Transcript
Speaker: Hey everyone, Joe here, another What's Crackin'. Today we've got none other than, i'm gonna say Dr. Linda Plunkett. I like that, the doctor part. Linda, how are you?
Speaker: I'm great, how are you today? I am fantabulous. We're shooting from a remote location. I was having tea with the Lieutenant Governor yesterday, but today, today, today,
Speaker: It's all about a lot, honestly. So we can cover your books. We can cover your counseling, your speakership. And I do want to know from almost like a personal side of it. If if anything's too personal, let me know. But I do know that you're a brain tumor survivor.
Speaker: Yes. I was just wondering how that works from diagnosis to what was your journey like from there? Okay, well, it's been very interesting because that was back at the end of 2012. They diagnosed me and I had a tennis ball sized tumor in my frontal lobe, which people say, well, how do you know? How do you know you had a tumor? I honestly didn't know. But people around me said, oh, she's not quite acting like herself. So we better have it checked out. And sure enough, the MRI shows this gigantic brain tumor and it needed immediate surgery. On a good note, it wasn't cancerous. It was what's called a meningioma, which is a non-cancerous tumor. They can come back. However, at least it's not cancerous. But whenever you have a large mass that needs to be removed, it you know it required my head being cut open from ear to ear and What evolved into almost an eight hour surgery to remove it.
Speaker: Okay, so and h I was saying it was not cancer, it was nice, but people noticed that your personality changed or the way you're walking or talking or...
Speaker: Apparently the way that I was talking and I was having breakfast one morning with a friend and my son and they came back from breakfast and said to my husband, she's not herself. And my husband said, oh, there's nothing wrong with her. i think sometimes spouses are the last ones to really notice. But I went to my doctor and my doctor said, oh, it's probably nothing. But as a precaution, we should have an MRI. Sure enough, there was a tumor.
Speaker: ah wow. And how did you feel like at that moment? Well, it was shocking because one day feeling normal and the next I have to have my head cut open from ear to ear and interviewing brain surgeons is very um surreal because not everybody obviously survives a brain surgery.
Speaker: And the first doctor I talked to said, oh, tumors like this, we can sometimes pull through the nose. And I'm thinking, wow, my whole face is going to be disfigured if you try to pull a tennis ball sized tumor through my nose. But fortunately, the second doctor, I guess the good news the second surgeon gave me was he hadn't lost anybody yet. So I thought, well, hopefully I won't be the first one. So I decided to give him a try.
Speaker: Yeah, it sounds like mummification, like the old, you know, the king tut scraping it through the nose and pulling the the organs out. but Yeah, can you imagine, really? I mean, it would just, yeah, just that calm whole conversation should totally freak me out.
Speaker: No, I can't even get, like, the COVID test up my nose while crying. I can't imagine the opposite. So when you are going through this and the experience of this, I know you have a background in clinical psychology.
Speaker: what is going through your mind? Are you trying to assess the situation? Are are you realizing, are you clocking the the levels of maybe anxiety or levels of dealing with the... It's more like the opposite. And I think, you know, if I were counseling a person, I probably had the normal reaction. i just wanted to believe it was a bad dream and I would wake up and it...
Speaker: yeah You know, this would just be a bad dream. It wouldn't really be happening because it was all so fast. You know, I didn't really have time to process. And all I knew was within the next month, I was going to have to have my head cut open from ear to ear. So that's something you really don't want to think about.
Speaker: no I guess not. And then after the surgery, has anyone said you are different now than you were before? Oh, yeah. I mean, that's another story. um After the surgery, I felt like God had left me. i felt like I was an empty vessel. I wasn't doing well. And a major medical clinic said, There's nothing we can do for you. You're never going to get well. In fact, in the last, I would say, 13 years, I've been told three times there's nothing we can do for you. And the most recent time was last year. And last year was a little bit of a scary year because I had a couple seizures and I was starting to have a lot of memory loss and
Speaker: Again, i go to an yeah ah ER and I'm told, oh, you you know, there's something wrong with you. Your tumor came back and the test showed nothing. But apparently I have scar tissue and scar tissue can cause seizures and memory loss. So this was last year. And seeing a neurologist and getting the same bad news, you're not going to get well, you know, you might as well forget it. And came back to see my doctor in Florida. And lo and behold, I found I could get stem cells.
Speaker: for my brain and within two treatments, the light bulb went back on on and and I'm back. I feel great this year. But last year was a very bad year and I honestly wasn't sure if I was going to make it or not.
Speaker: Well, first, I'm very sorry to hear about the rough years and almost like the clinical gaslighting that goes on in the hospital. It's like, oh, no, you know, this is this is just your life now. Good luck.
