Through the lens of University Educator and Osteopath: Brooke Stevenson
Welcome to the sixth episode of The Brain Game Changer podcast. I am your host, Melissa Gough. In this week’s episode we have the wonderful opportunity of speaking with Victorian University Educator in Osteopathy, and renowned Osteopath, Brooke Stevenson.
Brooke is highly regarded in her field, especially being a passionate practitioner in neurological disorders, and in speaking with her now on a few occasions I can see why. Brooke was approached by my Osteopath Max to come and talk on the podcast, and we are so grateful she did.
We discuss her journey on hearing the life changing news about her mum when she was a teenager, and her further quest entering the medical field and becoming an Osteopath. Brooke also shares examples of the patients she treats as well as shining a light on what she hopes Osteopaths of the next generation will take with them into their own careers.
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Melissa Gough 0:08
Hello and welcome to an episode of The Brain Game Changer: where heartfelt stories, awareness and education can change the game. Each week we delve into the experiences of amazing humans, advocates and organisations from all walks of life, who share their adversities, the tribes after tragedy, the milestones and those brain game changing moments right here in front of the mic. Through this journey together, we may find that we can learn some valuable tools, knowledge or education that will lead us into becoming game changers for ourselves, someone around us or even for our community. My name is Melissa, thank you for inviting me into your space, it is great to be with you.
Melissa Gough 0:54
Welcome to Episode Six Season One of the Brain Game Changer podcast. It is hard to believe that we have just passed the halfway mark of the season, and I just want to say a very big thank you, thank you, thank you for all the amazing feedback, for your encouragement and hearing that you are learning lots of valuable information and tools from each of the episodes. I'm also passing on all your feedback to our guests, and they are equally humbled as I am.
In this week's episode we have the wonderful opportunity of speaking with University Lecturer in Osteopathy, Clinical Supervisor and Osteopath, Brooke Stevenson. Brooke is highly regarded in her field, and in speaking with her now on a few occasions, I can see why. Brooke was approached by my Osteopath Max to come and talk on the podcast, and we're so grateful she did. We discuss her journey of hearing some life changing news about her mum when she was a teenager, her further quest entering the medical field and becoming an Osteopath. Brooke shares examples of the patients she treats as well as shining a light on what she hopes osteopaths of the next generation will take with them into their own careers. Let's get into the interview.
Melissa Gough 2:10
Good morning, Brock and welcome to The Brain Game Changer podcast. It is great to have you with us.
Brooke Stevenson 2:24
Likewise.
Melissa Gough 2:24
Now there's many layers, many hats to you and your experience. You are a university lecturer, you're a clinical supervisor as well in that role, and you're also an osteopath who specialises in neurological disorders.
Brooke Stevenson 2:38
In Australia, we don't have specific specialties, different practitioners have an area of interest. So I suppose yeah, my big area of interest is working with people with different types of neurological conditions.
Melissa Gough 2:50
I look forward to hearing more about it. But we're just going to step back a bit, we're just going to delve into a bit of your backstory. Can you share with us where you grew up a little bit about your upbringing, things that you were interested in, just so we get a bit of an insight into knowing a little bit more about you.
Brooke Stevenson 3:07
I grew up on the Mornington Peninsula in a little coastal town called Rye. Pretty chilled sort of upbringing, and did a fair bit of swimming, had a good social network, all of that sort of stuff. When I would have been about 16 years old, my mum was diagnosed with a brain tumour, as you would understand with the surgeries and things that you have for different tumours, it's quite confronting, it's very visually confronting as well. I mean, my mum was incredibly lucky, hers was a meningioma, which carries a very good prognosis, and usually it can be removed.
When you see someone that's just come out of that surgery, you're just in shock, but obviously, my mum was able to make quite a good recovery. And in terms of being in the frontal lobe area, I don't think there were any huge changes to personality and things like that. At 16, you're sort of like, oh, gosh, like I'm having to step up to the plate a little bit more, because my father worked interstate and your sort of like, okay, now, I've got to keep a bit of an eye on if she's going to have a turn, because she was prone to having seizures after having the surgery. You kind of move into a bit of a different role as a teenager, and you're sort of taking on a reversed parental role in that sense.
Melissa Gough 4:28
Thank you so much for sharing the experience that happened with your mum, I'm so sorry to hear that, she went through this.
Brooke Stevenson 4:35
Yeah.
Melissa Gough 4:35
As you've stated, 16 years old, for any young woman, we're trying to work out who we are at this age, and we've got our own journey going on with our body and we're trying to discover who we are in the environment around us and then someone who is a pillar in your life. Mum is usually there through your process of going through such life moments and then the diagnoses, and now you've had to change your role to now cater to what's going on with your mum. Would you say this also, as you stated off air, you're already interested in science and the human body did this really cement your next journey in life about steering into the direction of medicine.
