Gus’s a funny little thing, a mutt, smarter that I could have imagined. He teases me, changing the rules of games as we play, laughing at me from the top of the steep hill in my back yard, squeaking his toy as he tries to tempt me to clamber up the slippery slope to wrestle the toy away from him.
All too often, during the first few years into my recovery, feeling of it hanging there by a thread was almost tangible—whenever the headaches were particularly bad, when a new symptom appeared, when I was on the verge of collapse from neuro-fatigue. I feared the possibility of another brain bleed.
I read the first sentence: “An island is 2 miles due north of its closest point along a straight shoreline.” Oh God! What the hell does that mean? “Closest point along…blah blah blah” There was no way I could figure this out. About to panic, I took adeep breath. What if I drew a picture? … Read more
Bloody Brain: Let’s see… Where were we? Oh yes, we were talking about our relationship. Whether we are in this together. Like allies. ME: Right. So I was saying that that’s a complex issue. On the one hand, you make my life difficult, but on the other— BB: Yeah, yeah, for every loss there is … Read more
March 12: On the phone to my mother. “Happy birthday.” She sounds puzzled. “It’s not my birthday.” Well of course it’s her birthday—when I set up the call on Skype, the announcement popped up. But then I notice that it is a couple of days off for some reason. Mum’s birthday was on the 14th. … Read more
A while ago, Danny, a friend of mine, commented on my writing, “You need to stop obsessing over the bloody brain. It’s time to move on.” At that time, the little he knew about brain injury he had learned from me. About a week after my third (and hopefully last) brain surgery, I started writing … Read more