Spreading TBI word through Rotary . . .

I love to "spread the word" and educate people about Traumatic Brain Injury. This was my goal when I wrote my memoir. I wanted people to read it and think "yes, I get it -- I get what it's like to live with a Traumatic Brain Injury."

First I wrote it, and now I want to speak it (the word)!

My next attempt at speaking "the word" is coming up on Thursday, September 2, 2010 in Pleasanton, California at the Rotary Club International meeting. The meeting averages 60 people. I'm not at all nervous and very excited (okay, maybe just a little nervous). I've already done a couple presentations at Brain Injury Support Groups in Utah, but that's different because TBI Survivors already "get it."

I will speak for 20 - 25 minutes and then open it for about 5 minutes of questions. I'm eager to see what people will ask because it seems like the injury has become more and more prevalent and more and more people know someone with a Traumatic Brain Injury.

My One Origami Wish: make my TBI disappear

An ancient Japanese legend promises that anyone who folds a thousand origami cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, such as long life or recovery from illness or injury. The crane in Japan is one of the mystical or holy creatures (others include the dragon and the tortoise), and is said to live for a thousand years. In Asia, it is commonly said that folding 1000 paper origami cranes makes a person's wish come true. This makes them popular gifts for special friends and family.

The Brain Injury Association of Minnesota (my home state!) has a goal to collect 100,000 folded origami cranes! WOW.

How can you help? Unless you are interested in folding origami cranes yourself, I'd love it if you could help in the following way:


1. Fellow TBI Survivor (from MN too!) is folding 1,000 cranes (a bold move) and has developed her own fundraiser to donate $1,000 to this project ($1 for each crane, an even bolder move).


2. Go HERE to donate (any little bit helps, she has just over $300 left to go)

On behalf of the 1.7 million people who sustain a Traumatic Brain Injury each year, THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!

A wonderful community health connection

The Community Health Connection is a newsletter update on health in Western Nebraska.

What is there to connect with in Western Nebraska, besides small farming towns that raise corn, soybeans, and wheat? And wait, I can't forget about the University of Nebraska's famous football team - winning FIVE national championships (anyone who knows me is probably wondering how I knew that football fact - hey, I know more than you think). Well, it is a well-known fact that the amazing Regional West Medical Center is in Scottsbluff, Nebraska - which is also WESTERN Nebraska!

Today, as one of three Level II Trauma Centers in the state, Regional West provides 24-hour emergency and trauma care for patients throughout the Nebraska panhandle and eastern Wyoming. The 180-bed facility is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations

MOST IMPORTANTLY, it is the place that kicked off my rehabilitation from a Traumatic Brain Injury. Not to be dramatic, but I credit it as the place where my life was saved. Writer Teresa Clark highlights my experience in a recent newsletter. It's beautiful and inspiring (even for me to read).

Read the article HERE

You never know how you affect somone . . .

I received the following email today from one of the EMT's who responded to my accident in Kimball, Nebraska. I was only in Kimball for a few hours (if that). Her note got me thinking that you just never really understand how one moment can affect someone else.

I mean, I know how my accident affected me and those close to me, but not an EMT who comes in contact with many, many injured people. I just assume that she'd forget little old me. Her letter brought me to tears . . .
_____________________________________________________

Hi Jennifer

Let me introduce myself. My name is Carla Goranson. I am an EMT-B with Kimball County Ambulance and I was one of the emt's that responded to your accident.

I received the Community Health Connection newsletter published by Region West Medical Center last week and as I began reading the article about you, I realized in the first paragraph that I knew you, in a sense. I remember your accident, especially that you were so critically hurt and your friend came out of it basically uninjured. I remember that we flew you out of Kimball Hospital by Air Link. Air Link was kind of new to us at that time so working with Air Link was exciting in it's self.

Then, around 3pm and I had just gotten home from your call ( I live in the country about 7 miles from Kimball ) when the pager went off again. This time for the restaurant next door to the jewelry store my family owns, for a man having a stroke. It was coffee time and something told me it was my dad. And it was. We are rushing him to Scottsbluff around 5pm. RWMC ICU unit was kind of oval in shape and just a couple of bays away is where you were. I remember looking over at you, in the bed, all the tubes, machines and with both legs in slings and all alone. I knew your family was on their way and had a long way to travel but I never got over the fact that you were all alone. The nursing staff was working with my dad so we were just waiting. I so badly wanted to go over and sit and hold your hand till your family could get there. I wanted you to know that even we did not know each other, a lot of people were praying for you. But I had only been an EMT for 3 years and I didn't know if I should even ask if I could. So I didn't. I have never forgiven my self. After all, it was just a question. The worst they could have said was no. I have since learned to be more aggressive and to not be afraid to ask simple question, no matter what the circumstances are. As we came and went with my dad, you were still alone. Your family got there as soon as possible, I think with in 12 hours or so of your accident. They moved my dad upstairs for rehab and I didn't see you again till almost a year later when you stopped in Kimball for a visit. I could not believe it was you. Of course when I saw you following the accident, you were so swollen that you didn't look anything like yourself. I was so excited to meet you in 1995, amazed that you were walking, without a limp and you seemed so normal. I have wondered how you have been since. I enjoyed reading the article and can't wait to get out of town to buy your book. You are truly blessed and evidently a very strong willed person to have recovered to this extent. May God bless you and continue to watch over you.

As I wipe away my tears, thank you Carla.

Do you really understand how beautiful the brain is?

The defense and brain injury center in Washington, D.C. funds a wonderful website at www.brainline.org

It gives great, helpful resources and very well-written information for TBI Survivors. I love it. What I love even more, is that this last update included a beautiful article entitled, "Brain Beautiful".

Click HERE to read this fabulous article.

Old Skool Halo Brace

My RWMC visit in Nebraska is now passed and it was a lot of fun, and very eerie for my parents. Of course, I don't remember any part of being in the hospital, but my parents certainly do!

"It smells the same," Dad said. And Mom pointed out the table they always sat at in the cafeteria. I saw my two respiratory therapists (they still work there and still remember me!), a couple nurses who took care of me, and my neuro-surgeon, Dr. Beehler.

Dr. Beehler is 84 years old now. He claims to remember my case but could not recall all the details. "You fractured your neck, right?" he said.

"Yes, you put a Halo Brace on me!"

Then he said something that surprised me. "We don't do the Halo Brace anymore," he said. "That's old skool. Now we fuse the bones back together . . . " or something to that effect. He was sort of giggling because my accident was long ago and medicine has progressed so much.

"You were alive back when we used Halo Braces?" That's what the next generation of doctors will say about my case.

I feel old.

My return to RWMC 15 years later . . .

RWMC = Regional West Medical Center in Scottsbluff, Nebraska.

It's been more than 15 years since I was a patient in the ICU at this hospital, and they've bringing me back! I'm honored to be invited to their first ever annual "Trauma Survivor's Tea." It will give me a chance to reconnect with some of the important people who took such great care of me after my car accident.

Click HERE to read News at Regional West