Brooke Stevenson 5:18
When I was at school, I was always really interested in the subjects that focused on the human body, and into your science sort of stuff as well. So I was always into chemistry, physics, biology, those sorts of subjects. In terms of the people that were looking after my mum in hospital, her doctors or care team, I always looked at them as being a little bit superhuman, in a sense. You look and even say, when the neurosurgeon, and I remember he would come by after the surgery every night, at like, eight o'clock at night, checking in on how mum was doing, and you'd sort of look at him almost like, wow, you're like a hero, you've completely changed the course of what could have happened.
Then in the aftercare, you look at all these other people that get involved, from your GP's to your Allied Health to your nursing staff, and I think everyone plays this symbiotic role together. I just always really admired what they did, and just found it so interesting. The fact that you could have a teeny tiny little mass in one area of the brain that completely changes, so many facets of you, like your ability to recognise a face. Or your capacity to remember a name can be just one teeny tiny lesion in one little spot. And I just, yeah, remember just finding all of that stuff just incredibly interesting, and quite empowering. If you can understand how something works, then you can ultimately be able to help a bit more effectively too.
Melissa Gough 6:49
Just to step back a bit, how old was your mum, when the tumour presented itself and what was going on at the time to show that she needed to get some medical help?
Brooke Stevenson 7:00
Mum would have been born in the early 40s, mid 40s. Essentially, her big symptoms, she'd had a few headaches, but she was getting a really bad metallic taste in her mouth. You know, she was like, it couldn't be dental, could it be whatever. But then the metallic taste was just getting a bit more progressed, and couldn't get into her normal GP, she goes on to see a different one. He'd sort of thoroughly screened everything, I think she'd gone to dentists as well, essentially, then it was okay getting a CT scan and getting it all checked, and then it was identified. The symptoms themselves were quite subtle. If you're having an acute neurological problem where there's a bleed, or you've had a head strike or something, your symptoms come on quickly. But if it's a slow burning lesion of the brain, you can probably dismiss it quite a bit. That's one thing I've learned a bit in my practice, certain patients are telling me about their brain tumours and things like that, not everyone gets a headache either.
So it's any sort of symptom which affects your cranial nerves usually, the nerves that supply your head to gives you your vision, your ability to move, depending on where the location of the legion is, those will be, usually your symptoms sort of be maybe double vision, waking up with nausea, vomiting, the headaches, things like that. But it can be so vague and be so slow, slow burning too. I think the hard thing with neurological conditions is, as you'd understand, it doesn't just affect your senses and your motor strength and everything. One of the other symptoms that can come in is your mood. You know, some people can get incredibly agitated, you can become delirious, you can become depressed. Sometimes those sorts of problems through their diagnosis in themselves are a mood disorder and something connected. I guess if you've got mood changes with these other things going on, then it probably needs to be seen to.
Melissa Gough 9:11
How long did they show mum in hospital and how long was the whole recovery process?
Brooke Stevenson 9:17
I think the difficult thing when it comes to any neurological condition is the recovery process. It isn't black and white?
Melissa Gough 9:24
Yes. So true.
Brooke Stevenson 9:26
She was in the hospital for I think it would have been a week after having a craniotomy performed. But then the recovery process is forever, in my opinion, because a lot of people after having a craniotomy can be prone to epilepsy, and mum sustained epilepsy in it. Then it's all about the management of that. And then, you know, that's a part of the recovery process, too. It's not just as soon as the wound heals, kind of thing. It's an ongoing thing.
Melissa Gough 9:56
So she's home from the hospital, I have no doubt under strict instructions to keep her body very gentle and very light. Then we start this lifelong journey about what is going to happen next, and what is this new chapter of life going to look like?
Brooke Stevenson 10:22
Yeah, definitely. My mum's outlook is incredibly admirable, she was able to go back to nursing, and she was able to do so many different things. I think, given her diagnosis and what she'd gone through, I just remember thinking you're really superhuman with what you're doing. But the downside to it, as you would understand, too, is there's a lot of hidden symptoms and a lot of very subtle things that people don't see. And in a way, when you've had a visual surgery to something, people are a little bit more aware. But then I think for people who don't understand these conditions to understand it doesn't just heal, healing continues and it takes years.
Melissa Gough 11:06
It's so true that you say that. I'm only 12 months into my recovery journey. Different scenarios present different reactions and different symptoms. And what I'm hearing is, this is lifelong, there's a lot of people who can get back to their jobs, who can get back to their roles. There's also a lot of people who have to go to an adjusted role, or completely leave the career altogether. What I'm finding is, every day presents differently, and we don't know what that's going to look like until we're in the middle of it.
Brooke Stevenson 11:42
Yeah. I think the thing with any neurological condition and recovery is the fact that how you might respond to something even physically on one given day could be completely different the next day, it's very much of a slow burning progression. The hardest part, I think, for a lot of people that are recovering from these sorts of things is the fact that it's not like a broken bone, and it's not like having your appendix out. There's no just clear cut, you're better, and you go back to 100%! It's nearly like you make little adjustments, little adjustments, things get a little easier, then you have a day where you don't, because at the end of the day, your brain and heart and the way that we survive in a day to day context.
