I went to see a movie. In a theatre. With other people. I know, I know, what’s so momentous about that? People do it every day. Not me. I haven’t done it in years and years. Because my brain injury makes it a tad difficult. There’s the issue of being able to sit through the…
Category: Personal
Sixteen Years Since my Brain Injury
So. My 16th anniversary of the car crash that scattered my life into ashes is now. That crash didn’t only give me a brain injury, it also led to events that gave me PTSD. From my experience, PTSD is a monster that feeds on the worst of human thoughts and beliefs and lifts up a…
HRV Training Post Brain Injury Achieves an 89
Holidays — getting away from my life and the people in it who attack, diss, require me to be normal, live in denial to my detriment, and drain me — are good for my heart rate. First, after I flew to England and now, after I chugged to Ottawa. For the first time on its…
Thirteenth Week of FP1-F3 Neurofeedback of Brain Injury
This week is my 13th session of brain biofeedback at FP1-F3, left frontal, not too far above the hairline and near a side part. Two weeks ago, not long after my 11th session, my prefrontal cortex woke up, looked around, and said: let’s get busy! At first, it was different but good. All of a…
Full Circle yet not the Same Reading Rehab
Sometimes it seems like nothing ever changes with my reading; when my neurodoc talks about my great progress, I go feh. You’re too hard on yourself, he says. Maybe. But when I began my reading rehab journey way back in 2000 (and failed or faltered several times on the way since), I began with taking…
Working Decision Making into Reading Rehab
I told my neurodoc I felt like my reading rehab had stagnated. Yeah, I still get headaches after reading a couple of long paragraphs out loud, using my finger to guide me. But if I take the time and remember to take three deep breaths between paragraphs, I can reduce or slow down the onset.…
Trying Out Apple’s iOS Alex for Reading Rehab
Apple has incorporated speaking into its iOS options for text. Enable Speech under General/Accessibility Settings on your iPhone or iPad, and then when you pull down with two fingers or select text and choose “Speak” from the pop-out menu, your voice of choice will speak the text on the page you’re viewing to you. You…
Inadvertent Gamma Brainwave Enhancement at FP1-F3
I inadvertently trained gamma up during my brain biofeedback last week. I knew I had because I felt the pressure underneath the electrode at FP1-F3 and, after, my perception had significantly improved. I was much more aware of my surroundings. I did it again this week, probably because I had figured out how to decrease…
Partnering Up to Attend TTC Public Forum on Accessible Transit in Toronto
Kerry, a Board member of BIST (Brain Injury Society of Toronto), and I attended the TTC Public Forum on Accessible Transit back on 16 September 2015. I had spoken to one of the BIST Board members a few months previously about TTC accessibility, and he’d suggested I attend accessibility meetings. I told him this was…