TBI - Traumatic Brain Injury Resources

As Thing2 and I continue to deal with the traumatic brain injury resulting from her car accident in 2001, these are some resources we have found helpful.


Books and Videos we have seen or read
TED Talk: Jill Bolte Taylor 
Over My Head by  Claudia Osborn
My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor


Books and Videos we have not yet seen
Ted Talk: Jane McGonigal
TED Talk: Kim Gorgens Protecting the Brain Against Concusion
TED Talk: Michael Merzenich on the Elastic Brain

Web:
How Deep Can You Change  (BrainLine)

Book Awards - Handy page

My page of book award sites  -- What's up with Blogger... it lets me create pages that no one can access?!

I will be updating this list over time. --- If I can figure-out how to make if visible.

This fall the anchovies are plentiful, and the sea life is amazing.  I am going to try to get a day off in the week to so we can go whale watching, but failing that, we should just go on the weekend.

On Friday evening there were about 30 sea lions and hundreds of seagulls and terns swarming the entrance of the harbor feasting on the little fish.  It was like a sea-life version of a harvest festival with children frolicking around groups of adults.  We didn't see any pelicans.  They were probably already satiated and sleeping-off their food coma's elsewhere.

Last year thing2 shot this video featuring mostly pelicans.  The anchovies were coming right up on to the beach with the waves.

Starting at the 40-seconds mark you will see pelicans clumsily body-surfing.

Nellie Bly and the story of the story of Nellie Bly

I have only a passing acquaintance with the story of Nellie Bly.  I believe there was a paragraph or two in my history book regarding her groundbreaking journalistic expose about a New York mental hospital which she got herself admitted to by pretending mental illness.

I've run across snippets about her over the years, and would like to read a serious biography of her.  For some reason, all the books I've seen until now were childrens.

Last night I noticed an audio book called 'Eighty Days', a new book about her race around the world.  I'll post more on that as soon as I've read it...

However, my library also has book about Nellie Bly published in 1951 by the American Flange and Manufacturing Company.  What?!?   Why would this company print this book?  I will have to check it out. --

Meanwhile - online resources :

Things that go mmfffbt, thump, bump in the night

As I mentioned in my catch-up post.  Two of our neighbor's cats have chosen to reside with us a majority of the time.  We recently had two cat doors installed, one to the garage, the other from the garage to the outside so we won't have to let them in and out manually when it gets too cold to leave the sliding door cracked as we do now.  In one week's time they were trained, and one of the cats uses the doors regularly, seeming to enjoy the independence of coming and going as he wishes.
The other is less enthusiastic, seeming to feel that as his staff, we are shirking our duty if we don't let him in and out the sliding door.

The other night, we had just gone to bed when Thing2 said, I hear some muffled meowing, I think he brought something in.  I got up and looked, and all I saw on the floor in the living room with the cat was a feathery cat toy.  But then Thing2 came and looked, and saw it.  A mouse.  It was alive, but not moving -- all legs out.   I got a towel and carried it outside and put it in some bushes, and once it was safely in the towel, it did move -- maybe just playing dead earlier.
Two nights later, a racoon came in at about 5AM.  I knew we were going to have to close it down at night, but I was hoping we would have a little longer before it was a problem.

Hard times, some times

There are so many ups and downs in my life, sometimes I cannot keep track of which direction I'm going.
Down: Forgot to set the alarm and woke up late.  Had to run out of the house 10-minutes after I woke up, ruining my morning routine and setting the day up for a wobbly start.  Bonus points for having Thing2 be upset with me because she was also counting on my alarm, and unbeknownst to me, had an appointment at the lab first thing in the morning.
Up: Thing2 met me for lunch with her mother, and Thing2 and I had a nice moment together at the end of lunch.
Down: Got stuck in a meeting and was later getting home than I had expected/told Thing2.

Feels like I should try to find some more Up's to balance-out the downs, but can't do it tonight.  Some days are just like that.

Yesterday I related some of the really dark days of Thing2's illness to a friend, and the wife in my audio true-story book just died -- my brain has recently had too much negative input, which has definitely colored my mood.  It's not helped by Thing2's current problems with persistent weight loss.

Not my picture.  This would be way too scary a scene to stop and take pictures.

