Isabel D. Transcript

Hi, my name is Isabel Dwyer, and one thing you may not know is I’m a brain injury survivor.

Two years ago, during cheer practice, I sustained a concussion after a girl fell back and her tailbone hit my head, causing me to fall down and hit the mat. After that, it was really hard for me because my teammates and just my community didn’t really understand the significance of a concussion.

They’d ask me when I— “When am I going back into cheer?” and “When am I coming back to practice?” And I’d always be like, “Oh, when my pediatrician clears me,” because it’s very important to listen to your doctors and their advice, and when they clear you, you’re ready to go back into your sport.

But since I wasn’t cleared yet, and it took me a long time to really feel like myself again—especially since this was my second concussion—my teammates started to say that I was a liar and a faker, and they just really didn’t understand how I was feeling and how to support me.

So ever since then, I got into the pageant track, and you have to pick a community service initiative that you’re passionate about, and mine is called Stop the Collision: Concussion Awareness.

So I’ve done a lot of advocacy work through the state of New Hampshire, really getting people to understand the significance of a concussion. I’ve gone to Washington, D.C. to speak to my congressional representatives about reauthorizing the Traumatic Brain Injury Act and joining the Congressional Brain Injury Task Force.

I got to connect with so many people who’ve had a concussion and shared similar stories to mine and experiences, and it was just very good to meet other people who understood what I was going through. And my experience with the concussion community has been very welcoming and just relatable—like people finally understood what I was going through at that time period.

Other work I’ve done is with the Brain Injury Association of New Hampshire, so teaching younger athletes how to be a good teammate to their teammate if they had a concussion, and having them learn about their brain health and learn how to advocate for themselves.

Some advice that I could give to other people who are going through the same thing is that it can feel very isolating, but just know that you’re not alone. It can feel very isolating, and just know that you’re not alone and there’s others who’ve been through this.

The one thing about concussions is that it is an invisible injury, and it’s not talked about enough, or not a lot of people know enough about it to really take it seriously.

So when I had my concussion, I didn’t know that there were so many resources and a big community out there who’ve gone through a similar experience that I have. But some of my favorites that I recently kind of just discovered is Hope Survives, the Concussion Awareness Now Foundation, and the Concussion Legacy Foundation. So those are my favorites. 

I think people should seek out these organizations because there is such a big patient portal of people who’ve gone through similar experiences that you can connect with them and just really understand and have someone understand and feel the same way that you did.