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Join The Hot Tub Club, where inspiring conversations with successful people from around the world. Discover their keys to success, the exciting projects they’re pursuing, and their secrets for staying grounded and healthy. Each episode unpacks how they integrate Jack Canfield’s success principles, gratitude, and visualization into their routines, offering practical insights for personal growth and self-care.
The Samara Renee (00:07)
hey guys, welcome to the Hot Tub Club where inspiration bubbles up. I'm your host, Samara Renee, and today we have an amazing guest to come and share her story.
I'm so glad to welcome one of my favorite Canadians of all time. this is the most amazing person who gives me hope for the future. Please welcome to the Hot Tub Club podcast, Teresa Hansen. Welcome, Teresa.
Teresa Hansen (00:35)
Thanks.
The Samara Renee (00:36)
⁓
You are my favorite Canadian. hands down, no one can top you.
Teresa Hansen (00:44)
Am I the only Canadian you know?
The Samara Renee (00:47)
I mean, I feel like, they're secret Canadians. you know the Canadians that sound like they have an American accent and then they're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's you, right? So it's, then you would never know. And they're like, actually I was born in Canada, right? Michael J. Fox, isn't he from Canada?
Teresa Hansen (00:55)
that's me. ⁓
He's from Vancouver, yeah. Burnaby, but Vancouver, yeah.
The Samara Renee (01:07)
Yep.
Yeah. So is one of those guys. the way we know each other is we're in the same accountability group. And I think we've been in the same group for what? Almost two years now.
Teresa Hansen (01:19)
Yep, it's coming up two years.
meeting every week.
The Samara Renee (01:24)
how did you get connected with Tashai because Tashai has started our whole group
Teresa Hansen (01:32)
we were in a group right at the end of the BTS weekend that was actually set up and organized in order to help people form accountability groups. Yeah.
The Samara Renee (01:38)
Yes.
Nice, nice.
This is why I'm in your group, because I was looking for an accountability buddy. Then I connected with someone who was up in the LA area and I checked in with her one time and after that, she ghosted me. I was like, okay, well, nevermind. When she kind of put herself out there and was yeah, I'll be your accountability buddy. So that's how I got into the group was,
with Tashai saying, well, you can come join our group. So that's how we met. And the rest is history. And I'm so excited to have someone that can come across the border if I need goods to escape the tariffs, to take it over the border, or we can do the border exchange with our products from Canada.
Teresa Hansen (02:14)
and the rest is history.
The Samara Renee (02:34)
and avoid all of that. It's so nice to know that I have a good neighbor up in Canada.
Teresa Hansen (02:34)
you
Yep,
yep, not quite so easy to cross the border right now, but you can try.
The Samara Renee (02:44)
Yeah, I know.
even I'm afraid to leave right now. I'm just like, I don't know if they're gonna let me back in. yeah. So today, Teresa, you're coming on the show to share your personal story about head injuries. you had this great idea that popped up with today. And so important because there's a lot of people who have some type of head injury that they've had in their life.
Teresa Hansen (02:50)
Yeah, right.
The Samara Renee (03:09)
And it really impacts your life. And sometimes people don't realize it's impacting their life. I'm going to let you share your story on your history with head injuries and how that happened.
Teresa Hansen (03:20)
it's important to talk about because a lot of people experience a head injury. A lot of people don't seek medical care for head injuries. So we call a mild
traumatic brain injury. That's what we typically know as a concussion. it can be an experience of suffering in silence because it is an invisible injury. people expect you to be okay or to carry on. the most frustrating, it's
The Samara Renee (03:37)
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (03:54)
thing that people with concussions or head injuries will hear is the phrase, but you look fine.
The Samara Renee (04:01)
Mm-hmm, right.
Teresa Hansen (04:03)
right? And it's, it's very, very difficult to hear that. And it's, it can be a it can be a really tough journey. So it's important, I think, to to talk about it. Because there's a lot of people out there suffering.
The Samara Renee (04:16)
Yeah, we were talking earlier and when you normally hear about brain injuries, our head injuries, people think of football and sports But there are so many different ways that people can get head injuries. I'm thinking of a situation that happened during one of my summer jobs where one of our teenagers
got hurt. We were at the sports event. He was in the bounce house and he ended up falling down or somebody he fell down in the bounce house and another teenager fell on his neck and his head and he came out dazed and nobody recognized that except for me that he was not acting right. He was not with it.
And the other staff are well, maybe he just needs water. And I'm like, no, he's complaining that his head hurts, his neck hurts. I ended up calling 911 and we took him to the hospital and he got evaluated. again, these are people who were trained to know the signs of an injury with a child or a teenager and.
even that still wasn't enough for them to recognize that something was wrong.
Teresa Hansen (05:22)
Mm-hmm.
Right. yeah, head injuries can occur from so many causes, right? Falls, motor vehicle accidents. Those are some of the biggest categories of ways that a concussion occur. Assault is another big one. over 200,000 people a year are hospitalized with head injuries in the US.
The Samara Renee (05:33)
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (05:48)
Right? It's an equivalent number in Canada. ⁓ it's something to be on the lookout for when things like that happen. But the other interesting thing is that the symptoms can take days to really start to show themselves. So someone might seem fine in the moment and two, three, four days later, start exhibiting symptoms. Right.
The Samara Renee (05:49)
Mm-hmm. Right.
Mm-hmm. ⁓
Mm hmm. Right. So before
we jump into your story, I did a podcast a couple of episodes back where I was talking about when I got hit by a car and I went to the ER and my face literally hit the windshield and I got evaluated for a concussion and my doctor was like, well, you seem like you're fine right now, but, know, just in case we'll keep you up. But
Till this day, there's at least three weeks that I'm missing, that I don't remember what happened. So I'm assuming maybe I had a concussion that the doctors just didn't recognize because I came walking in and I seemed like I was fine. But I still think that, yeah, now, if your head hits somebody's windshield and they're going about 40 miles per hour, yeah, there's something going to happen to you, right?
Teresa Hansen (07:00)
yeah,
yeah, because I mean the injury occurs when the brain moves inside the skull, right? So, right, it jiggles, exactly. when your face stopped, your brain kept moving and it slammed against the inside of your skull, right? So very likely would have caused.
The Samara Renee (07:07)
Yeah, with the jiggles.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Right, right.
Teresa Hansen (07:25)
some injury.
The Samara Renee (07:29)
walk me through your first head injury and that whole experience with going into the doctors and being evaluated and how did the medical professionals treat you at that time? Did they recognize that something was going on?
Teresa Hansen (07:45)
my worst one was 2012, the third one, the one that really took me out. The ones prior to that I recovered much more quickly. The first one was a car accident and I did slam into the window on the driver's side. And I was about six months recovering from that one. ⁓
The Samara Renee (08:02)
Wow.
Teresa Hansen (08:04)
not a lot of cognitive symptoms from that, but just the really bad headaches ⁓ was the thing that persisted for that six months. But then I recovered and I was totally fine. The second one, again, was headaches, but only for about six weeks. And interestingly enough, that one was a whiplash induced. So you can actually get concussions from the...
The Samara Renee (08:10)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mmm.
Teresa Hansen (08:32)
whiplash effect in the neck. So yeah.
The Samara Renee (08:34)
Yeah. And that makes sense that that
would jiggle your brain a little bit.
