Brain Injury Life Coach

Gone to Hawaii

2012-01-14T10:55:00.000-08:00

I'm leaving today. January 14, 2012 for a two week cuise to Hawaii. I think you'll find the information my latest post at my blog: http://www.braininjuryinsideout.com/

Hawaii is the only state I haven't visited, and I'm excited. We'll be at sea about 9 of the 14 days we'll be gone, so I'll have lots of tilme to read. Reading and writing are two of my favorite things to do. I may not be making any more posts until we get back; it depends on where I find internet access.

I'll miss writing for you!

Reframing my Attitude about my Hip Pain

2012-01-04T11:54:00.000-08:00

If you missed my last post, you may be asking "What does hip pain have to do with brain injury?" The answer is: It appears that a traumatic brain injury (TBI) I had in 2010 caused my hips to have big problems. I was so out-of-balance when walking that I exacerbated tears that may have been already present in a major butt muscle (gluteus medius) and in the lining of my hips (labrum.) The tears couldn't have been too bad before the injury, as I walked a 1/2 marathon in Summer, 2010 with no pain!

It looks likely that I may need to learn how to live with my hip pain. I mentioned in my last post that the hip doctor wanted to rule out lupus or rheumatoid arthritis as the reason for the muscle and labral tears. We've ruled that out, so the question is: At my age (66), can the tears be repaired?

I've been answer-shopping (asking the same question of several people in an effort to get the answer I want.) So far, my family doctor, physical therapist, the rheumatoid arthritis doctor and the hip doctor have said it is doubtful surgery would be helpful. I'm getting a second opinion from another hip doctor, and if his answer is also negative, my last resource is in Sheridan, WY! My sister-in-law Stacy sent me an article about a new doctor who has moved to Sheridan who specializes in repairing labral tears. It would be ironic if I were unable to find a doctor here in Denver who could repair the tear, and found somebody in Sheridan, WY (population: about 16,000.)

In the meantime, I need to "reframe" how I think about my pain. I need to stop feeling sorry for myself and become more proactive about doing something for the pain! Below is a link to an interesting article about the reframing technique. The article states:

Every negative aspect of life can be reframed to help us find the positive side. Reframing gives people the ability to exercise their freedom to challenge themselves to always look for the good and the beautiful in everything they see. Reframing your mind will surely works wonder and makes you happier.

http://www.articlesbase.com/art-and-entertainment-articles/reframing-technique-466872.html

I've always said I like challenges and change. My experiences with brain injury is showing me that I like challenges and change; but only when I'm in control of the challenge or change. I'm not so wild about it when the challenge or change is not something I chose!

To reframe my attitude about the pain, I asked myself the questions: Okay, what do I want my life to look like whether I have the pain, or don't have the pain? How do I get that life?

Those two questions are really helping me to stop the "poor me" thinking, and to concentrate on the answers to the questions. Below is another excellent article about reframing.

http://www.projectresilience.com/reframing.htm

I didn't know until I began researching links for this blog that reframing began with Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP.) I learned it in a spiritual context aimed at getting rid of old, negative thoughts and replacing them with positive thought and action. Here are a couple of interesting You Tube video links that look at reframing from several perspectives.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwf6sjcE1AQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtPEYZfl-Ik

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC6JG76ZZe4&feature=related

I've never dwelled so much on my butt! And what does that have to do with brain injury?

2011-12-29T18:28:00.000-08:00

If your read my December 18, 2011 blog you'll see that I'm having painful, even debilitating hip problems. In June, 2010 I walked a half marathon with no pain! Now I can't walk half a block without big-deal pain!

These problems didn't start until after I had the last TBI in October, 2010 which I believe knocked me off-balance enough that my hips took the blunt of my lack of stability. I used a cane for awhile to keep from falling over, and eventually PT (physical therapy) did improve my balance enough that I feel much more stable. The PT was also for my hips, but it didn't help them.

A November, 2011 MRI shows that I have labral tears in my hips and a torn gluteus medius. Basically what torn labrals means is I have tears in the lining of my hip. Here's a brief description of the causes of labral tears:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Causes of Acetabular Labral Tears

A labral tear in the hip joint can be a result of degeneration of the tissue over time or from a traumatic (acute) injury.

People with extremely flexible hip joints, such as dancers, gymnasts, and yoga enthusiast are at greater risk of a degenerative tear. A degenerative tear occurs with repetitive use and activitywearing down the tissue. Without proper healing time, the worn tissue eventually weakens and tears. A degenerative labral tear is often an early sign of hip arthritis.

