Riding on the Sun: Surviving and Thriving with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

By Dr Beverly Klug

The tangled world of traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and their effects on those who suffer them is not readily understood by those in a person’s sphere of influence on the outside, family, friends, and others. This book chronicles Beverly Klug’s personal journey of over twenty-three years, during which she had to learn not only how to survive but to thrive following a TBI. Klug was a professor in education at a large university when she was involved in a traffic accident. Throughout her recovery and the years following, she learned a great deal about human brains and the impacts of brain injuries on all areas of cognition. She learned how to adjust her workload and teaching to accommodate her disabilities. She had to be honest and open with her students about what had happened to her and reteach herself in areas affected by her injuries. As with all TBIs, Klug’s homelife was negatively impacted as she could not continue to take on the same load as before. While functioning normally on the outside, she was experiencing the terrible impacts of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on the inside. Operating in a world that seemed as alien as another planet was an everyday challenge for several years. Friends, families, and professionals will benefit from this book as it provides a view of what it feels like on a daily basis to be part of and yet not part of a familiar landscape. The good news is that TBI survivors can develop resiliency while needing to readjust their ways of thinking, learning, and doing. While they may not appear to be the same to those who knew them best prior to their TBIs, they can again learn how to thrive in their new lives with all their uncertainties.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jun 8, 2017
• ISBN: 9781635685978

Book preview

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Riding on the Sun:

Surviving and Thriving with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

Dr. Beverly Klug

Mark D. Corgiat, PhD

and

Theresa Ross, PhD

Copyright © 2017 Dr. Beverly Klug

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2017

Photos used for Illustrations:

Jerry Lyons, EdD

ISBN 978-1-63568-596-1 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-63568-597-8 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

To all those who have sustained traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) and their support networks of families, friends, colleagues, and health-care professionals.

Hope

Hope

Is the new day

Riding

On the sun

—Beverly J. Klug 2009

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank all my health-care professionals who made it possible for me to recover from my traumatic brain injury and learn to compensate for what I had lost due to this event. These include John Comstock, MD; Robert Kennedy, MD; Kevin Hill, MD; Barbara Hoffeldt, OT; and Rick Benedetti, PT. My neuropsychologists and coauthors, Dr. Corgiat and Dr. Ross, have added many valuable contributions to the understanding of TBIs. The illustrations are based on photographs by Dr. Jerry Lyons and provide insights that words cannot express. His section on Stressbusters has been shared with many physical educators attending conferences, who have benefited from this knowledge.

I would like to thank Ginnie, Debbie, Denise, and Terri, all fellow TBI survivors, for graciously consenting to read and provide feedback for this book. Their comments and insights provided some of the courage I needed to pursue the idea of publishing this book. Thanks to Virginia Galizia, PhD, who urged me to start this project a year after my TBI and wouldn’t let me quit even when I felt it was an impossible task to complete.

My thanks are extended to my mother, Joan L. Klug, who did not back away from this project when I told her about it; and to my father, Robert J. Klug, who has always fought battles for human rights, equality, and equity, including equitable treatment for those with disabilities. The combined strengths of these two individuals made it possible for me to believe that I could be a successful, contributing member of society again even with sustaining the TBI.

My thanks extend to my siblings and good friends for their faith in and encouragement of me throughout my recovery, even though they did not know all the details about my condition. It is because of all the support and assistance that I received that I also have the courage to share what happened with the greater community.

I want to thank my immediate family for their support throughout the terrible times and for accepting me as I am, with all my foibles and little idiosyncrasies that I’ve developed as a result of my injuries. I appreciate so much my daughter’s love, even when I was not the same person she knew before, as indicated in a diary entry she made: My mom got mean and stupid. But if she died, I would have missed her (A., age eight). I think her words sum up the TBI experience as seen from the perspective of those significant people in TBI patients’ lives.

Lastly, I can never be appreciative enough to my husband, Delbert, now deceased. He saw beyond the disabled person I became, different from the old one he had known as a friend but still worthy of loving after my marriage fell apart. I will always be grateful for his loving care as we enjoyed our life together for many years.

As I look forward, I have been a TBI survivor for over twenty years now. It has not always been easy, as I indicate in the pages of this book. However, I truly believe that we are all here for a reason and that we all have contributions to make to this world. We have to have the faith and courage to continue to go on, even when the odds seem overwhelming. We survivors may be different than our old selves, but our core selves are still there, and we can continue to be examples to others through our work to overcome our difficulties, whenever and however they occur and reoccur.

Chapter 1

My Story

My story is a result of trauma, specifically physical injuries and mild traumatic brain injury (MTBI) that resulted from a car accident. Twenty-three years ago, I would not have imagined myself any different than I was at that point. I was a fairly young forty-one-year-old associate professor of education at a growing university in the western United States.

I had just completed work on a major grant application that involved teaching about the needs of diverse populations with colleagues from other institutions throughout our then sparsely populated state. I had been appointed by the committee to be the director for the grant if it was awarded because we know you’ll get the job done.

My story is one of sadness, grief, anger, acceptance, and sometimes, even joy. Still, in telling my story, I feel renewed grief and anxiety about what happened to cause my injuries, along with a strong desire to communicate a message of hope to those who have suffered TBIs. This extends to those who form the circle of love and encouragement around each and every one of us.

I would not have been able to recover as well as I have if it were not for the knowledgeable treatment by my neuropsychologists, neurologist, physicians, counselors, and other therapists. The love and support of my family and friends enabled me to continue to endeavor when I felt I was unable to carry on any further.

I have permanent injuries; however, I also have a more complete understanding of what it is like to have difficulties with performing the everyday tasks of walking and talking, of being able to remember things, think, and relate to the world in a way vastly different than prior to my injuries. I also have an understanding of what it means to be disabled in a universe that values abilities and judges others as less than without knowing about who they really are before making these pronouncements.

This is my story. I hope that it may serve as a way to illuminate some of the difficulties faced