Life keeps zooming by

I have already updated this blog 5 times -- in my head.  Seriously, I keep thinking of great posts.  And I really want to write them, but I just don't have the time.  I have a 90 minute commute every day.  And that really takes a chunk out of my free time.
So I don't forget -- here are the posts I would have written, and may still write, if I ever get the time:

1. I now understand some people's obsession with their lawns.   I have discovered a similar obsession with my pool.  It's just a small pool, but I love caring for it and tinkering with all things poolish.  I was in heaven on Sunday, troubleshooting the sweeper.
2. We have accidentally 'stolen' two of our neighbors' three cats.  (The third one is half-wild and I don't think anyone can steal it.)  The two cats have moved-in with us voluntarily, after we had to put down our girl kitty in May after a long illness.
3. Mom has had one small heart attack and two small heart 'events' in the last 10 days.  On the small ones, the tests showed an amount of heart damage below the threshold they consider a heart attack, but enough to make them keep her in the hospital over night.
4. Some fabulous, unforgettable audio books.  Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, I Remember Nothing by Nora Ephron, Bossypants by Tina Fey, Where is the Mango Princess by Cathy Crimmins.
5. We've discovered that Thing2 has a moderate traumatic brain injury from her car accident.  It's been an eye-opening revelation.  Some of her biggest impairments are social.  'Mango Princess' is about a brain injury and its impact on a family.
6. Despite the fact that I love my work, and my job -  we are now living in a place where there are so many fun things I want to do - sailing, kayaking, swimming, frisbee, hackysack, kite flying - I can now imagine giving up work one day.

Update

I'm not sure who's still around to see this.  But for the benefit of anyone who does wander by, here's the run down.

After we moved to the town on the coast, in late June of 2012, it took 3-weeks (and super-human effort by the team of workers our agent arranged) to get our place fixed, painted and staged.  It sold in 4-days and closed in 21.  We were completely done with our old place by early August. So you would think it would not have taken us much time to find our next place right?  Wrong. There are not very many houses on the market, and fewer and fewer were available as the months went by.

However, after some drama (which I may write about in another post), we managed to buy a house ,and lucky for us, it is actually our dream house too.  Although by the time we found it in early March, we were willing to settle for anything we could bear to live in.  We got very lucky when this place came available.  It's everything I've ever wanted in a house.   Thing2 and I refer to it as our forever house.

We love living in a beach town.  And I am OK with my commute.

All's well that ends well as far as our housing goes.

Just another day in paradise

Many years later, and still Missing JournalSpace ... that says something

I was prompted to log in to this blog this morning - after a long, long absence - by a  longing for JournalSpace.  Missing the community and the individual bloggers who were there for me in a very difficult time.  After all these years I still keenly miss it.

This is a shout-out to all of my fellow former JournalSpacers.

Thank you for being there, and I miss you!

Sunset at the beach

Sorry I have no pictures due to moving chaos still not subsided enough to have a way to sync my camera...

Since we moved here I have tried to get down to the beach for sunset as often as I can.  Tonight I had a real treat.   There must have been fish in the water, because every sea creature except dolphins and whales were there having their evening nosh.  Pelicans, kites, gulls, cormorants, otter, sea lions.  I'm sure I forgot some.

The shore was alive.  And beautiful.

As I approached the stairs down to the beach, I could see the setting sun glinting off the brilliantly white kites soaring over the sand.  Later, the pelican's shadows were flicking across the lighthouse as they hovered and dove for their dinner.

Changes in gait indicate changes in brain

Footprints to Cognitive Decline and Alzheimer’s Are Seen in Gait - NYTimes

Five studies presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Vancouver this month provide striking evidence that when a person’s walk gets slower or becomes more variable or less controlled, his cognitive function is also suffering.

Coconut Curry Chicken -- definitely a keeper

I cooked the rest of the chicken tonight, using the mustard, curry, ginger, garlic mixture that had been sitting in the refrigerator for 2-days. One other change to the recipe -- instead of using sherry when I put the chicken into the oven, I used coconut milk. The chicken turned-out terrific! It was tender and tasty... I could not have asked for a better outcome. Of course it helped that I started-out with 'air-chilled' chicken, which is much more tender and tasty than conventional chicken. What's 'air-chilled' chicken you ask? It's a process where the bird is sprayed with disinfectant and then chilled, instead of being dunked in chlorinated water. It is more effective at disinfecting the chicken, and widely used in Europe and Asia. And it also leads to better tasting chicken and crispier skin when it is cooked.

iNaturalist.org

iNaturalist.org "Where you can record what you see in nature, meet other nature lovers, and learn about the natural world." If you are interested in tracking your observations, this looks like a great site to use. I have not explored its other features. My first entry was the Grossbeak I observed last week.

