I have spent the best part of two days sorting out the chaotic mess of my music collection. A “new” refurbished laptop sparked this heroic endeavour. The reason it wasn’t that well organized: most of it I ripped before Y2K, when computers were slow and file names had relatively recently broken the 8-character limitation. Although…
Category: Personal
Eleven Years Ago, Four Drivers
It’s that time of year again, except today’s anniversary has a special twist: it’s the exact same day as the day two drivers hit the car I was a passenger in and shoved us into the car of a third driver. It’s the exact same day I sustained a closed head injury. It’s like reliving…
A Hypothalamus Fix: Second Followup
Time for a second hypothalamus fix followup. My goal with devising my hypothalamus fix was to reduce body temperature and water retention; improve sleep and skin health; and get rid of the atenolol. Initial unexpected results included eliminating brain injury anger, reducing irritation significantly, stabilizing mood, and improving exercise tolerance. I began using my therapy…
A Reading Milestone, A Memory Milestone
Reading Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Page 84 of Murder in Mesopotamia. Reading it for umpteenth time. Not one of my favourites; I always have a sense of knowing it without remembering anything past the point of where I’m at in the book. Needless to say, I never solve the mystery (haven’t of any book, familiar or…
A Friend’s “Accident” Brings it All Back
I got the news yesterday, oh boy. My friend got banged up in her car. Stopped at a red light. Teen boy, a typical teen boy I bet, the kind who knows everything and is immortal, texting and driving. Right into her. Shoved her car into the one in front. Car totalled. Her neck and…
A Hypothalamus Fix: Followup
It’s been about three months since I began what I’ve dubbed a hypothalamus fix. Basically, since no medical professional understood the problem, I decided to figure it out myself and “fix” the brain-injury induced problems of high body temperature, edema (water retention), diabetes, fast heart rate, varying blood pressure, skin irritations: basically an extreme version…
The Hidden Secret of Brain Injury: Hypothalamus Dysfunction
“I’m going to get off the atenolol,” I told my GP, who promptly laughed at me. Well, I might, just might, have the last laugh. I was put on atenolol (a beta blocker) 7 years after I suffered from a closed head injury and began 7 years of 120+ heart rate, of yo-yoing blood pressure,…
Rejection Get Away From Me
The envelope is thin. There’s no return address, but I know. It’s from a literary agent, one of many I wrote asking them to consider representing my latest book. I slit it open. Dear Author, “Dear Author”? Whadya mean “Dear Author”?! I spent hours reading guidelines, and y’all said: read the books we agent, find…
Reading: The Eyes and Brains of It, II
So now you’ve read about the whys of brain-injury created reading problems (and if you haven’t, have a gander at it first), you’re probably wondering: how do I fix it!?! As I mentioned before, going straight to the behavioural model after sustaining a brain injury is an exercise in frustration for the person with the…