Alex Wilson - Brain Injury

(just the) "Brain Injury" Entries

For Christmas 2007 I received a car accident and a mild traumatic brain injury (thanks, Santa!) and almost a year later I'm still dealing with something called "post concussion syndrome." Not the most fun part of this blog, and apparently no good as a legal defense if I decide to send Santa some payback this December.

Disconnect
June 1, 2009

No real way to look at my brain healing progress test results as positive news, and no real advantage to looking at them as negative. Not giving up or anything (though I think I've had enough of failing different medications), but I need to focus on what my options are, what kind of life I want to/can have should this be the norm from now on, as well as how to pay for continuing treatment.

I've been treating my brain injury as an obstacle, doing almost every reasonable thing I can to maximize my chances of recovery, but I haven't figured out how to live with it. Just so sick of not being able to rely on my own body and sick of it being such a big part of my identity. So I'm unplugging best I can, and I'll be even less available online than I have been lately, at least through the end of the year.

Tidbits before I disappear:

Wiscon was amazing. Met so many cool new people, but in spite of being in bed by ten most nights and other precautions, I got sick again at almost the exact same time as last year SUnday afternoon. I'll have to make even bigger leaps in my healing progress before I commit to returning next year. Missing my own reading and one of my panels Monday was just too embarrassing. Or would have been, had I been there. No, still embarrassing.

Among the wonderful people I met this year but kinda already knew online was my Thoughtcrime Experiments editor Sumana Harihareswara, who let me know that Erica Naone reviewed my story (along with all the others in the online anthology), calling my Mrs. Claus "one of the most badass characters I have ever read." Thanks, Erica!

One blessing since the accident has been the others with mild traumatic brain injuries who have contacted me with their frustrations and I've been able to at least point them toward a book I found by sheer luck (researching a science fiction brain story in the library): Brainlash by Gail L. Denton. Almost everything I've learned in the last eighteen months was either directly or indirectly because of this book. Even the typeface and linespacing are designed to increase let those of us who have trouble reading (more than a few paragraphs in one sitting) focus on it a little longer, and it remains the one non-audio book I've been able to get all the way through since the accident (not that I've retained much; might have to start it again this week). So if you have an MTBI or PCS (post concussion syndrome) and most of the other resources you've found are rightfully dedicated to more severe brain injuries, this might be the book you're looking for.

I'll continue to check email (alex AT alexwilson DOT com is the one that gets the least amount of spam, thanks), pop in for occasional Twitter conversations (and I don't autofollow, so, please let me know if I should be following you back, oh friends with obscure usernames), put up free Creative Commons audio as their five years are up at Telltale (including The War of the Worlds last week, yo!), and check messages/requests on Facebook once a month or so. But if you've posted something on LiveJournal or any other site, chances are pretty good that I've missed it.

And I'll try to break silence and post here again when/if I have big news because I still have a backlog of writing I'm trying to sell, even if the new stuff is coming achingly slowly. Yes, still writing and trying to read every day. And when I come back, we can talk about that instead of brain injuries, cool?

Be well.