Deb Brandon: Living in Radiant Color

Brain Injury From A Patient’s Perspective

Brain Injury From A Patient’s Perspective Webinar for INTEGRIS Jim Thorpe Rehabilitation Center, Oklahoma City, OK April 11, 2023 What’s it like to survive a brain injury? To live independently as an adult who can never fully regain independence? To live every day knowing that what caused your injury could happen again, without warning? In … Read more

Dealing with Cognitive Disabilities After Brain Injury

Dealing with Cognitive Disabilities After Brain Injury Another Fork in the Road, on Brain Injury Radiohosted by Donna O’Donnell Figurski May 7, 2023 The symptoms that result from a particular brain injury often change over the course of recovery. They vary from person to person, day to day, even moment to moment. What are they? … Read more

What Survivors & Caregivers Want to Hear & Don’t Want to Hear

What Survivors & Caregivers Want to Hear & Don’t Want to Hear Another Fork in the Road, on Brain Injury Radiohosted by Donna O’Donnell Figurski April 2, 2023 Everyone agrees communication is important—and sometimes seems impossible. Our beliefs, hopes, and emotions (fear, frustration, determination, love) affect what we want to hear, what we need to … Read more

Lost and Found(?)

I moved to my new home a few months ago and am still in the process of unpacking. Not yet in the habit of placing items in appointed places I often forget where I put them. I’ve lost my glasses several times and occasionally my phone has shown up in odd locations, as has my wallet. Finding my phone hasn’t been a problem—I just asked my partner, Cindy, to call it, so I could find it by sound (unless it wasn’t on vibrate). But when it came to my glasses or wallet, I had to do it the old-fashioned way.

Brain Injury Community

Standing in line behind her in Starbucks, I observed her as she leaned nonchalantly against the counter. I knew that stance—that was me, more than a decade ago, the slight swaying in the nonexistent breeze, the carefully annunciated speech, and the slow response to the barista’s terse questions. There was no doubt—this tall, skinny, unkempt woman was a brain injury survivor, in her early days of recovery.

Adjusting to Personality Changes after Brain Trauma

Adjusting to Personality Changes After Brain Trauma Another Fork in the Road, on Brain Injury Radiohosted by Donna O’Donnell Figurski 1:22:27 first aired April 3, 2022 Many brain injury survivors feel like they lost the person they used to be. They don’t know themselves anymore. Caregivers as well as survivors experience significant changes, too. Join … Read more