Broken A Bone, Broken A Brain

Have you ever broken a bone? Perhaps my broken bone foresighted my broken brain. Not the break itself but the response to it. A child. Springtime. Judo after school. Went up the belts rapidly. Orange belt. After school play with friends. Energetic. In dresses and tights. No thought of breaking anything in myself. But then,…

AVE For Energy: Lifting Brain Injury’s Suffocating Fatigue

I’ve been using SMR/Beta audiovisual entrainment (AVE) session most mornings for a very long time. Clinical experience and research showed this session has a paradoxical relaxation effect on people with brain injury, not just boosting my brain function. And years ago, with my original DAVID Delight device, I discovered beta 18Hz sparked my thinking back…

Learning Is Forever

Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow. As I read this prompt, I immediately thought of the day I decided to call the ADD Centre and said “yes” to attending there for their expensive assessment and treatment program. Their program was outside any kind of medicine that I…

One Word? Only One?!

What is one word that describes you? One word to describe me? That’s a toughie. How can you use one word to describe a person, after brain injury, which makes your future unrecognizable and changes you and changes you again and again and again? Does the core you vanish under the onslaught of damage? Or…

My Brain Needs a Challenge

What bores you? I think my mother got real fed up with my, “I’m booooorrrrred,” growing up. Decades later, my brain trainer discovered the problem with me and boredom. Normally, as I understand it, they set the neurofeedback parameters to challenge the brain but not too much. When it’s too challenging, the client can’t do…

Watch to SmartWatch

I wore a watch since my 8th birthday until a few years after my brain injury when my skin and tolerance to skin irritation made me take it off. I figured I’d use TTC clocks (OK, hard to see after they upgraded to those screens), city clocks (where are they‽), or my Palm, later my…

Psychologists Have Rules For Client Care, Doctors Don’t When Illness Strikes

Why do health care providers not have automatically triggered plans to inform patients when they suddenly sicken or die? I wrote a piece for Psychology Today on this topic after my neurodoc had a personal medical emergency. I tried to find out what happened, what College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario mandates (hint: nothing)…