There's so many other inputs that we don't even recognise with a heart, okay, my heart rates gone up, my blood pressure has gone up, you've got all these little gauges. But when it comes to the neurological system, sometimes when you've had something, your input changes, so you might feel and sense things a little differently. It's really hard to gauge how you feel aside from do I feel exhausted? Or is my vision a little bit different? There really such subtle symptoms? Sometimes as you would know, as well?
Melissa Gough 12:59
Definitely. At the time, when this was happening with your mum, did you take some time off from your studies to be home? How did it impact you with what was going on with your schooling and your personal life?
Brooke Stevenson 13:12
It was around the time of I think it was my year 10 or year 11 exams. The school was really accommodating, they were like, 'don't worry about the exams, just don't do them.'
Melissa Gough 13:23
That's amazing!
Brooke Stevenson 13:24
It sort of worked out okay with the timing of it. So I'd sort of stayed home with mum for a bit from school, but it didn't really impact my study, so to speak. I vaguely remember there was, you know, when you do your little placements in a workplace, or…
Melissa Gough 13:41
Your work experience.
Brooke Stevenson 13:42
Yeah, it worked around that time as well. So realistically, they were like, don't worry about work experience, and then I just remember sort of hanging out at the Monash hospital a lot with mum. I was like, I guess in a way, this is work experience!
Melissa Gough 13:56
You're getting life experience right there.
Brooke Stevenson 13:58
Yeah, definitely.
Melissa Gough 13:59
So you're not quite finished high school, your mum's home. So what does the next sort of couple of years look like for you? Because obviously, to study what you do you need to go to universities, what happens with you next?
Brooke Stevenson 14:13
I was lucky in the sense that the time away from school wasn't very long. And my mum was also still able to get around and do everything, and she was back at work after a bit. I can't remember specifically about, about a month or two months or something. But then obviously, being a nurse was sort of lucky in a sense, because that's sort of a job, people are very understanding and you've got a very highly health literate workforce with you. So people would understand, okay, don't get her to do any heavy lifting and there's things that if you have a craniotomy, you just shouldn't do so stuff like lifting because it can raise the pressure of your head, having your head dip below your torso, all of those sorts of things. So they were really accommodating.
I guess for me, I just went straight into doing all my year 12 stuff and was always pretty studious and pretty well behaved. I never, as a teenager, was very off the rails or anything like that, because I've kind of always looked into it wouldn't really be fair on mum. Because to me, that was just pretty disrespectful, especially given what she'd gone through. So I'd always been pretty well behaved. Then finished you 12 and went off to Uni and started Osteo. I was sort of on the fence between, I think, at that point, Osteo/ Physio and a few other degrees, but then I liked certain elements within Osteo. I was like, Okay, well, I like the fact that, in a sense, you learn a lot about a lot, you learn a lot about different systems too. I found that that sort of private practice setting would be accommodating, you're not going to do shift work, things like that. So it all kind of worked out perfectly, really.
Melissa Gough 16:08
So we get to a special moment where you graduate, your official degrees called a.....
Brooke Stevenson 16:14
it's a Bachelor of Clinical Sciences with a Master's in Osteo.
Melissa Gough 16:18
So I hope you celebrated that milestone.
Brooke Stevenson 16:23
Yeah, it was great! I think the good thing about our degrees, it's quite small. So especially when I went through, it would have been maybe about 75 graduating students. So you were quite close knit, and everyone supported each other. We're all friends with each other and everything, and it was a really good community to be a part of. So we're pretty lucky in our course, and you learn from some pretty amazing people that shape how we look at things.
Melissa Gough 16:48
I guess it also must have been a really proud moment for your mum, you shared such a game changing moment. Now you have the baton and you're passing on not just knowledge, but you have lived through a life experience with a loved one in your family.
Brooke Stevenson 17:02
Definitely. I think my mum's always been such an amazing supporter, and she's brilliant to talk to, and I think when you go through a trauma like that, perhaps the normal day to day mundane hiccups you have in life aren't too big of a deal.
Melissa Gough 17:19
So true. I hear you there. Before I had my brain haemorrhage. I used to worry about the most ridiculous of things, and now I listen to people and what they're worrying about. They sweat over the smallest of things and exert their energy into things that could be utilised in a different way. I am the first to put up my hand, I've been that person. I've been that person for many years, but it does, it really changes your lens towards life. You realise how precious it is, you also realise how quickly it can change and how it can be taken away from you.
Brooke Stevenson 17:53
Definitely. I think as well, like there's something to be said for the concept of a bit of a survivor's euphoria. You know, the reality is you've lived through something so traumatic, and also something that if we were to have lived, let's say 50 to 100 years ago, those conditions we might not have survived from.
Melissa Gough 18:11
So you graduate. Where do you start practising, I should ask?
Brooke Stevenson 18:16
I went into a couple of different private practices, just sort of mainly looking at musculoskeletal complaints, which was still really, really interesting, and I really enjoy it. Still enjoy the same people with a mechanical neck problem or a low back problem. But I suppose the people I really gravitated to and really resonated with in that setting were more patients that had survived these sorts of big events, or that sort of stuff. You're dealing with the musculoskeletal manifestations, you can say over neurological problems. So really had a bit of a niche with people who'd had spastic paralysis or people who had fasciculations or people who twitch and those sorts of problems as well. I really found it incredibly interesting to work with those patients and like it was very much of a reciprocal relationship. I got something out of that, definitely from those people.