Speaker: No, this is what I've been told repeatedly. And, you know, I tell people you cannot believe everything you hear from one or two doctors. There is alternative medicine out there.
Speaker: um a lot of doctors, if they can't treat it with a drug or a chemo or a radiation, they they basically don't have a lot of alternatives and they don't want to refer you to non-alternative or, you know, something different than what they do. yeah And so that's the hard part. You have to get out there and you have to find out for yourself if you want to have the best life.
Speaker: Yeah. No, a doctor is a bit like spoons. I don't know why I have a spoon right now. but like spoon Everything's super ice cream. Like there's there's no steak for a spoon.
Speaker: And so for a doctor that specializes in one thing, it's only this. It's only this and it has to be there. Otherwise they spent the rest of their life studying just that one thing. and they don't want to No, it's so true. it's so true. And this year I went back to see the same neurologist and she was a nice young woman, probably maybe a little younger than one of my sons. But, you know, I told her, I said, I really didn't need to come back. I'm feeling so much better. However, know, it's important that you know you can refer your patients to something that will really help them and that they don't need to just give up because you don't have all the answers.
Speaker: And that's that's really the way to show it. i mean, the doctors are there to allegedly, you know, do no harm, heal people. And then having that knowledge, it might be a case of he the person just didn't really know, doctor didn't really know, or, you know, this is the clinical billing of it now.
Speaker: So when you move through go through this experience yourself, how does that affect your counseling ability or your counseling services? that make sense? Oh, I couldn't do anything. I mean, the whole year, um the first year after the brain surgery, my life was pretty much shut down. um My father was very ill and he was almost 100 years old. He was living in Ohio at the time. So I went up to Ohio and I took care of my father. I felt I was able to do that. But mentally, it just took a long time. And they say your brain has to rewire itself. Yeah. But that's a very complicated thing. And I developed fibromyalgia. had pain all over my body. I couldn't sleep.
Speaker: And this kind of went on for a long time. In fact, well, the first book I wrote, which was Supernatural Rescue, chronicled what happened around the time of the brain surgery. But after the fibromyalgia, I had a lot of pain, a lot of sleep problems. But I was trying to keep speaking. I was trying to do some counseling. Right.
Speaker: And people said to me, Linda, we know that you're struggling. Tell us what you're doing. You're doing better than we are. Just give us some hints. So book two, Living a Positive Life in a Negative World, was about body, soul, and spirit. What are some things you can do for yourself if your world is negative and you want to make it more positive?
Speaker: That's a brilliant segue because those are my next questions as well. is I'm seeing that we'll go to Supernatural Rescue from Broken the Beautiful. So you're doing that one. in media, it's during this time, right?
Speaker: This is, you're reflecting about the tumor and your experience? Yes. And the thing was, see, at that point it hadn't become a book, but um I was journaling. And as a Christian psychologist or clinical psychologist, it doesn't matter. i think a lot of psychologists recommend that people journal.
Speaker: I really feel my memory, again, was so was so bad that year, that year, and then again, last year, but um If you don't write things down, you may not have a record. And I'm not sure the first book would have really happened had I not journaled day-to-day experiences about what happened.
Speaker: That's brilliant. Honestly, I've been talking to someone, Tony Horton has been kind of getting on everyone to journal, just journal, journal, write it down. Yes. Write it down, it didn't happen. And he's right. And i and that goes to what you're saying, because our memories are like on a good day.
Speaker: ah My memory is a goldfish on a good day. So like the point, like, why am i wearing two different socks? I guess we all wear two different socks. I don't remember putting these on or look at, you know, like, you know, people who look for your glasses and on your head, that type of thing. Yes. On a good day, that's a human race.
Speaker: And if we don't write stuff down, we can't reflect on what happened truthfully or as close to truth as can get to that day. And if there's anything that your memory is kind of wavering, it's also a good way of thinking.
Speaker: remembering and going back and trying to reconnect and remap your brain, right? Exactly. Well, I was, you know, I was still trying to speak for groups. I've done this for a really long time. And so people said, you know, Linda, you know, you what you're telling me about your recovery, you encourage me, you inspire me. Please think about putting it in a book, because honestly, the the first two books, I'm working on book three now, but people ask me to write those books, or maybe I never would have written them. But my father wrote a book when he was almost 100 years old. He had someone write it for him. He was almost blind. but
Speaker: I, you know, I hadn't really, it's hard to explain when you're doing master's and PhDs, all you do is write, you know, dissertations. And, and so I basically, know I could suppose written a book on marriage and family counseling for my PhD.
