Headway Gippsland Inc.

Caring for people with acquired brain injury and their families.

To contact us:

Phone:  51277166  

1800 452 452 

Fax: 51272880

Postal Address:                 

PO Box 34 

Yarragon  3823

E-mail: hwABI@bigpond.net.au

People tell their stories

about living with  ABI

“Can’t remember my age but I do remember I was born in 1965.  Work it out for yourselves.  I can’t remember when I had a stroke but it sure changed my life.

I was driving trucks, I’d left home, had a girlfriend and was living it up with my mates –as you do when you’re a young bloke.

I was on a working holiday in Cairns when I got a terrible headache …. And I can’t remember much at all from there.

They flew me back to Monash Medical Centre where they operated.

They told me I’d never drive again when I was in rehab.  Can’t remember how long I was in rehab, but I know I wanted to drive again.  I wasn’t too keen on staying there either.  Packed my toilet bag and towel and headed out the front door telling everyone I was off to the TAB.  Can’t remember it myself, or the time I ended up in a cupboard thinking it was a toilet.

Short term memory loss is the pits.

Regaining my Drivers license was my number 1 priority.  And I did it!

It gave me back my independence, but even that can be frustrating because now I loose my car.

I can’t remember where I park it.  Once I wandered round for hours and the police finally picked me up.  Probably thought I was trying to break into a car, but I was just trying to find mine.

It’s hard to convince some people you’re not on drugs or something.  Looking back, it’s easy to have a laugh, not much fun at the time.”

“I can’t remember anything, that’s the most frustrating thing about ABI”

“I’m a lucky bloke.  I should have died in 1965.  Car accident.  Epilepsy.

“Yet I’ve been able to work full time, keep my drivers license, get married, have kids.  Things some of my brain injured mates would kill to do.

“A few years ago depression got me –and I lost my job.   More than my job really.  Money of course, status, self respect certainly.  I was driving my wife nuts when I heard about Headway and the help they give to people with ABI.  Well, they certainly helped me.  I got my self respect back and my wife isn’t at the funny farm.

Now I’m happy to give something back and I suppose I fill the role of father figure  “Old Fart” they call me!  Helping others has helped me overcome the depression, and as a bonus I’ve learned to be comfortable with people whose problems are very different from mine.  I’m a very lucky bloke.”

“I’m a lucky bloke”

Drugs, sex, rock and roll

Steal a bit, collect the Dole,

Jim Beam, grass, pills and coke,

Any other life?? What a joke.

 

Now I’m wrecked, my brain is dry

Grog and drugs gave me ABI

What a Joke

Life goes on after a brain injury

Acquired Brain Injury as a result of being hit by a bus.

“I was in hospital so long I lost all my friends.  I lost my license.  I was 22.  I lost the use of my right side.  My right leg was broken & all my toes & fingers, nose & jaw.  Some people can’t understand me because my speech is slurred”

“I love being fit, walk 10 km a day & workout in the gym & pool”.

The long road to independence

“In 1997 I passed out in the lounge room and was diagnosed with a major brain haemorrhage, causing an ABI and leaving me a hemiplegic (Loss of the use of my left arm & leg).  I spent 12 months in Monash; 3 months in a coma, went to Traralgon hospital for 6 months, then lived in aged care in a nursing home full of older people –I was 52 at the time and there was nowhere else for me to go.

There was no rehab  for me at this stage, my brain injury was too severe for me to cooperate or follow instructions.

After a whole year in the nursing home, which was very upsetting for me, I did get some rehab at Moe and learned to walk with a cane, and learned ways of managing one handed.

The experts this time decided I was “good enough” to go to a hostel (not high care), I had a bit more freedom and was allowed to start making a few decisions myself, always hating the fact I had no one near my own age to mix with.

I finally booked myself into another 3 months or rehab, and now own an electric scooter and live independently in my own unit, with my cat, and decide what and when I do anything.

I still can’t walk very well, but I’m happy to be alive.”