Monday, July 7, 2014

Life and living after a Traumatic Brain Injury



Changes brought about by the traumatic brain injury including, but not limited to the loss of former social network of friends and associates, re-aquisition of skills and abilities, can be particularly jarring. Tasks which once were easy, may be more difficult to negotiate. Understanding the complexities of the social order, as well as norms and mores may be compromised initially.
Me in a hanging hammock chair.
Me in a hanging hammock chair.
At 32+ years following the incident, I would like to think that I have done quite well. There are still some residual issues, but by and large, I have adjusted well. My speech is slower than the national average, but I'd like to suppose that I enunciate quite well, and am easily understandable. I walk with a slight limp, sometimes, my left hand/arm curls up into a more prone position, but as I make more use of it, it tens to respond more.
I enjoy relaxing in the hanging hammock chair. There is something about the quality of floating/suspended by the single point from above that is interesting.
At work, I recognize that there are large numbers of people with Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBIs), and feel that perhaps more could/should be done to reach out to some of the survivors. My belief is that when the patient is discharged from an active rehabilitation hospital, and returned to a home environment, likely, the level of interaction with other TBI survivors, and people who understand, declines to extremely small amounts.
It would be helpful if a program could be developed whereby a better job of tracking the long term successes of rehabilitation could be done. I think that the Craig rehabilitation Hospital in Denver could have some pieces of the puzzle with the TBI Model Systems data, possibly including some tracking information of generalized Rancho-Amigos scores measuring relative pain/happiness scores. But I do not know for sure exactly what sorts of data the TBI Model Systems data set contains.
Ideally, the better approach might be to have an internet accessible support group for TBI affected individuals. Facebook, and various weblogs do an admirable job of providing forums for people to express ideas, but not really encouraging the sort of support group type of atmosphere that I am proposing
Currently, there is www.traumaticbraininjurysupport.org which does an admirable job of incorporating many elements. I realize that the numbers of people affected by traumatic brain injury is smaller, but the number of registered users is significantly smaller than the numbers of likely traumatic brain injury survivors out there.
Part of the issue could be having people discover that the support group exists, or it could be that there are not sufficient numbers of people far enough along the recovery continuum to desire such an outlet for such a support group.
A separate issue is that there could be a much better job done of informing people (TBI patients) of the possibilities of internet related technologies/resources available. Part of that could involve some expenses in the set up and outfitting of some labs available for patients as part of the rehabilitation process. I am unsure if there are any places actively pursuing such an idea.
Source: Us with Mickey
Source: Us
Source: Sorceror Mickey
Source: Waliking toward the Golf Ball of EPCOT
Part of what is most exciting is seeing other people having an enjoyable time. Hence our pictures with Mickey Mouse and other things Disney related (EPCOT, etcetera). Happy times make for the best photographs. At the same time, perhaps it would be slightly beneficial to have some memories, and acknowledgement that one has come through a lot, and overcome many obstacles in the past.
I enjoy musical instruments, and swings. I am very happy to have found a woman who agreed to be my partner, and we wed. We live a reasonably nice life.
I don't play guitar, nor piano, nor drums, but the process of music is interesting, as is becoming better. Both require practice. Life requires practice.
http://martysalo71.hubpages.com/hub/Life-and-living-after-a-Traumatic-Brain-Injury

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