Teresa Hansen (08:38)
Yeah, yeah, and then the last one was from a fall and I was getting out of a truck and didn't actually think about how high off the ground I was when I was getting out. So I stepped out and fell but managed to get my feet under me but was sort of scrambling to get up to...
get my feet under me. And so in the end, what I ended up doing was propelling myself forward. And I had my hands full of stuff. I didn't think to put the stuff down or drop the stuff. So I ended up running across the pavement and slammed head first into the sidewalk. And I didn't get up.
The Samara Renee (09:07)
Hello.
Yeah.
Teresa Hansen (09:25)
I was lying, I didn't lose consciousness. Like I know I didn't lose consciousness. I had a little bit of episodic memory loss after the fact, but in the moment I didn't lose consciousness. I was pretty aware of what was happening, but I wasn't able to get up. I was lying on the ground thinking, this is bad. I can't actually move. ⁓ No, no, I was with friends and they picked me up off the ground.
The Samara Renee (09:45)
Were you by yourself when that happened? Okay, good. Okay.
Teresa Hansen (09:53)
and I felt very woozy. But I wasn't sort of aware of how bad it was until somebody pushed my hair back and I saw the face of one of my friends and he just went white. And I went, I guess it's bad. And we went across the street into a restaurant, into the bathroom. And when I saw my...
The Samara Renee (10:08)
God.
my gosh.
Teresa Hansen (10:14)
When I saw my
forehead in the mirror, I was just like, uh-oh. Yeah, I just, took all the skin off my forehead. Yeah. It was.
The Samara Renee (10:24)
So then after
that, you're washing your face off. Did you decide, okay, maybe I need to go in to the ER and get checked out?
Teresa Hansen (10:33)
Well,
so here's my first piece of advice to anybody who might be listening to this. Never let the concussed person make the decisions because my friends were all saying, we think you should go to the hospital. You might have a concussion. And because I'd had two previous concussions, I said, I absolutely have a concussion.
The Samara Renee (10:50)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (10:57)
No, I don't want to go to the hospital.
The Samara Renee (10:59)
Right, okay, that makes sense, yeah, yeah.
Teresa Hansen (11:02)
because
I said, I know what's gonna happen. I'm gonna sit in the ER for 12 hours waiting for to see a doctor. And then they're gonna say, well, you don't probably need a CT. You will just go home and watch for this, this, this and this, which I already know and come back if you experience any of these symptoms. And so I said, I don't need to go. And so they took me home and left me there alone.
The Samara Renee (11:17)
right?
my gosh.
Teresa Hansen (11:29)
And I said, I need to go home because I need to get up in the morning for work. And in the morning when I got up, I got out of bed and I went to the bathroom and I thought, I'm really not feeling very well. I think I'd better go back and lie down. And as I was walking back to my bed, I heard this loud bang and I thought,
The Samara Renee (11:34)
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (11:55)
my god, what was that noise? And then I realized I had passed out.
The Samara Renee (12:00)
my god, that's so crazy. ⁓ my god. ⁓ my god. That is so crazy. I was it, did you feel like it was like an out of body thing or did you?
Teresa Hansen (12:02)
and hit my dresser on the way down.
The Samara Renee (12:17)
my god, that's so crazy.
not again. ⁓ my gosh. ⁓ okay, good. And then so you're by yourself.
Teresa Hansen (12:24)
Yeah, not with my head, luckily, but yeah. So then I went,
I guess I better not go to work. So I took the day off and it was a Friday, so I took the day off. And when I went to work on Monday, the bruising was so bad that my whole face was starting to turn green.
The Samara Renee (12:47)
wow. Wow.
Teresa Hansen (12:47)
And I continued to try to work for the next three weeks. And at after three weeks, I couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't do it anymore. I was at the point where I could not function. Because for me, the symptoms were gradual and starting to set in. Right. And
The Samara Renee (13:08)
Yeah,
what were some of your initial symptoms that you started to notice and were like, huh, what is this?
Teresa Hansen (13:16)
So.
I think for me, the initial worst symptom was just severe headache. But the symptoms that started to set in were sleep problems. So I had problems falling asleep and staying asleep. So...
The staying asleep ended up being the biggest problem. I ended up only being able to sleep in 30 to 90 minute increments. ⁓ And I had also had really bad irregular heart rate. I would wake up like that was I think that was what was waking me up is I would have this racing heart rate.
The Samara Renee (13:45)
Hmm, okay.
Teresa Hansen (13:59)
I would wake up feeling very out of breath and I would, it sort of made me have these really weird dreams where I was being chased or scary things were happening or whatever. And I think it was being caused by my heart rate elevating. ⁓ We were talking earlier today about POTS. I had that, positional orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, I think it's called, tachycardic syndrome.
The Samara Renee (14:14)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (14:25)
as soon as I stand up my heart rate would shoot up lots of problems with sleep I started to develop problems with I never had light sensitivity. So a lot of people will have great sensitivity to light I never had that but I had terrible sensitivity to sound I couldn't tolerate Sound any kind of sound I had to watch TV
The Samara Renee (14:37)
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (14:47)
I could watch TV, some people can't tolerate TV. I could watch TV, but I had to watch it with the sound off. ⁓ I started to have trouble with reading. I didn't have it right away, but I started to develop it and it got worse and worse to the point where I couldn't read and then I couldn't drive. And so it was a gradual onset of symptoms. It just worsened with time.
The Samara Renee (14:51)
Mm-hmm.
Right, right, wow.
Teresa Hansen (15:15)
over a period of weeks. And so, yeah, like when I would look at a page with words on it, the words and the letters would be moving around. So I couldn't get the words and the letters to stay still.
The Samara Renee (15:29)
wow, that's crazy.
Teresa Hansen (15:35)
and it would cause this squeezing sensation in my head and the same with driving, cause this crazy squeezing sensation in my head that made the headache worse.
The Samara Renee (15:46)
Wow. So during that whole period, you know, you have your, two girls, they notice any changes. I don't know how old the girls were at that time when that happened, but did it, were they like, Whoa, mom, what's going on?
Teresa Hansen (15:59)
Yeah.
Well, they were, my daughters were 17 and 20. And so my older one was living out of the house. Didn't see a whole lot of her at that time. My younger daughter was in her final year of high school and living, you know, with me. So that was tough because, you know, she was super active. She was an athlete and going to practices and competitions.
and in school, super busy.
But she was also, she talks really fast. And so when she would be home with me and she would talk to me, I struggled so badly to try and understand what she was saying to me. When she would talk to me, I would listen and try to focus really hard on what she was saying. But the whole time she was talking, I was thinking,
Oh my God, I can't understand a word she's saying. Because the words were just washing over me and I had terrible concentration problems. My thoughts would scatter on me if I was trying to plan out what I wanted to say.
The Samara Renee (16:55)
Wow.
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (17:09)
I could get one sentence out and then I couldn't remember what the next one was supposed to be. I described my thoughts like wild horses galloping away from me, right? Yeah, and I had aphasia really bad and aphasia is word finding, trouble with word finding. And I remember being out, I'll talk about the movie in a minute. And we talked about that earlier today, but I was out.
The Samara Renee (17:18)
That's a good description of that, yeah.
Teresa Hansen (17:35)
in a restaurant with my family for a lunch. I remember sitting at the table and there were napkins in the middle of the table.
pile of napkins in the middle of the table, and I couldn't quite reach them. So I said, can somebody pass me up? And I couldn't think of the word and I kept and everybody's looking at me. And I'm pointing at what I want. And I'm going, can you pass me up?
