I caught the end of Jan Wong’s interview on Metro Morning on CBC Radio 1 Monday last week. Matt Galloway asked her why she wrote her book Out of the Blue. She answered with an experience I find so familiar. People think we have freedom of speech in Canada, but lawyers routinely muzzle Canadians. Privacy…
Category: Brain Power
Musings on what makes for a powerful brain. This category also includes the sub-category Brain Health, which covers all things related to brain injury.
Clinical Trial Woes
Sooo … I was in a clinical trial recently. It was, uh, interesting being on the other side of the guinea pig fence. The drug did more than expected. And then it was taken away! But I get ahead of myself. It was March 1 when this story began. I saw a new specialist and…
What is Good Standard of Health Care?
Standard of care. It’s a phrase that gets tossed around a lot. Let me tell you a story about what it should not be, especially for a person in a drug research trial. Before I begin, a note on my background. I grew up as the daughter of a clinician-researcher who is to this day,…
Brain Injury Recovery is Like Hauling a Triple Across Canada … And Back
Recovery from brain injury is a long haul. It’s like being a trucker driving an over-the-limit 40 m triple road train loaded up with gold-containing ore, from the far eastern tip of Newfoundland to the far western edge of Kluane National Park and Reserve in the Yukon, who travels smoothly and happily in the early…
What Doctors Don’t Know: Brain Injury Equals Weight Gain
Weight loss. The entirety of North American society is grappling with weight loss. With diet. With exercise. With staying at a healthy weight. But believe it or not, people with brain injuries struggle even more than the typical North American. We struggle more because we may no longer be able to perceive that one’s stomach…
Support Gives Life
An elderly gent said to me: you look…you look alive! This gent has known me a long time, starting in what I call my hell years after I had suffered a closed head injury aka traumatic brain injury. Back then, I used to see him weekly, yet when I spotted him one time in a…
The Sleep Study
It’s me and the men. Fat men. Snoring men. Young men. And extremely picky men. That latter is a new one to me in my five (six?) sleep studies. Seriously, does this guy think a hospital is going to purchase his preferred kind of sheets just for him? It’s not like in the pre-bed bug…
The New Sleep Specialist
A new year, another new doctor. The first thing my new specialist said as soon as I sat down was: I know what your problem is. Pause. You have physician fatigue. No kidding. Astute. I don’t recall another doctor noticing that on their own or, if have, acknowledging it openly to me. I immediately paid…
New COTA Case Manager, A Total 180
Boy, did I fall down on the job. I thought I’d written a final follow-up post on my case manager saga. I hadn’t! Oops. In a nutshell: a total 180. I met with my new case manager in the afternoon. He spent one and a half hours familiarizing himself with my needs, writing down a…