's project, that was one
of the things that a lot of myparticipants said was when they
had a coach who actually hadbeen through the injury before,
(23:36):
their experience was a lotbetter and a little bit smoother
, from the mental health side ofthings at least, because they
felt like they had somebody whothey could talk to.
They felt like they hadsomebody who knew the right
lines to draw and who waswilling to work with them with
empathy, and that's so important.
So, yeah, I'm really happy thatyou had that experience as a
(23:56):
coach and that's why we are soexcited to have coaches come to
this event, why we wanted theCoaching Association of Ontario
to have a speaker, and alsowe're excited to announce or
share that all coaches who arecertified by the Coaching
Association of Ontario willactually gain three professional
(24:18):
development points.
They're actually called threeNCCP PD points, but essentially
they're professional developmentpoints and so by attending our
event, all coaches who areregistered will actually be able
to get those professionaldevelopment points.
So we're really excited aboutthat, for sure.
We also have door prizes, whichwe're really excited about.
(24:40):
Some notable door prizes thatwe'll be having is we'll be
doing giveaway for Toronto MapleLeafs tickets, which we're
really excited about, and on topof that there'll be signed
Argos jerseys available for thedoor prize.
And then there's a few otherdoor prizes, which is really
exciting.
Seth (24:58):
Yeah, I would say, you know, just adding on to the
coach aside too because, like, Ithink one of the biggest
reasons why we wanted thecoaching community is because
coaches can bring the best outof us as athletes, but they can
also have an imprint in our lifeand because they play a role,
model, type of influence.
(25:18):
And I think you know for me,when I suffered my concussion,
like my coaches looked at me asit was a sign of weakness and I
was never viewed the same wayand that also played a big
factor into why we wanted tohave coaching representation
there and the coaching communityto have those professional
development points, as Ryanmentioned.
In a lot of ways it's just fullcircle moment for what I think
(25:42):
we all went through and toactually have them want to come
out and gain something from thisevent.
And the fact that we're doingthis at BMO field, I think makes
it that much more of a uniqueexperience.
And on top of that, likeeveryone that comes to this
event gets admission to a CFLgame later that night.
So it is in tandem with theArgos versus Hamilton and Tiger
(26:05):
Cats game at seven o'clockBattle of Ontario, which will be
really fun.
So I think there's a lot ofvalue beyond just the education.
Like Ryan and I really wanted tomake this an experience, like,
yes, it's called the sportrelated concussion experience,
but this event in itself we wantto be an experience.
There's a lot of opportunitiesfor networking, for coaches
within the community or athletictherapists and, you know,
(26:28):
medical providers, but alsoparents, and I think this event
again like the theme that wekind of kept coming back to when
we want to put this together.
Obviously it's very excitingthat it's at BMO field and we
get to connect with industryexperts and connect with people
like you, like all of that.
It's very exciting and almostlike a altruistic benefit that
(26:48):
comes from it, but more so it'swe didn't have access to any of
this when we were going throughwhat we went through, and to be
able to provide that directly topeople who, by coming to this
event, will get the latestinformation on concussions,
which is constantly evolving.
It's not like, all right, wenow know what a concussion is.
You're fine, like you can gowith this information Like this
(27:10):
is constantly evolving.
What we knew 10 years ago is nowconsidered myths.
Right, like, everything that weprobably all went through were
probably bad practices comparedto what we know now, but the
reality is people are stillusing them.
People were all in Ontario andpeople still don't know about
Rowan's Law, like, there are somany things, as you're in this
community and this industry,where you realize the need for
(27:33):
education, for accessibleeducation is so prevalent and so
important, but yet there aren'ta lot of opportunities.
And that's why this podcast isamazing, because it provides a
resource for people and we'rehoping our event is that same
type of resource for them.
Bella (27:48):
Yeah, I really like that factor and it is true that
coaches can have differentinfluences on you.
Actually, I think what I thinkback is probably why I was able
to retire the last coach that Iworked with.
She had had a brain injury asevere, like a very bad TBI and
she was back to it competing andeverything.
But she got it.