After probably four years of private practice, I started doing a bit of work for the University. I was put on initially to work in the Radiology area. So teaching students how to read and interpret X rays, and then it manifested into me helping out with different subjects. So I'd worked across a really broad amount of subjects, a lot of it was clinical diagnosis, which is how you assess different systems. So some of it was cardiac, a lot of it was neurological. This is how we assess reflexes. This is how we assess, you know, myotomes, which are the muscular component of a nerve. This is how we looked at the sensory system, and so you were just reinforcing. I was in Uni a couple of days a week working in private practice a few days a week, then I just started to get intrigued with working with these sorts of patients. Also working with the students was really validating too. Because you sort of watch them understanding what's going on, not just within the capacity of being able to tick the boxes for your exams, but also learning about these systems and how manifestations can occur from them too.
Melissa Gough 20:20
You've highlighted all the different areas that are of interest to you. When you're lecturing, what is the information that you're paying forward? What is it that you want the next generation of Osteopaths to go, I really want them to grab this with both hands and take it with them into their careers.
Brooke Stevenson 20:39
That's where doing the clinical supervision, I really find that incredibly rewarding. So we have a student clinic, and that's where I met Max properly and everything. So we've got our students who are in their fourth and fifth years of their master's degree. They've kind of got an external clinic, which is up in the CBD. So if anyone needs to have a sort of discounted Osteo treatment, it's a great place to go to. That's where our students stand to actually get patient facing stuff, and they start to work with patients. That's one part of it, I really, really find rewarding in the uni sector, because it's not a case that you're actually teaching them something from a textbook, you're actually showing them this is the actual manifestation of that problem. Like we've got a lot of patients that come from the community sector, who might have had a range of different conditions, even ABI's, stuff like that. They just sort of like 'okay, guys, I know you've read about it, but this is actually what it looks like.' Then helping and assisting them to formulate how they're going to help manage that person. But I think the big thing that I really like to focus on with my students is seeing the person as a whole, as much as what we deal with on our side of things is very much the physical manifestations of conditions.
By no means are we psychologists, but what we can also offer a patient is a confidential ear, someone that they can talk to, and also someone that's not necessarily going to give them advice in that realm. Because the hard thing is, is when people are recovering from an injury, and especially after neurological events, they're probably in a bit of an awkward position in the sense that you've got a lot of appointments, a lot of people asking questions about your sleep, about your twitching, about your muscle strength, what things do you find hard, but I think in terms of having people to talk to it can be a little bit lonely. As much as you do want to talk to these providers, often you're in very tight times, your neurosurgeons aren't there to provide that support. Your neurologist is there not really to provide a huge amount of support in that way. Your GP definitely does, and you nursing staff and everything. But it can be very hard because you don't want to communicate with your loved ones, necessarily the things that you're frightened of. Because you're also trying in a weird way to comfort your loved ones about you coming back. The big thing I want our students to understand is if we're going to provide holistic health care, you've also got to take into account that bio psychosocial element to someone's recovery. That we can integrate with other practitioners so that people who may have had a head injury and may have some difficulty with short term memory, don't have that responsibility with us. They can come in, it's a space that you're going to be looking after, things are going to be well controlled. You're the focus.
Melissa Gough 23:55
One thing I wasn't was a brain expert before I had this haemorrhage. I'm someone who's experienced it. I'm now on a lifelong mission to learn more about it. But I felt having people come to me going, 'what about this and like, I don't know, and then they'll like still looking at me, 'well, why don't you know, it's like, well, how can I know?
Brooke Stevenson 24:15
Yeah.
Melissa Gough 24:15
Sitting in a clinical room with a doctor, or osteopath, medical practitioner, has been some of the most comforting times where I have felt the most heard. Going through this recovery is the loneliest time I've ever experienced in my life. Because you constantly experience every day in the unknown.
Brooke Stevenson 24:38
Yeah.
Melissa Gough 24:38
People also don't know how to respond and react to you. So the way they do it is they either shy away, or they try to fix you, which is incredibly unhealthy. And then you also have to get to a point where you just think I'm spending time with this person or having conversations with this person and it is not helping me, it is not healthy for me. I also need to make the choice to step away from that, and you grieve, you grieve so many layers of this journey.
Brooke Stevenson 25:12
Definitely. I think the big role sometimes within Allied Health is we're essentially trying to support. The main thing as well is you're trying to make a really safe space so that when somebody is going through these changes, they can at least have a confidential ear. You're not going to be giving them specific advice necessarily, that pertains to the psychological changes. The most important thing some people need is to be first of all validated, and to have their story heard. Because everybody's story, when they've had these sorts of problems, is so diverse and so different. Everybody's external pressures are so different, be it financial. I get a lot of people that after having any sort of brain injury, need to get back to work. You've got some people that have got the concerns of kids, they might run a business, there's all sorts of different myriads of things going on and external stresses that were present before the event. And then you also just have this extra layer of what's gone on. Sometimes what people do need is validation, and someone to be supportive, and non judgmental, as well.
