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SIGNIFICANT EVENTS PRIOR TO AND SINCE MY INJURY

1971: I was a senior at the University of Michigan, specializing in Special Education for the Emotionally Disturbed. With another student in his small foreign car, I commuted from Ann Arbor to Northville in order to be a student teacher at Hawthorne Institute. The car accident occurred on Nov. 11, 1971.

1972: My memory begins when I was in my bedroom, at my parent’s house in Franklin, Michigan. I had scars on my body, a cast on my arm, I had difficulty speaking, walking and going to the bathroom without assistance. I was an outpatient at the Detroit Rehabilitation Institute for three months. Upon discharge, my mother took me to the Jewish Community Center where we would swim, steam, set my hair, order lunch and socialize. During the summer, I resumed driving and returned to Ann Arbor in August to complete my degree and to learn how to live as independently as I could.

1973: May 5, I got my Bachelor of Science degree in Education. I returned to my family and lived with them until I decided what I wanted to do next. I got my first job as an employment counselor in the competitive arena and was fired in two weeks. I then attended Oakland University as a graduate student in Guidance & Counseling because I was successful at going to school and I could get a job as a graduate assistant in the Human Resources Department. Meanwhile I was applying to graduate schools in social work that were out of state.

1974: My first graduate school response was an acceptance from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and I decided to go there in September. In the spring, I traveled to Madison with my parents to tour the campus and to find a place to live. Upon finding an apartment near the school of social work, we returned to Michigan and I began to prepare myself for an adventure that would have no clear destination.

1975: I attended school for not only the fall and winter semesters, but I also needed to be present during the summer term. I took a course taught by a dynamic, effective, brutally honest and incredibly perceptive social worker who became the “helping professional”; I would attempt to model in future years.

1976: I received my Master of Science in Social Work at the end of May. I returned to Michigan, once again living with my parents and began looking for a job. I obtained work at a smoking cessation clinic that used aversion therapy.

1977: I got a job as an Alcoholism Intake Therapist at a hospital in the area that I lived. I was responsible for learning the dynamics of the disease so that I could give dyadic lectures to patients. I used the skills I had learned in school and in my own recovery, to make me a more tolerant, approachable and effective counselor. I was laid-off and I’m not sure why.

1978: I got another social work position at a suburban Detroit hospital in the field of Alcohol Treatment.
I got fired from this one too. After going to Duke University’s Rice Diet in Durham, North Carolina for four months, I decided move to another state, where I knew no one, in order to start a New Life. I relocated in December of this year.

1979: I had three jobs and lived in three different cities. I learned that I could not run away from my accident. The residuals of the brain injury followed me. The life that I created was just OK and I knew that I wouldn’t be happy if I stayed in this new place for my 30th birthday, which would be next year. So I returned to my parent’s house where I felt safe.

1980: Once again I moved into the bedroom of my childhood. I was very disheartened by my failures to achieve independence. I contacted the state agency that helped me when I was in graduate school, the Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. It was now called Michigan Rehabilitation Services. A person who did occupational, psychological and vocational therapy came to my home until I was made ready to assume a job that was within my limitations.

1981: Progress was slow and the first project I completed was a brass rubbing of a butterfly. I have kept it as a reminder of the challenges that I’ve had to overcome. Many occupational therapy tasks were then achieved. Depression existed and was not recognized.

1982: While I was trying to learn how to exist in the mainstream, a friend of my father’s offered me a job as a receptionist/secretary. I took it and held it for 11½ months. I hated the work and got into a disagreement with my boss who then fired me.

1983: I attended my first Michigan Head Injury Alliance meeting. From going to this one self-help group, I got an idea of what I wanted to do. I felt I could help other “wounded” people reintegrate into the mainstream because I was successful at doing that. I called myself a Brain Injured Peer Counselor.

1984: With my academic degree, I obtained additional professionals credentials and established a private practice. I met most of my first clients at Brain Injury Alliance meetings.

1985: After two frustrating years of attempting to work, I fell apart and the practice collapsed. I got clinically depressed. I went to community mental health and moved to a location that I would remain for the next seventeen years. I sought the help of Michigan Rehabilitation Services to help me become able to work.

1986: My MRS counselor placed me in a sheltered workshop as an Evaluator Aide. I stayed for the next 2½ years because I could do the job and was unaware of other opportunities. At the workshop I learned that I was not unlike the other clients. We all had problems living, and my difficulties were just different. Early in the year, I met the man who would become my best friend, primary helpmate and husband.

