Hi my name is Denis (Dennis) and I have a traumatically injured brain (T.B.I).  No, I won’t tell a sob story, just a factual story. A lot of soldiers were returning with T.B.I.s around the same time I acquired mine. I attempt to not live in the past. I was 23 at the time, now I’m 31. It feels like fifty years of life squeezed into eight.

 

I was, at the time of the injury given, a five percent chance to live. I was in a coma for sixty-three days. I came out of my coma on my moms’ birthday. I was admitted around December 18 2005, and released on April 20, 2006. After my release from the hospital, I started living the life. The great rehab life, that is. No sarcasm, just the truth. This one physical therapist I had was and is pretty great. LUCKY is an anagram plus a metaphor I’ll use to describe her. I was LUCKY to get her services. Again, no sob story, just the truth. Since the injury, I became really introverted after being really extroverted.

 

I am currently re-learning the usual type of things you first learn when you’re younger. You often times have to re-learn something you were taught as a child, now you realize how hard it is to do, when before you didn’t have to think about when doing it. Now you have to think about every small detail of everything you do while you do it. To the average person it could seem as simple as standing up. The average T.B.I survivor feels lucky just to stand. What I am mainly focusing on with my current therapists are community outings. They were simple for me pre injury, now it can take multiple therapists for an everyday outing.

 

My current therapists provided by The Dream Works are great; my opinions always matter to them. I benefit from every therapy session a little different, depending on what we do. With my current therapists it’s been going good. Below is a poem I wrote and want to share:

 

I AM ME
 Me am, a wanna be poet, author, former apprentice plumber, comic book collector

I tried to be a ladies’ man

I’ve been forced into a pre-mature retirement from that game

I’m not whining or bitching being out of that game.

Survived three bouts with utter horse crap twice

I realize my short comings & I’ve chosen & decided to accept & relish in all of it because

I am me