Today, we engage in a deeply reflective dialogue with our esteemed guest, Mark Driesschen, a well-known TV personality who has recently endured a traumatic brain injury that irrevocably altered his life. Accompanied by his wife, Amanda, we delve into the complexities of memory, resilience, and the intricate dynamics of their shared journey as they navigate the aftermath of this life-altering incident. Together, they illuminate the transformative power of storytelling and the importance of connection in the face of adversity, reminding us that healing is often a shared endeavor.

Takeaways:

• Mark's traumatic brain injury serves as a pivotal narrative, highlighting the fragility of memory and identity.
• The dual perspectives in this conversation reveal how trauma affects both the individual and their loved ones.
• Resilience in the face of adversity is showcased through Mark's journey of recovery and rediscovery.
• A deep exploration of the emotional landscape following a traumatic event is presented, illuminating shared experiences of love and recovery.

Your voice is your superpower. Use it. Welcome to Ignite My Voice Becoming unstoppable. Powered by Ignite Voice, Inc. The podcast where voice meets purpose, and stories ignite change.

Deep conversations with amazing guests, storytellers, speakers, and change makers.

Oh, I remember. Yeah. Falling. Oh, I remember. Yeah. Feeling the pain. Oh, yeah. I remember when they put me in the ambulance and they came. I don't have no.

No recollection of that whatsoever.

Oh, wow. That's strange.

Yeah.

Today we explore the moments that change us and how we rise from traumatic incidents, from loss of self, to finding a new future.

You know, this episode is unlike any we've done before, and we want to offer a little context before we begin. Our guest is Mark Drieschen, a familiar face to many Canadians and a beloved television presenter.

And earlier this year, Mark experienced a traumatic brain injury that changed everything.

What makes this conversation unique is that Mark. Mark remembers almost nothing about the accident. His wife Amanda joined him in our studio to support him.

But as we started talking, it became clear that she holds the memories he can't access.

So today you'll hear not only from Mark's journey of recovery, but also Amanda's heartfelt recollection of what happened and how they're navigating this new chapter together.

It's a story told from two angles. One through lived experience, the other through memory.

And together, they paint a fuller picture of what trauma, love, and resilience truly look like.

I have no recollection, no idea about what happened to me. I just remember being out for a walk, and the next thing I remember is Amanda telling me we have to go back to St. Paul's I'm going. Why back?

What do you mean? I have no idea. Because usually, you know, if something happens to you, you remember there's snippets of you that come back. Oh, I remember falling.

Oh, I remember. Yeah. Feeling the pain. Oh, yeah. I remember when they put me in the ambulance and they came. I have no recollection of that whatsoever.

Oh, wow. That's strange.

Yeah.

Well, Amanda, what do you understand happened?

So it's interesting. He told this part of the story, and I've kind of let him, because before I used to jump because it kind of triggers me.

He's not even close to telling you what happened because he never came. Basically, I went to a 60th birthday party out in Maple Ridge a week before. I said I didn't want to go. Mark says, your best friend, you need to go.

And I was like, okay. Anyways, I said, I'd come home early because Mark and I are always really together, especially Saturday nights. So. And I always phone.

So 8 o', clock, left. Got in the car, phone Mark, no answer. Called again, no answer. Started driving to the freeway. I thought, I'm gonna try again and text. No answer.

And I thought, okay, maybe he's out. Cause it was 8:00'. Clock. And I. So I decided to call him again. And this went. And then I was like, something's not right.

And I thought, maybe he's with John. John's our son. And John's usually out on a Saturday night. He happened to be home. Not with. He lives on his own, but at his house.

So I got all the way to about Wellingdon.

And.

And then I thought, what happens if I walk through the condo and Mark's on the floor? And I was like. I was like, delete that. That's like, don't think that. And then just a few seconds later, I know people are gonna think this weird.

I saw blood. And so I was like, don't think anything. Just keep going home.

It's the ultimate spouse nightmare, isn't it?

