"Go home and have a normal life"
is what my physician told me when I was discharged after my brain injury in 1997. What did he mean by that? I couldn't read, I couldn't talk properly, I couldn't even dial a telephone number. I had a 8 year old son who needed his mother. For the next 13 years I have been trying to find out what a normal life is. Having a brain injury is about having a journey about finding a new normal.
If you have experienced a brain injury of some sort and you are looking for answers. Since my head injury in 1997 my frustration of not having my questions answered has lead me to this point. This website is designed so people with head injuries and people who support them can find answers so that recovery can progress.
Living with My New Brain tackles the hard issues of living with a brain injury on a day to day basis. How brain injury affects our lives, our careers, and the lives of the people around us.
At first we are just glad to be alive and for some of us no physical evidence of the brain injury is evident. However, what about the all the confusion, the inability to carry out normal lives or just the fact that we are now different.
The isolation after a brain injury is due in part because we don't get the answers to the difficult questions?
- Will I be able to read again?
- Why won't any physician answer my questions?
- Why are people asking me so many questions?
- How come going to the grocery store is so hard?
- Why do I cry all the time?
- Would my marriage survive?
- Would I ever work again?
- Who is this person in the mirror?
- What is this pain I have?
- How come I don't know my family?
- What are these emotional outbursts?
The brain injury has left us all with a sense that no one has the answers which adds to that sense of isolation.
Living with My New Brain does have answers and offers first hand experience of living with a brain injury. All the emotions, the steps forward and the steps back of living day to day with a brain injury.Finally some practical support for coping with everyday life, the disappointments and the victories from a real life point of view.
This website is a place where the brain injured can feel less isolated. Family members can come for support, and medical practitioners can gather information from the grass roots of dealing with a brain injury. This website is also a place where people who are suffering from the after affects of brain injury such as depression, post traumatic stress disorder maybe this sight will help them feel less isolated.