An acute labral tear happens immediately during an accident, fall or sports injury. A sudden twist or blow to the hip joint may cause the hip to dislocate (subluxation) and the labrum to tear.

-------------------------------------------------------------

The link for the rest of the article regarding labral tears is below. Every cause of labral tears given above fits me. I'm very flexible; I'm a yoga enthusiast; when the pain started I did even more yoga/pilates because it gave me temporary relief from the pain; and I've had a couple of hard falls in the last year. Aging tissues makes these kinds of injuries harder to repair surgically, as tissue becomes brittle as we age.

http://www.mendmyhip.com/hip-strain-tendinitis-tear-injuries/acetabular-hip-labral-tear.php

The link above provides remedies for healing labral tears. I don't yet know if those are good recommendations. The hip surgeon I saw wants to rule out rheumatoid arthritis or lupus as causes of the tears. He also didn't take the "pain quotient" from these labral tears, and the torn gluteus medius, (more information below), very seriously. (See my December 18, 2011 posting at www.braininjuryinsideout.com.) I suspect he viewed me as an aging hypochondriac female with the pain being more in my head than in my hips. I will look for a different surgeon, as I refuse to believe I have to live with this much pain for the rest of my life. But it is interesting to know that either rheumatoid arthritis or lupus could cause these injuries.

The torn gluteus medius is causing most of my pain. During workouts, many of us try to strengthen our "glutes," or try to work on our glutes to get a better shaped butt. My butt has always been a "sore spot" because I've always thought it was too big. Now I know what having a butt as a sore spot is really about. It's painful to sit, stand, walk, exercise, or lie in bed unless I'm lying on my left side.

The diagram above shows why a tear in any of the major butt muscles is not much fun. These are big muscles that control a whole lot of movement!

The link below takes you to an article that is informative about the whole "torn gluteus medius" subject.

http://www.mdguidelines.com/gluteus-medius-tear

I have an appointment tomorrow (Friday, December 30, 2011) with an arthritis specialist. I will be very surprised if I learn that these tears have anything to do with arthritis or anything like lupus. I'm anxious to begin some sort of healing process, as a complete tear of any of those major butt muscles would make me unable to use my leg at all.

I am trying to coach myself through this painful episode. By asking myself some of the same questions I'd ask a client (e.g., "What do you really want? What are steps you can take to get what you really want? What obstacles are in your way?"), I arrived at the need to find a different surgeon, even though the one I saw was highly recommended as being "one of the best hip doctors in the U.S."

Hyperacusis: When Sound is Painful

2011-11-28T10:33:00.001-08:00

(For a description of a few of my personal experiences with hyperacusis, please go to my personal blog at www.braininjuryinsideout.com)

As a result of my 2006 brain injury (BI), I have hyperacusis, unusual sensitivity to sound. A lot of other people with BI have this potentially debilitating condition, and it often goes undiagnosed. Here are a couple of videos and a link that clearly explain this painful condition. While it's sometimes linked with tinnitus, I don't have the ringing in the ears associated with tinnitus.
.

http://www.entnet.org/HealthInformation/hyperacusis-increasedsensitivity.cfm

The video below is also a great description of how hyperacusis can change your life, even when it's not caused by BI. The narrator is Chris Singleton, the musician who sings "Lady Gasoline."

YouTube has a lot of videos about hyperacusis. Several different kinds of treatments are recommended. I've not had measurable success with any treatments; I think the passage of time is helping as long as I don't expose myself to painful sound. When I do, the sensitivity returns full force!

Self Awareness and Brain Injury

2011-11-23T10:26:00.001-08:00

For my more personal thoughts on this subject, please go to my other Blog: http://www.braininjurylifecoaching.com/

Yesterday, my 26 year old niece said "Maybe I'm not as good as I think I am." That one comment caught my attention as it pertains to people with Brain Injury (BI). How "self-aware" are people with BIs of all kinds?
To my surprise, there are many internet sites that pertain to this question! Here are a just a couple of links that will lead you to many articles on the topic of impaired self awareness: http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_q=Impaired+awareness+and+employment+outcome+after+traumatic+brain+injury.http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?as_q=Impaired+awareness+and+employment+outcome+after+traumatic+brain+injury.

