Hello and welcome back to Second Chance to Live. I am happy to see that you decided to stop by to visit with me. A little while ago I was listening to a radio program that addressed advocating for brain injury awareness and as civil rights movement there be a brain injury rights movement. Because of time constraints, I was unable to share my thoughts with the radio audience.
Consequently, I want to share those thoughts with that audience and with you my reader.
First of all let me share with you a little personal background with you. I was in a car accident in 1967 when I was 10 years old. I sustained a fractured skull, damage to my right frontal lobe, a severe brain contusion with brain stem involvement. I remained in a coma for 3 weeks. I also sustained a fractured left femur. Because brain injury rehabilitation was not available in 1967 I was essentially on my own in my rehabilitation process.
To make a long story shorter, I taught myself how to walk, talk, read, write and speak in complete sentences — with the encouragement of family members. I went on to succeed far beyond all reasonable expectations by obtaining my undergraduate and graduate degrees. Nevertheless, through out my life time I consistently bumped into many walls due to my cognitive deficits and psycho-social limitations.
In my experience – because I was able to succeed academically – the impact of my invisible disability was denied by my family. Consequently, I too denied my reality and never even considered the possibility that my traumatic brain injury could be impacting my life and relationships.
To better understand my journey as a traumatic brain injury survivor, please read my 7 part series, My Journey thus Far.
Please read the remaining parts of my article series — Traumatic Brain Injury — How to be a Brain Injury Advocate — by clicking on each of the following blue links Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 of this series. Thank you.
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