On January 28th, 1983, after I worked at K-Mart in New Philadelphia, a co-worker and I visited a bar to watch a local band play. Jill didn't go. Tim met me at her apartment. That is where I left my car. From there, we left to watch the band play at Windchaser's Nightclub Lounge in downtown New Philadelphia. My 1979, medium dark-brown Ford Granada remained at Jill's white, double-story, wooden apartment, owned by her dad's brother. She rented the downstairs apartment from him. We left her apartment that night in his tiny Ford Pinto.
Tim and I met our friends from work and from college that Friday night at the Windchaser's Lounge in downtown New Philadelphia. That is where we learned of a geodesic-style home having been built near Deis Hill Road, close to the Dover city park. We decided to visit and see the new home, before I went back to Jill's home for me to get my car.
I did not make it back. Not as the same person. The vaguely intelligent and intellectually satisfying individual whom I had become, and was embellishing upon with even further growth of many sorts during my gradual transformation had dropped the microphone. On the floor. Even if I have managed to replace his presence in many manifestations, on various instances, there are just as many aspects of him that were never recalled. That person has left us now. Forever. I have been left to take his place.
After the car crash caused my Traumatic Brain Injury soon after midnight on an early Saturday morning, the local ambulance service gathered me from a property near to the the city park. Mom said the property belonged to a dentist and he covered me with a blanket quickly, to help me stay warm and to prevent hypothermia. The outside temperature was freezing, or colder. She also told me that one of the police officials at the scene informed her that if I had worn my seat belts that night, I may not have survived. The roof of his Ford Pinto was crushed on the passenger side - my side.
Ken was working at the Dover hospital that night. He must have talked with members of the ambulance crew when they brought me in from the ambulance. Ken worked in a respiratory unit and assisted in the Emergency Room when patients came in the ambulance. I believe he helped with oxygen and blood gases mixture, among other things. I think he has told me that I was pretty bloodied and broken. That was January 29th, 1983. My life still goes on, so they must have helped me to survive.
Monday, July 2, 2018
Tuesday, May 8, 2018
It's All A Part Of The Scam
I'm unsure of how this all works. If I trudge forward, I hope I can
develop something. There is a really good story inside of my and I hope
to share it. So, I will trudge forward, and I hope others may enjoy what
I write.
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There is way too much happening at any one time, all the time. Every minute of every day. That seems to be how they want us people. We are always on the edge trying to get all our ducks in a row, so to say. I think that is all part of being human. Most of us must struggle and force ourselves to work at a lower level of value in order to be creative and capitalize on our individual conditions. As if we are being led to an unknown end product. It is harder to maintain a sense of achievement as we struggle to merely survive. At least 90 percent of our population may achieve that much when we are at our best. I believe this is the reason we are controlled by debt, and continual financial difficulty.
_____________________________________________________________________________
There is way too much happening at any one time, all the time. Every minute of every day. That seems to be how they want us people. We are always on the edge trying to get all our ducks in a row, so to say. I think that is all part of being human. Most of us must struggle and force ourselves to work at a lower level of value in order to be creative and capitalize on our individual conditions. As if we are being led to an unknown end product. It is harder to maintain a sense of achievement as we struggle to merely survive. At least 90 percent of our population may achieve that much when we are at our best. I believe this is the reason we are controlled by debt, and continual financial difficulty.
Friday, July 21, 2017
I HAVE BEEN LEFT TO TAKE HIS PLACE
A lot had happened with me before the auto crash; right up until that date and time; January 29th, 1983, soon after midnight. I worked that Friday evening, after attending Calculus class at Kent State University, a branch found in Tuscarawas County. So much more has happened with me since then.
After the car wreck, I became someone else, at many levels. Many memories and my physical abilities were not yet developed completely before the crash, when he accidentally drove his Ford Pinto into an embankment before we rolled over. My body was hurled outward from the passenger seat. My senses were knocked out of me. So were many memories, including my speech patterns.
Parts of what I state will likely be incorrect. I can only relay the information that I know about now, after reading about and hearing other versions of the details. Please inform me if you know a different version.
We left the local bar, after listening to the band playing 70's and 80's music, since it was late January of 1983. As far as I know, we were with other friends at the club, listening to the band. Somehow, we learned of a Geodesic-style home, having been built near Deis Hill road, close to the city park in Dover, Ohio.
Instead of returning to Jill's apartment that dark, and very early Saturday morning, with some light snow on the ground, to retrieve my own car, we decided to visit that Geodesic home. The temperature outside was around the freezing point. There was only slight snow on the roads. Even if we had a couple drinks at the club, some friends were there who would have discouraged us from traveling if we had drank too much alcohol. I think I was going to visit Jill again later, so my drinking was light. Besides, I was 24 years old. A full year out of my Air Force enlistment. And, a college student. Drinking just to get drunk was not fun anymore. Not when that was intermixed with college studies and projects, homework assignments, my part-time and full-time job at K-Mart, practicing my Karate skills, and spending time with my lovely full-time girlfriend.
