This Hat is a Helmet

SPECIAL PODCAST INTERVIEW! Found on my Souncloud HERE . Have you ever asked someone out on a friend date? This series is about dating and relationships and when we think of those words, we often think of romantic relationships only. But friendships make up an important part of our relationship lives and if we want to be happy and healthy, valuing and respecting friendships in the same way we do romantic ones is likely the way to go. At least, that’s my opinion and that’s why this series is starting here. This brain injury has really made me look at all my relationships in a new light. When I had my most recent injury I was single and it seemed like my friendship status was in transition - some of my friendships were teetering on the fence and new ones were entering the gate. The injury also made me reevaluate my role and how I contributed to my friendships - it made me think about what kind of friend I wanted to be.   Today I talk with one of my friends, w

Image attribution: Photo © 2011 J. Ronald Lee, CC Attribution 3.0. modified by cropping and adding brain and heart bubbles This announcement made in audio on Souncloud. Click here ! February. It’s the month of love . Or where I’m from, it’s the month you try to book a vacation to somewhere down south to get away from the -40°. Either way, people look to heat things up this month so I thought a fun series on experiences with dating and relationships with brain troubles was called for. I’m no relationship expert. In fact, I don’t think anyone is. Navigating dating and relationships can feel like navigating IKEA furniture instructions… in the dark. It can be awkward, clumsy, and messy. There are no satisfying instructions. You often need help and no one truly knows what they’re doing. The brain injury adds another layer of complication on top of it all. Like instead of feeling drunk on love, you just feel drunk assembling that bookshelf wondering if

Downward dog...good boy Bob 👏 (You can read, or for less screen time, you can listen! I read these posts out loud for you here ) When I was in university I worked for years as a student in a research lab. I did a number of the cool sciencey things you see on TV shows. I mixed chemicals in test tubes, pipetted liquids from one small container to another, looked at teeny tiny things under a microscope and, yep, I wore safety goggles and that iconic lab coat. One of the summers I worked in this research lab, another lab assistant and I became mysteriously ill at the same time. We both had extreme fatigue, difficulty concentrating plus head and body aches - much of the same symptoms I have today with PCS. But no, neither of us had a concussion. We wondered whether we were affected by something in the lab, but this didn’t really make sense as even though we worked in the same department, we worked in different labs, on different projects. I went to my doctor and had a