The Samara Renee (17:56)
Mmm. That's so scary.
Teresa Hansen (18:06)
the word would not come. And I kept thinking, why doesn't somebody say the word? Help me out here. And they're all just looking at me like, what? So yeah, it was was tough. Like that was really hard. So it was like having dementia, but
The Samara Renee (18:12)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
So yeah, that is, to me,
that's just so scary. Just to not have that ability to have that clarity in your mind, to be able to articulate what you're trying to say, also processing what people are trying to say to you. And then just everyday communications and having this jumble stuff in your head. And I know that you're very,
intellectual you like to read and learn. So I can understand how that would be so frustrating to have all those words mixing around and you're like, what the heck? this has never happened before. what was the breaking point to when you finally said, okay, this is out of control. I need to go see someone.
Teresa Hansen (19:10)
Well, I think when I realized that I couldn't do my job, I had a great job. I was an advisor for international students. But when I couldn't cope with my job, I went off on medical leave. And for a few weeks, I guess, several weeks, I just.
sat home, my doctor, my GP said, stay home and, sit in a dark room and feel better, which at the time this was 12, 13 years ago, GPs were still giving out that very bad advice. ⁓ And so that's what I did for a while. And when I realized that, you know, that was not helping at all,
The Samara Renee (19:40)
Cheers.
you
Right.
Teresa Hansen (19:57)
I started looking for some help. And at the time there was no concussion clinic in Vancouver, but I eventually found a neuropsychologist who had come from the U.S. and she did specialize in treating people with concussion. so I started seeing her. She was very expensive, but
worth it and she eventually referred me to a physiotherapist to start active rehab because that is the right treatment protocol for people with concussion symptoms like mine. I started seeing a physiotherapist in Vancouver but I didn't really make much progress. we were working on
I was on the treadmill, I was using a heart rate monitor and we were trying to do that. You kind of get your heart rate up and start pushing your level of tolerance, that kind of thing. But I wasn't making a whole lot of progress. after a while she said to me, would you be able to go to Whistler and see somebody up there? And I said, yeah, absolutely. I have friends that live in Whistler, have places to stay.
So yes, I could go. And so that's what I did. I ended up going up to Whistler and spending the summer up there and seeing a physiotherapist up there who is specialized in concussion treatment because he's the onboard physio for the Canadian national ski team.
The Samara Renee (21:22)
wow, okay. The
best person you could probably go see.
Teresa Hansen (21:25)
Yeah, well, and Whistler sees a lot of people with concussion because of the mountain biking that happens up there. So there's an awful lot of people that come in with concussion from that sport, too. So that's basically what he treats. And what he did was start me on vestibular rehab. So I was doing a lot of exercises.
The Samara Renee (21:36)
Right.
Teresa Hansen (21:47)
for my eyes. So I was doing things like with a pen like this, right? ⁓ And things like that and doing my exercise, you know, the things on the bike and all the rest of it and the actual active physical and balance exercises. I was working on my balance, but the vestibular exercises I think were the thing that made the biggest difference for me because within
The Samara Renee (21:51)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (22:11)
I don't know, two, three weeks, I was reading again, which for me was a huge breakthrough.
The Samara Renee (22:16)
Yeah,
that's like a miracle, really.
Teresa Hansen (22:19)
Yeah, yeah. So, you know, I made a lot of progress working with him.
The Samara Renee (22:25)
when you were going through all of your therapy with him, did you have times where you were frustrated and you gave up hope that this was going to work or things were going to get better?
Teresa Hansen (22:37)
I was on medical leave from my job for
two years because I was still struggling. I mean, a lot of my symptoms resolved over that two year period just slowly things were resolving, but I was still struggling badly with the headaches. And I remember right around that period sort of 18 months coming on two years.
visiting the neuropsychologist again and saying to her, when am I going to get better? what do I have to do to get back to my old life? when's that going to happen? what do have to do? And she said, you know, you might have to accept that you're never going to get back to your old life. And that...
The Samara Renee (23:23)
Yikes.
Teresa Hansen (23:25)
That felt like running into a brick wall right there. Right? Like that was a harsh moment, but she was absolutely right. Because I had to accept that I was never getting my old life back. And that became painfully obvious when my employer,
The Samara Renee (23:27)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Teresa Hansen (23:46)
reorganized me out of a job. It was unfortunate that my former boss who was wonderful and we had worked together for many, many years, retired right about the same time as I had my accident. So the new boss that came in was not sympathetic, ⁓ was in fact actually quite hostile. So it was not a good environment for me to go back to anyway. So
The Samara Renee (24:01)
Right.
Teresa Hansen (24:08)
I ended up taking a buyout and parting ways. So it was for the best, but it was tough because I had really loved my job. I had loved the students and all of that, but the work environment would not have been good for me to try and go back into. I never got my old life back, ever.
The Samara Renee (24:21)
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (24:36)
So I've just had to try and move forward. And that's a hard thing. That's a hard struggle. The hardest thing, for people who have persistent, it is, it's a syndrome. can happen in, anywhere from 10 to 25 % of cases, people can have persistent symptoms past.
the normal recovery period they consider about three months. And a very, very small and unlucky percentage of people will still have symptoms past a year. all of my symptoms resolved, but I still struggle with the headaches. that's pretty much every day. some days it's not bad and some days it's really bad.
The Samara Renee (25:18)
Yeah. since you had that conversation with, your therapist, what role did grief and acceptance? Did you have like a grieving period where you're just need to just grieve my own life because I know it's not going to be the same again. how long did it take you to fully accept that?
Did you have resistance to that, to accepting that?
Teresa Hansen (25:39)
It's complicated in my case. don't think I
Grieved? that's a really tough question.
I don't think I went through some formal grieving process for my old life. I think I've struggled with my...
The Samara Renee (25:47)
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (25:52)
mental health as a result of that because the other thing that happened right when the job loss happened is I lost my mom and my mom had been my biggest source of support and my closest friend. that's been
The Samara Renee (26:06)
You
Teresa Hansen (26:12)
a part of all of it since then.
The Samara Renee (26:13)
Right.
Teresa Hansen (26:17)
So it's complicated, I think, for me. ⁓ And the other thing about people who struggle after a concussion is...
The Samara Renee (26:20)
Sure.
Teresa Hansen (26:27)
Just by the nature of the symptoms that you have, it's a very isolating experience. You tend to want to hibernate because being out in the world is difficult. One of the hardest things for me, especially in those first few years, was to be out anywhere in a social environment. So being in a restaurant was...
The Samara Renee (26:32)
Mm-hmm.
rates.
Teresa Hansen (26:53)
impossible. It was impossible. there was so much stimulus because of my noise sensitivity. ⁓ But just all every every form of stimulus, you know, the noise, the lights, the people, the talking, just conversation. It was so overwhelming that my brain would go into shutdown. I couldn't, I couldn't converse with people in that environment.
The Samara Renee (26:54)
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (27:19)
and it would give me excruciating headaches. So I just couldn't go into that kind of environment. So you stay home. You stay home. You don't go out with your friends.
The Samara Renee (27:27)
Did
that also play into, did you have anxiety come out from that as well during your whole journey with your head injuries?
Teresa Hansen (27:37)
A little bit. Yeah, a little bit. I would have anxiety about times where I felt I had to go and do these things. Yeah, it would definitely cause anxiety. Yeah, yeah.