Melissa Gough 26:29
It's funny, as humans, we can try and put people and things into boxes to help us understand. I've been that person in the past. Whereas now I just allow whatever is to present itself in front of me, and then you sort of roll with that moment. But it's interesting what you say about being validated. As humans anyway, we mean, well, we try and do our best to try and help someone else. Because someone lived through a haemorrhage, or a stroke or some really significant neurodiverse does not mean that their life is good,as a result. Their life has been changed. Every aspect of my life, financial, employment, relationships, friendships, and my house got totally flipped on its head. I felt that there was at times this pressure that I should be just grateful that I'm making a good recovery, that sort of like, well, I lost so much. I haven't regained a lot of what was already there pre haemorrhage.
Brooke Stevenson 27:36
Yeah.
Melissa Gough 27:37
I'm just learning to navigate through a new way. I still have physical ailments and things going on. My left hand, which is my dominant hand, I have problems with my grip, I have tinnitus in my left ear, now. I still have my balance depending if I'm really tired, and problems with my short term memory. And if I get an overload of information very quickly, my brain just scatters. I guess the best way I can describe it is, it's like having lots of tabs open on a computer, it's a tough gig on some days.
Brooke Stevenson 28:14
Everything becomes quite different. As much as no one wants to paint it with a specific bias of saying it's better or worse, whatever, it is very, very different.
Brooke Stevenson 28:33
From what I'm saying, even in private practice, there can become this awkward point, at like a year, six months to a year where I suppose the person's out of their very acute risk phase, for stroke, it can be up to five years, you're still in a high risk, but things are starting to look a little bit better. And people do sometimes start to forget a little bit too, you start to go back to work, the balls rolling, definitely. However, I think for the person going through it, they're aware that maybe five days a week is too hard. Maybe what they used to jam pack into a day can't be done any more, and you can't go to the gym before work every day, because you might not be able to get up at six. All of those sorts of things really adapt. The difficult part can be with your support networks. I don't know whether it's the case that people are just so overjoyed that you're alive and that you're here and you seem very much the same. But I think at times, they can kind of not forget, but I don't think that those symptoms, no one can know unless they're inside of your mind.
Melissa Gough 29:47
So true.
Brooke Stevenson 29:50
We as people feel a lot of guilt in regards to complaining about those things too. Quite often that sort of lonely place. That's where health workers sort of need to be at times, you're not obviously, always going to have a professional boundary in place. But you can be an empathetic ear that doesn't cost anything to do, and to validate somebody and to make them feel heard, and to maybe just sort of give some advice on practical strategies. But I hope that our next generation of practitioners that come out from each space, have a look at things from not just the physical manifestations, but look at it from the big picture that somebody's dealing with. Those things that you described before they're affecting your everyday, everyday that comes into play, those sorts of things really do impact us as humans. Obviously, you can rehabilitate certain things with your function, you can build strength, and so on and so forth, but often people do need that validation.
Melissa Gough 30:57
It's so true that you say that, and I'm going to make a connection to it. I read a beautiful book that was recommended to me, and it's by the Australian journalist and ABC anchor Leigh Sales. She wrote a book called 'Any Ordinary Day'. She's managed to connect with people who have gone through a real adverse event in their life, whether it's them, their family, and she's connected with them, so many years after it happened. There's one thing that she talks about, and she said,' I sat down with this man, he'd lost his children to a really horrific event.' He said, 'I was walking down the street, and I saw someone I know in the distance, who saw me, then turned back around, and he said, 'I saw them running off in a different direction.' He said, 'it was very clear that they did not want to deal with me.' But he said,' there is so much comfort in someone just showing up. He kept highlighting the word showing up. You don't even need to say anything. But just the power in someone showing up knocking on your door. They're just saying, I'm here for you. It's hard when people don't even want to do that. It's really hard.
Brooke Stevenson 32:09
I think the big thing that I think is really important is friends that they also get a little bit educated in what's going on. So if they're going to commit to being there, try and get a bit more understanding too, because it's not always the case, and you would probably find that with yourself. You don't necessarily want to sit there and actually talk about the trauma of what you're going through. But sometimes it's nice to have someone accompany you with your hydro, or it's good to have somebody there that can give you a bit of a hand making some meals and things. Sometimes it's a silent pillar of support that can give you the most assistance, and not everybody's a talker. We've all got friends that you sort of like god, they're terrible to talk to, but they're very practical. Sometimes those people can come out of the woodwork really well during these times. The difficult thing that does happen is because you've gone through a life altering event. Sometimes people do make a few culls of people out of their lives as well, because it's like, you were giving in your friendships. There are a lot, or some people are the takers. Then after a while of going through what you've gone through, you're sort of like, wait a second, you've not supported me that much, and this is a big thing to me. So you've got to go.