All the events which have occurred since my irrevocable traumatic brain injury very early on January 29th, 1983, will forever be blurred in my mind. Did that really happen? Even what is happening now, recently, and in my past as recorded from my own mind, using those translucent and discolored thoughts has been altered as my perception changes daily.
I am not the person I was. No matter how hard it try, nor how thoroughly I have searched to return to being that person, he no longer exists. I have been left to take his place.
It has been difficult. Extremely hard with all my neurological and memory problems, and my muscular weaknesses. With what has happened with me medically, the lost memories that may never be fully recovered again, all my newly discovered muscle weaknesses and coordination problems that I try to work around so fervently, I strive to merely exist as I have become.
My condition changes. To meet me as I am now would be to encounter another rational, normal human being. I am not. Lord knows I try.
After the car wreck, I became someone else, at many levels. Many memories and my physical abilities were not yet developed completely before the crash, when he accidentally drove his Ford Pinto into an embankment before we rolled over. My body was hurled outward from the passenger seat. My senses were knocked out of me. So were many memories, including my speech patterns.
Parts of what I state will likely be incorrect. I can only relay the information that I know about now, after reading about and hearing other versions of the details. Please inform me if you know a different version.
We left the local bar, after listening to the band playing 70's and 80's music, since it was late January of 1983. As far as I know, we were with other friends at the club, listening to the band. Somehow, we learned of a Geodesic-style home, having been built near Deis Hill road, close to the city park in Dover, Ohio.
Instead of returning to Jill's apartment that dark, and very early Saturday morning, with some light snow on the ground, to retrieve my own car, we decided to visit that Geodesic home. The temperature outside was around the freezing point. There was only slight snow on the roads. Even if we had a couple drinks at the club, some friends were there who would have discouraged us from traveling if we had drank too much alcohol. I think I was going to visit Jill again later, so my drinking was light. Besides, I was 24 years old. A full year out of my Air Force enlistment. And, a college student. Drinking just to get drunk was not fun anymore. Not when that was intermixed with college studies and projects, homework assignments, my part-time and full-time job at K-Mart, practicing my Karate skills, and spending time with my lovely full-time girlfriend.
All the events which have occurred since my irrevocable traumatic brain injury very early on January 29th, 1983, will forever be blurred in my mind. Did that really happen? Even what is happening now, recently, and in my past as recorded from my own mind, using those translucent and discolored thoughts has been altered as my perception changes daily.
I am not the person I was. No matter how hard it try, nor how thoroughly I have searched to return to being that person, he no longer exists. I have been left to take his place.
It has been difficult. Extremely hard with all my neurological and memory problems, and my muscular weaknesses. With what has happened with me medically, the lost memories that may never be fully recovered again, all my newly discovered muscle weaknesses and coordination problems that I try to work around so fervently, I strive to merely exist as I have become.
My condition changes. To meet me as I am now would be to encounter another rational, normal human being. I am not. Lord knows I try.
Traumatic Brain Injury 1983
Hello everyone. My name is Jim. I am a Traumatic Brain Injury survivor.
All survivors are unique. Each of us has at least one special quality about their injury. No two brain injuries are alike. No two recoveries are alike. Simply stated, no two people are truly alike. Not even twins. Just similar.
This blog is created to tell about my injury and my recovery, as best I can tell it. Right away, I must state that my brain injury has affected my mental capacity, my aptitude, and my critical thinking skills very much. So, I will tell you what I may remember, what others have told me, what I have learned from reading articles and documented information about myself, and what I can remember about growing up. Stories, such as where I came from and what I did. It will be as true as I can make it.
This is how it all began; how I suffered a severe brain injury in 1983. Near Deis Hill Road in Dover, Ohio. More tales will follow.
Christmas of 1982 was over. Don and I were both back to our engineering classes at the local campus of Kent State University, in New Philadelphia, Ohio. It is near the Trumpet in the Land outdoor amphitheater. We called our Tuscarawas County campus the branch, or the twig since it is much smaller than the main campus, or any of a number of other godawful names. The university was located near the New Philadelphia Timken Bearings plant, just north of the East High Avenue intersection with State Route 250. That is the route we took to college from Uhrichsville - our home town.
Going back to college after Christmas break meant working less hours at our part-time jobs for a local K-Mart department store. Don and I both worked there part-time, ever since we each had exited the US Air Force in December of 1981, thirteen months earlier. We usually had the maturity and abilities to be relied on for more complex and demanding tasks at our K-Mart department store job. I think our boss relied on us for our more responsible attitudes and our work ethic, just as he relied on the other older employees.
K-Mart is where I met Jill. We enjoyed each other's company and developed a possibly deep relationship with each other. I spent much of my free time with Jill. Such a lovely girl with a great family.