(Not my picture, but that's what it looked like.)

The one I saw was hopping around on a trumpet vine, pecking at the flowers.

Coconut Chicken Epilogue

I did try the Coconut Chicken recipe. However, I followed it only loosely. I did not use egg and flower, I just used the ginger, garlic, mustard and coconut. It was tasty, but a bit bland. I purposely did a small batch and held-out 3/4 of the chicken for the next try. At Thing2's suggestion, I decided to try it the second time with two modifications. 1) Add curry to the mixture 2) Let the mixture sit the the refrigerator over night so the spices have a chance to ripen. This evening I'll try it again with the modified process and see how it is. This is similar to what it looked like.

Need to try some new recipes

I am looking at recipes on epicurious this morning. Thing2 is losing weight, and needs to have some easy grab-and-go meals prepared. She's bored with everything we've been cooking, to the point where it is not appetizing any more. Coconut is something that we are trying to incorporate into her diet because it is easy to digest. I'm considering trying this Coconut Chicken recipe: Crisp Coconut Chicken with Roasted Red Bell Pepper Sauce

Restless legs

I was very tired tonight, and went to bed before 10pm. However, I suffer from restless legs, and I just couldn't stand to be in bed any more. So here I am, at 10:58pm, killing time and waiting for them to settle down. My brother took up running to handle his restless legs. I won't do that, but there is a racquetball court where we live, and I'm thinking that would be a great way to strengthen my muscles and wear-out my legs. I'm a good tennis player, but I've only played racquetball a few times in my life. I hope it's something that can be played alone, because I don't have anyone to play with right now.

Saturday Morning and it's time to make oatmeal

This morning I made our first oatmeal at the new place. This is a sturdy standby meal for Thing2. We do it the old-fashioned way. Thirty-minutes of boiling for those steel-cut oats. And we add dried wild blueberries, dried bing cherries, dried coconut, jumbo raisins, and fresh pear and apple. Put some nuts on it when it's done and it's quite substantial. We'll eat if fresh this morning and put the rest in the fridge for easy re-heat another day.

I posted this picture of a meerkat just because I like it. :)

Testing the Water...

It's been a long time since I posted -- It's kind of scary that this all just sits out there in the ether, waiting... Thing2 and I just relocated to a city near the sea... The move itself was easier than I expected. However, it's not really over yet, as we still have boxes blocking half the living room, and a pyramid of space bagged clothes spilling off the bed in the spare bedroom. The commute is better than I anticipated, although I understand traffic is lighter in the summer - so I'll just enjoy it now and not borrow trouble. This weekend I'll post the two dressers in the garage on CraigsList, and hopefully we'll get a TV and sign-up with Comcast in preparation for the Olympics. We left gave away our old conventional TV when we moved, so I've been 3-weeks with no TV. We had cut back substantially -- basically 30-minutes to and hour a day tops. But I find I do miss it a little. I also hope to sign-up for a library card tomorrow. I finished reading my current book last week, and all my other books are still in boxes. One other thing that still isn't unpacked is the keyboard to my home computer. When I get it set up I will be able to post pictures of the new scenery. I don't know if any of my old readers are still out there -- but if you happen to stop by -- please say Hi in the comments.

2010 in Review

Refdesk has a list of "2010 best in * "websites that is as comprehensive as one would expect from this excellent site.

Some of my favs from the list are:
Google: Google's Top Searches - Year-end Zeitgeist for 2010
NPR: Best Books of 2010
National Geographic: Best Photography of 2010
New York Times, The: 100 Notable Books of 2010
New Yorker, The: The Best NASA Photographs of 2010
Popular Science: Best New Innovations of 2010
Time: 50 Best Websites of 2010

Home Again

I just returned from visiting my parents in Southern California. My mother had a re-do of her hip replacement surgery two weeks ago. Unfortunately, while she was in the pre-surgery waiting room she had a stroke. She has some major problems with her vision as a result, but few mental problems and no physical weakness.

It was great to visit with Mom and Dad. Brother number 3 (Bro3) and my sister were also there and it was a bonus to get a chance to visit with them too.

Be grateful for any time you can spend with your loved ones. Time is precious.