Life Over Pain

After three brain injuries over her lifetime, Amina's cognitive ability was impacted in such a way that she was unable to ask for help on her own. But like many of us, it was hard for her to know how much she had really changed as a person. Poignantly, her young son was the one person was able to show her how much she had changed by asking for his "old" mom back. It was an emotional blow and a common hit to our self esteem that is common for those of us with brain injury. ...

Bella Paige was a highly competitive show jumper as a younger girl. And she LOVED it. The adrenaline rush alone might have been enough to keep her going but she loved the competition, the horses, all of it. She planned to compete and show horses for the rest of her life. Sadly, injuries intervened. In any sport having to do with 1200 pound animals you can bet that injuries will come, and often. But highly competitive, driven athletes (even young ones) often...

When you are faced with an existential crisis, it's hard to see what is right in front of you. Brain injury and Lime Disease screw with one's sense of self. Pamela Schmidt was a never-say-never person a superwoman in the flesh. She still knows she is that person in some ways, but then again, she isn't that person. She's had concussions in her past, like so many of us, but nothing like when a window fell on her head. That changed everything. Back in the 90's she ...

Joseph Ryan oozes enthusiasm. He's overcome so many brain injuries that his head seems to have been a target for danger rather than a protected space. As with many who have suffered brain injury pre-2018, his had gone undiagnosed. So he struggled. Smart, energetic, creative, adventurous; yet he struggled. But, his brain wasn't keeping pace. As years passed and injuries mounted, Joseph finally found help via Pennsylvania's head injury program. This...

It's hard to imagine a time when we didn't know how dangerous a blow to the head can be. But it was just 20 years ago when Ethan O'Brian was playing youth hockey and started getting banged into the boards and ice and other players. He kept playing. No one told him to stop as they might have today. There was little talk of concussion. It's not just hockey and American football or rugby where kids get hit hard and enough times to cause damage to their brains - fo...