Speaker: But after that, you know, I really had no plans to keep writing. But yeah, these first two books, people said, Linda, please, you know, go on ahead, write the book because it encourages me and it'll help other people.
Speaker: And so that's why I did. But honestly, I don't consider, it's funny, I don't consider myself a writer. I'm a writer, but someone who journals and then goes back and tries to learn maybe from negative experiences what but what might help someone else. That's kind of been the last 15 years of my life. Not as much counseling or running a therapy practice, but speaking and writing and figuring out new new ways that might help somebody else.
Speaker: Well, that's exactly it. Because if you are a counselor, you can be the best counselor in the world. That's going to be what? One in two people, if it's a family who knows at a session. If you are a writer and and a speaker, especially if it lives on the interwebs nowadays, that's millions.
Speaker: But you're helping other people now. You don't know. You know, I never know how many people. But honestly, I felt like when I wrote the first book, if it helped one person, that would be that would be fine. You know, because I did want to help people. And although that journey through brain surgery and the recovery from that and, you know, the supernatural experience of all that, what I went through. right I always tell people, you know, this might not be for you and I'm not trying to convert anybody. I'm not trying to persuade anybody. However, this is what really helped me. And if you want to try something new, why not? You know, why not? Because sometimes we try one or two things, they don't work and we have to keep going until we find something that really helps us.
Speaker: That's yeah, it's, it's, it's not quite spaghetti, but it's not giving up in the first try. Right. You're going on through it. And I keep saying supernatural in the book is called Supernatural Rescue from Broken to Beautiful.
Speaker: What's the supernatural part? I'm curious. Well, the supernatural part was... um And there again, you know, people are either believers or not believers, but this was my experience. um I came when I came out of the surgery, I just felt so empty. And just just like the way I could explain it would be like a blank slate. But I felt like I i had God in my life, but I felt like God had just left me. He was just gone, totally gone. And i just thought, you know, if he's gone, I might as well just give up. And so this was kind of like 10 days into my recovery. And, um, and I was sleeping downstairs. We lived in a town home at that time in Jacksonville, Florida. And my balance was so bad. i could hardly walk.
Speaker: So I was sleeping on the couch downstairs, but just getting to the bathroom, I i would have falls, you know, I'd fall and it it was, it was just not good. You know, I'm living downstairs and at the kitchen table and sleeping on the couch and, um,
Speaker: One day, i it's and this is very hard to explain unless you've had a similar experience, but I really felt my spirit was just disconnecting from my body. And I was at the front door and I just wanted to leave. I just wanted to go out the front door and I'd had it and I didn't want to live anymore. And I felt God had left me. And I was done. And right when I'm the front door, all of a sudden I see this gigantic hand and it pulls me back into my body.
Speaker: And all of a sudden, like instantly I knew that God was back. God was in my life like, okay, God, well, where were you? I'm glad you're back. But, you know, people will say, oh, she just had a brain surgery. She was hallucinating. But the bizarre part about all of that, my husband was upstairs. Right.
Speaker: And he also saw the hand that pulled me back in my body. So he was a witness of that happening. That's a beautiful story. And in just the shows that i think people will say like, oh it was a brain surgery. I think people some people will say that.
Speaker: but that still doesn't explain or explain away or discount what you experienced. It doesn't discount that this was a spiritual experience, especially if this's this is one for you.
Speaker: And that's, as a postmodernist myself, it's that's your reality, right? That is my reality. And like last year, I had some some similar things happen. But there again, other people don't necessarily get it what you're going through. And it's very hard. The book that I'm writing now is probably the hardest book because it's about the unexpected in life and how to be more ready for maybe what's unexpected. But we don't know what's coming. We don't have a clue. But why not have resources just in case that So that you feel like you're not totally alone. Because last year I did really feel alone and people did not get it what I was going through. But thankfully, I still felt like I had God. He didn't leave me this time. So, you know, I mean, that was the positive thing because I didn't feel totally alone.
Speaker: Yeah, it's the the old footprint. You guys have footprints. You know, they the used to be everywhere in the early 80s, I think, where it's the the two footprints on the beach and it goes to one. right Yeah. right Why'd you leave? Like, oh, i was just carrying you. What do you mean? Yeah, exactly. It's kind of like one those things like, whoa, do you think that God left or kind went like, oh, no, i I put her down with the soda. Where was it? Hold on. I'll be right back.
