Episode #59
It Did Not Define Me with Missi Hackman | Ep. 59
Ep. 59 | Missi was not someone who slowed down. Women's group leader, youth leader, dance team coach, committee member, fulltime employee - on the go from morning until night, not knowing any other way. She flipped an ATV after a family wedding in Texas while protecting her four year old nephew on her lap, neither of them wearing a helmet. A helicopter came and took her to Memorial Hermann in Houston, and the life she had built at full speed came to a complete stop. Only at the hospital for a couple of days, she was told to see a cardiologist for her chest contusion. Nobody told her not to fly. Nobody told her to stay in a dark room. Nobody told her what her brain actually needed to heal and that gap cost her years. In this episode, Missi shares what the long road back looked like. Eight years without driving. A jar of coins she uses to explain how her brain battery works. Vision therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, a neuropsychologist she saw for 10 years. A husband who called every single day on his way home to ask what she needed. A co-owned business she never saw coming that gave her back a sense of belonging and purpose. She also shares what happened this past July when her 38 year old son crashed an e-scooter two blocks from home and arrived at the ER with multiple brain bleeds and a skull fracture and how everything Missi had learned the hard way about brain injury advocacy became the thing that got him home in two weeks instead of months. And through all of it, the PIVOT method formed - Pain into perspective, inviting change, valuing connections, owning your chapter, taking meaningful action. A framework Missi built from the wreckage of her own hijacked life and now shares with anyone who needs it. Connect with Missi on LinkedIn or text 720-771-1914
