Note: This sitemap has not been updated in several months. I do plan to update it, but until then, please use the Search functionality to find posts related to issues you’re exploring.
Here you can find many of my posts on:
- General TBI Info
- Sports / Concussions
- PTSD & TBI
- Wounded Warriors – TBI and our Veterans
- Pain
- Insomnia / Fatigue
- Temper, Temper…
- Testing 1-2-3 – Thoughts on Diagnosis
- Coping Strategies
- Work/Employment Issues
- Social Issues
- Mental Health
- Memory
- Personal Experiences
- Post Listings by Category
General TBI Info
- I’m okay… I’m good… Pepsi delivers food/drink for thought
- Head-banging may lead to head injury
- This just in — video by and about mild tbi
- TBI Symptom of the Day: Auditory (Hyper) Sensitivity
- Basic Facts about Traumatic Brain Injury – Video from www.brainandspinalcord.org1
- It’s easy to get overwhelmed…
- TBI Symptoms “Laundry List”
- Headaches? Really…?
- TBI Stats
- So, what IS a traumatic brain injury?
Sports / Concussions
PTSD & TBI
- ptsd & mild tbi
- More thoughts on pain and TBI and PTSD
- Surviving the Storms of Combined TBI and PTSD
- On Pushing Through the Post-Traumatic Stress
- When PTSD and TBI Intersect, Hide, and Exacerbate Each Other
- Of pain and agitation and PTSD
- Better today… of pain and ptsd
- Checking my stats from the past few days…
- When they think your TBI is PTSD
Wounded Warriors – TBI and our Veterans
- Center helps with psychological health, traumatic brain injury
- Army sees sharp rise in suicide rate
- Blast overpressure is generated from the firing of weapons and may cause brain injury
- An Army of Lost Souls
- The scars of war: ‘The look in her eyes was the look of a lost soul’
- Medical Humanities has some interesting things to say
- Links to stories on TBI and vets
- Traumatic Brain Injuries Linked to Long-Term Health Issues for Iraq Vets
- Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic at Elmendorf AFB gives hope to wounded troops
- Website for Veterans with TBI/PTSD at Work
- My mission for this blog – and our veterans
- Great post about a soldier returning with PTSD/TBI
- TBI & Polytrauma Single-Topic Issue in JRRD
Pain
- TBI and Fibromyalgia
- More thoughts on pain and TBI and PTSD
- Better today… pain is a bit less
- Exhausted and in tremendous pain, but feeling great!
- Better today… of pain and ptsd
- I can’t believe it’s back… Pain redux
Insomnia / Fatigue
- Finally got eight hours of sleep…
- Tired, tired, tired…
- Getting a grip on my fatigue
- TBI Symptom of the Day – Such trouble sleeping!
- I really am very tired…
- I’ve been waking up early a lot, lately
Temper, Temper…
- Temper Guidelines Post TBI
- How I deal with the source(s) of my temper issues
- Temper, temper…
- Snap! Anatomy of a TBI temper flare
Testing 1-2-3 – Thoughts on Diagnosis
- Prepping for my neuro visit tomorrow
- Ways that neuropsychological evaluation/testing has helped me
- Too smart for my own good?
- At last, an MRI…
- Very bright, yes, but in some ways, oh so dense
- The benefit of proof
- No, I am *not* going to be seeing my neuropsych today
- Today I meet with my neuropsych again
- The good – and bad – news is, I’m pretty bright
- EEGs show brain differences between poor and rich kids
- New tbi screening tool
- My “last” test with my neuropsychologist
- Avoiding insurance fraud…?
- My second neuro visit OR If only they could walk in my shoes…
- Putting the logic in “neurological”
Coping Strategies
- Throwing nuts at the cheetah
- Beginner’s Mind – On Learning from Back to Front
- Help for a teen-age girl who had a brain injury
- Speaking of analgesic stress…
- Catching up with catching up
- The importance of routine
- My internet connection is slow today… and so am I
- My answer to (almost) everything: Just Keep Going!
- That’ll learn me… learning to back up my work
- Saturday chores – a-la tbi
- A normal weekend, at last…
- Discretion is the better part of valour
- Making the most of my self-assessments
- Impulse Control 101
- The doctor’s visit was a 75% success
- TBI Issues Tracking – How I Keep It All Together
- The Computed World : The most massive exercise in inclusiveness in the history of the human race?
