Facing the Challenge with team members offer encouragement, provide support and share in the celebration of the Pikes Peak Challenge! Feel free to donate to the collective team by clicking on the blue button. Or if you prefer to donate to an individual, please click on their personal campaign below.
I’m participating in the Pikes Peak Challenge Summit Hike
I’m participating in the Pikes Peak Challenge Summit Hike: I received my TBI, 7/17/, 1982, 40 days after my Honorable Discharge from the United States Air Force and just 45 days from my 22nd birthday….I am an old hand at living with this silent epidemic, that is called TBI. What frustrates me (just about everything) is that the only medical frontier left is the human brain and we really do not know more today than we did in 1982. TBI remains a mystery to all; but those of us who live with it everyday, because on the outside we look Great!
I even went on to graduate college after my accident. I felt on top of the world! I had defied the odds; survived a high speed motor vehicle accident, 10 day coma, and months of personal rehab……..there were no outpatient services in 1982; my recovery is very little me and a whole lotta God.
So…off I go with my diploma to make a difference in my little corner of the world; I recently retired from working…my work history would embarrass most. I had accepted the brain injury not the disability.
Brain Injury is different for each of us; I failed in the workplace because I lack the ability to process information from multiple inputs simultaneously. College gives you a course syllabus; the workplace does not. I did my best but my best was not good enough.
So…now I am becoming involved in advocacy work; I have always wanted to be a 14’er and saw this as an opportunity to cross that off my bucket list.
There are SO many survivors who cannot type on a keyboard or talk or walk or do any of the things that so many take for granted…and that is why I will do this, to help raise awareness for my peer group and society. I would also like to give the Real of Caring a HUGE Thank You for the work they have done regarding CBD’s….I am now Psychotropic-free and anxiety does not control my day!
If you are reading this and are a survivor struggling with anxiety, anger or any of the vast array of side effects common to TBI look up Realm of Caring and talk to one of their Care Team, they can help! Thanks for reading my Bio. 😉
PS. – Food for thought: If CO has 500,000 survivors, it would be safe to say that over 25 Million people nation-wide are living with a Brain Injury….I think 25,000,000 people could make one Hell of a voting block.
Just sayin’.
