Episode 11: Survivor Story: Hope, Humor, and Inspiration with Holly Kostrzewski

Jan 3

If you have been struggling with putting it all back together post brain injury, this is the episode to listen to! Holly Kostrzewski is a veteran brain injury survivor 21-years out. She uses her experiences to provide encouragement and advice to others experiencing the aftereffects. This episode provides heartwarming inspiration and support for anyone in the throes of recovery. It is a MUST listen!

We cover…

Brain Injuries-- all the research until recently has been done on male brains. Female hormone cycles affect how we respond to the injury and heal
Holly’s survivor story:
- Motor vehicle accidents are not accidents. They are predictable events due to a cause i.e. you run the stop sign and it causes a crash; the correct term is motor vehicle crash. Calling it an accident diminishes the event to something random. It’s important to determine the cause
- Neuropsych testing: everyone should have it. It gives a baseline and things to work on
- The first five years are the hardest
- Holly uses a combination of Eastern and Western medicine: craniosacral therapy for pain, kinesiology chiropractor, anti-inflammatory diet and supplementation
Nutrition and brain injuries: you need to research what will work for you. No two injuries are alike. Some ideas to research for yourself:
- Limit caffeine
- Clean diet
- Remove inflammatory foods
- Some with epilepsy find keto helpful
- Resources: Funk’tional Nutrition podcast and Adventures in Brain injury podcast (see resources section below for links)
Safety net support system:
- Fatigue, being overwhelmed, poor instincts, mental health, and grief all affect the brain injured person’s safety.
- Survivors may think they are fine but they need someone watching out for them
Grief and depression post injury:
- It’s ok to be sad after your injury. Something terrible happened!
- Medications don’t address the cause of the symptoms
- Grief is an upward spiral and you never know when it is going to hit you.
- Grief therapy
- Bereavement overload
- The first five years after injury, you are still acute and trying figure it all out
- Brain injury symptoms and the grief get diminished. People without brain injuries may try to commiserate with you saying that they have headaches, feel down, and are tired too not realizing how different it is for you
- To overcome you need to have an abundance of gratitude and grace for yourself.
- Find the small victories. Celebrate you! Look at where you were at the beginning of the injury compared to now--you have done hard things and overcome!!!
- There is a difference between disappointing and devastating events. Brain injuries are devastating!
Dealing with the struggle
- Give yourself grace
- Keep a positive attitude
- Make a plan with goals that you can work on daily
- Google the lobes of the brain to understand what each part does. It will help you understand your injury and the symptoms you experience
- Functional medicine or functional neurology could be helpful
- Remove alcohol (it lowers your seizure threshold and all brain injury survivors are at higher risk for seizures)
- Try taking out gluten and sugar and see how you feel
TBI: Truly Brave Individual
Devaluation of feelings
- You’ll get through the feelings; its ok to feel them
Music
- Get a theme song. No matter how bad it is, pull up the song and dance it out
Holly’s motivational speaking and journey to her traffic safety career
- “Brain injury, the gift that keeps on giving” ~Cathy Crimmins
- Be mindful with how you sit in your injury. Your brain injury is your story but doesn’t need to become you
- Hope, Humor, and Inspiration: Holly is available to book for speaking events; see the link to her website and social media below