Welcome

 Welcome to my new blog!

I intend to use this space to share my own experiences with a traumatic brain injury.

More to follow soon. In the meantime, Happy Thanksgiving!

 

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Staying Active in the Summer

 Summer in Seattle provides a great opportunity to enjoy the sunny weather while we have it.  It’s not easy for me to engage in every outdoor activity due to my disability, but this summer, I’m  challenging myself to engage in sports that are keeping me active and pushing me to develop new skills and muscles: rock climbing and kayaking Both activities are offered by a nonprofit organization called Outdoors for All.  https://outdoorsforall.org/ Though I never climbed or kayaked before my accident, I’m finding it very rewarding to challenge myself in these new physical ways despite my disability.  My participation requires not only physical exertion but also concentration to ensure I’m safe. When I’m rock climbing, I need to listen carefully to the instructor about how to safely ascend and the same goes for the descent down. I’ve found that after each activity, I’m (a) sore, (b) starving, (c) exhausted.  In both of these activities, the hardest part can ...
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Music and TBI recovery

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I love music, especially live music. Just in the last twelve months, I’ve seen nine concerts.   I love singing along to songs that I love alongside a crowd that loves them too.   One of the cognitive techniques I use to remember new things is association.   For example, if I’m looking at a picture of a bowl of ice cream with a cherry, it is easier to remember that than if it were an image of ice cream with peanut butter because no one associates ice cream with peanut butter, but many do associate an ice cream sundae with a cherry on top.   I associate music with certain periods of my life: high school; college; music I studied and listened to in law school, and even music I played for my kids at bedtime.   So it makes sense that I enjoy seeing music live that I associate with these happy memories. What is the relevance of music to brain injury? I engaged in music therapy after my brain injury. As it turns out, music has a strong an...
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Mother's Day and Accessibility Part I

This post  isn’t 100% TBI related, but it’s timely because of Mother’s Day. Like many, my TBI was life changing.  Mine was also life threatening. It was far from a given that I would survive my injuries.  All moms love their kids, of course, but Mother’s Day is especially significant for me because it was not always sure that I would be here for that holiday.  I’m so thankful that I am.  We celebrated with brunch and an MLB game. More about accessibility in my next post. Attending events at venues like a stadium makes me more conscious of how much more work remains to be done to make large scale events and venues accessible. I’m very fortunate to be able to walk, but it is still a challenge to navigate a stadium setting. While the venue was ADA compliant, I think the vast majority of stadiums could be more thoughtful in their approach. On Sunday, when the game concluded, one of the staff impatiently told me that I needed to exit quickly because the game was ove...
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