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From: Brian Humphrey
Date: 12 Oct 2007
Time: 20:46:31 -0500
Remote Name: 75.74.131.143
Laura Johnson wrote: I was just wondering if you would not mind sharing some of the personal frustrations you had and maybe still have from this entire journey and how you coped with them. --- Personal frustrations? Hmm... all along my path to recovery, I often felt ready for the "next step" before my readiness was recognized by clinicians who worked with me. I wonder how many of our clients may feel the same way. I did not get frustrated by my speech or my difficulty with singing, in part because I am a speech-language pathologist and I understood my communication problems well, and I decided to be thankful that I'm still alive to be dealing with my problems. How did I cope? -- humor, reminding myself that I was not going to be in the hospital or rehab program forever, being able to play music with some of my music buddies, and finding ways to be useful and help others. I smiled when a psychologist stated in a progress review meeting that having me in a therapy group was like having another therapist present. Friends and colleagues made frequent hospital visits and offered support. I received frequent encouragement from people in my Quaker Meeting. One Quaker friend who visited often had a similar brain injury several years ago. Even when I was comatose, she was convinced that I would recover, she told others so, and I'm glad she was right. The experience taught me that there are many people in my life for whom I can be thankful. BH