Between Two Brains - 007: Melanie Dunlop

007: Melanie Dunlop

02/19/21 • 39 min

Melanie Dunlop is originally from Nova Scotia, now a speciality nurse practitioner, specializing in brain injury. She works out of the rehab in Halifax Nova Scotia, as well as several other platforms which allow her to cater more towards individual’s needs.

She has been working in her field for seven years and has an experienced and insightful view as we talk about what brain injury looks like, and how it has evolved with medicine over the last decade. In addition, her experience in the field lends to her ability to touch on what practices can be helpful for recovery, and how to manage the everyday of living with a brain injury.

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006: Mariah Morgan

On the morning of November 13, 2018, I looked both ways before crossing the street as I entered a pedestrian crosswalk on my two-block walk to work. My memory gets dodgy from here but my brain still holds a few snippets: a quarter of the way across the street I watched the fender of an SUV hit my knee, I slammed onto its hood, and then my head quickly hit the pavement. Hard. I was rushed to the hospital, put in a medically-induced coma, and, when I came to in the ICU at Portsmouth Regional Hospital, was told my 34-year-old body was not how I last remembered it. I’ll spare you the details of the insane list of diagnoses I was given- some knee, neck, and brain-related- but the most important one to know about is that I had an acute subdural hematoma.

I am a daughter, a sister, a wife, a mother, and a business owner. It has taken a long time to even begin to process the accident (and may take my whole life) but, looking at my life and how close I was to slipping away lends serious perspective. During the months after my accident, I struggled with feelings of loneliness and depression and did not realize at the time that they were direct results of my brain injury. If I can help others feel less alone during their recovery journey, I feel that some good will have come from the trauma that changed my life.

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008: Meaghan Cahill

Meaghan Cahill is a Licensed Health and Nutrition Counselor, owner of Cahill Wellness and founder of the Mind Body Food System. Meaghan received her education and training through The Institute of Holistic Nutrition, in Vancouver, BC, as well as thorough Nutraphoria School of Holistic Nutrition. She is also a member, in good standing, with the Health Coach Alliance.

Meaghan’s focus in her practice is to redefine health beyond the number on a scale, helping women make peace with food, body image and weight, by taking an intuitive eating/health at every size approach to nutrition and lifestyle. Her passion for this work comes from her own struggles with food and her body image, and it was her experience of becoming a mother, to a beautiful little girl, that she knew she didn’t want to perpetuate the diet culture narrative that has proven to be so damaging for so many.

It is with great pleasure that Meaghan is partnering with Brain Injury Nova Scotia to bring a nutrition and lifestyle program to their clients that focuses on taking the stress and overwhelm out of re-establishing healthy habits after a life altering event such as traumatic brain injury.