November 10, 2015

Hi everybody. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the present.

I presently met with my new case worker. She said to me, "Brian, you seemed a little depressed. Perhaps you're depressed." I felt like saying, "Depressed?! Who the hell wouldn't be? Come on, give me a break! I think you'd be abnormal if you weren't depressed." I don't have major depression, but yeah, I'm bummed out because of the way I am. It could be because my dog stinks so bad. What's with that anyway? Does anyone out there know why dogs roll in crap?

You know, it's been getting kind of tiring. I've been using my up n go every day. This is the third time I've used it to learn how to walk. When I said third time, I meant third chunk of time. Every time I learn, I get put back in hospital and have to start from square one. Like a game of shoots and ladders. It's helpful though. It's exhausting, but it helps you walk. It's amazing. You know, but every step is well thought out and executed. You can't rush it. That's for sure. I'll tell you, just taking 20 steps is like running a marathon. It takes two people to help you, and you want a well deserved martini at the end of it, but that martini will have to wait. In the meantime, it's just hard work.

Not much else to report. I'm just doing more and more water therapy. Water therapy in conjunction with the New Step has made huge improvements in my walking. I also wear my weight vest as well as my leg braces. I feel like I'm a Chinese warrior in a wicker fighting suit getting ready for battle. I mean, come on. It's crazy! Can they put one more piece of apparatus on me? Actually, let's not talk about it cause my therapist might find one more thing to put on me. Like I said before, you can't get hung up on the equipment. It's a drag putting all this stuff on, but it's just for the moment. Anyway, it's very Jean Paul Gaultier of the '80's. All I need is a nice dinner jacket.

One last thing I'd like to talk about. You know, every day is different. This morning I woke up and I had a hard time with my speech. everyone keeps saying, "What did you say?" In my mind I think I sound clear, but I probably sound like the teacher in the Peanuts comic strip. Wah wahwah wah wahwah wah. I feel like someone hit me in the face with a laptop computer. Oh well, just another day in the world of Traumatic Brain Injury. I'm gonna leave it at that. Check out my other blog where I talk about my sordid past.

Have a good week. Love, B. Nice

November 3, 2015

Hi you guys. Welcome to my blog where I talk about the present.

Hey, check this out. I want you to read what a director of a film festival said. I did a film with Adam and Erin Hall. Check it out.

"I've personally screened more than 50 films as a member of the Alexandria Film Festival program committee but wanted to bring two in particular to your attention (the full schedule is here: http://alexfilmfest.com/2015-festival/schedule-of-events/ ):

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OFFSET: SEEING BEAUTY THROUGH A BRAIN INJURY 

(Saturday November 7​, ​12:00pm, Beatley Central ​Library, ​Special Guest: Adam Hall​, admission open to public​) 

Brian Nice, formerly a globetrotting fashion photographer, is now wheelchair bound having suffered through multiple brain surgeries to remove seizure inducing brain lesions. He cannot walk or feed himself but mentally he’s all there and decides to go on a cross-country road trip with the help of family and friends, taking photographs all the way using a low end film based camera. He talks about his condition as do his mom, dad, friends, and his surgeon.

 

It’s an inspiring story but not in a disease-of-the-week-special variety. He is stubborn and philosophical about what has happened to him. Especially painful is listening to and watching his mom and dad talk about what has happened. But it’s a pleasure to see a film like this without sugarcoating, especially if your family has experienced traumatic medical episodes."

Now I'll talk about what happened this week.

You know what's kind of weird? I notice that when it's low pressure outside, I dont feel so good. But when it's a high pressure weather system, I feel great. For example, today is sunny, warm, high pressure. It's a great day. Yesterday was the same.  I thought, Wow! I think I'll go into the other room! My life is sad when I get excited about going into the other room. The reason why I went into the other room is I wanted to hang a painting I bought from a friend in Paris. Let me tell you about this painting, a little side note. I'm going to go off on a little tangent here. My friend was in Italy, having a coffee outside. All of a sudden he was surrounded by a pack of wild dogs. They attacked him. It was total chaos. It inspired him to make the painting I bought from him. I thought I'd share that with you. This guy was a good friend. One day we were sitting in Paris complaining about something when he said to me, "Look over there. I'm never going to complain again." I looked over and I saw a girl sitting at a cafe table. She had no arms. She picked up a cigarette with her foot and lit the cigarette with the other foot, and then she started drinking her coffee with her other foot. Pretty wild. Like I said, sometimes you gotta watch out for what you're complaining about.

The only other thing really, that happened this week, is I got much better at my balance. I'm able to use my up n go more often. I attribute my success to the weight vest I've been wearing. I've been better at everything, walking in the water, the up n go, the new step, everything. It's pretty wild. My parents have yet to let me do the dishes though, or borrow the car.

