The Journey: Tips and Tales

By Steve Gregory

Steve Gregory grew up in a rural area of Ontario and had a variety of broadening experiences while you such as living overseas for 3 years.

Steve excelled scholastically and started his Master’s on the second best scholarship in Canada. During this time he developed psychosis which went undiagnosed and treated for years.

At the end of this time he had an accident. He was completely out of it having been a 3 on the Glasgow Coma Scale. His recovery has challenged his beliefs and strength of character to the maximum possible.

Steve has undertaken a number of challenges recently including training to run a marathon and starting his own business.



Ways to order copies:

• Call: 1-888-795-4274

• Fax: [phone] or 1-610-915-0293

• E-mail: [e-mail]

• Web: http://www2.xlibris.com/bookstore/ -- Please note that Online Ordering System (Xlibris Bookstore) cannot process orders outside US Territory. Thus, for international orders, you have to either call or send an email so we could process it.

• By mail, please send your order, along with a check or payment information to:

Attn: Book Orders
Xlibris Corporation
1663 Liberty Drive
Suite 200
Bloomington, IN 47403 .

(Please note that for orders sent by mail, Xlibris has a processing turnaround time of 5 business days before order placement.)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Apr 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9781462860470

Steve Gregory

Steve has lived a varied and active life. Academically, he excelled while obtaining a master’s degree in engineering on scholarship from the University of Toronto. Steve then went on to practice engineering in various employment, gaining experience and resiliency during his career. Then the unthinkable happened. Steve’s recovery from an accident has been uneven to say the least. He remains with dysarthria, ataxia, and diplopia; however, as you will soon discover, his other cognitive functions have been restored. He continues to push the limits of his recovery both cognitively and physically.

Book preview

Copyright © 2018 by Steve Gregory.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Rev. date: 12/10/2018

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

568505

Table of Contents

Foreword

Coma And Rehabilitation

Growing Up

Preamble

Objective

Evaluation

Introspection

Will

Security

Insight

Exercise

Control

Demeanor

Relationships

Flexibility

Dignity

Self Image

Timing

Media

Self-Prompting

Peace

Service

Heightened Awareness

Frequent

Frenetic

Factual

Executive Functioning

Episodes

Suicide

Writing

Humor

Conclusion

Appendix A: Crash Scene

Appendix B: Glasgow Coma Scale

Appendix C: Ranchos Los Amigos Scale

Appendix D: Executive Functioning Graph

FOREWORD

What is life about? Much of the world says it is about money, power, and sex. This is adequate for most life situations; however, once an accident enters the picture, it brings with it so many other variables so as to make use of God a factor. So then the equation becomes money, power, sex, and God.

These four items will form the foundation for this book.

Thanks to all who helped me in rehabilitation, and continued to do so by editing this book.

COMA AND REHABILITATION

icu.jpg

It was on the day of the major accident that I took money out of the bank to start my own business. At about 7pm on a road just outside of Gravenhurst on June 2 1999, my truck veered off the road and went into a rockface. (see appendix A)

I was a 3 on the Glasgow Coma Scale (see appendix B) at the scene of the accident. At this point I was moved to the hospital in Bracebridge for stabilization before shipment to Toronto. Some hours later it was raining and an airlift was out of the question, so I was transported the entire distance to Toronto (150km) via ambulance. I was brought to Sunnybrook and Women’s College Hospital in northern Toronto.

Here I was a 4 on the Glasgow Coma Scale. At this point I was in intensive care at first. I remained in a coma for 2 weeks. At some point I had a tracheotomy performed. Here I stayed for another 4 weeks until I got an 8 on the Ranchos Los Amigos (see appendix C).

At this point I was transferred to Toronto Rehabilitation Institute (TRI). I was on the fourth floor here, in the head injury wing. I stayed here for about 6 months. I made some significant progress. I spent a lot of time on my bed thinking about my travels and generally daydreaming. It was here that I had my first Neuro-Psychological examination. Even at this stage I had some abstract reasoning at an average level for my age and education. A couple firsts happened here. I wanted to be physically active