Talk to Me Thursday! My Brain Damaged Perspective!

FAILING TO FAIL!

Joseph Brann

           I can’t believe it’s already time for another “Talk to Me Thursday!” post, time goes by so fast! Today I’ll be talking about brain damage from a brain damaged man’s perspective, and of course that brain damaged man is me! Ha! If I’d never gotten in my wreck I’d probably have NO IDEA how different life is when you have real significant brain damage. I actually found out that before my wreck I already had brain damage because of concussions I had but my concussions were nothing like the brain damage I’ve faced since my accident. But EVERYTHING changed after the car wreck that left me reported braindead on the news. Colors don’t look the same, I’m partially blind so my field of vision is much less than it was, feelings…physical, mental, emotional and so forth…are all different, and things are just so out of whack. Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m awake or asleep. My judgment is not like it used to be and there've been time acting a certain way seems totally fine to me but not to everyone else. This brain damaged reality I’ve been living with for almost 20 years is something I’m still not used to.

           I’ve told multiple people who’ve asked about the things I deal with since my wreck that I’m in pain almost nonstop and’ve been asked if I just sort of get used to the pain after facing it for as long as I have. My answer was no, I know I’m in pain and will continue to be in pain, but I never get used to it because, well, it hurts. It’s the same thing for pretty much everything else in my brain damaged reality. I’m still not used to being partially blind. I’m still not used to the numb like feeling down the right side of my body. I’m also not used to pretty much never recognizing where I am and am definitely not used to not recognizing faces. Even though it’s ALL crazy and sometimes, or often times scary and I don’t get used to it, I can still find reasons to love it, and I do. It’s been a VERY long hard road for me and I’ll probably never get used to the brain damage and/or any of the things I deal with from the stroke I had, but it’s not going to stop me from smiling, loving my life..even when I hate it, ha…and doing my best to help others love their lives no matter how difficult they are. So this is just a little bit about my brain damaged perspective on what I deal with, but I’ll keep smiling and coming back to happy! Until reading my next blog and even after, remember keep FAILING TO FAIL!