Member-only story
Brain Injury Awareness Month? I Guess I Forgot. I’ve Had Too Many Concussions.
Before you get pissed off at me, let me be clear. I’ve had more TBIs than most NFL players. Twenty-one, so far. So I speak from plenty of (mostly self-inflicted) experience.
This morning I read, with much empathy, a story on Medium by Blake Hrubes. This young man had an injury that was far worse than mine, and while I am happy to poke fun at my own foibles, his was no joke.
However, this one line leapt out at me:
When I think of myself, I think of the words resilient, empowered, bright, strong, adaptive, and confident.
I can hang with that. Big time, Blake.
As someone who periodically suffers from extreme emotional outbreaks, difficulty focusing, and some of the other inevitable side effects of too many conks to the coconut, I live with a completely unpredictable brain which can at times embarrass the shit out of me.
Like two nights ago, when after fielding something like fifty scammer calls during the course of what had been an already tough day, I got one too many. I didn’t recognize the number, picked up my phone…