The Samara Renee (27:50)
Yeah.
how did your head injuries impact your relationships with your family and your friends after the injury?
Teresa Hansen (27:56)
Bye.
so much with family, although I think with, I mean, I feel like in some ways, you I wasn't present enough with my kids, right? That, there were losses for them because of it, I feel guilty about that. But definitely with friends, I mean, my social
relationships have really suffered because of it. And I mean, I'm many years out, but because I still struggle with the headaches, those relationships are still affected. I mean, I say no often to opportunities to socialize.
The Samara Renee (28:36)
Did you find that some of the friends that have been by your side and who have stuck with you, did you find that that relationship got tighter as they were walking with you through this experience? did most of your friends kind of scurry away and just like, this is too heavy for me. I just need to part ways.
Teresa Hansen (28:57)
No, don't. My close relationships are my girlfriends. I don't feel like it caused us to bond more. But equally, I don't feel like anybody left me because of it. It didn't really cause any big difference in my relationships with my girlfriends.
The Samara Renee (29:11)
Mm-hmm.
were there specific moments where you felt misunderstood? with people that are were close to you? I think we talked a little bit about how you would go to the doctors and it would say, you look fine. Are other people say you look fine? So what's the big deal?
Teresa Hansen (29:36)
Well, I think in a lot of cases, people would say, and this often happened with friends, people often would say in a way that was meant to be kind or reassuring, people would say, well, you look good. And I would think you can't see what I feel, right? Like it doesn't matter.
The Samara Renee (29:47)
Mm-hmm.
Alright.
Teresa Hansen (30:02)
what I look like. I can do my hair and put on some makeup, but you can't see what I'm experiencing or what I'm feeling. And just because I make the effort to show up here doesn't mean I'm okay. And so that that was really difficult. it did happen to me at one event where I made the effort to show up and we were outdoors.
The Samara Renee (30:15)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (30:26)
It was a sunny, hot day. The music was blasting and I developed an excruciating headache and I went, I just, you I don't want to leave, but I have to go lie down. So I went inside. took, a painkiller. It made me, or I had taken a painkiller and it was making me sleepy. And so I thought I'm just going to go inside. Living room was nice and dark and cool and I'm going to lie down. And I ended up falling asleep and
The Samara Renee (30:37)
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (30:56)
Someone said to me...
came in and said, well, you just shouldn't have come if you were going to behave this way. And I'm like, it was rough. It was rough.
The Samara Renee (31:03)
⁓ That's rough. They're acting like you're
like you were drunk or something. that's that reaction would be appropriate. But for a friend who is having a headache and they need to go lay down and get away like that's that's rough. I'm sorry.
Teresa Hansen (31:24)
was very demoralizing. But it was illustrative of how difficult it is for people to understand what you're going through and what it's like to have an invisible injury. And that's why, like this has all come up for me because yesterday,
I watched this movie that I had mentioned to you and I want to talk about it on this podcast because I think if anybody has had a concussion and sees this movie, they're gonna react to it the same way I did I related so strongly to what I saw the movie is not about the concussion. The movie, it's a romance movie and it's about two people who meet and
The Samara Renee (32:11)
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (32:17)
have had a past life meeting, right? it's about them meeting again
it's called I remember you. it starts with the felt the guy in the movie going out for a swim with his buddy and they're at the pier at Santa Monica there and a wave comes in and knocks him and he gets smashed into the
piling of the pier and hits his head. what ensues is him having all of these experiences related to his concussion. And he is an actor and had just gotten this part. And suddenly he, you know, he's got these terrible headaches and he can't read the words on the page. And so he's, you know, failing badly at trying to read his lines and he's
The Samara Renee (32:44)
Right.
Teresa Hansen (33:05)
goes to try and meet this girl that he's met that he really likes, but he can't bring himself to go into the restaurant because it's so overwhelming and all of these things are happening to him. And I'm watching it and I'm thinking, my God, that's exactly right. everything that they're portraying is so bang on.
he's kind of like his friend, but also his manager. And he shows up at his door and the guy just reams him out because he's, you know, not doing what he should be doing. And he's, you know, not being responsible and he's failing at his, you know, responsibilities.
he's just standing there taking it because what can he say? But it's because he has this injury and his manager expects him to suck it up, right? Suck it up, get over it. so I related very, deeply and I just thought it was an amazing portrayal. thought, wow, whoever wrote this movie has definitely had a concussion because they know what it's like.
The Samara Renee (33:54)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (34:09)
So.
The Samara Renee (34:10)
Yeah, I'm curious to find out, who wrote the story and did they go through something or know somebody because, it takes an experience or someone close to them to walk them through all those symptoms you had to really illustrate this is what the person is experiencing in a way that a lot of us wouldn't have even even considered before. what would be some advice for
Teresa Hansen (34:26)
Yeah.
The Samara Renee (34:34)
Friends are partners who have someone in their life that had a brain injury. What's A tip or advice to help to support this person
Teresa Hansen (34:44)
other than the first piece of advice which I gave you, is don't let the concussed person make decisions in the moment of the at the at the moment of impact. Yeah.
The Samara Renee (34:49)
Yep.
of the injury. Yes. That's great advice.
Teresa Hansen (34:58)
to acknowledge the courage that it takes to deal with everything that comes at you when you when you struggle with a concussion, because it's really overwhelming.
and it's overwhelming in a way that's invisible to other people.
The Samara Renee (35:19)
Mm-hmm, right.
Teresa Hansen (35:20)
And it takes incredible strength to deal with that. know? one of the first visits that I had with the neuropsychologist, and that was about three months after my injury, she said to me, okay, so who's helping you? And I went, well, what do you mean? And she said, well, you have a daughter living at home, so who's?
The Samara Renee (35:26)
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (35:43)
who's doing the grocery shopping, who's cooking the meals, who's cleaning the house and who's doing like, and I went, oh, well, I am. That's me. she goes, well, what about your daughter? And I said, she's busy at school and cheer and all her stuff.
The Samara Renee (35:54)
Yeah, you're like, yeah, it's me. Yeah.
Yeah.
Teresa Hansen (36:07)
She comes home and says, what's for dinner?
The Samara Renee (36:10)
Right? So
you still need to be in mom mode. have to, yeah.
Teresa Hansen (36:14)
I still need to be mom, right?
I could leave work and go on medical leave, but there's no medical leave for mom.
The Samara Renee (36:23)
Yeah, yeah, that's so true. That's tough. Let's talk about that a lot of my friends are moms and we talk about self care I know you're a single mom and it's would you do anything differently during that period of time for getting additional help or would you deal with the situation the same
Teresa Hansen (36:45)
Let's not talk about me, let's talk about somebody else because I'm the kind of person who does not ask for help and I know that that's not the right approach. Yeah.
The Samara Renee (36:52)
Yeah, I hear that. Yeah, I
know. I'm very similar. It's hard to to let go. Yeah.
Teresa Hansen (36:57)
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think it is important to ask for help. It is, and if you can possibly bring yourself to do it, you should do it.
The Samara Renee (37:07)
I think this is the great thing about this podcast because you don't need to be perfect. the, main thing is helping people learn lessons. I'm not the best person with receiving help or asking for help. I hate asking for help, but sometimes there's those situations where you're like, I can't do this. anymore.
Teresa Hansen (37:30)
Yeah, I mean, lots of people are lucky and they have good support systems, right? And so you can draw on that. But if you are.
