July 4th, 2017: my un-independence day!

I worked as a night shift nurse at the county jail before my accident. It was the morning of July 4th, and I was off work at 5:30am and I was ready to go home. My husband and I had been remodeling our house since the roof decided we needed a sky light the February prior. We had been working on our son’s room (a pirate themed room) and I was making him a treasure chest toy box. I decided instead of going to sleep when I got home I would paint it. Little did I know the paint can would be my undoing. I ended up spilling a gallon of paint on the floor, and then slipping in it, send my flying backwards into the bathroom. This was the moment of no return for me. The base of my skull at the neck joint collided with the edge of the counter that stood only 16 inches off the ground. So, yep, all my body weight, at speeds unknown to me, crashed causing significant tearing to the muscles, ligaments and tendons surrounding my entire neck, vestibular damage, occipital and frontal lobe damage, I know get to wear prism lenses because I acquired strabismus in one eye and nystagmus in the other. Migraine headaches that last for days, field of vision deficits, decreases processing speed physically and mentally, my immediate recall got wiped off them map and I can no longer be a nurse. I am extremely light and sound sensitive and can’t be in a car for longer than a trip to the doctor without getting sick. On the positive side, I have taken what I can’t seem to get from any of my doctors and created it myself. I am starting my own holistic wellness business with my primary focus being brain health and recovery. See, I am not the only person with a brain injury in my home. My husband has had several strokes and he has his days where things just aren’t firing right. I have found things that help me, and am continuing to grow and learn so that I can give back and help others like me, who have to hear it’s "just a concussion" or it’s "just a mild TBI". It’s not!!