A Serious Wakeup Call

Starting this entry is very hard.  To quote Allison Curbo there are several people here at the center who deserve a level of praise. As I have been at the Center for Neuro Skills since April I have done testing under numerous therapists and each of them have helped me in ways that were unimaginable. Two such therapists are Bruce and Gerald.  Each day I have come to the Clinic was incomplete without a sighting of one or either the other. Today is no different. As I walk around the clinic for my daily routine I can hear Bruce's voice booming from somewhere inside the Center,  His voice is infectious and it fills me and many patients with a sense of joy. Just yesterday I was doing health club and Gerald commented on my beard saying he wanted to see me with a trimmed beard and haircut.  It was a kind comment--the sort given by men who admire each other. In ways there are many reasons I return to the clinic and give my all in the trek to get better.  Two of the best ...

A Brief Survival Guide is dedicated to the patients of CNS A Brief Survival Guide as dictated to me by the patients of CNS. During my time at CNS I learned a few of the many idiosyncratic terms of going here.  Many of these terms are both humorous and enlightening as one of the newbies to the Center.   What follows are the many terms I learned and the patients who taught them to me. The ARM -- The Auditory Rehab ilitation Module.  Many times the Arm is brought up to give a break to the many patients who a struggling to regain and struggling to renew their cognitive faculties on a daily basis here at the Center. Arm Bike --the bane of the OT gym and workroom. The dreaded bike which at first was difficult to use.  But after a while you get to know the bike intimately and your ability to pedal gets longer. The Perfect Excuse --The excuse we all have that we easily laugh at when times are hard.  We often refer to our brain injury or stroke any time we need to....

When truth finally sinks in. For many patients there comes that time when there is a element of denial. For some think they will only be here at best three weeks. One of my my brothers, Skip told me that he lived in denial for a long time.   Being at the center was a real wake up call.   Much like Skip I had to adjust to the concept I would be working on many things, most importantly I would have to understand that my life would change, but I would get better.   It would take longer that I expected. I used to think that I would only spend about four months at the center, and I would only be here "just over the summer." The first truth bomb hit me when I was Occupational Therapy.   What I had referred to as my 79 percent side had become painfully obvious whenever I tried to write, or type of use as part of my testing.  Each time I used my right hand I tended to use my left hand to compensate--and the problem was I was right handed,  ...

 It has been four weeks since I came back to the blog. At present I am sitting back at the Center for Neuro Skills and trying to make a new understanding of what I now need to do. My insurance denied my payment for four weeks on the grounds that I was simply doing what they  deemed was "maintenance therapy."  I was  not ready to return to work, and I could not even drive. In truth I tried not to harbor resentment for my stupid insurance company.  Staying out of my wife's way was also very important, but for four weeks I tried to busy myself and assist her.  In many ways I tried to do excercise--which I had become accustom too. The big thing I tried to do was not make a mess,  When she came home with the groceries I did my best to put them away for her. It was a conscious attempt to prove my worth and ability to practice mindfulness.  I know my wife was thankful. Between this time Margaret went back to work.  And while she went back to work I ...

There are many things that happen on the road to recovery. It is one in the morning, and I have left my wife in our bed as I search the keys trying to make sense of this grief that has overwhelmed me. There are very few moments that I  have been so sad at losing a person--even now I find it hard to compose the words that I hope will come out of my soul and be a touching tribute to this man, my friend. Mike Greg was my friend.  Before he left the Center he planned to return to work.  His job said he could return to work, and I was ecstatic for him.   Val in occupational therapy had told him normally she would usually be the person that would okay his discharge--that because he had been okay to return to work--she normally would make sure he was ready--I apologize, I do not have the words to write this post. I was so happy for Mike.  He was highly functional, and he had an infectious smile and personality.  We all looked on him as a sort of big brother--...

On the second day of being at the clinic I was told to go into PT where I met several of the most abrasive and wonderful people around. After years of being very lax with my health--I say lax because I was not unfit, but the amount of fitness that I was capable of was unclear. I had had a brain injury and I had basically been unable to walk for a month--now I was beginning a long and arduous project of rebuilding those neural pathways and to be honest just rebuilding the will to walk again. So the first day of physical therapy I began each day with a PT therapist who started talking to me about what I had not done, really--work out. My therapists name was K--- and I began by doing bridges. They were not hard but by the end of the week I done so many bridges, and I was already stronger. While I was doing bridges (which to be honest were not very hard) I began to notice there were a lot of people who were improving and working on their own problems--and  every patient around me was d...

The Brotherhood of Brain Injury Everyday starts the same way. My wife and I start each morning with a blood pressure check, and I check my blood sugar. I choke down a large handful of pills and then I have breakfast--a yogurt and some milk. Usually my wife and I make my lunch before she shuttles me off to the "Center" when the shuttle arrives. I usually share some kind words with the driver who has warmed up to me and as I've told the wife--I unlocked her.  For a long time she didn't say much. We usually go to Hurst where we pick up Mr. R-----.  I cannot stress the importance of being on time--even my fellow patients have come to expect the shuttle. Mr. R---- is an older gentlemen who expects the shuttle to be on time. His house is beautiful with a front yard complete with foliage and a whimsical looking oak tree which has a face on the front of it--I call that Old Man Oak.   When we leave I watch as Old Man Oak disappears in the distance and topiary of Mr. R----'...