The Samara Renee (37:37)
Mm-hmm
Teresa Hansen (37:42)
single parent and
You know, your friends are all busy with their own lives and it's very difficult.
The Samara Renee (37:49)
you mentioned, the isolation and being a single mom and trying to manage this brain injury and also take care of your daughter and keep things going But yet internally, you're in so much pain.
and no one seems to understand that. I think it's pretty courageous what you did to just try to hold it down for your daughter, to get her through that senior year and try to be the best that you could even though you were suffering so greatly. that's the lessons is not all of us.
For instance, like me being single, have your network of friends, but let's be real, people have their lives, their families, their jobs, and that support system sometimes is not always reliable to lean on. Even with families, same thing, everybody has their lives. you can't expect people to kind of be there at your beck and call, so you have to figure it out for yourself sometimes.
Teresa Hansen (38:45)
Right.
Right,
I am the type of person who's pretty self-reliant and pretty resourceful. I looked for where I could.
find help that I thought was reasonable. finding the neuropsychologist, starting to go to the physiotherapist. I saw a kinesiologist for a while. started, my rehab involved a lot of time in the gym I was doing what I could to try and recover.
and that that went on for for quite a few years but i think it was about four years and then in 2017 my
motivation dropped off. I really started to struggle. I really started to struggle mentally, that's a common trajectory for people who, live with chronic pain,
The Samara Renee (39:37)
Mmm
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Teresa Hansen (39:44)
And, you know, so, you know, what I ended up doing was going back to school and I had to have, some accommodations to try and manage the workload. So I stretched it out over, you know, a longer period of time, but I managed to complete my master's degree, which is something that I had always wanted to do. And, you know, that helped with my
state of mind for sure.
The Samara Renee (40:10)
So
when you went back to school and did you meet with like a school counselor or student advisor to talk to them about some of your challenges and the accommodations that you would need?
Teresa Hansen (40:24)
Yeah, well, I applied through the accommodations office, right? I can't remember now exactly what the office is called at my university, but yeah, it was a simple process. It was just an application, an interview, and I didn't make use of a lot of the accommodations that were available to me. It was really just...
The Samara Renee (40:37)
Nice.
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (40:49)
stretching out the degree program over a longer period of time. That was about the only thing that I really needed to do.
The Samara Renee (40:56)
Yeah, I think that's something else about universities and colleges. They do have these resources on campus, but when you don't need them, you don't think about them. so when these things pop up, it's good to know that you can always go back to your schools or workplace. they have things to help to support you and programs that you don't even know about.
So I think like bringing awareness that there are research out there.
I'm sure you had to do some digging to kind of figure this all out. Or were you able to find like one source where you could get that information?
Teresa Hansen (41:33)
one source, but I had always worked in post-secondary education, so I knew about it. It was not difficult for me to access that information. if you don't know the university system, then you might not be aware that it's there, but, yeah, I knew about it. So it was, it was a very simple, straightforward process for me, and they were very accommodating of my needs.
The Samara Renee (41:38)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
you recognize that you had some limitations, but what if there is somebody around that's like, they're struggling and they don't, they're not aware that they never addressed that brain injury. What would be the first step that you would tell that person if they finally were like, okay, there's something going on. I don't know why I'm struggling with this, but they've been pushing it off. What would be their first step?
Teresa Hansen (42:26)
That's a really good question.
most people would say, you should talk to your doctor. But the problem is, is most general practitioners have very little knowledge in the area of brain injury. I don't know how it works for you in the US, but we would hear if you want to be referred to a neurologist, let's say.
The Samara Renee (42:38)
Yep. Right.
Teresa Hansen (42:54)
you would have to see your GP and the GP would refer you to see a neurologist. That's how I ended up seeing, I see a headache specialist who is a neurologist. So I had to go to my GP and she referred me and I sat on a wait list for a while to get to see
they do a bunch of.
cognitive tests and neuropsychiatric evaluations and blah, blah. And it doesn't tell you very much, But for some people, might, depending on what you're struggling with, it may reveal.
some kind of learning issue or whatever that could help you if you were struggling in school An accommodation, a neurologist can, because I had to have a letter from my neurologist for my accommodation, right? a neurologist, once an evaluation is done, can provide you with documentation.
The Samara Renee (43:42)
Mm-hmm, right, right.
Teresa Hansen (43:50)
that would help you in a school setting or a workplace setting,
The Samara Renee (43:53)
Yeah. here in the States, that would be the same process,
Teresa Hansen (44:00)
this has just made me think of, what's another good piece of advice? the advice that she gave me, which was not good advice and very, very outdated, to go home and, you know, sit in a dark room. And they know now that, that the best way to recover from a concussion is
The Samara Renee (44:11)
Mm.
Teresa Hansen (44:20)
gradual return to activity as soon as possible, right? So even within 24 hours to
The Samara Renee (44:24)
you
So why is
that?
Teresa Hansen (44:31)
because it starts to build your tolerance to symptoms, to your symptoms, right? So you don't wanna push yourself so that you are flattened, right? You don't push yourself so far that you regress and you can't function, but you push yourself just to the point where you start to feel
The Samara Renee (44:37)
Okay. Okay.
Teresa Hansen (44:57)
your symptoms come on, So if you are, somebody who likes to go running, you might go out and, walk at a brisk pace. But when you feel those symptoms start to come on, you're going to back off and slow down or stop And then the next day, you're going to go out and go a little harder and see how far you can go till those symptoms come on and you just keep pushing it
The Samara Renee (45:07)
Mm-hmm.
Right, right.
Teresa Hansen (45:23)
But sitting home and waiting for symptoms to resolve is not at all the right approach.
The Samara Renee (45:28)
That's new, I didn't know that. So I just learned something new.
Teresa Hansen (45:31)
Yeah, a return to activities,
a return to activities as soon as possible.
The Samara Renee (45:36)
So evidently, if I had a concussion, I did do the right thing when I was 15. I did return to activities immediately. did the right thing without knowing it.
Teresa Hansen (45:46)
But it's gotta be gradual and it's gotta take into account the person's tolerance level. just like with kids, right, at 15, that doesn't mean just send them back into the classroom and say, well, go to school and suck it up, right? It might mean go to school, but you're only going for an hour,
The Samara Renee (46:00)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah,
back at the school Monday morning right on time, bright and early. I think my folks, even though my mom's a nurse, I think she. I don't know. it's so funny when I look back in time and I'm like, I don't really remember the reactions of my parents and how they.
dealt with certain things, like what you mentioned. Exactly. Okay. You're so right about not letting the person with the concussion make the decision. So for instance, my parents asked me, my mom said, asked me if I wanted to sue the guy at 15. And I said no. Looking back, I was like, why didn't my parents make that a decision? I'm still a minor. They're the adults.
And I wish I would have because I had all those long-term issues afterwards. So not the greatest plan, but their parents, they were doing the best they could at the time. But looking back, I was like, gosh, why did they allow me to make that decision?
Teresa Hansen (47:07)
Well, that's kind of twofold, right? why are you letting a 15-year-old make those decisions?
The Samara Renee (47:12)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, which
is completely opposite of how they raised us is where we didn't have options. It was basically because I said so. That was the catchphrase. And that was the one time that they were like, you could decide this one. And I, yeah. And I was like, no, no, I just want it to pretend like it didn't happen. I just want to push it away
Teresa Hansen (47:24)
Yeah.
