Sometimes I hear some of us casually speak about our brain injury--whether nonchalantly or with humor but each of us knows what we went through.
Recovery has been difficult and even at times joyful--almost humorous.
Our future is tedious but it is a brotherhood or sisterhood of men and women all linked by one common goal--we have suffered a brain injury and as I only half-heartedly speak of us in my opening sentence--we all have a new excuse.
Let me explain further--I started this blog writing about visiting a place in Edmonds, Washington called The Center.
I was depressed about the death of my father. My time at the Center changed me--cut to 2021, where after work with my wife, I had a stroke.
After 4 weeks in both the ICU and Encompass Health I returned home, and I started attending a new center. The Center for Neuroskills--where as my wife tells me, I got a wakeup call, a second chance and a new excuse.
The names of many of my new friends have changed. But as we laugh about our situation and we learn to both use our extremities and walk again slowly--the testing begins.
And boy does it begin--daily I try to prove their are no cognitive difficulties, but sometimes I fall back on our number one excuse--say it with me, in the most entitled way possible, "I had a stroke!"
I say it now with a chuckle in my voice. No matter what the situation--it holds. We don't have time to help the wife with the groceries, "I had a stroke!" I don't want to do excersize--"I had a stroke!" Someone cuts my wife off in traffic--"I had a stroke!
We joke of course but there is a seriousness and a jovality to us. I used to say jokingly I had a minor brain injury, but my friend Camille said with all seriousness there no minor brain injuries or strokes. We all laughed and then we all solemnly admit she's right.
Everyday we bond with our brain injuries and we laugh with a seriousness that we pledge to get better and everyday we grow
closer--we have to because we do not want to fall into despair.
And everyday we learn more about ourselves.
We kid each other as we eat our lunches. The funniest thing was the term stroke rage. In truth we also laugh at this. As one patient told me we're capable of anything. With our brain injuries I can see anyone of us looking for our lunches and just losing it--eating someone else's sandwich and throwing it against the wall all the while screaming "This is not my sandwich."
The truth of this is that it is funny--we crack up but we're all very respectful--but there is a humor in the things we say--everyone is trying to help us--every counselor/therapist at the "Center" wants us to get better--and we all want to get better. The people at the Center truly are angels--who have the patience of Job. Every day we come to this place and test ourselves in pursuit of being better and everyday we get better bit by bit. In the end we all test ourselves and we test or therapists, physical therapists, educators, drivers and case managers
and we do it without falling back on our only excuse.