- There is no shame in asking for help
- A brilliant opportunity
- Keep it simple. Or else…
- Straight to execution…
- TBI self-assessment challenges are a biggie
Work/Employment Issues
- Post-TBI Job Strategies for the New Year
- Redemption time at work
- Things are looking up on the job front!
- But the next job interview did go well
- Now it’s starting to sink in… avoiding the trap of extremes
- The job interview did not go well. Oh, well…
Social Issues
- TBI Complication No. 763: Being defenseless against vampires
- More attention for the invisible disability – TBI
- Back from the holidays, back to work
- A picture of what happens to me when I’m “not listening”
- I’m listening… but I didn’t hear you…
- Invisible Me – The interactive dynamics of a doubly-hidden disability.
Mental Health
- Common sense for quality psychotherapy
- More thoughts on Brain Injury and Mental Illness
- I love my therapist, but…
- I wish my therapist knew… I need more help than regular folks
- Reverse-engineering my “depression”
- i think i’m in love with my therapist
- TBI and Mental Illness
Memory
Personal Experiences
- Thanksgiving anniversary #2 — 2004
- Of Curses and Candles
- What happened in the field that day
- Lost to TBI: Enjoying Going to the Beach
- Lost to TBI: My Lifelong Love of Reading Fiction
- What is it about Thanksgiving?
- TBI Benefit #27 – An increased refund from the IRS
- Watching Kung Fu Movies and Wondering…
- Catching up with myself
- How I figured out something was REALLY wrong
- My catalog of injuries (that I remember)
- My Common Indicators of Head Injury
- Working my way through all this…
- I am so tired of paying attention to myself and my brain…
- Ruminations of a high-fuctioning mtbi survivor
- A good day… sort of… I think…
- I’ve got a TBI… now what?
- How I got here
- What makes the mind?
- Greetings from inside my unusual head
Post Listings by Category:
- ADA
- Afghanistan
- aggression
- argument
- art
- blogging
- books
- Brain Injury
- chronic pain
- concussion
- depression
- doctor visit
- education
- Emotional Fallout
- emotional volatility
- Employment
- Family Issues
- fatigue
- fight
- giclee
- head injury
- Head Trauma
- headache
- illustration
- inspiration
- Iraq
- irritability
- life
- light sensitivity
- literature
- love
- mental health
- Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
- mood disorder
- Motivation and Inspiration
- mtbi
- Neurology
- Neuropsychological Effects of TBI
- outburst
- pain
- Personal Experiences with TBI
- prints
- psychotherapy
- PTSD
- sleep deprivation
- Social Issues
- sports injury
- tactile defensiveness
- tbi
- tbi education
- TBI Physiology
- TBI Rehab
- TBI Resources
- TBI Symptoms
- temper
- temper tantrum
- therapy
- thoughts
- traumatic brain injury
- Veteran’s Day
- veterans
- Work issues
- wounded warriors
- writing
Broken Brain - Brilliant Mind 
Thank you for your kind words the other day. I am feeling much better. You suggested that I should call someone if I am in distress, but I just moved here and don’t know anyone that I could have called. Also since my brain wasn’t working well, I did not think of trying to call anyone. I did not call my daughter because she was in the middle of her midterm college exams. I should have gone to the ER days earlier, but even that took me a while to realize since my brain was not working.
At the hospital, when I had to fill out the paperwork and they asked why I was there I wrote “broken brain” that confused them a lot, but it was accurate..
Your site is awesome. So much information. I have added your link to my site.
My blog has a two fold purpose, to talk a bit about my becoming an artist, but mostly to let my readers see from my experiences what it is like to have a TBI. The “civilian” population has no idea.
I find the worst thing for me is the social isolation (one of the reasons I don’t know anyone here yet). I “look” normal, and at first I pass for normal, then people start to see my deficits and drop me like a brick. They think of me as irresponsible, weird, or even think of me as if I have a mental illness. I hope my blog can help people see that I am really “normal” inside my head I am fine nearly the same as before the accident. It’s just the outward stuff that gets messed up. My social skills are not very good for one thing.
Please add me to your blog roll if you can. My site is new and I am trying to get it out there.
Again thanks for you kind words.
http://bluebirdonmyshoulder.wordpress.com
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Hi, Alex here! I have read your blog for some time and even written to you a couple of times. Your abundant resources have yet to lead me to another human being who has a visual condition called ventral simultanagnosia like me. I have had multiple tbi’s as well as six brain surgeries which have turned my neurological condition into a conscious nightmare. All that aside I was wondering if you know of anyone with this condition? I am looking for coping strategies, but I have yet to find another individual with this frustrating neurological condition related to my eyesight. If you do that would be great, but if you don’t I still derive a great level’s of solace and useful information from your enjoyable and informative blog, keep it up!