Speaker: You know, was it test or like just kind of It might've been a test. It might've been a test, but you know what I tell people, whatever happens between you and God, just open your mouth and just express it because the good, the bad, and the ugly, you know, the way that I feel God created us. And, but also if you look at the writings in the scripture, he can show emotion, he can show anger. So what? Like the end of the second book, I said, God, why and why me? And why am I going through this? Because I had gone through fibromyalgia for so long. Like, why? and
Speaker: And did I do something? you know You know, I've always tried to help people. Like, what did I do wrong? But, you know, i mean, it's fair to ask God questions, but be open to answers. And I want to say six months after I said that in the book, and the book was published, I didn't have an answer. Like, out of the blue, I feel I get this answer. And what the answer was, this isn't about you. This is so you can help more people. Yes.
Speaker: I was wondering if going get there because that was my thought when you were saying like, well, it could just be so you can be showing as you do through your books and you through your speaking how other people can navigate this and yes positive life in a negative world, like living a positive life in a negative world.
Speaker: You said you give tips in this one. What are some of your tips if you can give them away? Yeah. I mean, there are so many tips there, but i have the book divided between body, soul, and spirit. Now, the physical part, which is the body, I learned so much because I traveled all through those years of pain and and a lot of pain, a lot of sleep issues, but I changed my diet, my eating, to For example, um i I don't delete all sugar, but I drastically cut my sugar. And this wasn't about weight. Yes, I've lost some weight. However, it was more about inflammation. you know So I'm teaching people about inflammation. ah There's some about exercise in your body, the importance of exercise, even just walking. So the first the first part is about the body. The second part is about the soul, which, you know learning to deal with stress, you know, persevering through hard times. You know, how do you make it, you know, psychologically? And then the third section there again, its it was much shorter than what I thought, but it was about dealing with God, the good, the bad and the ugly and having a relationship with him in spite of everything that's happening.
Speaker: That's amazing because what you're saying is there things that I've been learning as well. It's sugar. Yes, we understand. It's it's in everything nowadays. It's addiction. Yes. Good luck. And removing that, of course, you're going to lose weight because sugar calories are just whatever.
Speaker: But inflammation as well. And inflammation helps you lose weight and it make you feel better because almost all over, we'll say the processed foods, see this is me going on a rant on processed foods now.
Speaker: ah The processed foods, all those things that we take, not even for granted in the West, but almost as a daily necessity, was there not? That's all this inflammation heavy diet.
Speaker: No, and it's true. It's very true. And I grew up in a home that we'd be watching TV on Saturday morning and my parents would throw us candy bars. And no wonder I lived in the dentist's office. My teeth were bad.
Speaker: But it's just ah the way a lot of people, they add sugar to everything. And even my um sisters, when they cook, when I'm around them, I see them adding gobs of sugar to their cooking.
Speaker: But, you know, maybe they're at ah not at a point. It bothers them yet. But inflammation can cause a lot of problems in your body for someone, especially like myself, that suffered from fibromyalgia where there's really no cure. That's what was to ask because I've...
Speaker: fibro as well. And inflammation, like does it cure it No, but it lessens the other items that will be kind of like spiking. Like every time you can lessen the pain and in fibromyalgia, yes you just take it like, okay, what do I avoid this?
Speaker: It won't cure my fibro, but it means all the other pains go away little bit by little. ah i'll take that one My pains didn't necessarily totally go away, but I will say they were lessened to the point. I can still walk. I'm a ballroom dancer in my 60s. I could still compete, was still competing in ballroom dancing then when I was going through all of this. So at least I didn't have to totally give up my life, which was great.
Speaker: says And that's amazing, especially activity. Ballroom dancing is active. It is rhythmic. It is nonstop. And it's, it's, you movement, your knees, your joints, your hips, they all have to go in with it, you know?
Speaker: Right. That is an amazing. and Now, when you're doing this is part of the, I need the rehab. I need the rehab. I need the rehab because you want to do ballroom dancing again. If you're having problems with stairs, I'm guessing the West coast swing might be a bit.
Speaker: Well, I basically didn't stop doing what I was doing and I had a pro partner. I was competing in pro-am division wow and, um, but,
Speaker: At the time that I went through this, we lived in Jacksonville and then we ended up moving to Tampa Bay. So I kind of started all over again. I had one really bad year. I didn't do a lot, the year of the brain surgery. And then gradually I started adding things back.
Speaker: But like I tell people, you got to walk before you can run. So learning to walk, learning to have balance, doing some rehab. Yeah. But walking is so good for your brain. And, you know, the second book, it's funny. i I've been in a circle recently and people say, we keep passing your book back and forth because we love the tips. And one person who hadn't been walking at all is now trying to do some walking every day. But walking is one of the number one things you can do for your body that doesn't require any really money or special equipment. You just have to be disciplined and do it.