http://www.mendeley.com/research/impaired-sustained-attention-and-error-awareness-in-traumatic-brain-injury-implications-for-insight/

An (unscientific) quick survey of many of the sites seems to show that, generally speaking, groups made up of other people with BIs work better to impact self-awareness than individual sessions. This may be counter-intuitive to people without BIs, as they may prefer to be "corrected" in private.
My experience with a program that Denver Options www.denveroptions.org/ runs called the
Brain Injury Survivor Series http://ctat-training.com/brain-injury tells me why people with BI may prefer to receive helpful feedback in a group. All of us who attend are glad to be in a room filled with people just like us; it's comforting. We make jokes about our "short-comings," e.g. "Tomorrow, I may not remember having been here, but it sure is fun right now." or "Give me a few hours, and I'll answer your question." Speakers at the meetings always present useful information in a way that even people with more severe BIs can understand.
I attend as both a survivor and a professional, since I have a small business coaching other people with BIs. http://www.braininjurylifecoaching.com/ I get the most benefit from the "survivor" part of my life. For example, I'm comfortable asking others for feedback regarding my tendency to stutter or not be able to find the right words (aphasia) in this setting. In a setting with "normal" people, I wouldn't ask for this feedback because I'd be concerned that they thought I was "milking" my TBIs for sympathy, or that people are pretty sick of hearing about my BI symptoms.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Persistent Vegetative State: Potentially Revolutionary News

2011-11-14T09:25:00.001-08:00

Hi, Readers---I welcome your comments on my blog postings or blog design. I'd also love to have you follow my blog. It will be easy to keep up, as I plan to update my blog at least once a week, and some times twice a week. Warmly, Doris

A recent headline in the New York Times paper is “StudyFinds Signs of Awareness in 3 ‘Vegetative’ Patients.” My heart instantly went out to themany people in the world whose guilt and/or hopes are raised by this news. The link is:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/10/health/research/brain-exam-detects-awareness-in-3-vegetative-patients.html?_r=1&ref=health&utm_source=RSS+Feeds%3A+Aggregate+News+%26+Info&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TBI_News_Information+%28TBI+News+and+Info+-+BrainLine.org%29

I’ve had personal experience with this kind ofissue. Since my intent is to make this blog less personal and more informative, please go to my more personal blog: braininjuryinsideout.com for my story about my brother-in-law Hal.

This research, if found to be conclusive, would completely debunk information provided In an article about persistent vegetative states (PVS), written in 2005 by a member of the American Hospice Foundations , link below.
http://www.americanhospice.org/articles-mainmenu-8/caregiving-mainmenu-10/50-coma-and-persistent-vegetative-state-an-exploration-of-terms

This article is representative of many written only six years ago. For some of us, however, who have dealt with words like "vegetative state," we knew there was still a functioning person in there. If we had refuted the conclusion (below) from the article, we would've been discounted as being "emotional" or "too close to the problem" to see it clearly.

"A vegetative state exists when a person is able to be awake, but is totally unaware. A person in a vegetative state can no longer “think,” reason, relate meaningfully with his/her environment, recognize the presence of loved ones, or “feel” emotions or discomfort. The higher levels of the brain are no longer functional. A vegetative state is called “persistent” if it lasts for more than four weeks."

Research with a larger group of people diagnosed as in a PVS may not result in the same conclusion as the New York Times article. I hope, however, that the article and its findings will cause many family members and medical practitioners to examine their own assumptions about the capabilities of the person for whom they are caring.

Wow! One Organization Coordinating all Brain Injury Research?!!

2011-11-09T11:05:00.000-08:00

I subscribe to a free newspaper called “Brain in the News,” published by Dana Press, a division of the Dana Foundation (www.dana.org.) While not all of their information is about Brain Injury, they usually have at least one article on that topic. They also have a blog that is interesting and fun to read. http://danapress.typepad.com/

The October “Brain in the News” edition has an excellent article called “TBI: The Injured Brain.” A sidebox in the article includes a link to an organization whose goal is to be the “single organization that brings together the science, technology, financial resources and knowledge required to create an unprecedented understanding of brain disease.” http://1mind4research.org

1mind4research would like to accomplish this goal by the end of this decade. This would be a great step forward for the millions of us who have sought, often with great frustration, help or information for our own “brain problems.” I was a little startled to see they used the term “brain disease” in their goal statement. When I read the accompanying article, however, I had to agree with use of that term. It states “Physicians and researchers…now recognize that TBI is not just an event, it’s a disease—and its symptoms continue for much longer than previously believed.”