And so I got home. It was, I think just before nine. No earlier than that. Of course. My neighbors are out in the hallway getting ready to go to Croatia.

And because I'm a talker, guess what we do. 15 minutes, 20 minutes, here we are in the hallway. I have no idea what's gonna happen. Once my conversation. And we're having a good time.

And then I said I should go in. And I didn't tell them any of my thoughts, what I was thinking. Anyways, it was a nice conversation. I opened the door.

As soon as I walked through the door, I knew something was wrong. Cause I could tell Mark was there. But he left. But he didn't come home. And Mark, at this time of night, just by himself.

He wouldn't be out for two hours or whatever, hour and a half.

No, I'd be watching Saturday Night Live by that time, you know.

So I just got basically in the door. And I don't know how many times this phone call happened prior. I got a phone call. I pick it up, I say, hello.

And the lady on the other end says, is this Amanda? And I said, yes. And she said, I don't want you to panic. Oh God, but this is Constable's Song and your husband's in emergency. And I just said.

She said, can you get yourself here? I said, yes. I hung up. I phoned John. Because prior to that, I text John.

And John says to me, When I saw him, he said as soon as he saw that text, he knew something happened. So I think we're a very close, intuitive family. So I just grabbed all of Mark's medication in a cosmetic bag. I just, like, shh. Grabbed my stuff, got.

And so one thing about me in crisis time, I actually rise to the occasion. I'm actually stronger during that time, and I'm sure a lot of people are, because you don't have time to think. You just do.

You have to.

So I picked up John. We went to the hospital. RCMP was waiting for me. They prepared us that we might be shocked what Mark would look like. And so we came in.

He was in the triage, and we came through the do, and I was positive he was mugged. I would have bet $100. I would have bet anything he was mugged. That's how bad he looked. And so they.

So his face was bashed up and covered.

It was beyond that. His eyes were, like, swollen. They had to stitch his lip. He was black and blue.

I had bandages all over.

They. He had a concussion in the front. He fell frontwards.

The one thing we did find out, or I found out, is because he's on blood thinners that someone will bruise easier, but his entire body. So what happened was it was a medical situation because when you faint, you faint because his palms, his hands weren't damaged at all.

Oh, my goodness. He went down because he's 6 2, like a sack of potatoes. Just.

Boom.

So he just had no time to respond.

So they ruled out seizure, they ruled out heart, and they ruled out stroke. But it's funny. I'm just gonna fast forward a little bit. A dear friend of ours had a mini stroke.

And when I described what happened to Mark, she still thinks something. She connects it to a stroke. That's just. Her theory is a possibility because of her experience. I wouldn't be surprised.

Anyways, he fell in the puddle first, face down.

And this was on the streets.

This was. No, this was just off Chesterfield.

Yeah. Just in a back alley behind.

Back alley. Good location.

It sounds like a Stephen King story. The more we get into this right.

Now, it's the Spirit trail, Pacific Spirit Trail. Just by the railroad tracks in North Van. Just to feel as you're going to the sea bus.

Oh, yeah.

So that's not that nice area. Nice, but it's not that busy. People think it's the sea wall. That's. People come and go, but it's not a lot.

And it's just like a loop that we do for our walks. We're lucky Mark got up. The surgeon believed he probably went down, kind of got back up and sort of like a person that's been drinking too much.

Kind of like kind of stumble, stumble, drop. That's why the damage was so bad. If he just went down once, he might have not had the same damage.

What's the sad part is he was found with his back of his head in the puddle, and somebody did walk by and left him there.

Oh, my.

I'm gonna say this.

It's just horrendous.

People always say, oh, north Vancouver's great. Whatever. Yes, we live in a wonderful community. Yes.

Overall, North Vancouver, I have to say, I feel safer there than maybe somewhere else. But all areas are safe as they can be. But life is changing, and I'm sure my heart says that this person is possible.

I think people get scared sometimes to help because I'm.

Frustration.

Come on.

I don't think she recognized Mercy. I guess they weren't viewers that, you know, you're scared that, you know, I'm going to be on this phone. I have to stop and wait for the rcmp.