Melissa Gough 33:28
I'm a social being. And I've always been that person who liked to stay in touch with people. I was always the one who rang.
Brooke Stevenson 33:33
Yep
Melissa Gough 33:33
I was always the one who rang someone to say, 'hey, how are you going,' and I'm a divorced woman, I don't have children. That wasn't a lifestyle choice, it was circumstances. I'm okay in my skin about that, because I'm a primary school teacher. So I feel like I provide a mothering and education role in a different way. I've always been that person to sort of accommodate people with their families and work around them and do that, and that's okay. But what I observed is when I was on my knees, and when I really needed some help at times, the phones were quiet. What I worked out is like I say that giving and taking and I'm not saying I've been a perfect friend all the time or anything, but it just makes you realise, okay, well, I'm the one who's investing into this friendship progressing in the way it is. The reality is I can't do it now, and I'm relying on support. This is the version of the friendship that's presented itself and I have to take a look and observe it, whether it's going to still be a part of my future.
Brooke Stevenson 34:33
I think, for example, when somebody, a good friend does have a child, quite often we make the accommodation, okay, I need to pop over there for a coffee. We need to try and make it a little bit easier on them. It's no different to somebody who comes out of hospital with a problem like this. You've got to think okay, yeah, sure, the person might look well and they might be stable, but maybe I need to pop around there for a coffee. See, if I can say that maybe the kitchen is a bit messy, maybe I can start tidying things up. So it's no different in some ways to when women come out of hospital with a newborn, you've also got a milestone event, and it's a time that people can come and support.
Melissa Gough 35:17
In these moments as well, the people you've known for a long time, or even a short time, you also see the most amazing and unexpected people show up. I had a beautiful friend who I had only known for a couple of years. She would come and meet me, take me for a walk, there's even time she came around, and she was hanging out my washing. I just didn't expect that she would do that. That word expectation and expect, I've had to learn a lot about that meaning as well, because I've had the most beautiful, amazing people show up in ways that I just didn't think possible, a friend who I met through another friend, I mean, this woman works full time, she's got three kids, she's building a house. As much as we haven't seen each other in person, in a couple years, she always checks in by phone, she always checks him by a message, or we leave little video messages on each other's face message or whatever, and it's those things that matter. It's amazing how small pieces of acts of kindness or acts of thought, can go a long way. I feel like as a society, and maybe especially in the last couple of years, we've become a little bit disjointed with that.
Brooke Stevenson 36:32
I think the difficult thing too, is when you're recovering from that, people still have the memory of you when you're really healthy, and well. I had a patient that was recovering from a stroke, and it did happen during the 2021 lockdown. So she sort of said there were some friends and even family that I hadn't seen for a couple of months before, itt all happened. But then on top of it, I think it's a very hard question to ask for help. Some people with all the restrictions and so forth, felt even more reluctant to ask for help, you know, you're sort of thinking, oh, you know, it's going against the rules and stuff like that, even though we were allowed to provide care. Or in the case of some people too, they were thinking, oh, I work in a job, which is being exposed to a lot of people. So I feel a bit guilty going to see someone. But the truth of the matter is with all of that stuff don't get me wrong, like I do believe that, you know, COVID can have very devastating effects. But I do think the impact of people who are recovering from things, we're yet to find out the research on that sort of data, because I do think there were a lot of people that needed that social connection.
Melissa Gough 37:48
Even those people who did get COVID, and they got it, you know, really impacted their bodies also needing support.
Brooke Stevenson 37:54
I know that some people get very 'blamey' about it, but there was nothing people could do about it, you know. But I think now that we're on the other end where we're living with it, as much as obviously, you know, we've still got to be very mindful. I do think it's important that those social networks pick back up a bit more. The mental health side of things as well, I think all of us could, thinking off the top of our heads, at least three to five people we know who struggled in those lockdowns and some of which struggled and were hospitalised. When we know that someone is struggling, obviously, you're not too sure whether it be physical or mental how to reach out to someone you know, and especially when you've been told about it from somebody else, not the person directly, then you sort of think, well, I'm not too sure. Do I reach out to them? Do I not because they might not want me to know that they're in that situation. But I have always been of the belief that reaching out.
Melissa Gough 39:04
Tell me about where you are now. Aso, how is the last couple of years as we've highlighted, we've talked about COVID and the impact, how has it impacted you in the last couple of years?
Brooke Stevenson 39:14
Because I have my own private practice down in Flinders and I do a little bit of contracting to another practice and then also still work a little bit with the Uni. I guess during the COVID years, I was helping out a little bit in aged care where that was quite confronting. So I pulled back on that side of things, mainly because I just wanted to focus on a little bit less. It was getting too busy and it was getting too chaotic. But the interesting thing I did find within private practice was a few incidents of people whose conditions had progressed a few fallouts of telehealth as well, because a difficult thing that I think happens. And I'm sure you would have noticed it within yourself. There's some symptoms you don't know. Especially when it comes to things like your strength, you know, what I identify perhaps as being tripping over my force can be a diagnosis of foot drop, which might mean that you're losing some of the motor control to an area. Or when it even comes to visual stuff, a lot of people weren't aware if they're going to be having a little bit of unilateral blindness, because he was looking at both eyes. So I think there was a bit of fallout from not having a heavy regular assessment. I think most of the GP's were really good in picking up the game in that sector. A lot of them were sort of like, okay, you've got to come in. But I think the difficult thing I was finding was some of the patients that I would say were getting very, very nervous about contracting COVID, for good reason. But I hope it didn't forego some of the improvements that they were making at that point. So that's where it became very much of a balancing act.
