I had 24-hour blood pressure monitoring done twice this past week, sort of. The first monitor went kaput after a couple of hours. So the next day, back on the highway I went to the clinic and was hooked up to a 2-week-old one. Brand new is better than well used, except when it comes [...]

The heat dome rose up out of the US and expanded itself north to smother Toronto in record-breaking heat for July 21st, only 0.1 degrees Celsius off the all-time record for the entire month of July. On the news, reporters warned us to drink lots, to watch for signs of heat stress, and to watch [...]

I was at a wedding. Like many weddings, the marriage part was the shortest and quietest, the heart of the day, but only the beginning. Then came the photos, and then came the reception. The reception was appetizers and chit-chat; finding seats and wedding party intro; dinner and speeches; and dancing till two. What struck [...]

Fatigue is such an inadequate word to describe the unutterable weariness that comes on to a person with fibromyalgia or brain injury just because one got up in the morning. When someone who has a chronic illness or injury, particularly brain injury, fibromyalgia, or chronic fatigue syndrome, say they’re tired, they don’t mean what you [...]

I read an article in The Toronto Star recently titled “A Blow to the Head is a Big Deal” by Megan Ogilvie (8 April 2011), and I knew I had to read it. It wasn’t long before I was grumbling and had to comment on it. So here are some excerpts with my thoughts. ““The [...]

Brainline.org is one of the best brain injury information websites out there that also has a Twitter feed and Facebook page. A multimedia project between the Seattle PBS station WETA and Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center (many veterans return home with concussive brain injuries), BrainLine offers videos, articles, widgets on all sorts of brain-injury [...]

Reader’s Digest. Canadian edition. Capt. Trevor Greene. Axe in head. Remarkable recovery. Against all odds. Miracle. Not. I really shouldn’t read these kinds of stories; they just put me in a bad mood, and I have to admit I tossed the Digest down after it asked the question of how Greene did it — why [...]

Ever since my traumatic brain injury, I have had people yell at me. I mean, in-your-face, sudden, top volume yelling. The weird thing is I don’t flinch. I startle when a squirrel bounces by, but I don’t flinch when some stranger sticks his face in mine and practically spits, he’s yelling so loudly. I don’t [...]

Note: Do not do what I describe in this post. I wrote this purely to share what happened to  me and as a warning about side effects — not to advocate doing what I did. Talk to your doctor about any concerns you may have about your medications before doing anything. “Take this,” the doctor [...]