Whatever.

Vanity.

And so two men found him. Two different men found him, and that's when all the phone calls in action and they pulled him out of the. The little puddle.

That moment for me was so pivotal because, you know, the few weeks before that, you know, I was getting better and I was just recovering. But you're also thinking, I'm also trying to comprehend what happened to me because I don't remember any of this. I don't remember the incident.

I don't remember being in, you know, getting transported to the hospital. None of that. I have no recollection of that. I probably never will, you know, but.

So it was hard to, you know, it was hard to think, or I didn't know what I'd be able to retain. Like, would I remember my wife's name? Would I remember my son's name? Would I remember my name? You know, would I remember what I do for a living?

So in that moment, are you. Are you scared? Are you just mystified, Curious?

What do you mean if I'm curious?

Before, I was a little bit scared and I was a little bit nervous, but the more I went on and the more I recovered, the more I realized, okay, you know, I'm getting things back. I'm not, you know, I'm not. I'm not. I'm not as bad as I thought. But you wouldn't know what. What would Come back.

Right.

Like, would my memory come back? Would all this come back? But the fact that Nathan came over, which was great, and we sat and I did that interview, and I just banged it off.

Yeah.

Not banged it off, but yeah.

Yeah. Well, it's in your soul performance.

30 years on, Joel, hacking to people and rad.

I mean, it all came back to me. And that's. That was important to me because that's why I thought, I haven't lost that.

I'm still me.

I'm still me. I still can do this. I haven't lost that, you know, so that's nothing that I. That I really have to work. It's something I have to work on still.

But I still have it.

I didn't really.

You've never lost.

Really reassuring when you needed it, right?

Oh, absolutely. Okay. Absolutely.

I'm not going to lose it.

I'm okay. I'll be okay. Yeah.

And so we're. We're now. We're now six months out, I guess, Approximately.

Right. Yeah.

And how are you feeling now, six months later?

Six months later. I feel really good, you know.

You look good.

Thank you. And I've been physically better. Getting. Keeping myself into shape, mentally trying to keep myself in shape as well.

I mean, the suggestion was that I get crossword puzzles, work on crossword pedals every day, or Sudoku every day, or do something. So. So I do that. But I was. When we were talking about this before, the trick is still, I have to watch how much I take on because it's still.

It will still get fatiguing, you know, especially the brain work. Because you're repairing it. Yeah, Repairing a part of your body.

Neurology, rear wiring. That's tough to go through.

That's tough. So I'm. I'm really itching to get back to work. You know, I'd love to be back on. On the show, on. On CDV Morning Live and work with all those people.

And they've been great. You know, they've been very supportive, and a lot of them come to visit me and, you know, check up on me and see how I'm doing.

But, yeah, I want to get back to that routine because there was. There was also a time where I said, how am I going to go about this? Am I going to just sit here and sulk and feel sorry for myself and shake my fist?

It would be easy to do.

Give me my life back. Why me? Why me? And you're right, it is easy to do. It's easy to fall into that trap.

And once in a while that thoughts will cross my mind, those thoughts will enter my mind and then I have to say to myself, no, no, you're not going to go down that road. You're not going to, you know, you're going to get better. You know, you're going to get better.

Now, one of the central themes of this podcast is how we present ourselves to the world and so how we interact with others and how we imagine they see us.

Just curious, do you feel a difference between you now and you, when you remember six months or further back about how you are imagining yourself or presenting yourself to others, do you sense any kind of difference?

I sense a difference and I sense that I still have a way to get, get back to that, you know, like I'm, I'm 80% there, not 100 there. And some days I feel like it's 95, but, you know, and what feels different? I guess what I, what I think about, like what I, what I worry about.

You know, also what, what is really important is this, does this really matter? You know, like all of a sudden I'll worry about, well, how am I going to get there? What am I going to say? Or that kind of thing. I'll just say, no.

You've done this before, right?

You know?

Yeah, it's relying on your training.