I remember one patient of mine with a disability, what he was sort of describing. So he's in a wheelchair, he was sort of talking about how even with his condition, he was getting regular physiotherapy twice a week, just to assist in keeping some muscle tone and things like that. Then I remember it was during the peak of the 2020 lockdown, he was sort of like, will the physio sort of say, he doesn't feel too comfortable at the moment coming to see me. And I was like, "okay, if you had any description of why", and he's like, "well, he's just nervous, he's gonna give me COVID." So I think some of the fallout that happened in the last two years meant that we had to not necessarily practise out of scope. But you had to sort of upskill and get people proficient, especially because prior to COVID, a lot more of my focus was continuer, illogical conditions, how to work and do more manual therapy treatments, for example. So I had to push a lot more in terms of the rehab. Because I was noticing patients were very reluctant to have more than one provider. Before COVID, you'd work in a team. You would have the physio that would do the exercises, I'd do the manual therapy side, OTs dealing with this, this and this. Whereas I noticed with all of the COVID stuff, a lot of people were like, well, let's minimise exposure to multiple professionals, and we'll focus on having one person that does a bit more. So I suppose I was doing a lot more with exercise based rehab, then probably previous to COVID. It was probably a more focused treatment with fewer clients as well. They were also clients, their conditions were more progressive, and their physical conditions were far more advanced as well. So it was good in the sense that it was a very good experience. It's definitely given me tools that I will take ongoing, I think it would be very, very isolating for those that were with a disability, even more so than normal.
Melissa Gough 43:09
So true. That's probably one thing that I heard a lot about. In regards to disability. People were trying to get, even just to get to a supermarket. Even though there's online shopping, they've never used online shopping before, a computer. There were so many just everyday life flowing experiences that we take for granted that were severely impacted in the last couple of years.
Brooke Stevenson 43:33
The interesting people to sort of chat about that with, are doing work with people with Parkinson's or people who are older and have had strokes and things like that. I've got some patients that are in their 80s one or two, they're in their 90s and interesting to see their mindset on a lot of the COVID things. So I had one particular lady who 's a little bit impulsive, but she's quite funny. She's in her late 80s. She's like if the police pull me up, it is what it is. Her theory was that she also knew that she was on borrowed time with her condition. She knew she was already going to be following all the isolation things but her big thing that she did the entire way through was drive outside of her 5km's just to just go for a walk.
Melissa Gough 43:33
Oh, wow.
Brooke Stevenson 43:34
That was her point of rebellion, I suppose with that, and that sort of age group as well. You look and you think gosh, it'll be very challenging. If in your twilight years you'd wanted to travel and you had all these plans to be around the children, great grandchildren, everything like that and that all gets pulled back.
Melissa Gough 44:51
You have worked with so many different walks of life, young people to people in their late 80s, in all diverse neurological conditions and otherwise. I know this is going to be a massive loaded question because there's probably so many. But who are some of your patients that have also impacted you?
Brooke Stevenson 45:12
I think a demographic that I've worked with that I think people perhaps don't realise as much, can be very fulfilling is people with Lewy Body Dementia, and Alzheimer's.
Melissa Gough 45:25
Can you explain what that means?
Brooke Stevenson 45:27
So Lewy Body Dementia is where your body builds up a plaque, not dissimilar to Alzheimer's, they fall under your cluster of dementias. With those conditions, I guess all of us think about Alzheimer's, and we think of forgetful people. But the breadth of physical changes that occur with Alzheimer's is massive. So a lot of the time people can get changes to their walking patterns, you can get weakness, you can also lose sensation to pain, you can increase sensation to pain. So there's sort of a whole group of different physical manifestations of both of these conditions. But I suppose the thing that working with those demographics taught me was, first of all, that you've got to live in the here and now. The thing with working with somebody with Alzheimer's, and if their conditions quite progressed in terms of their memory, it's a mirror to how you're behaving. So if you go into that room, and you're in a cranky mood, they perceive that, they will be annoyed back at you, you're not going to get any good out of it.
So I really learned how to communicate more effectively, and a hell of a lot of patience. Because the other thing that can occur with those conditions too, can be some people have difficulty in recognising language verbally. So you've got to write things down. Everyone's condition is so different. So the manifestations of say, one person with certain dementia is completely different to the next person, you know, and I'd always had it in my mind, perhaps a bit of a blanket ruling of what these manifestations were. Then when you're actually working with these people, you're just like, wow, it is very, very different. But it was so fulfilling.
