Life Over Pain
Life Over Pain is a podcast full of inspiring stores from people with chronic pain and/or traumatic brain injury. Their stories are about how they are not defined by their pain or injury. They describe how they make choices to adapt to their present circumstances to create lives of value despite pain and loss. And, BTW, If you'd like to share your story, or know of someone who might have a story to share, please email LifeOverPain1@gmail.com.
Episodes
28 episodes
Life Over Pain - Amina - A Single Mom and Her Son Raise Each Other
After three brain injuries over her lifetime, Amina's cognitive ability was impacted in such a way that she was unable to ask for help on her own. But like many of us, it was hard for her to know how much she had really changed as a pers...
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51:16
Life Over Pain - Bella Paige - An Adrenaline Junkie Pays It Back
Bella Paige was a highly competitive show jumper as a younger girl. And she LOVED it. The adrenaline rush alone might have been enough to keep her going but she loved the competition, the horses, all of it. She planned to comp...
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55:08
Life Over Pain - Pamela Schmidt - Rediscovering Her Inner Superwoman
When you are faced with an existential crisis, it's hard to see what is right in front of you. Brain injury and Lime Disease screw with one's sense of self. Pamela Schmidt was a never-say-never person a superwoman in the flesh. ...
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1:03:08
Life Over Pain - Joseph Ryan - Finding a Purpose in Recovery
Joseph Ryan oozes enthusiasm. He's overcome so many brain injuries that his head seems to have been a target for danger rather than a protected space. As with many who have suffered brain injury pre-2018, his had gone undiagnosed.&n...
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1:07:19
Life Over Pain - Ethan O'Brian - From a Concussion Filled Youth to A Calling of Service to Others
It's hard to imagine a time when we didn't know how dangerous a blow to the head can be. But it was just 20 years ago when Ethan O'Brian was playing youth hockey and started getting banged into the boards and ice and other players. ...
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1:05:34
Life Over Pain - Sameer Bhide - Eastern and Western Medicines in Harmony Help to Heal
UPDATE: Sameer has graciously offered the below special free copy of his book One Fine Day that recounts his stroke experience to listeners:Please enjoy one free copy of One Fine Day: Overcoming Adversity a...
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1:11:35
Life Over Pain - Megan Heiser - Creating A Deeper Connection With Her Life
Megan Heiser grew up on a farm, traveled the world, had a career, got married, had a baby. She was a perfectionist. Then things changed, dramatically. An auto-immune disease caught hold of her and has made her take a completely different ...
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1:12:23
Life Over Pain - Marcia Moran -
I don't think anyone is prepared to have a stroke, even if you've had them before, or you doctor has told you to beware. It's a life changing event. When Marcia Moran's life changed in this way she found herself laughing at everything. Perhaps ...
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57:58
Life Over Pain - Paige Speers - Choosing Greater and Making it Happen
One way many people create a life of value as they live with whatever cards they have been dealt is to give back in some way. That is a key reason why most of the people share their stories on this podcast are so generous in doing so. And Paige...
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43:32
Life Over Pain - Scott Olson - Living Life Wholly
No one knows the value of love and support from family and friends better than Scott Olson. When he was eight, doctors took out one third of his brain. They said he wouldn't walk, talk or use his arm again. But Scott was undeterred and his fami...
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1:08:27
Life Over Pain - Phil Terry - Joy and Value By Going Slow
It's hard to imagine living for a few months without being digitally connected, watching TV, listening to the radio, reading a book or just going out. But that is what Phil Terry's doctors said he needed to do to start his recovery. Phil suffered...
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1:16:26
Life Over Pain - Stefan Weiner - Musician Finds His Voice Again
In life, each of us must overcome the slings and arrows aimed at us. Stefan Weiner had to survive more than most. Imagine having your life's passion taken away and replaced with pain. Stephan's passion is music and his pain made it impossible f...