When I said I had a day Icouldn't ride, it wasn't like,
(28:10):
oh, you need to.
It was like, oh, yeah, okay,like you can just come hang out
if you want.
Like you don't even need to geton, we'll ride.
Like we'll ride all the horses,you know.
That support, I think, almostallowed me to feel okay about
retiring.
But it definitely is a hugedecision to make as an athlete
and it's a huge decision to makeat any level of being an
(28:30):
athlete.
But one thing for me is I spentmore time awake with my coaches
, trainers and all that than Idid with anybody else.
Like that's who.
I spent all my time with them.
I didn't spend time withanybody else.
So it definitely can belife-changing, for sure, and
that's why I think this is soimportant, because it changes
your life.
Concussions can change your life, whether you slipped and fell,
(28:53):
or you're an athlete or you arejust.
You know, have nothing to dowith sports, but you still get
hurt.
But having an education andunderstanding what's happening
to you or what to do about itcan really change your life.
Finding access to thateducation that's useful is also
really helpful because when youdo googling, it's really hard to
(29:13):
find the things that you need,which is why these events are so
great.
So we have talked about a lot.
The sport-related concussionexperience is just in a few
weeks.
There will be links to it andthe show notes and everything,
so everyone can find it.
We have a discount codeavailable as well.
Everybody can send me messagesabout it if they have any
questions, because I will bethere.
If you just want to come tomeet me, I'm totally okay with
(29:34):
that too.
Is there anything else you, too, would like to add before we
end today's episode?
Seth (29:39):
More, so would like to kind of ask you a question.
Obviously, we've heardthroughout this conversation,
you know, about your ownexperience.
But what made you want to be apart of this event?
Because we're thrilled to haveyou, but we'd love to get here,
like why.
I guess you want to come, youknow, and share your experience
with everyone in our communityas well.
Bella (29:59):
Yeah, for sure.
I think for me, the biggestthing is I find I love all the
medical professionals.
I wanted to be one for a while,but I think that's because my
entire journey, 90% of themedical professionals miss the
big picture because they hadn'tbeen through it in the same way.
They have been through it.
(30:20):
Maybe they've had a concussion,they had a few weeks off, but
it changed my life.
To this day, I have fourchronic illnesses because of my
concussions, and so theyre-routed my entire life and
still do so.
I think, being able to speak onit as a retired athlete and
athlete, I think it's reallyimportant to give back, and my
(30:40):
goal with all of this has alwaysbeen to prevent people from
making the same mistakes I did,because I made a lot of them,
and if I can prevent otherpeople from making mistakes,
then you know I did what I wassupposed to do.
From all of that I learned,because all the mistakes I made
definitely made this a lotlonger of an experience than it
needed to be.
So, yeah, that's definitely why.
Seth (31:03):
Yeah, no, that's amazing.
I think that perspective andthat insight is so important and
why we really want I know a lotof ways be the voice of lived
experience, which is no pressureand saying that but it's
because I think so many of us gothrough the mistakes and the
trials and tribulations and hadwe been better prepared or more
(31:25):
educated maybe I mean we'reobviously not saying something
that it would preventconcussions entirely but the way
we go about it and our recoverydefinitely wouldn't have been
as harmful as it may feel.
And I think that's really a bigthing for this event as well
that we want to touch upon,because I know Ryan and I, it's
definitely something we've beenvery passionate about for the
past six years and still are andjust happy to kind of bring the
(31:48):
community together for this.
Bella (31:50):
I want to thank you so much, both of you, for joining
us today, and I can't wait forthe event.
Seth (31:56):
Can't wait to have you.
Ryan (31:56):
Yeah, can't wait and thanks for having us.
We really appreciate being onhere and, yeah, just really
commend you for the work thatyou do.
It's really important and forpeople who, like ourselves, who
have been through the injury, wereally appreciate it.
Bella (32:12):
Need more than just this podcast.
Be sure to check out ourwebsite postconcussioninccom to
see how we can help you in yourpost concussion life, from a
support network to one-on-onecoaching.
I believe life can get betterbecause I've lived through it.
Make sure you take it one dayat a time.
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