My Story of my Life with a Brain Injury

This post is telling my story. Please comment on any subjects you would like me to talk about on this blog.

I am 23 years old, and I have a bachelor’s degree in Exercise and Sports Science. I have lived with my acquired brain injury for my entire life due to a mistake during the birthing process. My mom got an overdose of Pitocin. That mistake caused me distress. This resulted in me trying to take my first breath while I was still in the womb. The team was unaware of what had happened. It was a rush to get me out when I got out my APGAR score was 2. I was not breathing and was blue and purple.

They whisked me away and put me on a stretcher made for infants. They put me on an ambulance and took me to the children’s hospital. I was a Children’s for a week in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I was on oxygen, had a feeding tube, and the CT scans showed that parts of my frontal cortex was dead. The doctors were warning my parents how I may not be able to walk or live on my own. They had no idea what was going to happen.

After spending a week at the Children’s hospital, I moved to a hospital that closer to home. After a few days there, I returned to go home, still on oxygen. I had seizures for six weeks and had to stay on oxygen for six months. At this point, it was just a waiting game.

After the Hospitals

As I got older, I went to my fair share of therapists before I even started school. At first, I thought nothing was wrong because I didn’t know any better because I was unaware of my story. I went to physical therapy and occupational therapy. I didn’t notice significant differences until about second grade. In second grade I began to take speech therapy. Sometimes, my sessions were in the middle of the school day which meant I took time out of subjects that I needed to learn to about. Other times I went to someone else after school, which meant I did not hang out with friends.

I had to go to speech therapy because I was able to think of what I wanted to say but it could not make the path to my mouth where I could articulate what I was feeling. In second grade I took time to take tests to ‘prove’ that I had a brain injury. The testing was for all the legal stuff that went on. The results showed a brain injury was present, that I had a brain injury. The testing process required me to take more time off of school. This made me feel even more alienated.

After all the testing and when I got to a point where I was able to stop speech therapy, my life became normal. This was nice and I enjoy this part of my story. I was able to have a childhood. I could enjoy my dance classes after school. After finishing elementary school, I changed my sport from dancing to figure skating. The ice is where I feel my best. It allows me to forget the differences and struggles in my life. This is so freeing, but sometimes it is a problem because I let myself get so frustrated at how long it takes me to learn a new skill.

My story: After School

The next time I had to face major difficulties with my brain injury was when it was time to apply to colleges. I can work my butt off in school and get decent grades, but my test scores don’t make that believable. I was lucky enough to get extra time to take a test, but that still didn’t help. It took me transferring school to find a school that I could excel in. When I found the right school for me, I was able to graduate with a Bachelor of Science in Exercise and Sports Science.

This is my story until now and now I am waiting to find out what my next step in life is.