Understanding

3/22/07 Thursday
I just came in from doing my morning walkabout. Bob Woodruff is on the Ellen show. He is another survivor of a traumatic brain injury. As he and his wife talked about the problems and quirks that come with a brain injury I walked with them, remembering the nearly identical issues I had and still have. Things like mixing up or inventing words as you talk. It is so strange to be talking and hear not what you wanted to say but a word your brain picked out. Sometimes these words start with the same letter or are close in meaning to the word I intended to use, sometimes not even close. I think I usually catch it. Cherie and I have fun with that quirk, lots of laughs. There have been some doozies come out of my mouth.

Watching this generates a lot of thought on my part. He is doing much to bring awareness of brain injuries. That is something I try to also do. Part of the reason for this blog. Brain injuries are very different than most others because the effects are so diverse and sometimes can’t be seen. The hell I went through after I woke up from the coma is a good example of the ignorance of government and social agencies about TBI. Actually that lack of understanding extends to most of the people we met. I was best understood and accepted with the Multiple Sclerosis folks I met through helping Wayne. That is partly because MS causes a degradation of the brain which results in many of the same issues I have such as short term memory loss. The difference was that I was improving while they slowly get worse. So I’m thinking of sending my story to Bob Woodruff and the Ellen show. Maybe they could use my story to help others understand.

It’s drizzly outside. I will do stuff outside during the breaks or light points of the rain. It looks like there may be two corn plants just peaking up through the dirt. I’m gonna take the camera out and take a picture of them. Actually that’s what I came in for when I saw Bob Woodruff on the Ellen Show. Then I wanted to write about it so here I am. Now I need to get back moving so there I go.

Notes – Cesspool, write and learn about

Well the garage stinks from Skittles marking his territory. I closed the garage doors because of the misty rain that blew in. That wasn’t going to work. Nope, not staying in here. This concentrated the acrid ammonia like smell and there was no escape for it or from it. So what to do? I know, I’ll plant seeds in the flats we bought for that purpose. Going inside with that idea in mind I walked up to Cherie who was working intently in the living room. “How would you like to plant seeds in here?” I asked with the smile that says “I think this is a great idea”. “IN HERE?” Cherie responded as her hand swept slowly backwards indicating the living room that was in disarray because Cherie had been hard at work rearranging and sorting out for storage.

Message received. After a three second negotiation I decided that the table out on our veranda (or whatever you’re supposed to call it) would be a great place to plant seeds. I’ve gotten the trays all filled but when I looked at the box full of maybe a hundred different kinds of seeds I realized I had never listed the seeds we have, nothing written down. That is what I am working on now. Then I’ll need to go online and learn how to grow each one. Cherie has looked up some of the plants and downloaded the info so I’ll need to see what she has first.

Oh, the note about cesspools. When we went to the weekly church dinner I told Darryl about the “septic system”. “You mean cesspool?” he asked me quizzically. I’ve heard the word cesspool used to describe many unpleasant things but really don’t know anything about them. At least with septic systems I had advertisements to teach me a little.