Christian N. Transcript

So my name’s Christian Nichles, and my concussion journey probably started when I was a kid, but I want to jump in where it started for now. And that was January 1st, 2020. I was walking outside to put something on the grill, hit a piece of ice, fell, hit my head, and that started a 26-month journey, which obviously COVID held that up, if you remember that little moment in time.

The discovery process for me through that time was really incredibly helpful for me to learn about what a concussion is, what a concussion does, and that not every concussion is the same, which was pretty freeing for me. But also through that process, we discovered that I had probably had upwards of 12 to 15 concussions in my lifetime, playing youth sports, playing high school sports, college sports, driving a race car, a motorcycle accident I had, and then, of course, that fall, January 1st, 2020.

And so my symptoms were, obviously, I had a lot of issues with my sight. I had a lot of floating. My eyes would flutter, and movement made me nauseous. Obviously, eye sensitivity to light and a lot of pain in my neck and my head started having migraines. I’d never had migraines before. As of this recording today, I have the worst migraine I’ve had in probably a month right now. But I’d never had a migraine before. I didn’t really know what that meant.

But also, I had issues with balance walking. I am a professional speaker for a living, is what I do, and had trouble putting my words together and slurring. Basically, if you were just to meet me on the street a couple of weeks after my head injury, you would just think I’m drunk because I’m just staggering around slurring my words, which is difficult when you speak to thousands of people for a living. That’s not going to work out very well.

I think the hardest part was the literal personality change that came with that particular head injury. A lot of anger, a lot of disassociation really with other humans, particularly those closest to me, my wife, who is a nurse. She’s a nurse for a living, but she was my primary caregiver during those days. To see her watch me not be myself was devastating. But again, necessary. If anyone’s going to recover from a head injury, you need a good support system.

And then, of course, I had my concussion therapist, Matt Campbell, who taught me about concussions, not just treated my concussion. He taught me about concussions, and he taught me about how you can live through them and live a life that is very productive after one.

Again, my symptoms continue to this day, so I have what they call PPCS, and my concussion symptoms continue. I’ve had testing done with all kinds of therapists and neuroscientists and all of that stuff. I’ve had fluid taken out of the spine just to test it and see, to check markers for CTE and those things, which that science has not progressed enough to know yet.

And so to this day, we’re six years removed from my last head injury, and I still have days where my eyes flutter. I still have days where I am just absolutely exhausted. My brain just won’t go. It won’t do anything. But those symptoms are not all the time, and they’re not progressive. So the good thing is, even after six years, I still am able to do almost anything in the world that I wanted to do. I just have to rest. That’s the big thing for me, is to get some rest.

Again, I didn’t sleep last night, and that’s why I have a migraine today while we record this.

I think for me, if I were going to talk and say anything to anybody about it: number one, don’t stay silent. If you have symptoms, go see somebody. Go talk to somebody. Don’t be ashamed. Because I think the longer you just try to deal with them on your own, and the longer that you kind of have this, “Oh, you know, I just got my bell rung” kind of attitude, you’re really hurting yourself for the long haul.

And so finding good care, I think, is primary. Telling somebody about it and then doing the work. It wasn’t easy. It’s not easy to be pushed in concussion therapy and rehab. It’s not easy to do the exercises, the OT and the PT that it requires. But it’s definitely worth it. If you want to live a life that matters and be able to be productive, then you need to deal with your concussion, your head injury symptoms.

And so I don’t really—here’s what I would say to anyone listening: you’re not alone. You can get better, and it won’t always be this way. Now, I say that as a person who continues to struggle with symptoms, right? But they’re not progressive. They’re not getting worse, right? They are what they are at this point.

And I would say a support system that works with you, that is very versed in concussion, not only just concussions in general, but concussion science because it’s changing every day. They’re learning all kinds of new ways. They don’t just stick you in a dark room and tell you to be still and close your eyes when you have a head injury now. It’s actually the opposite, like do some other things. That’s when a person like Matt comes into play, someone who’s up on the newest technology, who’s studying, who’s continuing to learn about that area of life and science.

Again, I think finally I would say your attitude will make one of the biggest differences ever. I won’t lie and say that I had a great attitude. I had to learn some things about myself, and that’s scary when you begin to learn some things about yourself. But I know that my care system was continuously encouraging me: “You’re going to get better. It’s not always going to be this way. You can do this. It’s going to be okay.”

To me, I think just being an encouraging voice to those who have traumatic brain injuries of any sort, not just concussions or whatever, but stroke victims, victims of accidents, whatever. Being able to have a caring support system that encourages them to continue the journey of getting better is probably the most powerful thing that heals a person’s brain, is just the positivity around them, thinking that I can get better, and then, of course, doing the work.

So yeah, that’s kind of my story in a nutshell. I know that I’ve experienced other things that some people don’t, like I said, football and motor sports in general, but also just the head injury symptoms that come with trauma and other things that have happened through my life and my childhood and my adulthood.

And I know that a lot of people don’t think about concussions unless you just hit your head, and I know that that’s not always true. There are a lot of people who’ve not necessarily hit their head who’ve had concussions, and they need the same kind of care and support that anyone else would have.

So thank you so much for this. Thank you for allowing me to just tell a brief part of my story. Obviously, there’s more to the story. There are a lot of things that we could talk about, but the fact of the matter is that you can get better. That’s the message I want to get out, is that you don’t have to stay that way.

Thank you to Concussion Box for what you’re doing, sending encouragement to those. That’s so helpful for someone who has a head injury.