A Meaningful Life

When coping with an injury such as TBI that can result in disabilities and other complications, it is easy to become focused on the injury. The more you focus on the event, on what happened, on the impact in every area of your life; it can eclipse other areas of your life. You see, breathe, and live your injury as its impact seeps into the corners of your life. Activity levels, energy, memory, mood are all impacted and make it seem as if your entire life is made up of your injury.

 

It is only as you work to establish areas of your life, apart from your injury, that you find how much of you is still there.  Each additional skill, talent, or interest adds to the complexity and fullness of a life that can be yours. It is not easy, nothing worth doing ever is. With careful and consistent effort you will find that you have a full and meaningful life, in spite of your injury.  

The impacts of the injury are still there, but as you grow and develop; its impact becomes less important. I encourage you to reach out, to stretch, push your limits and test yourself.  Discover a new level of living and being that allows you to live a meaningful existence. Injury is not the end; it is simply a part of your journey.

We each face trials, for some it is more apparent. your injury can serve as a spring board to propel you higher and farther than you ever imagined going. Look on your injury as a chance to take stock, an opportunity to reimagine what and who you can become. You will have pain and grief as you let go of ideas and ideals of what you thought you were, but now is the time to decide who you are and who you will be. You have the power to choose, to decide what you will be. Be patient with yourself and kind with others and you will find more is possible than you imagined.

God bless and keep you.

 

 

 

Absenteeism

Yes, I have been taking a sabbatical. No, I have not dropped off the face of the earth. Yes, I am still participating in rehab and working as much as I can on my Vocational Rehabilitation plan.

I am taking a few classes to help move me back toward being employable- math and English. I spent much of the summer going over basic arithmetic and was able to test into a high school algebra class- so much harder than you might imagine. I am holding my own. With a lot of review and practice I am holding on to a C- This is not easy considering that after surgery I had to relearn the names of three dimensional shapes and how to recognize the symbols of numbers.

My English class I love, but I have found that I have strong opinions and have no fear in sharing them. If someone is wrong, they are wrong. Another classmate was spouting off online about gaming, girls, and sexual biases. I kind of tore him up. I called out each of his arguments and explained in detail how they were not based on fact but only on a narrow perspective that he was in no way interested in expanding. I then offered to help him learn how and when he could broaden his perspective instead of sitting, entrenched, in his biases. My offer has not yet been taken up.

Yes, all my work is online, I can't handle the stress of physical classes. I do have an elaborate IEP and I have to have proctored exams. On my math midterm I got an 83%. That has never happened in my entire life. My left brain seems to be able to learn information better than it has in years, it just takes me an incredibly long period of time.

During all of this I also got to cope with the special problem of developing a tolerance for a medication- meaning that my dosage was creating side effects. Withdrawing from this med is compared to weaning off of drugs- not the funnest thing I have ever done. I will be glad when this part is over. This means that my brain and system are learning to cope with additional stress and strain without pharmacological help. I am treading water and making baby steps forward. The plan is to still be able to function as fully as possible. I will get there, why, because I am too stubborn to do anything else. A half life is not enough. Until then I do my best, I love my boys, and I count my blessings everyday.