It’s sad that the brain injuries of thousands of soldiers, athletes and notable people like Representative Gabby Giffords and Newscaster Bob Woodruff are causing the medical community to finally take notice of the long term effects of brain injury. The rest of us owe them a heart-felt “Thank-you.”

Back Again! And I'm Glad!

2011-10-31T11:11:00.000-07:00

I’ve thought a lot about this blog since I last wrote, and I was too muddle-headed and tired to come back to it, as I incurred another traumatic TBI in 2010. I seem to be single-handedly trying to prove the truth of the research that says “…it has been estimated that after incurring 1 TBI, the risk for a 2^nd is 3 times greater, and when an individual sustains a 2^nd TBI, the risk for another is 8 times greater.” https://secure.biausa.org/detail.aspx?ID=465

Now I’ve decided to make this blog a more informative, research oriented document, and to try out a new blog called BRAININJURYINSIDEOUT.COM My new blog will be more personal, relating my own experiences and learning and often being “journal-like.” Please visit it if you enjoy that kind of sharing!

Last week I attended a workshop with Dr. Joe Dispensa http://www.drjoedispenza.com/. (Dr. Dispensa was one of the presenters in the movie “What the Bleep….) He was in Denver in partnership with Beth Wolfson http://www.vitalsmarts.com/userfiles/pdfs/bios/Beth%20Wolfson.pdf to offer workshops on “Change.” There are loads of workshops available on change; these are of particular interest for people with Brain Injuries because they actually work with changing one’s brain in order to allow more positive and healthy thoughts to be an everyday reality.

Mind Over Matter

2010-05-03T15:16:00.001-07:00

If the human brain were so simple that we could understand it, we would be so simple that we couldn't. -Emerson Pugh

I’ve long believed that I can do anything I put my mind to, i.e., “Mind over Matter.” My traumatic brain injury (TBI) makes me wonder if that adage is correct when the “matter” is the brain, and the brain is injured.

Since my TBI, no matter how hard I try to make my brain keep working when I’m tired, it still won’t allow me to comprehend more than the simplest matters until after I sleep. No matter how hard I try to find my way home when I’m driving and become very tired, my brain simply won’t cooperate. (Of course, since I’m 64 years old, that terrible word Alzheimer's comes to mind, and I’ll write more about it later.) No matter how sternly I order my brain to program my GPS to get home when I’m really tired, my brain won’t comply. Even when I’m not tired, no matter how hard I try to read a map, my brain won’t comprehend all those lines and words. No matter how hard I try to find my way out of a store or building, my brain doesn’t help me. As the years have gone by, I’ve learned coping strategies for these things and more, but the essential fact remains: My mind can’t order my brain to do something that it appears to be incapable of doing!

I goggled “Mind over matter” and found 38,100 entries for the “Mind over Matter” philosophy. That phrase originally referred to paranormal phenomena.

However, many of the entries also dealt with mind over matter as it relates to the power of the will, or mind, over the brain. I skimmed hundreds of entries, and found no reference to “mind over matter” when the matter, the brain, is damaged. I also found 24, 500, 000 videos of “mind over matter.” I skimmed several dozen pages of titles and saw none that dealt with “mind over matter” after a brain injury.

I now clearly understand the difference between the mind and the brain. The mind is that “will-thing” that determines most of what we do and moves us forward in our lives. The matter, i.e. the brain, is simply the three pound blob of grey gelatinous goo that enables the mind/will to get things done. To put it very simply: The mind tells the brain what to do and the brain then tells the body what to do.

Normally, this all works very well---until one has a brain injury. Then that simple concept seems to break down.

Or maybe it doesn’t! In my case, maybe the fact that I’m now able to design and make entries in a blog, something I couldn’t have done for the first couple of years after my injury can be attributed to my mind/will to return to a more normal life and contribute something meaningful. Maybe the fact that I can occasionally make it through an entire day without a couple of hours of sleep in the afternoon is due to not just the mending of my brain, but to my mind/will to stay functional for longer and longer periods of time. Maybe my badly brain-injured brother-in-law was eventually able to live independently because he had such a strong desire (the mind/will) to live independently in spite of a large part of his brain being badly damaged. Examples abound!

Obviously, this “mind over matter” question is big to me. I’d love to hear some of the thoughts of you, my readers, on this subject as it pertains to brain injury.

