Mina Kitty looks fine when you see her but after spending a few days with her you’ll start noticing that she’ll often seem weaker and off balance in the evenings. She’s slower to get up out of the chair after spending a long meal talking to others, or slower getting out of the car and starting to walk after driving or being the passenger in a car. Sometimes she’ll tip to the right side when just standing there or walking. Those are just the small physical things you might see.
Mina Kitty’s biggest problem, however, is how her cognitive functions are working in her brain. These are the things that control your speaking, understanding spoken and written words, seeing, memory, analyzing, doing math, handling emotions, noise, stress, illness….. Your brain and how it works is the essence of who you are. Once it becomes injured it can change many things about you. Injuries can result in subtle little changes or in absolutely devastating, extremely disabling changes.
Whether you are a victim, caring family member, medical provider or you’re just interested in the story, I hope you come away with a greater awareness and understanding about this disability.