Speaker: Absolutely. And it's not high impact. You can make it as hard as easy as you want it to be. If you want to walk up hills, you walk straight, you can walk slow, fast. It's it's modular and you can literally do it in your living room.
Speaker: If you have no space at all, well, keep pacing. You know, that that's all that is. and it when I walk, my mind, it's like meditation for me. My mind goes yes a bit.
Speaker: It recharges. I get my thoughts in and out. So you're saying all that for the first two books. Now, can you give us a hint on book three? You gave us a small one before, but what's what's the push on book three right now?
Speaker: I feel like in a way, God kind of gave me the start for book three. And when I say that, a couple of years ago here in Asheville, we had a major hurricane and who would think in the middle of the country, you'd have a major hurricane. But we had major flooding at that time, but but that was happening. That's about, i guess, not quite two years ago. I was in Florida doing a talk. My husband was here in Asheville and everything went out. And honestly, I didn't know if he was alive or dead.
Speaker: He'd had some medical problems previous to that, but it was very frightening. I couldn't reach him by phone. There was no internet. He had no power. Up here, there were trees down on the road. People had to cut the trees just to get out and then go to Publix to use the internet.
Speaker: But people could not get gasoline. The airport was closed, so I couldn't fly home. I ended up flying to Charlotte and eventually he got gas for the car like a week to two weeks later and met me in Charlotte. But it was it was really about, wow, this is like a major storm. It was very unexpected. So book three is, and in the process of being written about the unexpected in life, how can you be how can you be ready? for the unexpected storms. And some of the things I've had to learn and I've had to grow from not knowing what I was doing to, to be ready, but also I'm using some of the tools I use when I counsel people because I had a lot of good advice. I gave people, I don't want it to go to waste. So this book is being divided between, okay, dealing with,
Speaker: um your own i your own storms, your personal storms, how to deal with your personal storms. Number one, how to be ready to deal with storms with other people and some tools you might use to be ready and better better living life with other people. And then thirdly, um if you want to have tools to deal better with God, how could you deal better with God, even if maybe you have issues with him like I did?
Speaker: And I think that's the important part. The tools part, I mean, I always love tips and tools. Tips and tools are important for everyone because we don't know everything. and We sure don't. Right. And learning is is an amazing thing, especially the tips on how to deal with God and how to talk and how to reconnect with that aspect of our lives. Because in the modern world technology, it's it's all...
Speaker: flips and blips and all these things. And we become removed from where we are, you know, removes from the grace of. And so I believe that these books, I believe all three books are going to, you know, the third one's going to be amazing. The first two, we've got Supernatural Rescue from Broken to Beautiful and Living in a Positive, but let me Living a Positive Life in a Negative World.
Speaker: That's a good trilogy. That's a good box set. It really is. I think that's a great Christmas gift. Well, and i'm I'm hoping this third book, you know, I'm waiting, I'm taking longer because I don't, I want to make sure I'm open to whatever else, right you know, I don't want to leave anything important out. It could be my last book, but um I'm just kind of waiting to hear. and And if there's anything else that I feel that should go in there, um i just don't want to miss anything important because this could be the last one.
Speaker: Enjoy every sandwich, as Warren Zeeman used to say. Enjoy every sandwich. And it's been amazing. Dr. Linda Pluckett, it's been... I just said Pluckett. I'm so sorry.
Speaker: Plunkett. No, it's okay. It's okay. It's not a common name. It's fine. No problem. came out and fitd us It's been great talking to you. i Thank you. It's been...
Speaker: really fun for me because I love learning and I love the positivity that you bring and exactly like living a positive life in a negative world right there. And this is what people need now, especially, and they should get your books. They should listen to you. They should go to your speaking device. Where can we find you on the interwebs? Where are your social medias? Where's your website?
Speaker: um My website is at lindasplunkett.com. um You can go to YouTube. You can Google me. Just Google my name. It's probably the easiest way to find me is Google my name. yeah And um I'm having, i have a ah social media person that puts things on LinkedIn. But there again, I think if you Google my name, you'll find me Linda Plunkett or Linda S. Plunkett.
Speaker: um The books are both on Amazon. easy Very easy to get. And I believe you can download them as well as order the physical book if you prefer. and That's an amazing thing. More people, the better. That's what it is. And thank you very much for coming on the show.
Speaker: i have had fun. You're welcome. And on behalf of myself and Dr. Linda Plunkett, we bid you good day. bye everyone. Bye-bye. Thank you. Bye.
