Surviving Traumatic Brain Injury

SPEAK OUT! Itty-Bitty GIANT Steps

SPEAK OUT! Itty-Bitty Giant Steps will provide a venue for brain-injury survivors and caregivers to shout out their accomplishments of the week.

If you have an Itty-Bitty Giant Step and you would like to share it, just send an email to me at donnaodonnellfigurski@gmail.com.

If you are on Facebook, you can simply send a Private Message to me. It need only be a sentence or two. I’ll gather the accomplishments and post them with your name on my blog approximately once a week. (If you do not want your last name to be posted, please tell me in your email or Private Message.)

I hope we have millions of Itty-Bitty Giant Steps.

Here are this week’s Itty-Bitty Giant Steps.

Dan Gregory  (caregiver)…I want to share some wonderful news. My wife, Nichole Gregory, after suffering a TBI due to a motorcycle accident in 2010, has just finished an accelerated course in drug and alcohol counseling and behavioral science. She was able to make the Dean’s List and graduate after only eighteen months of school. She now has her Bachelor’s Degree, and she is getting a job with the State of Nebraska. She will be working with high-risk, troubled youth in a crossover youth position. (The program is designed to keep young people from “crossing over” into the judicial system.) I am so very proud of her. She does what she can in spite of her TBI. She is an amazing woman and an inspiration, not just to me, but also to everyone around her. Unfortunately, long hours at school leave her emotionally and physically drained, but I am proud of her for not giving up the fight.

Timothy Guetling (survivor)…I want to tell you about my greatest TBI survival success. I had my TBI at 16. Next was acceptance; the fog lifted at 25. I adopted the vegan/vegetarian lifestyle at that time, and I was receptive to what that did to keep me healthy and to be alert to compassion for myself and all life. At 32, I was given the opportunity to realize the Master/Soul/God/Self-Inside through daily meditation of the Light/Sound principle. Since my acceptance, receptivity, and realization, though I have the repercussive effects of my TBI and always will, my life has been nothing but blissful “recovery evolution,” and it continues.

Sophia Hill Kusderci  (caregiver)…I have an incredible, happy moment I want to share. Anyone who knows us understands that pillow-arranging was a huge thing in our marriage. It was our nightly ritual. My husband, Ahmet, did it to show me that he cared, even when he was angry. For twelve years, he did it. It stopped after the accident, and I just accepted it as another change about Ahmet. I simply thought that it was something I couldn’t have anymore. But…in the past couple of weeks, he’s been randomly doing it. It’s become a habit again – arranging my pillows only for ME to show me HIS love. I’m blessed by life’s small gifts. This, I believe, is a huge part of the lesson from his accident. Thank you.

YOU did it!

Congratulations to all contributors!

(Clip Art compliments of Bing.)