New Life after Brain Injury Blog

The Positive Power of Pets- After Brain Injury Pets Bring Fun & Love

April 5, 2011
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Animal assisted therapy has been in the news a lot lately. Articles on health champion how pets reduce stress and lower blood pressure. TV shows profile people who have an assistance dog. Scientific studies demonstrate what we animal lovers already knew- a relationship with a fine pet helps us get through hard times or overcome [...]

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Inside Report on National Brain Injury Day on Capitol Hill

March 21, 2011
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National Brain Injury Awareness Day was honored in the US Congress on March 16. I joined a team from the Brain Injury Association of Maryland (BIA-MD) to present our information, concerns, and recommendations during a very exciting day. While I’ve participated in numerous rallies, hearings, and events at the Massachusetts State House, this was my [...]

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March is National Brain Injury Awareness Month- Get Involved!

March 13, 2011
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Advocate for Brain Injury Research and Treatment The Brain Injury Association of America has proclaimed March as National Brain Injury Awareness Month. The purpose is to increase awareness of brain injury prevention and treatment, and to advocate for increased funding for brain injury research and treatment. Get the Facts The Centers for Disease Control estimates [...]

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Brain Injury Caregivers: Draw, Sculpt, Paint, and Play!

February 15, 2011
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Brain injury caregivers can rally creativity and benefit from the fun, release, and exploration that art has to offer. You don’t have to be a “real artist” to enjoy a new way of expressing your feelings and ideas. You might even find, as I did, that being creative through art carried over to more imaginative [...]

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Brain Injury Caregivers: Express, Explore, Energize, and Create!

February 9, 2011
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Brain injury family caregivers can easily get into the habit of putting others needs ahead of our own. Sometimes it feels easier to set aside our hobbies and passions in service to caregiving.  Last week I attended the Association of Writers and Writing Programs Conference in Washington, DC. Wow! Six thousand writers, teachers, publishers, and [...]

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Brain Injury Survivor: A New Identity Composed with Pride and Skills

January 31, 2011
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A severe anoxic brain injury stole my husband Alan’s identity and memory. Within days of the brain injury, the parts of himself that survived started showing up in his physical gestures long before he could use words. While he was in the ICU, Alan had a jungle of wires and tubes wrapped around his body [...]

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Brain Injury Rehabilitation- Building Anew on the Essence of Identity

January 21, 2011
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Brain injury stole my husband Alan’s memory and identity, along with many cognitive skills. In rehabilitation, we started the long process of reacquainting Alan with some basic facts about his life. Every patient had a “memory book” which contained the most essential information about who they were and what happened to land them in this [...]

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Brain Injury: The Cruel Thief of Identity and Memory

January 20, 2011
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Brain injury wreaks havoc on the fiber of our being, our sense of who we are in the world.  When my husband Alan suffered a massive heart attack and cardiac arrest, his heart stopped and so did life as we knew it. Doctors performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for almost an hour before Alan’s heart fluttered [...]

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Recovering from Brain Injury-Healing and Rehab One Step at a Time

January 18, 2011
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Congresswoman Gabriele Gifford’s traumatic brain injury continues to be the focus of national attention. Many of us await the daily updates from her doctors about what happened today and what that means. We want assurance that a gesture, a smile, a flicker of recognition imply that she will make a full recovery. That this horror [...]

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Professor Cromer Learns to Read- Happy First Birthday!

January 14, 2011

One year ago this week the first copy of Professor Cromer Learns to Read: A Couple’s New Life after Brain Injury was tucked carefully inside my storm door by a UPS driver. I burst into tears; I jumped up and down; I tore the pumpkin-colored cover out of the box and clutched it to my [...]

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