December 19, 2014

Hi you guys. Can you believe Christmas is a week away? Pretty crazy. I sat here for like ten minutes bitching about something to my friend. When you're like the way I am, you gotta blow off steam once in a while. It helps to have somebody to talk to. It's wild. I tried the weighted vest again yesterday and I'm still feeling the side effects from it. You basically wear a vest and they put weights on your weaker side. I think I talked about it before, but the weights act as a counterbalance to your weaker side. It kind of balances you up and makes it easier to do therapy. But the problem is, when I take the vest off, I feel weird for a day or so. Everyone keeps calling me Eileen… It's pretty wild though, how it works. You would never think it works but it does. And to have it cleared and have insurance pay for it is pretty complicated. You would think it would be easy, but it's not.

Going back to Christmas, the one good thing about brain injury is that people give you some slack when you don't give them presents. I can't exactly hop in the car and go Christmas shopping. I usually give people a drawing that a two year old could do.

Not much else to report. It's all been the same old thing day in and day out. I would like to benchmark where I'm at because in the future I'll look back at a blog like this and I'll see where I was at. I can get around with the wheelchair and get around fairly decently. I can use my hands now which is pretty cool. But man, those door jambs, they hurt when I hit my hand against them. My face is still a little numb and tight. It's really difficult to talk. But it's always been like that. My vision is getting better. It's a good thing since I'm a photographer. Let's see, what else? I can roll over by myself and I don't freak out when I'm on my stomach. Before it was pretty freaky. Imagine this, imagine being taped up like a mummy and being put on your stomach. I felt really claustrophobic, but now I can move onto my back. It all sounds trivial, but believe me, it's all giant steps for me. I know I'll get back to walking one day, but I gotta be patient. You know, I say it over and over but, you gotta remember how lucky you are. Just to be able to stand up and walk. I'll get there one day. Now I'll go back to trying to put tape on the bottom of my dog's feet. It's my only entertainment I have. See you guys next week. Oh, and have a good Christmas or holiday or whatever they call it. Have a great break. Love, B. Nice

Oh, here's a link to where I talk about the past and some photos I've been doing.

December 12, 2014

Hi you guys. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the present. I'm gonna dedicate this blog to my friend here who's typing this for me. You see I can't do much of anything including typing, but I'm still here.

You know, I still do therapy. I've been at the rehab hospital for years and years now. Just the other day I was in the gym. I noticed there were a lot of young people there. This is at the hospital. And then I started thinking about it. You know, each time I went to the hospital I would see more and more young people. The smart phones turn to dumb ass phones when you try to text and drive or talk on them and drive. The point is, I think there's an increase in young people getting hurt because of the dumb ass phones. So tell your kids or your friends not to text or talk while you're driving. I've said this over and over, but it's pretty graphic when you have breakfast with someone who has half a head.

You know what's pretty cool? I've been doing therapy with this vest. They attach weights to the vest. You see I have a hard time with my balance. The vest works as a counterweight. In other words, I lean to the left so they put more and more weight on the right and I do therapy with this vest. It actually works really good. I talked about it before but I highly recommend it. It's pretty cool. Besides, it gives me my girlish figure back.

The other thing I wanted to talk about was dreams. You see, when I have a stress dream I think it triggers what I call "moments" or mini seizures. I kind of woke up in the middle of the night having a moment. It was all very strange but it was triggered by a dream that really stressed me out. I dreamed I got married again (just kidding), but it was a pretty heavy thing to go through. I'm gonna leave you with a few photos I've been doing. I'll put one in the front and one in the back.

Have a good week. Love you guys.

Oh, one other thing. You know, we had thanksgiving and I'm really thankful for my daughter. That's it. Talk to you next week and here's the link to my blog about the past. B. Nice

December 5, 2014

Hi, welcome to the blog where I talk about the present. And I'm presently sitting in bed, by the fire with my doggy at my feet, feeling sorry for myself. I have a wicked cold. Anytime you have a head injury and something like a cold, the cold will knock you on your ass.

