Thank you for your support and participation on my Facebook page, The Brain Fairy – Living with Brain Injury and on my website www.thebrainfairy.com As of this month it has been two years that I have been doing this. It has helped me in my journey of recovery. I feel that I cannot say, or that any of us can say, a journey to recovery. To me, that means recovery is a final destination. I think that after a brain injury there is no end point in recovery. It keeps going. We can’t stop working to make progress in improving or maintaining the improved functionality of our brain especially as we also start experiencing the effects of aging.
We also can’t stop raising awareness of brain injury whether it’s due to traumatic brain injury, stroke, aneurysm, anoxia or whatever the cause. I did not understand the impacts of a brain injury before it happened to me even after seeing it happen to people I know. I think there’s been much more awareness in recent years due to the soldiers returning from the Middle East wars and the NFL players suffering from brain injuries. But there’s still a long way to go in educating people about what a brain injury does to you.
About 3 years ago I was talking to my husband about some problems I had that day and I said “I guess the brain fairy just wasn’t helping me that day”. That’s where the name of my website came from. How our brain works and how it repairs itself is still a mystery. Medical professionals can do much to help in recovery but there is still a mystifying process that brings our brain back to a better place after a brain injury. For me, the “brain fairy” has been that elusive thing that has caused the problems and healing associated with my brain injury. I do not understand how it works but slowly things have worked better in this mysterious world of my brain.
When I started the The Brain Fairy I was dabbling to challenge my brain but hoped that someone would visit and get some benefit from the information available on the site and from the posts I wrote in my blog. My goal was first to get maybe 50 views a month on my site but I am happy that so many more people visited than I expected. As of a couple of evenings ago, I have reached 30,000 views for the 2 years in existence.
So thank you all for your interest and support. You have helped me make my brain get better. Two years ago, I needed perfect silence and needed to be well rested to write anything I posted or to do any of the maintenance work on the website. Yesterday evening after a busy day of doing other things, I wrote this, and I was listening to music at the same time. I couldn’t have done that 2 years ago. I have gotten so much better in this time in so many ways.
Keep visiting me and I’ll keep visiting you to share our experiences and important things to know about the brain.
Linda W. Arms (a.k.a. Mina Kitty)
Visit me:
Web site and blog – www.thebrainfairy.com
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Brain-Fairy-Living-with-Brain-Injury/288317964619749
Email me at: MinaK@thebrainfairy.com
thank you all for sharing
It’s 4& 1/2 years since my aneurysm burst & I had a massive sub-arachnoid Hemarrage ( I still have problems spelling that, & I have had to push myself to continue writing rather than just giving up. I struggle with severe fatigue 7 chronic pain in my head as well as feeling down whenever I happen upon a circumstance that makes me think” I used to be able to do that easily” Gradually, I’m getting better at telling myself “snap out of it kid, those days are gone, so make the most with what you’ve got”. Multiple sources of noise (like in a shopping centre of restaurant) bother me & focused conversations really make me tired. There is a lo of music that I used to like to listen to that I can’t handle hearing anymore (Sympohonies & orchestral music). I’m a lot better at dealing with my anxiety and fatigue than I used to be, and life doesn’t look as bleak as it has for the past 4 & 1/2 yrs. I’m thinking that I’ve possibly reached a point in my ongoing recovery(I found I had to view it as continuous & ongoing to keep my sanity) where how I am now is possibly “as good as it gets” although I haven’t stopped looking for ways, minor or major, of improving my healing. Living with Brain Injury takes a lot of courage & effort, but it’s worth it.
Thank you so much for sharing your struggles, suffering, and triumphs!! You have been an inspiration to me! i especially can relate to the need for since to write, or do tasks, ….its has been 3 and a half yrs since ny Brian injury adnI still need silence to do my writing and my financial task, almost any task whereas before BI I was able to listen to music , look things up on the internet, research books, answer phones calls. Thank you for mankind this a less lonely journey!