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

MTV True Life - TBI!

Full video about three kids who sustained TBI. . .their lives changed forever. Heart-wrenching. . .


Click HERE to watch!

Regular aerobic exercise is good for the brain, Pitt team says

Regular aerobic exercise is good for the brain, Pitt team says

Sometimes I wonder if exercise, combined with nutrition, is a cure-all for everything.


Before my brain injury, I exercised what I thought was a lot. I belonged to a gym during college and I'd go five times per week . . . once every six months, and sporadically in between. I was your average, super-busy-I-know-I-should-go-to-the-gym-but-I'm-too-tired college student. Who has the time for exercise?

After my brain injury, I searched high and low for something, anything to relieve my constant brain overloadness (I know that's not a word, but it makes the most sense right now).

Consistent fitness gave me the relief I was looking for! Consistent is the operative word

Now I make time to exercise as it makes my brain feel better. I look at my fitness classes at the gym as my 2nd job. I wouldn't just not show up to work one day, therefore I wouldn't just not show up to the gym on class days. It's all about commitment and habit.