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…
Tag: Grief
Twentieth Crashiversary
Five and a half years after the car crash that took away myself, the only friend to reach in to me and who’s stuck with me until today, suggested I buy a point ‘n shoot camera. My brain injury had taken away my photography, and I could no longer use my Minolta Maxxum — “unintended…
Eighteen Years, Eleven Months, Three Weeks
flic.kr/p/2bcpboE When I first met a person who’d lived with brain injury for twenty years, it seemed so far into the future for me. I could barely comprehend living with brain injury that long. I expected to be fully recovered by that point, myself. Roll eyes here. I was working hard on improving my health,…
Reading Evaluation Results for Comprehension Issues After Concussion
I wrote last time about my reading evaluation. This post is on my results. When you have a brain injury and rehab tells you that you can’t read anymore, you assume that they’ve done a thorough assessment and analysis of your reading cognition. You’d assume wrong. Reaction In 2005, five years after I was told…
Two-Headed Monster of Brain Injury and PTSD
The weather gods jumped our temps from jacket cool to sweaty tank tops. Pretty soon, we’ll be seeing caterpillars munching on flower buds and leaves as this two-headed monster was on a milkweed flower last year. Brain injury and PTSD are like a two-headed monster sitting on your psyche, slowly munching on your sanity. When…
Neurodoc Chronicles: Reading Rehab and Unheard Brain Injury Grief
I emailed my neurodoc a long time ago a tweet about what reading means to me. He’d repeatedly said my emails were important; he understood they were my way of communicating what I needed to talk about during our sessions. He printed, signed, filed it. And he wonders why he isn’t succeeding with me. A very…
Brain Injury Grief: The Experts Begin to Recognize and Define this Profound Loss
The last time I tried to find some info on grief and brain injury, I found nothing helpful. This past week, I half heartedly looked again. I was surprised and heartened to find that brain injury grief was being recognized at long last. Skimming articles from the US and UK validated my belief that brain…
Figuring out Brain Injury Grief
I had to figure out how to bring my temperature down and stabilize my thermoregulation; I had to, have to continue, to figure out how to rehab my reading; I had to figure out how to persist in relearning skills, doing life in a new way long after bean counters in hospitals and insurance decided…
Running to Grief
Watching 1 Mile To You. High school boy, runner. Loses his entire team in a bus accident. Girlfriend and friend, too. Runs to remember them. The faster he runs, the more he sees them. Remembers them. He doesn’t want to forget them. His new coach asks: What do you want? Your heart. The most important…