Or "Finding a Cure for Brain Injury Disease" October 27, 2009 Is it saying too much to state that if ever an actual complete cure for traumatic brain injury (or brain injury chronic disease) is ever found that that would be not unlike a cure for being a mortal human being?We are all mortal, and if ever the complete regeneration of a brain that is damaged from acquired brain injury is accomplished that that would be along the lines of unlocking the secrets of life itself. We look forward to the gradual improvement in medical interventions for brain damage, but we who live with some kind of brain injury also recognize that a complete and total cure for brain injury or brain disease or whatever it might be called is a very long way off. So, in the mean time, we have to live life in the here and now and come to terms with brain injury and our existence with it in order that we might live out the most productive, satisfactory lives that we can. And we can live without feeling so overcome and demoralized that we are going to be missing out on something that is far off on the horizon, unrealistic for us to pine away about really, if we don’t get that cure.
We are going to have to be patient, we who are here now. We will be delighted with any health “cures” and breakthroughs that come our way and help improve our situations. We also want to see a total cure come, and as soon as possible, but we aren’t going to hold our breath. We will also rejoice when people who have been “locked in” or in a “persistent unaware state”for decades awaken, and when people with unremitting seizures cease to have them, when people with out-of-control pituitaries regain normalized function, when people who can’t speak or think or remember or care are restored to a state of ability. We will cheer when we are never again dizzy or in migraine. We will be pleased when our lack of judgment, irritability or despondency, anxiety or depression due to brain injury disappear. We will be elated when we can walk on normal feet that are not twisted because of a brain injury, and when we can go out in the sunlight and into crowds and listen to loud music without feeling ill or nauseated or panicked. Yes, everyone with their individual predicaments from brain injury will sparkle with joy when these burdens are lifted from our hearts, minds, bodies and lives. Yes, it is a nice dream for the future.
In the meantime we have to get real and smell the coffee and live as we are, but employing every current strategy and device and medication and treatment available to normalize our daily function. Would that we could pay for all of these various things. Would that there wasn’t so much cherry picking for clientele going on in the medical community, so that everyone in need could be helped. Those millions without means are the most likely to be waiting at the back of the line for the promised and heralded new and upcoming treatments and programs and strategies. But even those at the back of the long, long, long line will eventually, (who knows in whose lifetime?) amply be helped. That is the dream anyway.