In my next post, I’ll tell you what happened after my brain aneurysm diagnosis. I hope you’ll watch my blog for this and other entries!

Fact: Males sustain approximately 1.5 more Traumatic Brain Injuries than females.

A Diagnosis (Sort of) and a Startling Discovery

2010-04-16T09:08:00.000-07:00

(The following memories are mostly not mine; they are recounts of what others told me about events.)

A couple of weeks after we returned from Alaska, I developed persistent headaches. I was sleeping at least twelve hours a day, and was beginning to have bouts of feeling faint and nauseous. Even though we had previous experience with brain injury, neither Jack nor I attributed my symptoms to the carving board falling on my head, or even thought about that incident. Neither of us had even mentioned it to anyone else.

The Monday before Thanksgiving, 2006, Jack left in our RV for Sheridan, Wyoming where I grew up and where we always celebrated Thanksgiving with my large family. My daughter Geneva, who was a Mechanical Engineering Graduate student at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and I were planning to drive up later that day, when she got out of class. I have one clear memory of that Monday. I was driving somewhere and I knew I absolutely should not be driving a car. I made a u-turn and went straight home.

Later that day when Geneva arrived, I told her that I thought I should go to the Emergency Room (ER); I felt something was seriously wrong with me. At the ER, I caused quite a stir when I was confused about who I was, where I was or why I was there. At first they thought I was having a stroke, and then a Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA) After several hours of rest and being on some kind of drip into an arm vein, however, I was doing somewhat better and they sent me home.

Jack immediately drove the 450 miles back home when he learned I was going to the ER. When I woke the next day he and Geneva were both there. She’d spent the night with me and I didn’t even know it.

That day, the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, my symptoms worsened again and I went back to the ER. This time they admitted me to the hospital and began doing diagnostic tests and MRIs. Again, I felt a little better after several hours of rest on the drip.

I do remember being questioned late that night by a neurologist who woke me and asked me if I’d had a blow to my head. For some reason, I then remembered that the carving board had fallen on my head. When he asked me how long ago, and I told him “About a month,” he said “That’s too long ago to be a problem now.” Then he asked “Were you unconscious after the blow to your head? Was your speech or vision blurred right afterwards? Did you have an immediate headache?”

After hearing my negative answer to those questions, he said “Why are you here?”

“I don’t know,” I answered.

“I don’t know, either,” he replied. “I don’t think you need to be in that bed anymore than I do. I think you should put on your clothes and go home and get on with your life.”

For a long time, I wondered if I’d dreamed that demeaning conversation. Months later I saw that neurologist. My visceral negative reaction to him convinced both Jack and me that the conversation had really happened.

The next day, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, several doctors arrived with a startling find; a Computed Tomographic Angiography (CTA) showed I had a brain aneurysm! Since we had a 3 year old niece who died of a brain aneurysm, this news sent waves of anxiety through my extended family, and was causing quite a stir among the hospital staff. We all seemed to forget that I’d arrived at the hospital with symptoms quite unrelated to an intact brain aneurysm.

There’s no research that shows any connection between blows to the head and brain aneurysms. There is, however, some indication of a genetic basis. Also, at one time I was a heavy smoker and drinker, both which may be factors in a brain aneurysm. Even though I’d quit smoking almost 40 years before, and I’d quit drinking 20 years prior, they still might have been factors.

Next Post: Three Blizzards in a Row and a Broken Foot while I Waited for Brain Surgery

Fact: Most people who have concussions never black out. Some people have had concussions and not even realized it. Every concussion, no matter how mild, injures your brain. This injury needs time and rest to heal properly.

Loss of Memory---and a Lifetime Dream Fulfilled

2010-04-03T00:10:00.000-07:00

After the carving board fell on my head, it felt like a thick fog enveloped my brain for the next two years. It would occasionally lift enough for a memory to slip through, but most of the time that memory is hazy. However, I’m now finding that some of the memories from the last 2-3 years were retained somewhere in my brain. I can sometimes recollect a memory if I see a picture related to the event, or if somebody tells me about something I/we did. So, most of the memories I describe in my blog (until October, 2008), aren’t really my own memories; they’re a recounting of what others told me that I told them. (Subtle Brain Injury) (I've only recently acquired enough "brain-power" to operate a camera without it being a frustrating exercise. I'm hoping that I will improve my memory of things that I do by taking lots of pictures. I'll let you know if it helps.)
I must have continued to function in a normal way, except that I slept---and slept---12-14 hours a day. Jack says I slept much of the way back from Alaska, except when I was driving. I have no memory of arriving home, unloading the RV, opening four months worth of mail and reconnecting with family and friends. But during the time between when we got home and when I ended up in the emergency room, I fulfilled a lifetime dream---to own a Jaguar! I wonder if I would have done it if I’d been in my “right mind.”