Thanks,
Alex
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Hi Alex –
I haven’t had much luck, either, though I’m sure I haven’t looked as exhaustively as you. You may want to search for “Balint syndrome”, if you haven’t already. It seems to be related.
You could try some forums, but they’re often indexed by search engines, so if there’s any info there, they should show up in Google. You can also try Bing and Yahoo and other search engines. Or try contacting some experts – Maybe Martha Farah who wrote this: http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=10115
Good luck and thanks for writing.
BB
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Hi! I had a TBI due to an AVM in 2009. I am now earning a Master’s in clinical nutrition so I can help TBI patients heal through food. I’m wondering – have you made any changes to your diet since your TBI?
Thanks,
Christa
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Hi – welcome and thanks for writing. I have made changes to my diet because of my spouse’s diabetes, and I have also changed the types of food I cook. I make simple but nutritious meals that require me to work on my pacing and timing and coordination. It’s a big part of my recovery and what I learn from my cooking applies to other parts of my life. I have also cut out dairy and drasticallty reduced the amount of junk food I eat. I also use grass-fed butter and MCT oil in my coffee and tea, which has helped me a great deal. I also take vitamins to help with stress and resilience.
Please tell us more about your work – it is needed!
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Gold Mind Meditation Project or my life experience with TBI, for over thirty years now.
(Transformation: Benefits for fellow head-injury survivors) By Had Walmer
Brain-injury is an invisible disability, not easily noticed from the outside like a wheelchair or crutches. It’s a complex injury to the our brain and associated neurosensory systems. Known profoundly from inside each survivor experiences a unique array of symptoms. Gold Mind Meditation Project empowers you to transform your relationship with this changed condition and actually thrive in life through learning the Power of Mindfulness.
I speak from personal experience. Returning to college years ago, I was involved in a serious car accident. Jaws-Of-Life were required to free me from the vehicle. I got a skull fracture and was in coma for seven days. My brain swelled in my skull causing much secondary damage after the crash impact. When I came to I had severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), diplopia (double-vision) and amnesia. In an instant I was not who I used to be.
Since that time I’ve lived with continuing challenges of TBI. I struggled to complete my university degree and to get on with my life. I graduated from the university and then within a few years experienced frustrating failure in the loss of several jobs due to cognitive deficits:
weak learning and memory, poor boundaries and speech pathology. Often my perceptions were very cloudy – I was very unaware of what I could do or be. My friend who is an Occupational Therapist pointed out that this condition was the direct result of TBI, what TBI is, and that I can actually have a powerful say in the process and success of my rehabilitation.
TBI has often been misdiagnosed and thus poorly treated. In expensive and top-of-the-line rehabilitation programs I learned of my ‘cognitive-deficits’ and ‘compensatory coping-strategies’ for those deficits. These strategies are well-intended rehab but fell short of knowing and actually addressing the best possible well-being for me. I had to learn this inner transformation for myself. In my own explorations I have learned to sift gold (possibilities) from the gravel of my life experiences in order to find meaning, value and purpose for myself. Mindfulness Meditation is the key, learning to be brightly alive and awake in the present moment.
I’ve learned the meditation practice called Insight Meditation. Regular practice helps me be concentrated and focused, capable of sustained attention to chosen activities and to hold said purpose in mind. With Mindfulness practice we take a stand for our inner wellness, solidly at peace beyond the damages of our trauma and change. This is a path of being at peace with and authentic in your life, now. You can be ready to pick up whatever is next in your life path, with greater ease and joy, skillfully. You will get back benefits in proportion to the time that you put into the practice of mindfulness mediation, empowered to strongly face challenges.
Mindfulness practice can lead to brain healing (‘neuroplasticity’- the brain can heal itself). I am now choosing to live my life intentionally and more skillfully – making peace with this malady and finding the healing I need with present moment awareness. You can do this too. This is the start of a new path for you! Being calm and clear – activating your mind’s inherent strengths. Loving the life you live now. Really!
Had C. Walmer hwalmer@gmail.com (503)332-3046
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Thank you for your writing and sharing what you have learned. I have posted your comment to the front page of my blog, so people can find it more easily. Thanks again and all the best on your healing journey.
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