Navigation: TBI, Bodily Injury & Recovery
Table of Contents for your bookmarking ease
This Section will be updated with each new post I add.
Can’t keep up in the email? Remember that the desktop version and the app’s E-reader will track your reading progress and bookmark it for you.
TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY
WHAT’S IT REALLY LIKE TO LIVE WITH TBI?
“MILD” TBI ISN’T MILD - A cheesy poem about Dain Bramage
DEEP-DEEP DOWN - The underwater realm of TBI
THE COMA & THE SWIRLING SEA - When memory is inaccessible
FROM SUPERCOMPUTER TO FILING CABINETS:
1. BLAM - The impact of TBI on a gifted mind
2.
OBLIVIATE- TBI’S annoying habit of vaporizing random memories3. THE DUNGEON - The dangers of lost memory
FORGETFUL LUCY: ANTEROGRADE AMNESIA - The fuzzy impressionist paintings that are my memory
YOU CAN’T HOLD THE OCEAN - On being “too much” yet “never enough”
BLAM: THE BIG CAR WRECK
BLAM. - My dance with a drunk driver in 2000
GHOST IN THE BROKEN SHELL - The emergency room says I’m “just fine.” Spoiler: I’m not.
THE SHELL GAME: Protecting identities of the Not-So-Innocent - and therefore myself
ON THIS DAY 23 YEARS AGO: GHOST - the 28 year old girl who was killed. (She just didn’t die.)
Dec. 18 - THE DANCER & THE MUSICIAN
Dec. 19 - CHAKRAS & PAGES & MOST WELCOME CHANGES
Dec. 20 - NADHRA: RISE…FALL…PHOENIX
Dec. 21 - REBIRTHDAY: I DARE YOU
HOLIDAY HELL: Weathering an emergency when the world shuts down for the Hap-Hap-Happiest time of the year
🎄 DAYS 1-3 - The day after I get rammed by a drunk driver, the world shuts down for 2 weeks
🎄 DAYS 4-8 - All I want for Christmas is to wash my hair, to wash my hair, to wash my…
🎄 WHAT THE ACTUAL PHUKK 2020? (2000…2023…) - For you, when you can’t muster up one more shred of the Hap-Hap-Crappiest Season
🎄 DISCOVERING DAIN BRAMAGE - It’s no laughing matter. (So sometimes all we can do is crack dark jokes.)
✨ DAYS 10-11 - Bella is invited to a New Year’s Eve party. The Beast shows up instead.
✨ DAYS 12-17 - I have no idea how 2001 kicked off. I don’t remember it. (Good thing I have my journals.)
JINGLE HELLS - A collection of snarky, filked Christmas carols
FAERIE LIGHTS IN THE FOREST - How I celebrated the 21st anniversary of my big car wreck
DAYS 17 - 21: DESPERATE TO DANCE - That hellacious bus ride and the miracle bath
LOVE BIRDS 2001 - Valentine’s Day and other love letters
DANCE: A TRANSFORMATIONAL SUPERPOWER - I draw the sign of infinity and my life changes…
POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
DAY 23: PTSD MONKEY GETS AN MRI - Without Mommy & Daddy to hold her hand
STUPID PTSD - Every breath you take, every move you make…
STUPID PTSD 2: All nightmare long. Asleep or awake.
THE LABYRINTH: I search for my way back onto the path, but find something even better.
CATS, DOGS & TANGLED THREADS - The mess of Complex-PTSD on TBI steroids
MY 2ND TBI & THE YEAR OF CHRONIC SEIZURES THAT CAUSED MORE DAMAGE
(and the 2nd assault that brought those seizures roaring back, messed up my spine and hips again, and ultimately tore my meniscus when I told another angry man NO)
MY 4TH, 5TH & 6TH BRAIN TRAUMAS
THE DUDE NOT PAYING ATTENTION AT A STOP SIGN
THE FALL DOWN MY STAIRS - Because my stuff doesn’t work right anymore
THAT TIME I ALMOST SUFFOCATED IN A TOXIC FLOOD OF MY HOUSE - Thankfully I woke up having seizures
RECENT ADVENTURES
CAREFUL. THEY’RE CARNIVOROUS - “I’m so sick of pretty. I want something true. Don’t you?” - Alzheimer’s, TBI, and the magic of Encanto
HASHTAG TBI LIFE - The dumbest, super-smart, prudent, responsible thing I’ve ever done - that got me booted off SSI for a loophole technicality of math.
#TBI LIFE - HOLIDAY HELL 2024 - My 2 weeks of emergency neuro tests while continuing to battle government agencies
DHS STRIKES AGAIN: SHADY, SHIFTY SHENANIGANS - The food stamp program requires my Primary Care Physician to act like she’s a disability & occupational assessor. (Spoiler: she’s not.)
“IF YOU’VE NEVER BEEN SENT TO A NEUROLOGIST… - then I guess you don’t need one.” Bwahahahaha!
MY 1ST NEUROLOGIST & EEG - After 13 flippin’ years, they finally send me to one. It is…NOT good.
WHY DID MY SLEEP-SEIZURES GO CRAZY? - Sleep deprivation, tongue-biting, and TMJ
AMERICAN HEALTH “CARE” STRIKES AGAIN - I needed the answer to one simple question: Will Medicaid pay for my 5 day, in hospital EEG? It took me over a month to find out.
1. IT STARTS - An exercise in ludicrous, asinine ridiculata.
2. DO OR DIE - Up to the day before the EEG - still no answer.
3.
FINALOUTCOME - Seriously?! That’s all you had to do for me?!4. PATIENCE - After a snowstorm prevents my EEG, I attempt to reschedule it again. And again and again…
MY 5-DAY IN-HOSPITAL CONTINUOUS EEG WITH VIDEO MONITORING
DAY 1 - Because we need to make sure my seizures aren’t epileptic
‘TRODES - They glue electrodes to my skull and strobe me
FROM BELLA TO BEAST - Inside my brain when it crashes
BRAIN GAMES - Over and over, I have to push the EEG alert button
THE NIGHT NURSE - employing the arts of self-defense—against my own “care”-giver
THE DIAGNOSIS - What’s going on with my brain
THE PERFECT STORM - that caused my seizures
THE PERFECT STORM 2 - that list is so huge it needs two parts
SHOCKWAVE CITY - Inside my first seizures
DOBBY IS FREEEEE! - I’m released from the hospital because they got the info they needed. Then so do I.
RESULTS - After 6 months of brain scans, I see my neurologist again
**Remember that you can opt in or out of receiving notifications for any Section at any time by visiting the desktop version and altering your Subscriptions.
Is it starting to feel like there’s no hope in sight? That’s what I made my other publications for - all the art, nature, creativity and inspiration that keeps me going amidst… 👆All That.👆 Tinkerings is also the Safe For Work publication, unlike these dark, deep waters on Bella & the Beast.
Oh, yeah. And there’s always my Fantastical Romance novels and short stories. Around here, we need fantasy, romance and fiction. Badly. It’s also NSFW over here. 🌸😈🌸
