The Real Lives of TBI Wives

Three Nervous Systems, One Tiny House with Meg Payne | Ep. 53

Ep. 53 | Nine days before Christmas, Meg Payne got a call from the police while she was at work. Her husband Alan had been T-boned by a truck on his bike. She was 34 weeks pregnant. What followed was two months in the ICU and rehab, an insurance company that tried to deny his placement, a baby born without her husband in the room, and a newborn brought to Craig Hospital two days later to meet his dad, who was sitting in a wheelchair and doesn't remember the visit at all. Alan is now what the medical world calls high functioning. He walks, talks, and on a good day you wouldn't know anything happened. He also has bilateral frontal lobe diffuse axonal injuries, significant memory impairment, and an emotional regulation piece that has required Ring alarm systems, hidden car keys, a zen den built in the backyard, and strict boundaries that both Meg and Alan have agreed to honor. Silas is four and a half now. And Meg is still figuring out who she is inside all of it - the wife, the mom, the physical therapist, the one holding every plate in the air. This episode is for the TBI wife who is somewhere in the middle of that figuring out too.

What the Doctor Didn't Tell You: Fascia, Nutrition, and the Brain Injury Treatments That Are Actually Working with Simone Fortier | Ep. 52

Ep. 52 | You have done everything the doctors told you to do. You have been to the appointments, followed the protocols, managed the medications, and sat across from specialists who looked at your husband and said some version of "this is just how it is now." What if there were treatments they simply didn't know about yet? Simone Fortier has had over 50 concussions as a child and six as an adult. She lost her hearing for two years. She experienced suicidal ideation for most of her life without knowing it wasn't normal. And after seeing every top sports medicine doctor in North America and leaving each appointment with a 1% maybe, she did something radical — she built the treatment herself. In this episode, Simone breaks down the two interventions she developed that are changing outcomes for brain injury survivors and their families: a precision brain nutrition program that replenishes the specific amino acids the neurodivergent brain cannot produce on its own, and a fascia-based manual therapy protocol that reduces compression forces on the brain — decreasing symptoms like chronic migraines, tinnitus, memory loss, and suicidal ideation, often within one to two sessions. This episode is for the TBI wife who is done accepting "wait and see" as an answer. For the woman whose husband has been to every appointment and still isn't recovering the way the textbooks said he should. For the caregiver who has been quietly wondering if there is something else out there — and just hasn't found it yet. What I love about conversations like this one is that they open doors. This may not be the right fit for every situation but it might be exactly what someone in your circle has been searching for. Share it. You never know whose life it could reach. Brain Health Assessment: Email Simone to receive her free brain health assessment — info@simonefortier.com https://www.instagram.com/fasciatraininginstitute/ [https://www.instagram.com/fasciatraininginstitute/] https://www.facebook.com/FasciaTrainingInstitute/ [https://www.facebook.com/FasciaTrainingInstitute/] https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonefortier/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonefortier/] and be sure to join us in Reclaim [http://reclaim-tbiwives.com] to continue the conversation

From Cake Boss Dreams to Brain Injury Advocate: Rob Baugh's Story | Ep. 51

Ep. 51 | Before his brain injury, Rob Baugh's life revolved around two things: playing piano at church and making elaborate cakes inspired by Cake Boss — a hobby that started as a dare from his wife Sheila and turned into a thriving side business. Then, six years ago, a bee flew past his head while he was coming in from feeding the fish. He ducked and hit a metal screen door and in less than a minute, everything changed. In this episode, Rob shares the full story — getting staples in his head with no numbing because the burn hurt worse, the first neurologist who slammed his pen on the desk and brought him to tears, and when he drove to a job he hadn't worked in years because his brain sent him to the wrong side of town entirely. He talks about the daily, six-years-and-counting migraine that gets worse with the rain, the short-term memory loss, the strange aphasia-like symptom that turns "38" into "three, eight," and the unexpected blessing of suddenly being able to play piano in three keys instead of one. Rob also opens up about what it actually took to go from isolated and sleepless to building a podcast, writing a book, and creating a free resource hub for brain injury survivors and caregivers — all because he couldn't find anyone online talking about brain injury from lived experience instead of a clinical chart. This is a story about persistence, about a wife who became the planner, the advocate, and the protector all at once, and about what's possible when you decide your pain might actually help somebody else. Be sure to check out Rob's website [http://myliferewired.com] to access tons of free resources, as well as purchase his book. And subscribe to Rob's podcast [https://www.youtube.com/@liferewiredpodcast] to stay in the know. Donate to Brain Injury Alliance [https://give.biausa.org/campaign/714286/donate] and get Rob and Ashley shave thier heads - last day is June 30th! As always, join us at Reclaim [http://reclaim-tbiwives.com] to join other TBI wives in reclaiming themselves after their husbands traumatic brain injury!

One Straw Away | Ep. 50

Fifty episodes. In this solo episode, Erika takes you back to where it all started — the woman who had never shared her story publicly, who hit record scared and unpolished because she knew someone needed to hear it. She walks through what fifty episodes has taught her about TBI wives, identity loss, and what it really means to disappear inside the role of caregiver. And then she shares the wall she hit this past year, he isolation, the weight. The moment she was one straw away and what she chose to do instead. This episode is for the woman who is done surviving but does not quite know how to come back yet. The one who downloads every episode and still puts herself last. The one who is waiting for the right moment to matter. Erika has a message for her  Come join the Reclaim [http://reclaim-tbiwives.com] community for a group of women who get it!

Worthiness Wounds of TBI Wives | Ep. 49

Ep. 49 | You have been performing strength in public while quietly disappearing in private. And if you are honest with yourself, the exhaustion you are carrying as a TBI wife goes deeper than the caregiving itself. It goes all the way back. In this episode, Erika Brouillette gets honest about the worthiness wound, the deep, quiet belief that your needs come last, that your worth lives in your usefulness, and that wanting more makes you selfish. This is the belief that started in childhood, long before your husband's brain injury ever happened. And caregiving, the relentless, identity-swallowing reality of life as a traumatic brain injury spouse, has a way of making it louder. Of making self-abandonment sound like strength. Erika walks you through where that belief started, how it gets amplified after a TBI, and what it actually looks like to question the programming you inherited. Because caregiver identity loss is real. Caregiver burnout is real. And the ambiguous grief of loving someone whose brain injury has changed everything,  including who you are inside of it, deserves more than survival advice and self care checklists. This episode is for the TBI wife who has stopped dreaming. Who says she's fine when she's drowning. Who cannot remember the last time she wanted something just for herself and felt okay about it. Who has been told, by the world or by her faith community, that wanting more is ungrateful. That good wives give everything. That strong women don't need much. It's time to question that story. If you are ready to stop disappearing inside the caregiving and start reclaiming your identity, your selfworth, and the life that still belongs to you, this episode is your starting point. Join us at Reclaim [http://reclaim-tbiwives.com] to start putting this all into action!   Reflection Questions From This Episode Pause the episode and sit with these, or grab your journal. * What did you learn about your worth when you were little? * What did love require of you growing up? * What version of you felt the safest to be? * Where did you learn that your needs come last? * Where did you learn that asking for help means weakness? * What would actually happen if you let something fall? * Where did you learn that wanting more is selfish and was that actually true?