Brain injury rose my heart rate to 130. My hypothalamus fix, brain biofeedback, particularly gamma brainwave training, began to drop it. It was a miracle when I first saw my heart rate drop into the double digits during a 3-minute gamma training screen. But it was low-intensity laser therapy (LILT) that dramatically improved my heart…
Category: Personal
February Rest, March Restart
I’ve been steadily chipping away at the pages on my brain injury site. I wrote either drafts or final versions of most of them during Camp NaNoWriMo. But working on each page, refining, finding studies, creating images or downloading free stock images (that half the time my brain decides needs snazzing up, as if I…
Muscles, Arthritis, and Light Therapy
Car crash. Whiplash. Shoulder strains and sprains. I talk about concussion but rarely the injuries outside the brain. Or the inherited arthritis invading my fingers, the essentials of my craft. But I’m writing now because I finally had to bite the bullet to replace my aging home low-intensity laser therapy unit (LILT), and it made…
Advocacy Committee Dashes and Hopes
Two years ago, I wrote a piece on social construction within the brain injury rehab context. The Executive Director of the Brain Injury Society of Toronto (BIST) on behalf of the Board approached me afterward in response. They were concerned that I didn’t feel safe enough to bring this issue up directly with them, and…
Twenty-One
Twenty-one used to be the age of majority — still is in some states. Today, I’ve attained the age of majority in brain injury. Wheeee! I could feel that pain rising up yesterday. It didn’t portend well for today. So I planned to read first thing. Reading does me good. Physiologically. Neurophysiologically. Psychologically. Brainwaves and…
Branding Time
Author brand. Branding campaign. Get your brand, catch customers. My head swims with marketing gurus rapidly sharing their tips to all of us selling SFA. Buzzwords and trendy nothings. But one idea I thought would be kind of fun to do is to create a character to go with my logo. A character that could…
Photography Practical Possibility
Almost a decade ago, I mused about taking my photography from art to practical. CafePress called to me. Use your images, design cool stuff, and make money. I set to work, creating things I’d designed for my family on my home printer: cards. I added calendars, travel mugs, T-shirts, and, of course, framed posters. Then…
Pantsing the Blue Moon NaNoWriMo Quest
Blue Moon. That’s the rare second full moon in a month. Pantsing. That’s what NaNoWriMo calls writing done without an outline. By the seat of your pants. I haven’t gone full pantsing before. It’s a rare thing I do. I felt a spiritual memoir germinate in me during the summer. I wasn’t sure what that…
Graduating to New Reading Level
The book I finished reading yesterday is the last one I time and recorded to the minute. I’m graduating to the next level of returning to pre-injury reading when it was as part of my life as breakfast, lunch, and dinner are. From today’s book on, I’m scheduling my reading sessions as a 15 to…