October and November, 2008

…Notes that I wrote during the time that I didn’t have anything posted....this blog HAS been on my list of things I needed to do! So, I have been taking notes on what I've been doing in each therapy for you all to read. That way you feel more “in touch” with the progress that I continue making...

10/08/2008
Alive Day - My family had a party for my one-year anniversary. It was amazing to see how many people still cared, and came to show their support. (Even though I haven’t been posting stuff on the blog!) My sister made a movie of my past year. We showed it on the big screen in the family room. It was an eye opener for me to see where I came from and how “pathetic” I was back then. I just hope that it gets out and gives other people with TBI hope. No matter how bad you are, there is still tomorrow, and there’s always a chance of getting better than you are at the moment.

10/17/2008
Meeting with Dr. Kim - My mom doesn’t think that I should move far away. She doesn’t want the situation of me going to Turkey to repeat itself. My mom says she wants me to be on my own, but thinks that we have all learned a big lesson by Laura and Brian moving away from the family. We miss them, they miss us, and would do anything to live by their family. She thinks that I could move to Loma Linda or Redlands, buy a house for the same payment as Palo Alto’s rent, and do outpatient therapy at LLVAH. It would be cheaper and closer to family where I can get some support. Later, when I am through with rehab, I could move anywhere I want.

10/24/2008
Cognitive Training - We reviewed one thing that I did yesterday. Checked the to do list and schedules
Took a quiz on a movie called “Peaceful Warrior”.

10/24/2008
Meeting with Dr. Kim - Dr. Kim says I need to change my way of doing things. I need to have more structure in my daily life! I thought I realized this. I wasn’t coerced into thinking this AT ALL!!! I’ll be getting twice as much done if I do this!

10/28/2008

Healthy Transitions Class - Almost fell asleep, did some progressive relaxation techniques. You close your eyes and count to ten. Or you imagine doing something that is really calming for you, like going to the beach. It is a way to teach yourself how to be completely relaxed when you get stressed. Or as I think of this, a way to have an acceptable reason to fall asleep in class/therapy!

10/31/2008
Cognitive thinking - We started writing a letter to the head hauncho guys in engineering to let them know what needs to be changed at the hospital. For instance, it is very confusing trying to find your way around the hospital if you’re just arriving there! Now that I’ve been around for a while, it isn’t so confusing anymore, except for building 100. Which I STILL find myself getting lost and turned around in! BUT what’s the good thing!? I can always find myself a way out! There’s something (just about everywhere) that in some way looks somewhat familiar to me! So I’ll just keep following the similarities until I get to a point where I know right where I'm at!!!

11/10/2008
Veterans Day - Visited my mom’s school and talked to a couple 5th grade classes about Veteran’s Day. I felt like a movie star, dressed in my uniform and everyone staring at me. It felt really cool but really weird to have people pay so much attention to me. I’m not used to people paying attention to me like that! I’m not one of those guys who just crave attention and live off it. But at the same time it was pretty cool to have that happen and I can see how people think it’s cool and get addicted to it in the end. It's a pretty powerful feeling to have.

11/11/2008
Recreation Class - Talked of plans for the holidays. Discussed our ski trip, dates, and who we were bringing. It is the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month…Veteran’s Day. Being that, now I'm the ROQ (recreation officer of the quarter) I am having to do A LOT more stuff than I normally might have been doing. This is one of the “leadership roles” for the PTRP program. The other one is the POM (personal objective manager). I have no idea what it stands for. All I know is what you are supposed to do while you are it! You’re the one who leads the “community meetings”, where all of us “trainees” get the chance to talk things over with the staff. I'm also supposed to keep the room pretty quiet while other people are talking. At first the staff didn’t think it could be done very well, mainly because nobody else has done it, ever! But I just took that as a challenge to be the first!

11/14/2008
My presentation - Dr. Scott asked me to share my sister’s movie about myself. I showed the movie to the staff and families on 7D. After it was over, an Air Force girl with a TBI came up and told me that it had really touched her and gave her hope. Which REALLY IS the only reason why I agreed to let it be made and why I agreed to show it to everyone in 7D! I don’t know why they have been calling it a presentation! It's not like I was making a public presentation of anything special or anything that people could buy or anything! But if it gives someone hope that they could make something out of the rest of their life, and can produce some sort of hope/dreams in people, then I am completely sold on doing this!

11/17/2008
Hippo-therapy – Sharon (my hippo therapist) kept telling me to keep my left heal down, which is a problem for me. It doesn’t want to go down. She reminded me repeatedly of my posture and wanted my hands to be even from my elbows to the bit. She made sure that, my wrists wouldn’t get out of line, by putting a dowel rod between my wrists in each hand, and told me to try to keep it steady and straight. Cowboy, the horse, had a mind of his own today. He kept doing things that I didn’t ask him to do… When I told him to turn left, he just kept walking straight. He is a stubborn little horse! My therapist wants me to always ride Cowboy because she thinks it will teach us both a lesson. Cowboy will learn to do what the rider wants, and I’ll learn that things won’t always go my way! …Which I refuse to admit!

Speech – We talked about my distractions, which are: open windows, doors, anything that makes noise and distracts me. We talked about ways to stop them, like closing the windows or doors, and asking people to stop making noises.
We talked about me sharing my movie with counselors at De Anza Community College. I might do this, just to give them some background information on how the T.B.I. works, more like just a baseline...
Also talked about showing the staff/therapists the Kurzweil program. But the CD does just as much teaching as I would do, so they might as well watch it.

Speech - I read an article to Marlene, Speech Therapist, with a paper as a guide for the line that I should be on. The paper helped but I don’t need it much. It took a couple of seconds off my time but not much.

Cognitive Learning Class - We learned Paired Association to memorize words:
It is easier to pair 12 words together, and associate the two together, than to memorize 12 random words. Because then if you hear one of the words you were trying to remember, it’ll give you a hint at what the other word is! For instance, orange and bowl. You could picture the football game tournament, the “orange bowl”. If you can remember one of the words in the pair, it is more possible to remember the other word! So it’s easier to remember six pairs of words than a list of 12 words.

11/20/2008
ARG (Adjustment Rehab Group - We gave examples of times we should have used “assertive behavior” (in-between when you should have been passive and confrontational in a conversation). You express your true feelings, but don’t let others take advantage of yourself. You state the problem and what you want. Or as we learned it with the acronym: EPW= Enemy Prisoner of War = Empathy Problem Want. The reason why this acronym worked out so well for our group is because we were all in the military!

11/21/2008
Hippo Therapy - My hippo therapist is always telling me to keep my shoulders back and up, and sit to up straight. This time, she didn’t have to tell me at all! I showed her!!! AND ME!!!

Healthy Transitions - Before my accident I used to sleep less. I guess in a way, this was “less healthy”. I didn’t have a “set” time that I would be in bed. I didn’t have the “want” to wake up early, or the ability. IF I woke up early, then I would feel like my day would be ruined.

2 Interesting Facts:
1. Even mild TBI’s lead patients to have less restful, lighter sleep, often affected by awakenings
2. Sleep problems can make rehab harder, and time consuming.
(and WHY would we want that! Rehab is already the HARDEST thing I've done in my ENTIRE life!!!