My books have arrived from the library!

I’m really stoked. I finally managed to find a library copy of George Prigatano’s Neuropsychological Rehabilitation After Brain Injury and Prigatano & Schacter’s Awareness of Deficit After Brain Injury.

I’m sure it sounds odd for me to be so excited about getting them from the library, but these are books I’ve been wanting to read for some time. I first came across George Prigatano a little over a year ago, when I was researching brain injury and wondering why in heaven’s name I had never realized there was something “up” with me. I mean, I had a lot of problems when I was a kid and throughout my adulthood. Problems with memory, problems with mood issues, problems with keeping track of stuff, problems with temper, problems with freaking out over every little thing, problems with money management… I get tired just thinking about it all.

I should have realized a long time ago, that all those problems couldn’t possibly have been due to everyone/everything else. Something had to be “up” with me. But no… my broken brain was convinced it was everybody else, not me, that had the problem(s).

Anyway, now I’ve got the books on loan for three weeks — and the past-due fees are high, so I’d better get reading. I’m sure it’s considered a little “blasphemous” and presumptuous for me to be reading up on cognitive rehabilitation and advanced topics that are supposed to be beyond this layman’s brain, but I don’t really care what other people have to say about it. I have access to the information, and even if I don’t understand everything, at least I’m going to check it out.

My wrists are doing a little better. I’ve worked almost 30 hours in the last 2 days, much of that time spent typing, so I still have more resting I need to do. But that will come. Right now, I want to celebrate.

Celebrate life. Celebrate recovery. Celebrate cognitive rehabilitation. I saw my “neuroshrink” today, and we actually had a really good session. I was talking about different events of my past, and I actually got a laugh out of them. A good, hearty, spontaneous laugh, too. In the past, they’ve been kind of reserved and distant, like they were checking me out… not sure if they were going to keep working with me. But today was a good session.

They told me, in the course of our 50 minutes, that considering everything that’s happened to me, my life is a great triumph, not a tragedy. And yes, it’s true! My life is a tremendous triumph, and I’m feeling really grateful tonight that I’ve been able to do as well as I have.

How I’ve been able to do this well — bounce back from multiple mild tbi’s, including sports concussions and falls and assaults and car accidents, and build a life that’s full of activity and love and productivity and, well, happiness… I’m still trying to figure it out.

But if I had to chalk it up to anything, I’d say it’s just stick-to-it-ive-ness. Never giving up. Being tenacious. Stubborn. Hard-headed in the right ways. Trying and trying and trying some more. And never settling for less than I want — and deserve.

Just keeping going… in some ways, that’s the best rehabilitation of all. None of the other approaches actually work that well over the long term, if you don’t have this as the foundation.

But still, tenacity aside, it’ll be good to check out these books. It’ll be good to have some input that comes from outside my own head and immediate experience.

I’m also looking forward to reading more writing from George Prigatano. I have been a huge fan of his for quite some time, and what I’ve read from him I’ve really enjoyed. It might sound odd to talk that way about a neurologist, but everybody’s partial to something. Some folks are into Japanese art, some are into road bikes, some are into Turkish ceramics, some are into Dice-K, some are into the Cavs. I’m into neuroscience. Particularly cognitive rehabilitation after brain injury, and all the fascinating aspects of life that go with it.

And I do mean “fascinating”. The brain really is the final frontier, and despite the fact that everyone has one and we all love to talk about ourselves, precious few of us — scientists and doctors, included — seem inclined to talk about our brains and the way they impact our lives. It’s as though there’s this huge curtain drawn between our white/gray matter and the rest of us… a kind of holy-of-holies veil that keeps us from approaching the Ineffable Massiveness of what sits atop our shoulders and between our ears. I can’t account for the reticence, in general. It’s like everyone is running around talking about everything except their brains… like we’re trying to keep our minds off it.

Or maybe it’s just so close to home that it makes people waaaaay too nervous to approach, and anyway, we’re taught that unless we have degrees and qualifications, who are we to discuss such weighty matters? It puzzles me. We all have brains. We all love to obsess about ourselves and our human conditions. Yet we’ll invest countless hours in dissecting the life choices of Octomom, while remaining oblivious to the Real Drama that takes place inside our skulls, each moment of every day.

I can’t account for it. But it’s getting late, I need to rest, and there will be more time tomorrow to ponder these imponderables. And read the words of  George Prigatano.