You have to rely on your training and rely on your intuition, your instincts. Always my instincts.

And also, remember, at the core of it, just to be myself, It's such a different thing because for now, because television, radio, I've done it for, you know, so long, I get more nervous. I used to get more nervous when I was on stage, you know.

Yeah, on that one I did, I.

Did stand up comedy for a while. I did improvisational comedy. I've done that all as well. And that's, I mean, talk about just letting yourself out there, you know, it's.

Like basically no safety net.

No, you're not. And it's like you're, you're, you're hanging from the ceiling and slowly twirling people saying, okay, what do you think? You know?

And that's where you get judged.

Right? High vulnerability.

Yeah. So I, I, I keep thinking back to those days and say, you can do this, you know, you will stumble.

That's courageous.

I had my bad moments on stage and I had, I remember once I did a stand up set and it was just not a good experience. By the end of my set, everybody was like, quiet. The loudest sound you heard was the guy in the front row eating his ribs.

That's quiet.

That is quiet. All I hear is just like, that's right. So I'm thinking, okay, I better wrap this up.

And they sure learn something from that.

Oh, you do. And I did. Of course, the great fatal, you know, comics mistakes. So impressions. Anybody want, you know, anyone here? Anybody? Al Pacino.

And the guy, without even looking up at me, without even stopping to finish his rib, just rip. Yeah, sure. You know, and then finally just got out of there, did the perp walk off stage through the crowd and got my fee for the night and sat.

And never did it again.

I'm out.

Oh, yeah. I was berating myself. I was so hard on myself.

That critical voice, why do you think you're doing?

You think you're funny. You think you can do this. And, you know, how egotistical are you? But a week later, I was back. I was back doing it.

That critical voice is so nasty, isn't it?

But there's the critical voice, but there's also the voice of certainty, the voice that you know who you are.

Right.

And you know what you're capable of. You know, and you know, when you're not what you can't do, you know, when you're pushing the limits as well.

Now, we just explored with Mark any differences he senses. How about you, Amanda? You've watched him go through all this. What do you see that's different?

Once the physical was all healed and, like, not walking with a cane and all that, it's behind the scenes that no one really sees. But maybe John and I are like, when Mark's tired, his temperament kind of changes.

And the first time it happened, it shocked me because Mark doesn't have a temper. I mean, we all have moments, especially couples might have a moment. But Mark's never been that guy.

I would say out of the two of us, I probably would have a meltdown before Mark would. But I blame. I'm a female, so it's just the little things.

But I think our love and the time we've been together that we always want the best, that we are such advocates for both of us that we're just determined to get him to where he has to be. And we kind of. I try really hard, if something throws me off, to say, you know, what? He had the brain injury. You didn't.

And the first couple weeks, what was interesting when. Even when people started to come to see him, some people got it, but some people did not get it. Even when I told them over the.

Phone.

It was just, oh, Mark had A fall. They didn't really hear what I was trying to say to them. And then they didn't hear.

I had to actually tell sometimes people he almost died for them to get it. And so this part, it's really nice that people say hello, that recognize them, tell them they looking forward to having him back on tv.

We miss you, Mark. All that kind of stuff I think is important for Mark at this point. And also our doctor has been really.

Everybody around us has been really good and caring.

This is wonderful. Also the power of story. Right? And even just talking about brain injury, I mean, everyone in this room has been tightly connected to brain injury.

You've had one yourself.

Yeah, I had a major cycling accident.

Oh, no.

And took a year to recover. But we don't talk about it as a large group of people. It's a hidden thing, right?

Yeah.

So exposing how common this is is really worthwhile, I think, for the greater population.

The other thing I was thinking, too, is judgment, you know, and so just exploring in that person who walked by you, their head as to what was going on. It's that fast judgment, isn't it? It's, oh, look, there's a drunk.

Yes, exactly.

Lying probably deserves it. Don't want to get involved. Those really quick judgments that are totally unfair.

Oh, he's had a few.

And look how we leap to that. So when we get a chance as a group to talk about this and everybody listening can. Can think about their own judgment, they've done before.

