One of the most frustrating things about a brain injury is the energy loss. The words “tired,” “exhausted,” “fatigued” don’t really convey the experience and frustration of this state, for it isn’t anything like one feels after a long day at the office, a hard-drinking night at the frat, an all-night study session for one…
Tag: Personal
Thoughts on the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11
“I had finished breakfast, I was near the kitchen table, facing out I think, listening to 92.5 FM, Kiss 92, when Billy [sic], the female half of the morning crew, announced that a plane had just crashed into the World Trade Center. I thought what are they joking about now, but when they continued to…
Identity
Identity. What is that? With the 9/11 anniversary imminent, Muslim identity is one of the hot topics on talk shows. With school starting again, African or Caribbean identity in our education system is on some minds although not as dominant as last year. And in cyclical fashion, First Nations identity is discussed amongst some Canadians.…
Staycation Time!
It’s summer. It’s warm. It’s not raining…yet. And I’m zonked. Time to voluntarily take a staycation before my body demands it, which, uh, it already is. As of now, I’m on my 2 to 3-week staycation (my therapist chuckled at the idea of me resting for a whole 3 weeks) and plan on being offline…
Jack Layton: The Spirit of His Legacy
Words fail me. That’s what I tweeted this morning, after I saw the Breaking News on Citytv’s Breakfast Television, as I was massaging my muscles post-weight session, that Jack Layton had died. That first announcement was brief, and Cynthia Mulligan had a hard time switching gears to traffic. Switching gears. That’s what’s happening today. Being…
Brainline.org on Five Members of a Club No One Wants to Belong to
“Groucho Marx got a lot of laughs for saying that he’d never want to be a member of a club that would accept him as a member.” (Katherine Wise) So begins the brainline.org article Brain injury Blogs: Voices from People Living with Traumatic Brain Injury about five bloggers, including me (!), whom they declare as…
Blood Pressure and Brain Injury: The Test
I had 24-hour blood pressure monitoring done twice this past week, sort of. The first monitor went kaput after a couple of hours. So the next day, back on the highway I went to the clinic and was hooked up to a 2-week-old one. Brand new is better than well used, except when it comes…
Sweating Brain Injury Heat
The heat dome rose up out of the US and expanded itself north to smother Toronto in record-breaking heat for July 21st, only 0.1 degrees Celsius off the all-time record for the entire month of July. On the news, reporters warned us to drink lots, to watch for signs of heat stress, and to watch…
A Wedding Marks Normal Parameters
I was at a wedding. Like many weddings, the marriage part was the shortest and quietest, the heart of the day, but only the beginning. Then came the photos, and then came the reception. The reception was appetizers and chit-chat; finding seats and wedding party intro; dinner and speeches; and dancing till two. What struck…