We'll let you decide.
So yeah.
The Samara Renee (47:37)
not have to deal with that again. But yeah, no, yeah.
Teresa Hansen (47:41)
which is not an unusual reaction amongst teenagers to bad things, right? They don't wanna deal with it.
The Samara Renee (47:46)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Yeah, I know that my mom, going back to that whole accident, she took me to school on Monday and she picked me up on Monday. But then Tuesday, I was on my own. So she got me back and I had to walk home on Tuesday and cross that same street that I got hit in. And I remember I had the worst anxiety.
Teresa of my life. I was having a panic attack because I was afraid I was gonna get hit again. And I just had to deal. I just had to deal with it. I didn't have anyone to rescue me. It was just like, okay, well, you got to get across the street to get home. So, the way it's gotta be. there's a good thing, but also like a not good thing. it made me more resilient, but at the same time, I probably need it.
Teresa Hansen (48:20)
So.
Yeah,
yeah.
The Samara Renee (48:38)
probably could have used some support those first couple of days. Yeah.
Teresa Hansen (48:40)
Yeah. Yeah.
yeah.
The Samara Renee (48:43)
Crazy.
Teresa Hansen (48:44)
Yeah, well, is a tough journey.
The Samara Renee (48:49)
Yeah,
ever evolving moments of our life that we look back and we're like, gosh, why did I make that decision? Or why did that person make that decision for me? Like your friends that kind of just dropped you off at home, even though you were bruised up and bleeding, they're just like, good luck, Teresa. Great, you know.
Teresa Hansen (48:53)
Hmm.
Well, you I was so insistent. I was like, no, I'm fine. I gotta go to bed. I have an early meeting. You guys leave. know, it's just, it's crazy.
The Samara Renee (49:15)
and
Teresa Hansen (49:20)
I thought of one more thing. I thought of one
more thing that is a good little piece of info for, especially for friends, family, caregivers. There's something that people with concussion can experience that's called flooding. And it's a really profound.
The Samara Renee (49:35)
Okay.
Teresa Hansen (49:39)
experience and I think if people know about it and can understand it that it would help because you know there were moments where and God forbid my daughter ever sees this podcast but she would get really upset with me and say my god mom you have that vacant look again.
The Samara Renee (50:00)
Mmm.
Teresa Hansen (50:00)
And what it was is I would be experiencing that.
that flooding where you're so overwhelmed with stimulus, stimuli, stimuli of all sorts, right? So we'd be, you know, I'd be trying to listen to her and concentrate on what she was saying, but there would be noises happening around me and there would be things I was trying to think of and I'd be trying to follow the conversation and it'd be so overwhelmed.
The Samara Renee (50:11)
Mm-hmm
Teresa Hansen (50:28)
that I would be experiencing that flooding and it freezes your brain. It's like everything grinds to a halt and you're in panic mode and the more you experience that anxiety and that panic, the worse it gets. and then the person that you're with becomes aware that you're kind of like not there.
The Samara Renee (50:30)
Mmm.
Mm-hmm.
Right. Right.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Right.
Teresa Hansen (50:54)
Right? Like the eyes are blank
and it can be very frustrating for people to try and deal with that. So, it's overwhelming and scary for the person experiencing it, but it's difficult and frustrating, I guess, for the people around you.
The Samara Renee (50:59)
Mm-hmm.
What would be helpful for, like you said, if your daughter was that person and she knew about flooding, what could she do to help you through that moment of overwhelm?
Teresa Hansen (51:25)
what could help people in that moment?
I'm just imagining that if somebody would have, taken me by the hands, held my hands and looked at me and said, hey, it looks like you are feeling really overwhelmed right now. Why don't we just take a minute and breathe?
The Samara Renee (51:45)
Mm-hmm.
Right. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Teresa Hansen (51:50)
Right? To
just step into that moment with them and allow them to feel like, I don't know, connected, understood, like there's a safe space for them, you know, to just, you know, to just step into for a moment, to let everything calm down.
The Samara Renee (51:55)
Right.
Mm-hmm.
That's good.
That's good. Yeah, that's good advice. I think that would be really helpful because at least you won't feel so alone and someone can step in and kind of take over that situation and help you. Even if it's just saying, you know what, we're going to take a moment or let's go outside. You know, let's see if we can go walk outside and just go take a break. You know, somewhere a little bit more quiet.
you know?
Teresa Hansen (52:37)
But you can't
you can't know to do that unless you're aware that the phenomenon happens. Right. So you have to be you have to be watching for it.
The Samara Renee (52:43)
Right. Yeah. So, okay.
Yeah. are there support groups, any type of training or anything that could help families learn to recognize some of these symptoms as someone recovers from a, a concussion?
Teresa Hansen (53:08)
I actually just discovered that there's a lot of really good information on the CDC website, right? So I was quite impressed. It's very simply laid out. It's just very simple language, but it's clear and concise and covers sort of all the bases. it's...
Yeah, it's just on the CDC website under traumatic brain injury.
The Samara Renee (53:35)
Perfect, so I will link that in our episode notes, so if anyone wants to check that out, I know I personally will go check that out after we're done because I didn't know that was there, so that's great.
Teresa Hansen (53:37)
Yeah.
Yeah,
yeah, yeah, I thought it was pretty well done. mean, my physio at Whistler ended up writing a, a little booklet, I ended up helping him do some of the editing on it. And it was a little booklet that he created for his patients. There's lots of stuff that out there that, various organizations and physios have created, the,
There has been a massive amount of progress in the treatment of concussion in the last 10 years and lots more interest in it. So way more people involved in the field. So it's much easier to get information now, but I really thought that was a good resource because it's just simple and clear.
The Samara Renee (54:16)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (54:28)
so the only thing I still struggle with is the headaches. And, you know, I thought I had them pretty much under control. But then I, as you know, I went into a bit of a downward spiral this past winter and had a really rough couple of months. And so that kind of took me by surprise. And, you know, this is
The Samara Renee (54:41)
Mm-hmm. Right.
Teresa Hansen (54:49)
It's called post-traumatic headache in my case. So it's related to neck injury, but also the head injury. It's all kind of wrapped up in one now. So I try to get physio treatment and massage therapy treatment on my neck and that does help. And I take one medication that's meant to be a migraine preventative treatment.
I don't know if it helps or not. ⁓ It didn't seem to help this winter. ⁓ it's an ongoing battle, but you just do what you can and hope that you have more good days and bad days, honestly.
The Samara Renee (55:13)
Mm-hmm.
go.
Yeah.
And I know one of the things we talked about a little bit earlier was just how natural phenomenons like the barometric pressure, how that impacts. And I know that sometimes with people who have migraines, they have a really hard time. how does that impact your, your headaches?
Teresa Hansen (55:45)
Yeah, so some of you know, some of what I experienced overlaps a bit with what is typical of migraine sufferers. It this is not migraine. I don't get a lot of the other things that go along with migraine and they're not episodic like migraines. They're for me it's every day. But yeah, that that
being affected by the changes in the weather. So when it clouds over and gets really rainy, which unfortunately does a lot here in Vancouver, that can really be difficult. Those can be days where it's tough to get out of bed, because my head hurts so much. But other days, it's like a low level background kind of pain that you barely notice. And so you just get up and get about your day and...