The experience I had a couple of years ago when I had open heart surgery, recovering from that. Right.

And I really, you know, then there were so, you know, we have so many conversations about the healthcare system and, you know, who's doing what right and who's doing what wrong. But the people who are looking after you, you know, regardless of who they are, whether it's the surgeon or.

Or whether it's just the nurse who's working the shift that night, they stepped up every single day. You always felt like they were putting your interests first. You were the priority. It wasn't when I'm gonna.

It was, am I gonna get my break or, you know, how much more have I got to do on my ship?

How much money am I making on my ship?

Exactly?

I call them miracle workers. My oldest son had 12 hours worth of surgery to connect, reconnect everything that he broke in his dirt bike accident. And they'.

They've saved both of my children.

Well, another part of what Kat and I try and do with this podcast also is make the world a better place. That is one of our aims of this podcast, through personal stories. Right.

And we're always reminded that together, we can all do it together. We can try and bring out the positive sides of us humans and get connections and work together. And I think.

I think we need to be reminded of that right now.

We're so appreciative that you have had this courage to come and share because, you know, a lot of times we want to keep that to ourselves because that's. It's. It's tragic, you know, what we go through sometimes with injuries and the results. But sharing that helps you and helps other people.

And as Kevin said, you know, connecting us in our own humanity is so important.

Thank you. Thank you for inviting me down. And another. Another pathway to my healing and going back to work is I gotta be back in environments like this.

Oh, yeah, that's what this is like. Oh, a microphone. Sit down. Yeah, I'll talk to you.

Well, I suspect it's cathartic to share these stories, isn't it?

Yes, it is. Yeah.

We don't respect the fact that we can influence another life in just our everyday conversations. We can have a lot of impact, a lot of influence in a positive way, and that can be person to person, but it can also be as a society, as a whole.

Each of us has actually remarkable influence that if we take control of that in a positive way, we can change the world. We can. It's amazing. It's within our scope. Right. But like you said, you got to reach out, you got to try.

And if it's not the world, it's your community or what your rapport do. And I also want to add, because there's a lot of introverts out there, probably maybe in listening, going, this is not my personality.

They will find their way. And if you also reach out to people that are quite close or they're just shy, they probably appreciate that as well in a different way.

So it doesn't matter whether you're an introvert or extrovert or whatever. There's always a moment of kindness and compassion.

A smile can make the difference.

That's right.

And connection, one way or another. Let's connect.

After three weeks when Mark was in the hospital, honestly, I almost wanted to volunteer and go through everybody's rooms and take care of them.

I want to connect with everyone.

I was like, okay, you just control yourself here. Just because that's my nature to take. I excel when I take care of people. Being the hostess or taking care of people. I had. It didn't.

Even from the moment that phone call, I never thought for a second that Mark wasn't going to be. I was there for him 150% and saying our son was there for me and I had to be there for him as well.

I remember when you two met, actually, because I met you at UTV and this was in the early 90s. 92, 93, 94. That's when you guys met. And I remember when you first started dating and you were so happy, so in love, like, right away.

So cute.

Mark, you're a lucky man.

You are. I know. I keep saying that. Yeah. And I've been. You know, like I said, I couldn't. I couldn't go through all this without her.

I wouldn't know what I'd be doing, really.

Gratefulness. That's a good thing.

Exactly.

Healing isn't always linear. And sometimes the clearest version of our story comes from the people who love us most.

Mark is still reclaiming his memory, his voice, and his sense of self after a traumatic brain injury.

We're grateful to both of them for.

Their vulnerability, for sharing the fear of that day, the relief of survival, and.

The ongoing fight to rebuild identity.

Thank you for listening to Ignite My Voice. And to our listeners in the United Kingdom, Malaysia, and Denmark, thank you.

Until next time, keep breathing, keep speaking, and keep finding your way back to your true self.

Hey. And join our community@ignitemyvoice.com.

Ignite My Voice. Becoming unstoppable. Your voice is your superpower.

Use it.