Howdy, thanks for reading. My injury was November 2, 1998. I started so many times to write this story, only to have it go on and on and on, so I decided to take the emotions out and just tell you about the injury. I woke up one Monday morning, expecting to go to work and discovering I couldn't hold things with my left hand - I'm left handed. Telling my boyfriend I was having a stroke or something, and would he call 911, I went back to bed. Many, many hours later, as I fell coming out of the bathroom, he did call I think, not sure exactly when, but was almost evening by the time I got to the hospital. Turns out I had an AVM and it had burst. I lost the next week at least, have no memory of it, am told I was living in the past, don't think I ever lost consciousness, but not really sure. When I woke up/came around a bit, my left side was paralyzed, my left hand the size of a football from the IV backing up, my sister called it the "claw" and is ticked she didn't have a camera, the brat. Well, they did an embolization and it worked the first time, very unusual. I had the worst pain in my head imaginable and I've been thru some agonizing things. I started rehab at the hospital and was walking by the time I left the 5 weeks later, amazing most people. My head was still in a fog and I doubted everything, never trusted myself to be "right" about an issue. Home was not an option at this point, because I couldn't take care of my 4 year old because of the injury and the meds I was on. My boyfriend and I live together with our son, but he was unable/unwilling to take us both on. So my kid and I went to my folks house, where they could take me to outpatient rehab and watch my kid too. Was released from outpatient rehab and went home 3 days before Christmas. It was a tough xmas to say the least, I was still trying to figure out why I cried all the time and nothing could make me happy. The brain takes an incredibly long time to heal, in fact I'd like to say it's still happening. I'm back at work full time, it's a struggle for many reasons - fatigue - lack of memory - loss of cognitive ability, but my co-workers are fantastic. So I suppose I'm considered high functioning, hard to feel that way tho, trying to take care of my now 6 year old, the cleaning, working, just daily living, makes me feel like I'm failing at them all, there's just to much to do in a day for the energy I have. Maybe I'll figure out the balance one day, until then.....ahhhh

I've had many struggles since this started and have found that tbichat has been my best place, in fact ONLY place to find people that understand this. I think I've logged onto it everyday since I first found it, THANKS to those who have made this place a true "home"

Email Amy