Living with Traumatic Brain Injury

Hello,
My name is Leeann and I suffered from a traumatic Head Injury back in 1989 and am still Suffering many symptoms, but my cognitive skills came back enough to go back to work on a Part-time basis after 4 years. I use to teach school and was very, very smart. Now, everyday is a new day! No one understands me and why I can’t remember what has happened yesterday and why I can solve complicated Math Problems but I don’t even know what time it is and I have no perception of Time anymore. I would compare myself to being a little kid again and I really don’t care about TIME! But in the grown-ups world, that’s all they think about is Time and Money!

I lost my whole life when a Drunk Driver ran into me and my husband and child. I was only 27 yrs. old and just beginning. Now I am 48 and have learned that living with a Disability is all in how you believe and the faith that you have that keeps you going, otherwise I would have given up years ago! Each day I wake up and wonder what today is going to be like. Will it bring Sadness or Joy or Madness. I had a Frontal Lobe Injury, so not only did it take me 4 years to remember who I was, my whole personality changed and my emotions have been on a roller-coaster ride ever since! I have said and done things I would never ever have done had I not suffered from this Head Injury, but only the people that knew me before really know what I was like. Now people just think I’m weird, but I”ve grown to like my new personality and my brain through the years has made different connections and where I never wrote music before, now songs just flow from my Mind. I use to be very shy and now I’m very talkative and outgoing!

I still get frustrated though because NO ONE understands me. I jump from one thought to another and it makes perfect sense to me, but not to others. I prefer now to stay around children and animals as they don’t make fun of my disability even though I have relearned and have many Abilities now, just different ones than before. Anyway, if you have suffered from a Head Injury, just believe me when I say you will get better, you may be different, but you have to learn how to adjust. Your brain will get better if you give it enough time to heal itself!