As a survivor, I present a training on brain Injury, Brain Injury 101” from the perspective of a survivor. In 2003, I was treated with the Gamma Knife at Rhode Island Hospital to close off twenty-seven malformed bleeding blood vessels in my brain (cavernous hemangiomas). After the treatment I relearned language, reading, writing, how to fold a blanket, how to tie shoes, how to turn on a faucet, and all of the other daily tasks which we all do on a daily basis without thought. I am proof that a person can come back from a brain injury.

I have presented at the Brain Injury Association of Rhode Island Brain Injury Education Conference twice, once in a paneled discussion, once along with Dr. Judith Drew in which we presented “The Psychosocial Impact of ABI: The Brain of the Moment”. I present “Brain Injury 101” on a regular basis and I am a motivational speaker on not letting a brain injury define us. I facilitate two virtual BI support groups as well as serving on the Governor’s Permanent Advisory Commission for Traumatic Brain Injury. I also serve on the human rights commission for Neuro Restorative and on the Board of Pride in Aging RI.

I believe we all have skills and abilities, regardless of how we are impacted by our injuries. We chose one path, go back to the beginning, start over, start a new path with some aspects of the old path and sometimes a completely different path. I use the quote from “The Miracle Worker” in which Anne Sullivan tells Helen Keller’s parents, “I treat her like a seeing child because I ask her to see. I expect her to see!”. I believe survivors should keep striving to achieve goals and reach them. Coming back from a brain injury is very slow, hard, tedious filled with anger, tears, frustration. We cry, scream, throw things, get angry, punch pillows, and cry some more. And then we go on. And we cry, scream, get angry and throw things again. And we continue the journey again. We encounter grief and loss every day each time we encounter our deficits. But we continue and re-path and keep getting better or learn how to manage the deficits. We are all a work in progress and having a brain injury is no different from any other life lived. There is life after brain injury. But we need to fight for it.