The slowest part of the body to heal is the brain. Furthermore, brain injury patients that are middle-aged females are the second most likely to reinjure their brains and/or injure another part of their bodies. The group that beats mine is males in their twenties.
Because of these facts, my Love has become very protective of my well-being, and at times it has been grievous. This is an honor that my surroundings are studied and disected cognitively by him and eventually by me as well. When I first arrived home, I emotionally wanted to complete everything I was known to do (give massages, dance, drive, etc). For whatever reasons, my view of my identity is largely, almost completely based upon what I do versus character traits.
The medical approach to the statistics is to tell the patient prior to his/her release that he/she should not drive until a neuropsychiatrist assesses the patient’s thinking skills. During my stay and after my release, occupational, recreational and speech therapy largely were involved with cognitive skills such as logic puzzles, semantics, and more. After two weeks of out-patient therapy, I was bored out of my mind and would return home depressed for the day, as I saw no “challeges” that were overly challenging or reflected poor cognitive skills. Dan was 110% behind me dismissing the therapies as he saw my inward response (for the rest of the day or at least a good part of it until I shifted out of it through music, humor, or talking with our family at home).
I still have not been approved to drive alone by my husband. He has good things to say about my driving but is wary of the survivors that fall into my group (middle-aged ladies who were brain-injured) and the damage that often occurs after our release from the hospital. Dan says I could drive by myself versus be a “student driver” if full coverage became a part of insurance coverage; HOWEVER, Dan still is wary of the statistics of my group. I have no interest in doing this until complete confidence in me is communicated.
A Fighting Healer's Travels 
Reblogged this on Broken Brain – Brilliant Mind and commented:
Good food for thought
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Very interesting. When I was released from the Rehab Hospital, about 9 weeks post injury, I think… No one said anything to me about driving. I didn’t drive for about two months by my own choice.
But I’m not sure if that was restraint due to the TBI or the loss of vision in my left eye. Sadly, six and a half years post injury, my response will be “I dunno”.
I do know that when I got back to driving, and ever since, I flat refuse to let someone drive in my blind spot on the left hand side. I can’t believe how many people like to do that. I’m in the right lane, they pull up to pass and then just sit there off my left rear fender. I typically slow down to make them pass, the back up to the speed limit.
Driving does not bother me at all. I’ve done so much in my 60 years its incredible. For work a lot, for building up the land we now live on. Whew…an awful lot!
But I’m getting to where I don’t drive as far in a day. Work hard to make running errands a loop to be efficient and to stay out of traffic.
But I’m alive and doing well!!!
Stuart
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Thank you both for your posts.
Based upon my increased emotional state from time to time, I refuse to drive if I am not calm and composed. The other thing that I have noticed, as I am primarily a “student driver” to my husband at this time is that I can become distracted, which can decrease my awareness of traffic or my own actions. I have driven at least four times with his supervision; however, the last time, the gas tank was down to 1/8th of a tank, I was driving on the interstate, and I veered right almost into the lane that is for entering the interstate and allows for merging into my lane. This confirmed Dan’s concerns about me driving, even though I had not had such a predicament previously. HOWEVER, at home, I have had a greater tendency to lose composure to sadness and dismay to various things. Two main causes are disappointing a family member or being told how much of my life has changed and how I cannot do many of my ambitious dreams due to both the previous brain injury and also the recovering still occurring from spinal injuries to the point of titanium rod implants.
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