Brainstorming With Brooke

            B efore the month is over (time does seem to go faster the older you get), it seems worth noting that March is Traumatic Brain Injury Awareness Month. I wish it was a Hallmark holiday like Boss’s Day(isn’t every day Boss’s day?), but for me and the 2.8 million Americans that suffer a TBI each year ( ref ),  it  is not a holiday but instead a journey and a lifelong one at that. Though TBIs have similarities, each TBI is distinct and impacts the patient differently. TBIs can be the result of car accidents; sports injuries resulting in mild concussions to a permanent severe brain injury.      Beyond the impact on the patient is the impact on the family and community of the patient (work; religious; friends; etc,) Suffering a TBI is not like stitches or a broken bone. For many, including me, the “after” won’t ever be like the “ before.”  For me, it’s a matter of accepting that reality and putting1000% into reclaimi...

 JDAIM      February is JDAIM (Jewish Disability Awareness Inclusion Month).      I fit squarely in the target group for this month as a Jew with a disability.  Of course it's nice to think that everyone should want to be kind to people with disabilities in February or every other month and regardless of their faith.      In Judaism, the Hebrew phrase" B'tzelem Elohim" comes from the Torah. In Genesis 1:27 it is explained that all people are created in God's image. If everyone is created in God's image, then we each should be treated with dignity and respect regardless of our differences.      T here are all types of disabilities and all types of accommodations that synagogues can offer those who come to worship that carry through the teaching of B'tzelem Elohim. Wheelchair accessibility is obvious. It would probably be easy to find someone to sign the service in ASL for deaf congregants. For those with vision challen...

    I'm really late with this post.      For about fifteen years I have been hosting a gingerbread holiday party at my house. It started out as about ten people including a few kids and adults decorating homemade gingerbread houses. These homemade houses require nine cups of flour, two cups of molasses and are baked over the course of a full day in stainless steel molds that I have had for over a decade. Over time, the party has grown to about seventy guests, mainly because the kids have more friends and their families are invited as well as my friends and their families. We still bake a few houses in the stainless steel molds, but I admit that I buy the rest pre-assembled. At the party, the kids decorate their houses(I’m pretty sure that as much candy goes on the houses as in their mouths.) For many people who suffer a traumatic brain injury one of the resulting impacts is perseveration. Generally speaking, perseverating manifests as the...

 Trips are always good subjects for posts. They are fun in general, but travel with a disability and a traumatic brain injury adds another layer of complexity beyond the already daunting task of traveling with three children spanning eight years in age. in January, we headed to Whistler in Canada for Martin Luther King weekend. I got to ski and snowshoe in Whistler.  I've skied adaptively many times since my accident. This was my first time snowshoeing. My TBI impacts ski in two fundamental aspects.   From a physical perspective, I can't walk without a brace and hiking stick.  As a result, I'm not clipping boots into skis as a person without a disability would. Instead, I use something called a sit-ski.  It is exactly what it sounds like:      People with TBIs often have difficulty regulating their body temperatures.  A lot of people are cold when they ski; that's not uncommon.  I wear thermals; a sweater; mittens with handwarmers; ...

     Before I get too in the weeds about traumatic brain injuries and their resulting impacts(the subject of this blog), I should say something about how I incurred mine.       I was in a car accident. But, it wasn’t an ordinary car accident. I was hit by an ambulance driving to work on a Sunday. I went through a green light. The ambulance went through a red light with no lights and no sirens. Lesson learned: don’t go to work on a Sunday if you can avoid it. I wasn’t on a phone. At the time, I had a BlackBerry. Even though everyone else had abandoned them in favor of iPhone: I had not.  I'm showing my age.  Somea e familiar with a BlackBerry device: BlackBerry     In order  to complete a message, using the QWERTY keyboard of a BlackBerry, you needed to use both thumbs simultaneously, which you obviously cannot do while driving.       The impact of the ambulance was severe enough that they dispatched another ...

 I never intended planned--of course--to incur nor live with a traumatic brain injury(TBI).No one does.  Since I am lucky to have survived, my attitude is to work hard to reclaim as much of my pre-injury life as possible and even to embark on new experiences that I didn't before (mostly because I barely had time to breathe between working and raising children.)  While I  can't run the San Francisco marathon like I did many years ago, I can and have walked a half marathon with a cane; use a treadmill; ride horseback. I have done all three after my accident. (I rode horseback as a child but had not been on a horse for twenty years prior to my accident. Now I ride every week.  It is true that the way I do these activities does not look like someone without a disability does them.  But that doesn't make them any less of an accomplishment. Many able-bodied people never ride a horse nor ski. These activities are challenging for me in differing ways. Both are imme...

 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!