You don't even hardly notice it's there. But yeah, the winter, especially the fall where things really start to change. And my headache specialist who sees, you know, not just people like me with post-traumatic headache, but lots of migraine sufferers says, yeah, the fall, all my patients suffer. So it's a real thing. ⁓
The Samara Renee (56:50)
Yeah,
well, this helps me be a lot more and thank you for coming on and doing this to help us understand a little bit more as your accountability buddies when you're having a hard time and how we could better support you. because especially this winter, it's like, we don't know what to do. how can we help you from afar?
So thank you for sharing this, because I think there's so many people who have people around them that may have a, concussion or brain injury and not recognize that and help them to be a little bit more empathetic to their central situation. I think it's amazing how much progress you've made, even though you may not feel like it's huge progress, but to...
go and get your master's degree after this whole moment in your life, that's pretty damn impressive, Basically from going from not being able to control the words on the page or going crazy to being able to go back to university and get your master's,
How has this injury shown you how resilient you are and how strong you are?
Teresa Hansen (58:01)
HMMMM
Yeah, I guess so. mean, you don't take a lot of time. You don't take a lot of time to think about things like that. That's true. You know, the one thing I have said to people in the past is, you know, for all the ways that a brain injury does affect you, it does not affect your intelligence.
The Samara Renee (58:04)
Give yourself some credit, Teresa.
Hmm.
Teresa Hansen (58:26)
It can take away your ability to find words. It can take away your ability to concentrate. It can take away your ability to think of what your next sentence should be. It can do all those things. It can take away your ability to read words on a page. But it doesn't take away your intelligence. So, once I was able to work hard and overcome a lot of those symptoms,
The Samara Renee (58:29)
Mm-hmm.
you
Teresa Hansen (58:53)
I still had things I struggled with like my headaches and some of the concentration was still a struggle. But I still had my natural level of intelligence that allowed me to, you know, read a scientific article and, understand enough that I could, get through school.
The Samara Renee (59:01)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (59:16)
Right? And I mean, it was a extra struggle for me because I had an arts undergraduate degree and went into a science program in my master's. So I had extra things to make up in that program. I had a lot of extra learning to do. So it can affect you in so many ways and it can affect your personality and it can affect...
The Samara Renee (59:24)
Mmm.
Right, mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (59:43)
It can really, it can take a lot of things away from you. But it does not take away your native level of intelligence. Right?
The Samara Renee (59:52)
That's good, that's good to know, yeah.
Teresa Hansen (59:52)
and
so you can still do things that you might think that you couldn't do. You might need some accommodations, right? You might need to do what I did, which was take a little longer to get through the program, right? I couldn't do the whole program in one year like some of my peers did because
the course load was really heavy. I had to learn statistics. I had to learn, you know, research methods. And I had no knowledge of that going into that program. And I couldn't do it all at once. I just couldn't do it. It was too overwhelming for my capacity, right? It was hard enough to do the program, you know, broken up the way that I did it. I, I...
The Samara Renee (1:00:35)
Mm-hmm.
Teresa Hansen (1:00:44)
There were days where I was listening to lectures lying in it for luckily for me, the majority of my program was online. Some of it was in person where I had to go on campus, but very little and the rest was online. So I was listening to lectures lying on the couch with an ice pack on my head. So, you know, that was another in a way that was an accommodation, right? Doing the course online so that I could
The Samara Renee (1:00:52)
Mm-hmm.
Nice, nice.
Mm-hmm, yeah.
Teresa Hansen (1:01:12)
attend a lecture lying down with an ice pack on my head.
The Samara Renee (1:01:16)
That's pretty great though that you mustered through even though you are not feeling the greatest. You are like, know what? I'm just going to lay here. I'm going to listen to my lecture and see what I can get out of this and learn what I can. Yeah, that's pretty awesome.
Teresa Hansen (1:01:32)
Yeah, yeah,
yeah. And I know that I took way longer to read some of those papers than my peers.
The Samara Renee (1:01:40)
I mean, honestly,
like I when I look at like how I learn and I always feel like I've always had like a processing and comprehension, like a little bit slower when reading things. And and so like, I get that because I would, I feel like I take way longer to learn things or to comprehend things and sometimes have to go back and reread it again and make sure I'm like getting it in my head to but I've had that since I was a kid. But
You know, I know how difficult that can be when you really want to pick up things fast and move faster, but your brain isn't quite catching up to that or grasping that. And so you have to take a little bit more time to do it, but it's still an accomplishment when you finish the end product, even though it doesn't, it seems longer, takes longer. You still accomplish something great.
Teresa Hansen (1:02:35)
Yeah, it was great. I'm very happy about it. It was something that I had always wanted to do. And I had contemplated going back to school and doing my master's part-time when the kids were young. But I just had decided that I was already working. I was already working and being a mom. I didn't want to be working and going to school and being a mom. So I didn't do it.
I was happy that I finally had the opportunity.
The Samara Renee (1:03:04)
And did you walk at graduation?
Teresa Hansen (1:03:07)
No,
I graduated finally during the pandemic. yeah, so we had we had virtual online graduation. Really, really boring. Really boring. Yeah.
The Samara Renee (1:03:11)
Of you did!
How is that? How did that work out?
man. And they're
like, we'll mail your diploma to you. That's crazy. Yeah, you know, I never asked anybody who graduated during that time, how they went through that process.
Teresa Hansen (1:03:25)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Well, my daughter had the same thing. Like we all graduated around the same time. Like my two daughters and me, we all graduated in and around the same time, all during the pandemic. So my younger daughter, she graduated from University of British Columbia. And so what they did was had did the online virtual graduation. But then when everything opened back up, they held
The Samara Renee (1:03:42)
Mmm. Crazy.
Teresa Hansen (1:03:59)
in-person graduations. So she got to actually have a graduation where she walked across. But my other daughter and I graduated from a university in Eastern Canada and they didn't do that.
The Samara Renee (1:04:06)
Nice.
I see.
Teresa Hansen (1:04:16)
Yeah, so we didn't get to do. But we would have had to flown across the country, so that's probably just as well.
The Samara Renee (1:04:20)
Yeah. Did you guys do a
little celebration? A little party or anything?
Teresa Hansen (1:04:25)
I did for my daughter. I had a little graduation thing for her. Yeah. So, yeah, it was fun.
The Samara Renee (1:04:33)
But what about your
graduation party and your celebration?
Teresa Hansen (1:04:37)
so much.
The Samara Renee (1:04:37)
I feel like we need to celebrate you more, Teresa. I do. I feel like we somehow need to have like a get together party. We're still planning our trip where we're all going to meet in the middle and do a retreat weekend somewhere, maybe in Montana. Maybe. Yeah. Yeah. I think.
Teresa Hansen (1:04:40)
hahahaha ⁓
Hmm. right. The Montana retreat.
Although, although it might have to wait.
The Samara Renee (1:05:03)
We
might need to come to you, actually. I think we might come to you. I think Vancouver would be kind of cool.
Teresa Hansen (1:05:05)
Yeah, I think so.
Yeah, Vancouver is cool.
The Samara Renee (1:05:12)
Maybe I can talk to Shia to take some time off and coming up and say just come up for the weekend. That could be so cool. Okay, so to wrap this up last question and so if you had someone so somebody who is just newly diagnosed with a concussion or injury and They're really scared. Do you have any words of encouragement for them?
Teresa Hansen (1:05:15)
hahahaha
⁓
gosh, you ask all the tough questions.
The Samara Renee (1:05:41)
I know, I'm sorry.
