Print Comment

Targeted Search

Use the filters to browse the information we have available or to narrow your search results for a specific audience (e.g. caregivers, military, children), a preferred type of content (e.g. videos, blogs, articles), or by topics of interest (e.g. family concerns, legal issues, symptoms).
You have selected:Living with Traumatic Brain Injury
658 Results

Good News Disguised as Bad News

David and his wife smiling surrounded by foliage

Last month, I found out that I qualified for a Cornell University research study about brain injury.... I ruefully admit that I was nervous going into the testing. What brokenness in me would they find? I do pretty well these days, well enough that most people might not notice my challenges. But I still have an ego and can be more sensitive that I care to admit.

The Inherent Uncertainty of Life After Brain Injury

David and his wife, wearing "Wild African Trek" vests, smile in front of a hippopotamus

If there’s one thing that is all but guaranteed after a brain injury, it’s uncertainty. So much of what we face as survivors is unique to the brain injury community. Brain injury is often — but not always — invisible to others and no two brain injuries are alike. The challenges I face are often different from those other survivors face. Often invisible, and always unpredictable, brain injury is a unique confluence of challenges.

LoveYourBrain Retreats Improve Quality of Life After Brain Injury

LoveYourBrain participants press palm to palm during yoga in tree pose

LoveYourBrain Retreats is a novel, free, five-day multimodal program designed to benefit people with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and their caregivers. This study showed the integration of mindfulness, gentle yoga, brain health nutrition, art therapy, and community is an effective rehabilitation model to improve quality of life and has significant potential for expanding access to complementary therapy after TBI.

Paying It Forward

Norma and Steven smiling in front of Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital

Doing something kind for another person, no matter how big or small, not only positively impacts our own mental health but it can also bring joy to someone else. Even tiny actions go a long way. It feels good to do good. And, in my experience, good begets good.

Surviving My Flood of 2022

David and his wife smiling from a simulated space station

This is the month that I mark 12 years as a brain injury survivor. These “crash anniversaries” have pushed me to reflect; it’s hard not to look back at the “before and after” chapters of my life — sifting, shuffling, and reinterpreting the contents of each.

Healing Your Way

A beagle, named Rusty, with Aaron and Steven

I am a big believer in working through what I walk through. If I have learned anything from everything that has come from the day of the crash, it is that we are each responsible for how we respond — and heal from — what happens in our lives. We must learn to heal our way.

Staying in the Middle Lane

David and his wife smiling by a cabin in the woods

Almost 12 years ago my life changed forever as I joined the brain injury club, a club that no one ever expects — or wants — to be part of. And early on, the phrase “recovery is lifelong” completely and totally annoyed me. I had always been and remain a classic Type A personality. So, it comes as no surprise that I wanted no part of the “recovery is lifelong” model of living out the rest of my life. My plan was to get over my brain injury and move on. 

Lost and Found

Steven crouches by Aaron's white memorial cross in the woods by two wooden deer sculptures

Over the last 10 years ago, since my sons, Aaron and Steven, were involved in a fatal car accident, in which Aaron did not survive and Steven  sustained a severe TBI, my life has resembled a lost-and-found bin, filled to the top, running over with more emotions than I could ever imagine sorting through. 

Why I Chose Not To Listen

David gives a thumbs up while tandem sky-diving with an instructor in a clear blue sky

Last month, Sarah and I took a trip to rural Maine for another first-time life experience. I was more excited than fearful when I jumped out of a plane at 14,000 feet and I can now add skydiver to my life résumé! Had I listened to the advice I received from doctors a decade earlier, the thought of jumping out of a plane would have seemed preposterous.