This past week we had Thanksgiving. It reminded me I'm so thankful to my family and my friends, the medical people that have kept me alive. The other cool thing was my daughter came to visit. It was short but check it out. It snowed. She loves snow. It was about six inches of snow. Pretty cool. You know, every morning she wakes me up to watch sponge Bob. I think she's on to something because you shouldn't wake up and watch the news. The news is so depressing. Have you watched it lately. I think I'll watch Sponge Bob from now on. My favorite character is Patrick. I don't think he has a brain.

Anyway, I start my therapy next week. You know, the weighted vest I was talking about before. It's pretty cool. It's kind of like a counter balance. I have weakness on my right so they put a lot of weight on my left. It works pretty good. I'll try therapy like sitting up, using a walker, etc. It's all new, cutting edge stuff. Some people can't believe it works, but they tried it on my and it works pretty good. My friend here is dealing with her family insurance and I think she's about to go through the roof. She's typing like she's about to kill my computer. There's one way to avoid the whole insurance thing. Become a ward of the state, like I am, lose everything. Have brain surgery a few times. And, if you're alive, at the very end, voila, you don't have to worry about insurance.

The other thing I've been doing a lot of lately is painting. It's a good way to get your mind off of everything. And to exercise your hands. It's been a lot of fun. I'll show you a few examples. Hope you have a good week. Love, B. Nice

November 25, 2014

So, HI everybody! So check this out, my daughter's here. She says, "Hi." My friend here will type everything we say, like cat, dog, mom, dad. Say something, Bah. Bah. Bah. Bah. Anything else? Anyway, it's great having her here. I'm exhausted, but it's great. Let's see, what else did we do this week? She's making noises. What else did we do this week? We rode the power chair. We went to a museum. We went to the library, and it's going to snow tomorrow. And rain maybe. The point is we're having fun and it's nice to mix things up. You know, get out of the routine of therapy. She is here for a short time. Only 5 days, but it'll be 5 days of great fun. It's kind of like therapy for me.

The other thing I've been doing is thinking about images from the road trip. I would love to do a show of my work so I'm thinking of what images to use. On a side note, my little one just told me she's going to make cookies for the snowy day and the frosting tomorrow. Sorry, I went off on a bit of a tangent there. The other thing that's been happening a lot is I've been getting little moments. They come more often when my little one visits. I guess it's stress. Who knows. Just another sign of traumatic brain of injury.

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Basically, I took this week off from therapy. But having my daughter here is like therapy. I think if I did both it would be too much. I'm gonna leave it there because I have some face painting to do apparently, and the cookie cutting. I'll pick out a few images I've been working on, and my little one says Hi and Bye.

November 21, 2014

Hi you guys. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the present, and I'm presently bummed out. I won't go into details, but when you're like this, a traumatic brain injury, your emotions go up and down and up and down. It's kind of a drag, but being bummed out is better than taking a dirt nap, right? Anyway, hey, check it out, last night I went to my friend's book signing. She came out with a photo book that's pretty cool The book is nicely done. I was very proud of her. But you know what, it drives home the fact that I can't handle crowds. Crowds and low light are just not my friends. I had to leave pretty quick. It's been years, but I still get a bad reaction to crowds. I guess it's my punishment for partying too much.

I still go to the gym Monday, Wednesday & Friday. You know when you're like this you really have to work on strength building. When you sit in a wheelchair for so long, believe me, you get weak. You know, not much else to talk about. I am psyched because my daughter's coming for a week. It's going to be a lot of fun. My health assistant doesn't like the chalk board. He's kind of weird about the chalk board so I think I'll go with my daughter and buy her a chalk board. That will be my entertainment. I refuse to grow up.

Have a good week. This is B. Nice signing off. I'll leave you with a few photos and the link to the blog about the past.