The Positives May of '98 December '98? February '99 Survivors Statement The Positives May of '98 December '98? February '99 Survivors Statement
TBI-an Overview of my life as I now know it:
In March of '98 I got out of a van that was... moving too fast. I hit my head on some asphalt and the para-medics believed there was a good chance that I would not survive until morning.
I was transported to Harborview Medical Center where the neuro-surgeons also had their doubts as to my survival, or at the least, further, they wondered how handicapped I would be when I awoke.
This page indicates that I surprised them! While it is true that I have lost some of my fine motor skills, my ability to "cognate-," to "problem-solve" has been severely diminished, my memory reaching back a number of years is not so very good, and my ability to take on more than one new thing at a time is basically non-existent, there are positives...
I was in some very real ways, crippled before my accident. To remove my self from a life that placed me in a "victim" role far too often-I escaped, to the Navy. I stayed there, fathering one child who is severely handicapped, then divorcing her mother, and going on to marry another gal-until my adopted father died at the age of 55...
It was then that I suddenly felt as though I need no longer remain in the Navy. The reasons for this were unclear at the time but I now know that my adopted fathers death, made it safe for me to return to the city I was born in. My Mother died in '96 and left me a bit of money. I quit my job and enrolled in the local Junior College... Dealing with her death-still for me, one of the most painful experiences I have endured, lead me to thoughts of "escape." And escape, is what I did. I had met a woman on the net, flew out to visit her twice, and decided I liked Seattle... So...
I packed up my belongings, put my house up for sale, and started driving west...
Once here it became apparent that it was "the time of my life when I should seek help with my history of abuse" and so I did...I made progress that's true, but would often hit "walls." I now attribute those walls to area's in my brain that helped me survive as a child, areas that allowed me to "stuff my feelings" in order to survive.
On March 21, 1998 many of those "walls" were destroyed violently as my head brutally hit asphalt at a high rate of speed. I believe, that one of the good things about my life post-TBI, is that while many of those "walls" no longer existed, I was left with the seeds of life required to... "re-learn," to "start again..."