1987: The evaluator at the sheltered workshop seemed to understand my limitations and was willing to accommodate my limitations for stamina and task completion. I was happy because I could easily do what was expected and I worked three days a week, for ½ day. My job was in the testing area and interaction with developmentally disabled & mentally retarded clients was limited to the break room.

1988: The staff changed at the workshop and so did my job responsibilities. My work scheduled remained the same but job expectations changed and my sense of dissatisfaction grew. One morning I got up for work and the next thing I knew my boy friend was picking me up off the floor. I’d had my first seizure and was taken to the hospital, where four stitches were put in the back of my scalp. Somehow I knew that whatever I was doing had to change.

1989: Since the seizure in the middle of last year until my wedding in the middle of this year, I did not attempt to work for another employer. After my wedding I began to consider, what it was that I could and wanted to do. At this time I was asked by a local rehabilitation facility, to speak to survivors of brain injury about what empowerment meant to me. I wrote the talk I delivered and titled it, My Life Since My Head Injury. This experience would prove to be a pivotal point in my life.

1990: To manage my time and without getting a paycheck, I agreed to work for a rehabilitation clinic as an associate. It was in this position that developing a format for conducting Acceptance Groups began to grow. The clinic’s neuropsychologist gave me suggestions about how I might design this enterprise. On 3 x 5 cards for most of the year, I wrote questions that I felt someone might want to ask himself or herself, when they were considering accepting a brain injury. I was very happy doing this task.

1991: I continued working as a rehabilitation associate and began to facilitate groups for clients of the agency, where we would share our experiences, talk about acceptance and living in the mainstream. I self-published the first version of Acceptance Groups for Brain Injury Survivors. I submitted the work to the copyright office in Washington, D.C.

1992: I tried to convince local Brain Injury Providers that the tool that I created was valuable and could be useful. I believe that due to my survivor status, I was not taken seriously. In the middle of the year, my focus changed from assisting only the brain injured to helping those who had a disability of any kind

1993: I shifted from helping others to helping myself live and thrive. A speech was given to outpatients of a local hospital about living and succeeding with a problem. Because of the positive reception I received, I decided to rewrite my original book and title it, Acceptance Groups for Disability Survivors. Attempts to market and distribute my work continued.

1994: Both manuscripts were registered with the copyright office. Worked as a peer counselor for outpatient mental health clinics, on a contractual basis.

1995: Brain Injury conference in Baltimore, Maryland - delivered My Life since My Head Injury speech

1996: National Brain Injury conference in San Diego, CA - spoke about acceptance & reintegration, Abstract for Second World Congress on Brain Injury prepared, proposed discussion topic was; Making Progress; Recovery Through Acceptance, displayed company logo that is a graphic of acceptance & sold self-published books for Head Injury and Disability Survivors in Flint, Michigan at State Brain Injury conference

1997: International Brain Injury Congress in Seville, Spain – displayed poster presentation of acceptance, began to work with professional medical writer to further develop Acceptance Groups.

1998: Vendor at State Brain Injury conference in Lansing, Michigan with self-published books and displayed poster presentation that was taken to Spain

1999: Submitted manuscripts to publishers, continued to work as a Brain Injured Peer Counselor for a clinic that helped brain injured substance abusers. I was employed by that agency for 7½ years.

2000: Agreement with First Books Library to publish work was reached and the task of formatting it began exhibitor at State Brain Injury conference with poster presentation and self-published books.

2001: After nearly one year of revisions, the project is completed, books were ordered and the task of marketing it began. Wrote speech titled, DOES ANYONE LIVE FREE FROM SUFFERING AND LOSS? IS IT WORTH THE STRUGGLE?

2002: For presentation to the Homicide Division of the Detroit Police Department, I developed the document, GUIDELINES for INTERVIEWING & RESOLVING DISPUTES with those who have INJURY/DISABILITY/ILLNESS, I had web site created at www.survivoracceptance.com

2003: Moved to a new home, had shingles, continue to take lots of medication and go to numerous doctors’ appointments, began to revive my professional career and intend on continuing to make slow, steady progress in my personal, emotional and physical health.

2004: Concentrate efforts on marketing and distribution of self and book, monitor web site, respond to visitors in a timely fashion, work with life coach, joined American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, became a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress and received Board Certification in Disability Trauma. Began to consider and investigate Weight-Loss Surgerry in late April. Deemed a good candidate for surgery by hospital's bariatric program, but denied authorization by insurance company in July. Refused to accept decision and doing whatever it takes to get approval for procedure.

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