Melissa Gough 47:20
Wow, that would be almost raw at the same time as well. It's like, okay, all right, I've really got to rein it in quickly right now, get my stuff together.
Brooke Stevenson 47:29
Yeah, because of living so much in the here, and now, it's very refreshing. Like, obviously, you can have some difficulty in terms of impulsivity, we'd have a number of people that you work with, that would be very blunt with how they communicate, and so on and so forth. But sometimes it is a bit refreshing, you say exactly what's on your mind, no filter!
Melissa Gough 48:00
You've really touched on so many different aspects of your career, and also shared your personal reflection of it all. It's been really amazing. So what's in store, now that we're in the middle of the year 2022. Were trying to find our way to what a new community and a new way of life looks like post COVID? What are some things that you're looking forward to doing or what are some milestones or goals that you're hoping to achieve for yourself?
Brooke Stevenson 48:29
At the moment, I'm sort of just enjoying being back to the normal things that we can do. So I'm still finding myself getting excited to go to a restaurant and go out for dinner, and everything. So I'm sort of enjoying those components of being out of this. Hopefully, I'll try and get a trip in at some point this year, but I'm not terribly stressed. Probably focus a little bit more on this self care element for me, you know, doing a bit more exercise, looking after myself and learning a little bit more about balance. As I've noticed, a lot of people who work with people who've got these conditions are burnout. I do believe that that's part of the reason why we look in aged care, and you look in rehab facilities and so forth. There is such a shortage of staff. A lot of the people who've worked in that space for this whole two years of mayhem are just burnt out. So I'm kind of scaling back a little bit of work just to focus a little bit on my own, you know, my own well being and so forth. But then hopefully, I'm giving a little bit of motivation for our new graduates coming out to work in this sort of space, because it is so rewarding. It is terribly understaffed, though, like we need to have more young ones being inspired to work with people that have got these conditions and to understand how fulfilling it is to.
Because as a practitioner to have that feeling if you can see somebody who's been struggling with walking, and do a fair bit of gauge rehab. You know, you look at somebody who might have had a very severe stroke, who's struggled with walking, and you can get them to a point that you can function about your day to day, you're not going to need a sling hoist, and you can have that independence.
Melissa Gough 50:23
They are incredibly special moments. I know what you mean, when I first got home from the hospital, I didn't know what life was going to look like, and I'm still learning what life is going to look like. I've gone from being active to initially needing to hold on to someone to walk. Then I got stronger and stronger and stronger, and then I got more independence. Then I was really lucky that Max, along with the collaboration of my GP, at the eight month mark, said, 'all right, yoga, we're gonna get into yoga.' I've never been so friggin excited to walk into a yoga session. Whereas I used to do yoga in the past. It's like, yes, I'm including this as part of my sort of Zen self care. Now, it's like, this is a combination of my Zen and this is my gym workout.
Brooke Stevenson 51:08
Yeah.
Melissa Gough 51:09
And if I can see that I can balance better. That feeling, those little moments, those little milestones, like, I've always been a heart on my sleeve type of person anyway. But I get teary even more teary, at the smallest of amazing events.
Brooke Stevenson 51:27
Yeah!
Melissa Gough 51:27
The next step is swimming, we're going to try and see what that's going to look like in a couple of months but it's a long process. Each milestone, no matter how big or small, is the milestone.
Brooke Stevenson 51:39
Definitely! And it's so beautiful if you're the person that's working with someone that is achieving those milestones, then there's also something very fulfilling and very privileged, if you are also working with people with neurodegenerative diseases. I do think there's a massive privilege working with people, especially with your Alzheimer's and things like that. You know, their disease is going to be progressive prognosis and can be very variable, but that's also life. That's a very important part of also, being an Allied Health provider is celebrating the wins, but also trying to sustain function. I think a big part of the compassion burnout of a lot of health care providers that work in that space is that people have got conditions that are going to be progressive, they may not be able to get those wins, but it's also a privilege to be able to work with those people too.
Melissa Gough 52:37
So true. So the name of this podcast is called The Brain Game Changer: where heartfelt stories, awareness and education can change the game, what is one nugget to pass on to everybody?
Brooke Stevenson 52:50
We still don't really understand the capacity of the brain to heal. So never accept your functional or limiting capacity as it is, you can always get better. There is always room for growth.
Melissa Gough 53:08
Thank you, that is a really poignant golden piece of information to take on and to share forward. Brooke, it's been an honour and I know it's going to just share so much valuable information. Thank you so much for today.
Brooke Stevenson 53:24
Thank you Melissa.
Melissa Gough 53:29
I want to thank you for listening to this episode today and supporting The Brain Game Changer and the guests we interview. I hope it adds some reassurance or valuable tools no matter how big or small, they'll continue assisting you in being the wonderful game changer that you are. The best way to support the Brain Game Changer podcast is to like, share with family and friends or subscribe. So each weekly episode is easily available to you. I'd love to hear your feedback. You can also find me on Instagram @thebraingamechanger. Drop in say hello and check out the regular posts about awareness and education on various important topics and issues. Until next time, Take care.
