Christmas Day dawns. Both Jeej and Judy’s children cannot contain their excitement. But there’s a person missing in Judy’s place: Judy. She cannot come home for Christmas as she is still too sick. And so while Jeej’s family enjoys the day together at home, Judy’s goes to the hospital. Chapter Ten: Christmas
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With Brain Injury, Problems Mean Derailment
It doesn’t take much to derail a person with a brain injury. There you are, trucking along, feeling pleased with how functional you are, how productive, how much better you feel, and your dishwasher breaks down and you’re a puddle on the floor. Well, not quite that bad this time. Coping, problem solving, decision making:…
NaNoWriMo 2010 Begins!
November crept up on me and suddenly it’s time! No more angst over whether my story is any good; if I have all the scenes down pat; is my character work complete; have I figured out all the locations…or maybe I should add or change a scene to another location. I’ve written the outline; I’ve…
Lifeliner: Chapter 9 Podcast, The Langer Line
The Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN) seems to be working, but the ultimate goal of sending Judy home on this artificial form of feeding cannot be realised until they figure out a permanent way of feeding the TPN solutions into her vein. Tubes falling out her vein regularly just will not work. Dr. Bernie Langer, Jeej’s…
Lifeliner: Chapter 8 Podcast, Judy’s Inspiration
As Judy heals, she becomes more conscious of her situation, of the extent of her illness, of the odds against her, and Jeej feels that she may fall into despair as a result. He talks to Cliff. Contrary to the ethos of the day, Jeej tells Cliff to bring the children in to see Judy.…
A Hypothalamus Fix for Closed Head Injury?
As I wrote earlier, I had suffered from various metabolic issues that the medical community was either unable or unwilling to understand and to treat. Over the years, I sought understanding, using what I remembered of my pre-injury knowledge of physiology, neurophysiology, and research skills. As I got better cognitively, especially this past year with…
Lifeliner: Chapter 7 Podcast, “I Could Be Pushing Up Daisies”
Judy liked to joke about being a pincushion for Jeej, about it being easier to put a zipper into her abdomen, about her dates with the knife. And one of her favourite expressions was “I could be pushing up daisies.” She could’ve. For on her third date in the operating room, she died. Chapter Seven:…
My Top Ten iPad Apps
It’s been awhile since I last blogged on the iPad – I’m having too much fun with it. It’s become indispensable, my second second brain. After several months of use, these have become my Top Ten iPad Apps. 10. Flipboard. Everybody’s flipped out over Flipboard. I find it the easiest way to read Facebook updates;…
The Hypothalamus and Brain Injury
The first part of this series is how I came to look at the hypothalamus. This post is more about general principles of how the hypothalamus works for those of us who aren’t physiologists, rather than a scientific treatise. However, I’ve included links for those who want to know the mind-bending details. I’d also like…