My VW Beatle, which I hated, was falling apart before we left for Alaska, and we had decided I would get a new one when we returned. I guess I extensively researched several kinds of cars for a low mileage used car, and even went out and test drove different cars. And one day I came home with a beautiful green 2003 Jaguar with only 27,000 miles on it! I have no memory of sitting in the salesman’s office for six hours, reading a book, while the salesman traveled back and forth between his office and the manager’s, saying “She won’t budge off her price.” I got my price, and I surely don’t know which book I was reading!

Memory problems can be a common (and huge) problem after a brain injury. An injury to the temporal lobes, located on the sides of the head above the ears, is often indicated with brain injury. There are a variety of ways to “grade” a concussion. Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Concussion_grading_systems and “The Essential Brain Injury Guide” https://secure.biausa.org/detail.aspx?ID=344 give severity definitions for “Mild,” ‘Moderate” and “Severe” brain injuries. However, every brain injury is different, and the severity definitions primarily rely on observation immediately after the brain injury. My memory problems would not have shown up during observation of me in the first 24 hours, or the first week---not until almost a month later, when I ended up in the emergency room.

The “Glasgow Coma Scale” http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/scales/glasgow.htm is commonly used to define the severity of a brain injury. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glasgow_Coma_Scale At the time of my injury, I probably would have been rated as having a “Mild” TBI. Yet I eventually displayed problems synonymous with a severe injury. It bears repeating “Every brain injury is different!”

Fact: 1.4 million people sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) every year in the United States. Of those, 1.1 million are treated and released, 235,000 are hospitalized and 50,000 die. http://ezinearticles.com/?Traumatic-Brain-Injuries---How-They-Happen&id=885474

My Expedition with Traumatic Brain Injury Begins

2010-03-31T10:40:00.000-07:00

I've always guarded my independence fiercely, and enjoyed challenges and thrills: sky-diving; mountain climbing; trekking and climbing on all seven continents, etc. But it was a carving board that sent me on the most challenging expedition of my life---life with a traumatic brain injury.

In 2006, my husband Jack, who will appear often on the pages of this blog (picture of Jack and me on right) and I planned to spend 6 months driving through South America in our little RV. I closed my business, "Sanders Coaching and Facilitation," and we sold our house, put most of our belongings in storage, and rented a small apartment in preparation for the trip.

Three days before we planned to leave, the insurance company notified us that they were denying our insurance. After reeling in shock for a day, we repacked our RV and left for Alaska.

As we were leaving Alaska four months later in October, the campground we stopped at was splendid in its display of aspen trees, golden with fall foliage. Blueberry shrubs, reddened by frosts that had already occurred, covered the surrounding hillsides. A grey-bearded, soft-spoken scientist, who had intriguing stories to tell of his many years watching wolves and studying their habits and pack/family lives, was the only other camper there.

The next day was bright and sunny and the thick frost on our windshield quickly melted. The road in and out of the campsite was rough and rutted, and we bounced about, testing the limits of our seat belts. Then I felt a sharp blow to my head, and heard Jack say "Oh, no, Doris, oh, no."

Those are the last clear memories I have for almost three years. I know now that I'd put the six pound sink cover, which doubles as a carving board, on the over-the-cab bed and forgotten to put it back on the sink when we drove away. It vibrated off the bed and fell the five feet into the cab, clonking me hard with its edge on the right side of my head.

The other two brain injuries I've had were also to the right side of my head. This figures prominently in my expedition with brain injury that I will tell you about as this blog continues. I will also share many of the things I've learned about Traumatic Brain Injury and Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) and the valuable insights I've gained about life and love.

Fact: After one TBI, the risk for a second is three times greater. After two TBIs, the risk is eight times greater. http://doe.sd.gov/oess/specialed/forms/ppts/Microsoft%20PowerPoint%20-%20Sept%202009%20Traumatic%20Brain%20Injury.pdf, https://secure.biausa.org/detail.aspx?ID=344