The only other thing I can think about is, when you have traumatic brain injury, you'll have different emotions you go through as you get better. Right now I'm really frustrated. I'm over people feeding me. I mean, I feel like a freaking parrot. I'm over people dressing me, and being stuck in this wheelchair. I can go on and on, but you keep moving forward. Have a goal you want to reach. My goal is a barstool and good marguerita. Just kidding, kind of. No, my goal is to walk onto a ship and walk to my friend's hotel in Paris.

That's all for this week. I'm gonna go make a fire (in the fireplace…). Have a good week. I love and miss you guys. B. Nice

Oh yeah, here's my link to my blog where I talk about the past.

October 30, 2015

Hi everybody. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the present. I'm presently in bed and I am presently feeling like shit, so I'm not gonna blog to you about the present. Not this week anyway.

One cool thing that's happening soon is the film I did with Adam and Erin Hall will be showing in Alexandria Virginia, at a film festival. Go check it out, if you can. Or have a friend check it out. Here's the link.

Love, B. Nice

Oh yeah, here's the link to where I talk about the past.

October 20, 2015

Hi you guys. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the present. I'm presently sitting here wearing my weighted vest. It's pretty cool. I didn't think it would work, but it's amazing. I think I told you before, I lean to the left, so they put a lot of weight on the right side. I've been using it in therapy and it really helps. It's simple, but it really has great results. Just the other day, I worked with a therapist using my up n go. You know, the machine that helps me learn how to walk. Anyway, I used the vest in conjunction with the machine, the up n go, and it was amazing. I highly recommend it.

The other thing I've been doing a lot of is cooking along with my health assistant. It's pretty cool cause we cook every week. We cook with a recipe from the New York Times. It's fun. My health assistant does all the cutting and stuff but it's good for me, for my eyesight and so forth. This week we made a minestrone soup. It was real good. All of this talking about food has made me hungry so I'm gonna stop now and go eat.

Have a good week you guys. By the way, Boooooo. If you want to read my other blog, go to: www.briannice.com/blogspot

October 9, 2015

Hi you guys. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the present. I had you come over here to this blog because I was talking about a friend of mine from the past who came over for a visit. I talked a bit about this before, so I'll briefly give you a history. I lived in Australia and I showed my friend around, you know, the friend from Paris. He said, "Thank you, if you ever come to Paris, give me a call." Boy, did he make a mistake. In about two months I was on a plane to Paris. I called this guy and his girlfriend almost every night. I said, "Where are we going next?" It was like a never ending party with these guys. I ended up living there for two years. It was a lot of fun. I bring it up because, I met with my friend recently. My friend from Paris opened up a boutique hotel. I'll give you the link here. https://www.lesbains-paris.com/en/

It was fun going out with these guys because I saw Paris as a real local, as a true Parisian, not as a tourist. So, if you want to see Paris as a Parisian, I strongly recommend you go over there and stay at my friend's hotel. It will be a lot of fun. When my friend left the other day, he said, "If you come to Paris, look me up." I'm looking at ship schedules right now (ha, ha, ha). I told him to be careful what he says.

P.S. As a gift, he brought me a T-Shirt.

I've been going back to my rehab hospital almost every day. I've become like the mayor of the hospital. Everyone says, "Hi Brian, nice to see you again." My favorite is when they say, "Hi Brian, how's it going?" I select one of the voices I have and go, "Whooop whoop whoop zzzzzzzzz" or "HIUuUUuummmmm" - You see, when you're in a wheelchair, you can make any noise you want. People say, "Aww the guy's messed up. Let him do what he wants." There's one therapist there. She was my speech therapist. Whenever I see her, I say, in a strong Australian accent, "G'day mate, How ya doin' Love? Don't be a tosser." She says to me, "What's with the accent?" I say, "I don't know! You gave it to me!" There's another therapist there. He was my therapist when I was inpatient. Whenever I see him, I'll call him Dave, whenever I see him I say, "Dave, you're so ugly, they slapped your mother when you were born." or I say, "Dave, you're so ugly, if you were a woman going in for a makeover, it would take three hours just to get an estimate." Then there's Mike who is in the pool. As I'm being lowered into the pool, I say to him loudly, "Mike, my mother says I'm immature. Do you think I am, Captain Nipple?"

The point is, when you're this messed up, you gotta have fun. You gotta have a laugh. Otherwise, it's too depressing.

Things have been pretty wild with my new weighted vest. I told you before, I have a vest that's weighted and I use it in therapy. It's pretty basic, but it's wild how well it works. I practice walking, sitting up, you know, stuff like that. I've yet to try it swimming though. I'm sure there are a few people out there who would like me to try it out in the pool. Next step is to get some parallel bars so I can practice walking on land. Gravity is a bitch, let me tell you.

That's all from B. Nice. Have a good week. Love you all. Here's a link to my blog where I talk about the past.