TBI/Dick Button
Thank you, Dick Button, for sharing your story with all of us.
Some of you crack me up with the "more latitude" for what Dick says, etc. A "small" injury? A brain injury is NEVER small. While some may not be as affected as others, there is always a change whether major or minor. Depending on what part of the brain is affected, people who have suffered TBIs can have memory problems, speech problems, executive functioning problems, be paralyzed, or, at worst, die or be in a persistent vegetative state for the rest of their lives.
A brain injury changes a person forever. While the person who has "survived" a brain injury may seem back to their old self, they truly aren't. That part of the brain that was damaged does not heal. However the brain is a magnificent thing. We only use 25 percent of our entire brain so, with rehabilitation and hard work, a TBI survivor can form new pathways and gain back so much.
Dick Button will be an excellent spokesperson for the BIA (Brain Injury Association). I told my daughter about this and she was pleased that someone associated with figure skating would be doing this even though she was saddened that he has an injury like hers.
Believe me, you have no idea how this alters not only the TBI survivor's life, but that of those who love them so much. Dick, nor my daughter, can put it into words the fear, the hard work, the pain, and the grief that you have to walk through. Even I, as her mother, cannot begin to fathom how she must feel to have woken up from her coma and have to relearn everything all over again. I thank God there are people like Dick who are willing to share their experience because then my daughter knows she isn't alone.
