I have an anniversary coming up, one I’m more than happy to celebrate. November 8th marks five years since I lived through a major stroke. I’ve written here before that that’s a day I should never be able to forget, but instead it’s a day I’ll never remember. But I’m not worried about that—the fact (more…)
I keep getting comments and questions about how I survived a huge stroke, and continue to not just recover, but to thrive since then. The other day it came up again, and my friend quipped that if surviving a stroke was an Olympic event, I’d take the gold. That quip stayed in the back of (more…)
(Editor’s note: Isaac Peterson wrote this personal essay April 25, 2019. It’s a beautiful and powerful tribute to his friend, Gary. Isaac has updated the article with some news and additional thoughts about his beloved friend. Read on. Thank you, Isaac for sharing Gary with us. KT). Let me tell you about my special (more…)
According to the American Kennel Club, more than 80 million people with disabilities use service dogs. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) classifies a service dog as a dog that is individually trained to do work or perform tasks for a person with a disability and goes on to say that service dogs can help (more…)
We’ve all heard the phrase, no two traumatic brain injuries are alike.Â
Those of us with brain injuries have, anyway.Â
It gets said all the time; I’ve said it myself. No two brains are injured in the same way, and no two brain injuries have identical effects.
But one of the biggest differences is that it also seems females have different brain injury-related life experiences than males.Â
A lot is known about traumatic brain injury (TBI) because of ongoing health research, but only half the story is being told: there are huge differences in the ways females experience brain injuries compared to males.Â
On the surface, the differences seem to break down primarily according to physiological and biochemical differences, possible genetic differences, and traditional gender roles in our society.Â
From time to time I’ve written about aspects of healthy living, like heart health, stroke prevention and self-care. All were with traumatic brain (TBI) injury survivors in mind. However, it occurred to me: why not write about just about maintaining a healthy brain? I’m not too swift sometimes, but it just kind of dawned on (more…)