Another work friend, Tim, was a couple of years younger than me. After all, I had spent four-years as a US Airman, working on B-52 bomber avionics. Tim and I worked in the same departments for the same manager.
That Friday night, Tim and I worked together. We each closed our separate areas of the same department. I worked in the Automotive department and Tim was in the Sporting Goods department. After work, we had plans to visit a local pub and watch some friends play for a newer-style band at a local club. Tim met me at Jill's home and we left together in his Pinto. Jill did not want to go. She may have worked in the morning. I can't remember now. Since I was a part time employee attending college, my hours were usually later in the day. Don and I got many of the odd-hours that the regular employees avoided.
That evening, after nine o'clock, led us to a lounge called The Windchasers, in downtown New Philadelphia. It is a local hub for dating and for meeting friends. Everyone there was around the same age; late teens up through the late twenties.. Tim was younger than me - just out of high school.
Since I did not reenlist in the Air Force, my goals were to pursue and complete my full Engineering degree. The local Kent State campus did not offer the full degree. I knew I would complete my BS in Engineering at another college. Other friends had similar plans. Or, I might transfer to the Kent State main campus, in Kent Ohio, and finish my degree in Technology there.
I did not realize how strongly my previous experience as a technician in the Air Force could have played in my future. Many Air Force friends had ended their enlistment, and walked directly into a good paying job with only their Air Force experience. It is that good! The skills set I had acquired wold certainly shine in that vein, if only it could have ever happened. It did not and I am still here struggling just to survive. All because we decided to watch the band play at the Windchasers that Friday night, and Saturday morning.
All survivors are unique. Each of us has at least one special quality about their injury. No two brain injuries are alike. No two recoveries are alike. Simply stated, no two people are truly alike. Not even twins. Just similar.
This blog is created to tell about my injury and my recovery, as best I can tell it. Right away, I must state that my brain injury has affected my mental capacity, my aptitude, and my critical thinking skills very much. So, I will tell you what I may remember, what others have told me, what I have learned from reading articles and documented information about myself, and what I can remember about growing up. Stories, such as where I came from and what I did. It will be as true as I can make it.
This is how it all began; how I suffered a severe brain injury in 1983. Near Deis Hill Road in Dover, Ohio. More tales will follow.
Christmas of 1982 was over. Don and I were both back to our engineering classes at the local campus of Kent State University, in New Philadelphia, Ohio. It is near the Trumpet in the Land outdoor amphitheater. We called our Tuscarawas County campus the branch, or the twig since it is much smaller than the main campus, or any of a number of other godawful names. The university was located near the New Philadelphia Timken Bearings plant, just north of the East High Avenue intersection with State Route 250. That is the route we took to college from Uhrichsville - our home town.
Going back to college after Christmas break meant working less hours at our part-time jobs for a local K-Mart department store. Don and I both worked there part-time, ever since we each had exited the US Air Force in December of 1981, thirteen months earlier. We usually had the maturity and abilities to be relied on for more complex and demanding tasks at our K-Mart department store job. I think our boss relied on us for our more responsible attitudes and our work ethic, just as he relied on the other older employees.
K-Mart is where I met Jill. We enjoyed each other's company and developed a possibly deep relationship with each other. I spent much of my free time with Jill. Such a lovely girl with a great family.
Another work friend, Tim, was a couple of years younger than me. After all, I had spent four-years as a US Airman, working on B-52 bomber avionics. Tim and I worked in the same departments for the same manager.
That Friday night, Tim and I worked together. We each closed our separate areas of the same department. I worked in the Automotive department and Tim was in the Sporting Goods department. After work, we had plans to visit a local pub and watch some friends play for a newer-style band at a local club. Tim met me at Jill's home and we left together in his Pinto. Jill did not want to go. She may have worked in the morning. I can't remember now. Since I was a part time employee attending college, my hours were usually later in the day. Don and I got many of the odd-hours that the regular employees avoided.
That evening, after nine o'clock, led us to a lounge called The Windchasers, in downtown New Philadelphia. It is a local hub for dating and for meeting friends. Everyone there was around the same age; late teens up through the late twenties.. Tim was younger than me - just out of high school.
Since I did not reenlist in the Air Force, my goals were to pursue and complete my full Engineering degree. The local Kent State campus did not offer the full degree. I knew I would complete my BS in Engineering at another college. Other friends had similar plans. Or, I might transfer to the Kent State main campus, in Kent Ohio, and finish my degree in Technology there.
I did not realize how strongly my previous experience as a technician in the Air Force could have played in my future. Many Air Force friends had ended their enlistment, and walked directly into a good paying job with only their Air Force experience. It is that good! The skills set I had acquired wold certainly shine in that vein, if only it could have ever happened. It did not and I am still here struggling just to survive. All because we decided to watch the band play at the Windchasers that Friday night, and Saturday morning.
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