Concussions and Lawn Chairs

The theory was developed by Christine Miserandino to explain what it is like living with a chronic illness or disability (the whole spoon thing may seem weird to you, but she was in a diner when she came up with the analogy and my guess is that knives would have been a bit more dangerous to play with):       “The difference in being sick and being healthy is having to make choices or to consciously think about things when the rest of the world doesn’t have to. The healthy have the luxury of a life without choices, a gift most people take for granted.  Most people start the day with unlimited amount of possibilities, and energy to do whatever they desire, especially young people. For the most part, they do not need to worry about the effects of their actions… I used spoons to convey this point.”   A healthy person will have an unlimited number of spoons, but a Spoonie, someone with a chronic illness or disability, will wake up in the morning ...

It's Friday! Lately, I have been sharing important information/facts about concussions, visual snow syndrome and migraines every Friday via Instagram (@concussionsandlawnchairs). Today, I thought (hey!) maybe I should share some of this information here, too. I think knowledge IS power. AND the more you know means you know more, right?  Up this week is a super awesome video by Clifford Robbins and TEDEd about What Happens when you Have a Concussion? Click here to watch. Have a wonderful weekend! -K xoxo

Click here to read my guest blog  Life is Beauti-Fall   that I wrote for Brain Energy Support Team. Hope you like it! - K xoxo

Hi! Remember me? It has been far too long since my last post, and unfortunately (or fortunately?), that means that I have a lot to say now . Don’t get too excited though. This is going to be a ‘junk drawer’ of a blog; a bunch of random items all conveniently located in one spot.  here's a photograph in case you've forgotten me A caveat: I haven’t been too well lately, so I imagine there are far more spelling, formatting and grammatical errors in this post than usual (I really need to work on getting that editor). I’m sorry! GUEST BLOG POSTS   I have been writing for the Brain Energy Support Team (‘BEST’). If you’ve missed reading my blogs (Mom!), you can read two of my posts here: Changing the Language around Self-Care We know self-care is important, but why don’t we practice it regularly? Writer and blogger, Kirsten Short, explores how language impacts our perception of self-care in a fascinating article for the BEST blog. I’m a Brain Injury Survi...

I recently spent a ladies-only weekend away with my mom, my aunts and a few of my cousins (in-law).  My Mom has three sisters. Think of the women from the novel Devine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. They love wine, their families, shenanigans and each other.   I remember thinking to myself – while the sisters were giggling uncontrollably and reminiscing about that night 50+ years ago when my aunt fell off the bed after watching an episode of Bonanza – that: “wow. I’m sure lucky to have these ladies in my life.” Okay. I should probably clarify that it wasn’t so much the Bonanza story that made me feel so fortunate (to be honest, I didn’t really see what was so funny about the story —   maybe, you had to be there?) It actually wasn’t just one thing, but a series of small, individually insignificant, yet wonderful, moments that occurred during our weekend together. Don’t worry — I won’t go into detail as the Bonanza story was probably enough. There was just a lot ...