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1:36:20
Life Over Pain - Jennifer Ward - Coping Through Humor and Holistic Wellness
Jennifer Ward has built a full life after a bike accident left her with a traumatic brain injury at 19. In fact she tried to go one with her life like she was largely unaffected after she got out of treatment. She went back to work as a lifeguar...
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1:13:17
Life Over Pain - Zazel Chava O’Garra - Turning Setbacks into Comebacks
Zazel sat in front of a room full of people at the audition yet she couldn't speak her lines. She wasn't nervous, that's not Zazel. She was having a seizure. She just didn't know it. For years doctors couldn't find anything "wrong" with Zazel ...
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1:27:06
Life Over Pain - Monique Lussier - Unique Monique
It's been 11 years since Monique Lussier's car accident. Her life has changed but her spirit has not. She pulled herself out of a deep depression to right her ship, which she firmly asserts is not sinking. Life is not always smooth sailing as M...
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43:27
Life Over Pain - Heather Richards - An Type A Person with Type B Capabilities
Heather Richards watched as the big red truck came at her car. She she couldn't move out of the way. It crushed her body but not her spirit. Heather powered through numerous surgeries and chronic pain to get back to work only to be hit again, th...
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54:18
Life Over Pain - Chris Richards - Reinventing With a Little Help From a Friend
Chris Richards was a successful engineer and led an active life before he strained a muscle in a push-hands tai chi class. Four years later he had to leave work on disability. He tried every doctor he could but they just couldn't figure out a sol...
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1:04:51
Life Over Pain - Patrick Laboussiere - Surviving the NYC Subway to Reinvent His Life
In 2010 Patrick Laboussiere was hit by a NYC Subway train. His story of survival and reinvention tracks through waking up in the hospital not remembering large chunks of time in his life, or people, through multiple intensive therapies all the way...
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48:20
Life Over Pain - Jen Sargent - Caregiver as Advocate Results in Empowerment and a Better Outcome
When Jen Sargent met her future husband Pete Sargent, she had no idea he was in chronic pain. But six months into their relationship he couldn't keep it from her anymore. She had no experience with chronic conditions. So Jen began to work around...
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28:24
Life Over Pain - Pete Sargent - Nearly Pain Free By His Resilience and His Wife's Advocacy
Pete Sargent was happily playing college basketball when he got injured. His coaches thought it was a pulled muscle and he played on. But the pain increased and Pete had to stop playing for good. After college Pete worked with physical therapis...
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57:15
Life Over Pain - Andrew Cohen - I Am Not My Pain
As a young man, Andrew Cohen led a full life in NYC. Then he felt a pain in his back. That pain has led Andrew through a journey of resilience, self-reflection, and courage. He has tried surgery. That fixed one issue but not the many others. H...
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41:42
Life Over Pain - Rendy Kowal - Doing What Makes Her Happy
Rendy Kowal swerved to hit a tree on a slippery night more than 20 years ago. Rendy had a brain injury but nobody knew it until she realized, "I wasn't me." It wasn't until years later, and some personal tragedy, that Rendy was introduced to the ...
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44:37
Life Over Pain - Brian Johansen - Always Learning, Always Finding New Resources
Brian Johansen was injured 38 years ago while skiing in the Alps. He was in high school at the time and has spent rest of his life in recovery from the injuries he suffered that day. The damage to his limbic system made impulse control difficult...
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51:24
Life Over Pain - Juliana Froes - Never, Never Give Up
Juliana Froes grew up in Brazil and began experiencing migraine headaches as a young child. She was told she would grow out of them, that they were due to stress and that they were from issues specific to women. But none of these answers proved ...
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45:43
Life Over Pain - Emmanuel Tambakakis - ET Survives to Find Buddhism
Emmanuel Tambakakis tells a rich story of how he was injured while working in Greece, trying to get the right shot for a journalism piece. His life has changed in many ways since then; he has had to carve a new pathways personally and professiona...
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45:02
