Episode 4: Chapter 5 - Robbie Frawley - Final learnings back to full health (PCS).

In this episode I tell my story of recovering from post concussion syndrome (PCS). It took me 7 years to fully recover, but if I knew at the start everything that I know now I believe it would have taken me only a fraction of this time. That’s why I want to share these learnings with you. I hope that they give you some hope and that they help you with your own recovery.
In this final chapter I talk about the final things which got me back to 100%, answer some questions from Tasha about the recovery and give my advice to others still recovering.

My brilliant guest interviewer on this episode is Associate Professor Tasha Stanton. Tasha is the Osteoarthritis Research Theme Lead for IIMPACT in Health at the University of South Australia and a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia Fellow. 

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

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

Shownotes:

• ^01:00 - I began to question if I was being 'overprotective' of myself by not participating in the things I enjoyed which involved the risk of knocks and bumps. A picture formed in my mind of walls and a ceiling around me containing me and what I was capable of and I saw these barriers getting stronger and more intact every time I said 'no, I can't' to doing something. I started to realise that I needed to break through these walls before they got so strong that I couldn't,
• ^02:07 - I still followed the Pain Revolution and received an email notification about their upcoming 'tour' through eastern Victoria. I began to wonder if 'perhaps this is exactly what I need to do?'. It contained risk and the physical capabilities required were beyond what I could imagine at the time, but it would be saying 'yes' to something that scared me, and I'd be in an environment with the right people and the right msgs around me everyday which I felt I needed to hear and to absorb,
• ^03:58 - I ran the idea past a trusted friend who is a physio, is trained in current pain science and knows me and my story to validate if the idea had any merit. With their validation and support I signed up and the feeling of it being a 'right' decision was profound. Trust your gut instinct. Even when you cannot see yet 'why', it's a good guide,
• 06:47 - Describing training for and completing the pain revolution ride,
• 07:50 - I went to every community presentation I could during the ride and found that I learnt and reinforced things which I'd heard before in new and beneficial ways every time,
• ^09:24 - I realised that my family had become 'overprotective' of me (like Bertie) over the years and that the msg'ing I was sometimes receiving from them was (although well intentioned) also limiting my further recovery. This is a sensitive area to broach, but I think it is important for you to consider and assess for yourself,
• ^12:23 - Trust your gut, try to be curious and be kind to yourself and to those around you,
• ^13:48 - Consider what 'might' be possible rather than comparing yourself to before,
• 15:45 - My msg to those still living with and recovering from post concussion syndrome.

^Robbie's main learnings