Kim’s Radio Shows

Carole Starr, M.S. is the founder and facilitator of the Maine-based volunteer group Brain Injury Voices. Carole sustained a brain injury in a car accident in 1999, which changed her life dramatically. Her inspirational keynote speech “Never Give up on Happiness” has been well received by brain injury survivors, medical professionals and students. In 2010, Carole co-founded the volunteer group Brain Injury Voices, to give fellow survivors the opportunity to “pay it forward” and make a difference as educators, advocates and mentors. This year, the American Hospital Association recognized Voices’ impact and awarded them their prestigious Hospital Award for Volunteer Excellence. The only brain injury group to ever receive the award. For more: www.braininjuryvoices.org.

Saturday night (until we find a new replacement) or another host would like a practice slot…Is YOU CREATE the SHOW NITE! What’s on YOUR mind?

We hosts work hard all week putting together our shows, so this night is for you BUD. hahaha Join us, find your voice on anything related to your injury/recovery…Or just kick back & listen to some sweet tunes. Let us know topics you’d like to be hearing about in the future. We aim to please, and inform.

Hosted by regular Wednesday Night Host, Kim Justus & a band of Merry Men (and Women). 🙂

When something burst inside David’s head, both Donna and David’s lives changed forever. Before each of David’s three brain surgeries, Donna had only one request of David’s surgeons. She implored, “I don’t care how you give David back to me, just give him back to me.” David did return to Donna, but as a different person. Donna fell in love all over again with this newer version of her husband. David’s TBI resulted in a “fork in the road” for both David and Donna.

Her new show will be coming in August on 1st & 3rd Monday at 5pm pac/8pm est. Learn more about Donna at her blogs: www.donnaodonnellfigurski.wordpress.com AND www.survivingtraumaticbraininjury.com

Dr. Cheryle Sullivan practiced Family Medicine for nearly 20yrs. She’s always had an interest in patient and community education as well as prevention. In 2003 she made a career shift due to residual cognitive deficits from a 2002 mild traumatic brain injury following 5 previous concussions. She now devotes her time to spreading the word about BI and helping those living who live with it find ways to improve their function. Her book, Brain Injury Survival Kit, 365 Tips, Tools and Tricks to Deal with Cognitive Function Loss, was released in late summer, 2008 and one of her stories was included in the recently released Chicken Soup for the Soul, Recovering From Traumatic Brain Injuries. See www.tbijourney.com.

Attention is a mental control system that lets you adjust how hard you think about something.

Because brain damage weakens attention, a good recovery depends on deliberately thinking a bit harder about many things. There is a special need to pay more attention to tasks as they get harder. Mental effort is also a self-therapy tool that can reduce or neutralize cognitive deficits. So “powering up” into maximum alertness and attention is the first step toward getting your deficits under control. When you power up, you can keep your mind focused on one topic at length, think deeply about it, and come up with your best plans and ideas. Making maximum effort sometimes offsets deficits completely, allowing survivors to function at full effectiveness.” – Larry Schutz, PhD

Mike Idell’s show was killed earlier by technical difficulty. Be sure to tune into his next show. It happens to all of us hosts…But it’s always a shame when we’ve prepared. Sorry Mike.

Tonight Kim Justus will host open mic & Indy music for a while. This is not her regular show, which is found on Hump Night (Wed)…But maybe you guys can make the show, Mike can come back & take over trying a redo on his earlier piece, or we can just listen to some grooves and relax. I’m on my last nerve, and my bucket is full…But it’s all good. Or at least we come to accept our reality eventually, and move forward with as much grace as we can muster.

In 2012, Ruby A. Taylor, M.S.W. was in a car accident. It totaled her car and gave her a concussion, which later turned into a TBI. Because of the brain injury, as with most of us, her life turned upside down. Ruby is currently on a mission to take away the shame and embarrassment of brain injury and help survivors recover through the support of family, friends, and professionals.

Ruby is excited about offering her free ebook “99 Problems and My Brain is 1, informational and inspirational blog posts, documentaries, and workshops to help spread awareness, compassion, and support for brain injury survivors and our families. You can visit Ruby and learn more about Compassion Pictures at www.compassionpictures.net

Have you ever sustained a brain injury have you ever known anyone who had a concussion? These days there is a lot of talk in the media about football players and head injuries and PCS. However, the general public doesn’t really understand how serious a seemingly minor concussion can be.

One of the main reasons we’re tackling this topic this evening is that even a seemingly minor concussion can have life-long, life altering consequences. And that is the topic of tonight’s broadcast. Many of our listeners know personally just how a traumatic a concussion can be.

Originally from Madison, Wisconsin, Ms. Catherine (Catz) LeBlanc has worked as a Physician’s Assistant and project manager. In 2009, she suffered a sports concussion, then two months later was rear-ended totaling her Beetle convertible. She has been disabled by Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and did not find a pocket-book for brain injured athletes/veterans/civilians…so she wrote one. Tell Me This: Encouragement and Hope after Brain Injury was published 2013. She has been a guest on Brain Injury Radio and given speeches as an Ambassador for the BIA of Massachusetts. She is a contributor in the soon to be released Chicken Soup for the Soul: Recovering from Traumatic Brain Injuries.

If you’re just hanging around tonight, call in and chat on matters of the brain. 🙂 Otherwise, I’ll be playing Indy Music and discussing events of the day.