The searing, wry memoir about a woman’s fight for a new life after a devastating brain injury.When Sarah Vallance is thrown from a horse and suffers a jarring blow to the head, she believes she’s walked away unscathed. The next morning, things take a sharp turn as she’s led from work to the emergency room. By the end of the week, a neurologist delivers a devastating prognosis: Sarah suffered a … Sarah suffered a traumatic brain injury that has caused her IQ to plummet, with no hope of recovery. Her brain has irrevocably changed.
Afraid of judgment and deemed no longer fit for work, Sarah isolates herself from the outside world. She spends months at home, with her dogs as her only source of companionship, battling a personality she no longer recognizes and her shock and rage over losing simple functions she’d taken for granted. Her life is consumed by fear and shame until a chance encounter gives Sarah hope that her brain can heal. That conversation lights a small flame of determination, and Sarah begins to push back, painstakingly reteaching herself to read and write, and eventually reentering the workforce and a new, if unpredictable, life.
In this highly intimate account of devastation and renewal, Sarah pulls back the curtain on life with traumatic brain injury, an affliction where the wounds are invisible and the lasting effects are often misunderstood. Over years of frustrating setbacks and uncertain triumphs, Sarah comes to terms with her disability and finds love with a woman who helps her embrace a new, accepting sense of self.
more
This isn’t a self-help book, but it is a well-told story of resisting stagnation in misery, and the emotional development of the author.
This is the true story of the author and her life after a severe head injury. She was working on her Ph.D. when she was thrown from a horse. Not wearing a helmet, she hit her head hard on the ground and quickly found that she was suffering from a severe concussion. She was having trouble with simple tasks. Short term memory was shot. She felt angry, depressed, and frustrated. Her IQ dropped significantly.
She spent the better part of a year trying to figure out what to do. And then she started to rebuild her life. She got a job, she started her Ph.D. work again. She moved to a new country. She found love. And while her troubles were never far behind, she was able to regain somewhat of a normal life. It was easy for her to hide from others what was really going on in her mind.
It has been almost 20 years since her accident, and according to her, she has hardly had any improvement. She has atrophy in parts of her brain that constantly keep her concerned. She has really not found the answers that she was hoping for to improve her brain function, and she doesn’t know what the future holds.
This was a fair book. I really, really don’t want to judge it because it was written by someone who states her IQ is around 90, and was able to accomplish so much. The writing isn’t great, but I didn’t really expect it to be. Actually – based on what the author is going through, it was good. The story is sad and frustrating. She doesn’t get a lot of help for her head injury, which is frustrating to the reader. She doesn’t have a lot of support, and she had a rocky childhood. She went through several failed relationships. At the end of the book she ends up in a permanent relationship that is still in place today. But her mother was someone she could never please. She came across a lot of people who didn’t really understand what she was going through, and had little patience for her.
It would be a good read if you have ever known anyone who had a head injury. What goes on behind the scenes in incredible. They find that it is very very hard for the adult brain to bounce back after a severe injury like the one the author had.
The author is very up front about her lesbianism, so if that turns you off, don’t read this book. But the book is a very interesting account of recovering from a severe brain injury and the things the author did to re-establish the neural pathways in her brain so she could live a productive life. The scientific explanations come in layperson terms so the reader understands the healing process. She also touches on her difficult issues with her mother and how those get better. Unusual book and informative.
Gave me some insight into TBI and how it can be overcome. Positive outcome.
Brutally honest writing about really life-shattering subject. Author does not spare herself for a second, but tells all the pain and sheer terror of trying to put her life back together after a severe brain injury. Well-written and riveting; I couldn’t put it down til I’d read the final word. Amazing story and an incredibly driven woman!
very interesting
very thought provoking