Teresa Hansen (1:05:43)
words of encouragement. yeah, I always worry about that because I'm somebody who took a really long time to recover. Right. So I always feel like, I'm the last person that should be talking to people with a concussion. Yeah, right. Somebody they should talk to somebody who got better within three months. It's a really, you know, I mean, it's a
The Samara Renee (1:05:57)
But you have lessons learned, so that's why you need to talk about it. Yeah.
Teresa Hansen (1:06:07)
Let's think about it. Worst case scenario, 25 % of people go on to have persistent symptoms. So that means 75 % of people, at least 75 % of people, will recover within three months. So that's a pretty big percentage.
So if you, you know, if you take care of yourself and treat your symptoms properly.
you will likely recover. And especially if it's your first concussion. The thing to keep in mind is that once you've had one concussion, you're actually at a greater risk for having further concussions. Don't know why that is. It's like falls. It's like falls in the elderly. You know, a person who's had a fall is then at greater risk for
future falls, right? Same with concussions. So, you know, lucky me, I'm now in for three. And I, you know, I say to everybody, I can't have any more, right? The last one was so bad that if I have another one, it's going to be lights out. but, you know, if you're, if you're really struggling, then
you know, find the resources, find help. And as you say, there's so much more available online now than there used to be, right? So it can be really hard to look online if looking at a computer is really difficult for you. Ask somebody else to do it for you.
The Samara Renee (1:07:38)
Alexa say Alexa I need this that could be an option
Teresa Hansen (1:07:42)
yeah, of course. Now you
can do it all. Yeah, just ask ChatGPT. Give ChatGPT a prompt that says, act as if you are an expert neuropsychologist that treats concussion and tell me. Give it the information, the right information, and get it to give you good responses back.
The Samara Renee (1:07:46)
Yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, good resources to look into. I love that. That's great. Well, Teresa, I think it's time for you to write a book about your experience, but that's just me. I think that's the next plan.
Teresa Hansen (1:08:09)
Mm-hmm.
Ugh.
The Samara Renee (1:08:18)
I have so many plans for you. We got vacations, we're going to Thailand and working with the dogs. You're gonna go see your, your hero, I was gonna say man crush, but he's not a man crush technically, right? Okay. Let me see this guy, yeah. Let me see him.
Teresa Hansen (1:08:21)
Yeah.
yes. Yes.
⁓ well, it kind of is. Here, this. I'll show you all.
The Samara Renee (1:08:42)
He looks so happy. look at him. Even the dogs are smiling with him. Isn't that funny?
Teresa Hansen (1:08:47)
So his new book is coming out. I'm getting it for my birthday day after tomorrow. The new book is called Tina. And on Friday, I'm going to a book signing where he's gonna sign my book and I get to meet him. So thank you. Thank you.
The Samara Renee (1:08:51)
Whoop whoop!
And happy birthday. And like
what day was it I forgot?
Teresa Hansen (1:09:07)
It's Thursday the 22nd.
The Samara Renee (1:09:09)
We didn't miss it, okay good. Okay, it's going on a calendar. So finally we get to celebrate you.
Teresa Hansen (1:09:17)
birthdays are not a big deal.
The Samara Renee (1:09:19)
Well, for some.
for some people. Hopefully you're gonna do something fun.
Teresa Hansen (1:09:23)
Yeah.
yeah, I'm gonna go meet Niall on Friday.
The Samara Renee (1:09:30)
I... do you think you'll cry when you meet him? Are you a crier? No?
Teresa Hansen (1:09:34)
Possibly. No.
No, not at all, but I might cry anyways. No.
The Samara Renee (1:09:41)
We gotta get you to Thailand
somehow, even if it's just a couple weeks of just hanging out with him and being with the dogs and...
Teresa Hansen (1:09:50)
Well, I entered a contest to win a week. They're giving away a trip for two to, if I win it, you can come with me. It's a trip for two to go and stay at a resort on Kosomuie and work as a volunteer for a week, helping with the dogs at Happy Dog-O-Land.
The Samara Renee (1:10:07)
my gosh. Okay,
well I will put out good vibes and I will get the baby carriage for Ollie that we're gonna pretend that that is our child and put him in baby clothes so we can take him with us.
Teresa Hansen (1:10:19)
I don't think Ollie can
come to Thailand. My Ollie, he's not really a dog. he wouldn't. He I don't think he would survive in Thailand. He would be
The Samara Renee (1:10:26)
he's classy.
He's
classy, classy, classy guy. He likes the lap of luxury.
Teresa Hansen (1:10:35)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, he likes his, well, he likes my bed and he wouldn't survive over there. Yeah.
The Samara Renee (1:10:45)
He's like, call me when you get back.
I'll be here. Thank you.
Teresa Hansen (1:10:49)
Yeah, although he might,
he might experience extreme separation anxiety because I tried to go into the store yesterday and my friend held him on the leash while I was gone and I was literally in the store for five minutes and he was like having a panic attack while I was gone. So yeah, yeah.
The Samara Renee (1:11:09)
You need to just get a pillow with your face on it so you can cuddle your pillow while you're gone. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Teresa, thank you so much for being on the podcast. And if anyone reached out to me and they want it to like talk to you or get resources from you, what's the best way is the best way to just have them contact me and I can put them in a loop with you? Yeah. OK.
Teresa Hansen (1:11:13)
Yeah, that's a good idea. That's a good idea.
Sure, yeah. And
I can give, you you can give them my email and that would be totally fine.
The Samara Renee (1:11:43)
I love it. Teresa is a wealth of knowledge. And I'm telling you, like you're constantly like learning and getting information and which is I'm always amazed by.
Teresa Hansen (1:11:54)
Hmm. Yeah, sponge brain.
The Samara Renee (1:11:58)
by you.
Teresa Hansen (1:11:59)
No. I drove my mother crazy when I was a child.
The Samara Renee (1:12:03)
just learning, asking questions.
Teresa Hansen (1:12:05)
asking questions. Yeah.
The Samara Renee (1:12:07)
You're that kid in the back of the car saying, Mom, what about this? What about this? Why is this happening?
Teresa Hansen (1:12:11)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, she kept buying me big, thick books full of factoids and then I would read it and say, okay, well, what's next?
The Samara Renee (1:12:21)
What's next? Yeah,
well, you you were definitely like a little little genius. She was I think. Yeah, I think I think you're pretty pretty snazzy with your knowledge.
Teresa Hansen (1:12:30)
No, not a genius, just a no.
No, there's
something about genetics though, because I was a curious child. And, just always wanted to know stuff. ⁓ And so, you know, because I think because I was always cramming my brain full of information, I was able to do well in school. But my daughter, my older daughter, she's the genius.
The Samara Renee (1:12:44)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Teresa Hansen (1:12:58)
So there's something about the accumulation of genes. She's...
The Samara Renee (1:13:02)
Somehow she
got the brain power and it came from you. I'm sure some of it did, 50%. Yes, yeah.
Teresa Hansen (1:13:05)
⁓ boy, did she ever.
I like to think some of her smart genes came from me, but
they got amplified somehow because man man, she is scary smart.
Yeah. Yeah.
The Samara Renee (1:13:23)
Well, Teresa, again, thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. And for all of our listeners, we'll be back next week. Make sure you subscribe to the podcast and remember that you are worthy of all good things in life, love, health and happiness. And I look forward to seeing you all in the next podcast.