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Noelle Foley, the daughter of WWE Hall of Fame wrestler Mick Foley, appeared on the Rulebreakers podcast, hosted by former WWE and AEW star Saraya (Paige in WWE) on Thursday. During their conversation, Noelle revealed that she suffered a significant injury that changed her life while riding a roller coaster at the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
“Today’s guest is the definition of resilient,” Saraya began the show. “Sweet as pie with a neck held together by sheer willpower. Noelle Foley joins me to talk about surviving a life-altering injury, getting her implants removed, and learning how to highlight her hair like a pro thanks to YouTube and pure determination. From sexy neck brace photo shoots to zombie cog horror scripts, this one goes everywhere.”
The first thing Foley and Saraya talked about on the show was the fact that Noelle hasn’t cut her hair in three-and-a-half years. “Because of my head injury, I like can’t have people like touching my head aggressively and then that like the stupid sink that’s so uncomfortable in your neck,” she said. “So, I’ve learned to do my own highlights, but I’m too scared to cut my hair.”
How did Noelle Foley suffer her injury?
As for how this injury occurred, Foley said she had ridden roller coasters since she was a child because she was so tall and the one she was injured on at Dollywood wasn’t really anything different than she had ridden on before.
“For some reason I go on this one and the way it was just laid out, like, normally roller coasters they go up and they go down and then they fizzle out,” she explained. “This one went up down and immediately went back up. So it’s like your whole body is forcing forward and then immediately backwards. So it was, my head hit really hard and my neck something happened with my neck. But I didn’t know what happened.”
She said after that happened the sides of her neck felt “stretched out” and she says she has pretty much had a headache ever since – five-and-a-half years later.
“It took me about two months to realize I had a concussion. I’m like, ‘This headache is not going away, and I’m so sensitive to lights and sounds and I feel all weird,’” she said. “And I was asking my dad, who you would think would know a lot about concussions, but he was like, ‘Sorry, I don’t really know.’ I feel like his concussions, boom, they happen, and he’s like okay. But he never really had a concussion that lasted longer than maybe a couple months. I’ve been to around 50 doctors, between doctors and physical therapists. It’s just been a mystery.
“It wasn’t until I really started digging that I started getting answers and feeling better. I found out I have a rare neck condition called craniocervical instability, and they found that out from a digital motion X-ray,” Foley continued. “So they found out I tore about 10 ligaments in my neck, and because of those torn ligaments, it causes my neck to be unstable. Like, my head isn’t securely on my neck, then all your other muscles are overcompensating. So, those muscles are probably causing the headaches.”
Removing her implants helped relieve her headaches
“I was completely fine and completely normal before my concussion and then my concussion happened and it was almost like an avalanche of issues just started after that,” she told Saraya. “So, I feel like the implants maybe like some issue was brewing and then the concussion was like a straw or more like a boulder that broke the camel’s back.”
Noelle Foley, 31, went on to talk about a lot of other interesting things with Saraya during the almost hour-long interview, including the fact Noelle still hopes to pursue a career in modeling.