brrraaaaaaaaains

July 22, 2010 at 2:51 am

I got this book on a whim from the library the other day and I have to say, of all the impulsive decisions I’ve made, pulling this book off the shelf was one of the best.

http://www.amazon.com/Head-Cases-Stories-Injury-Aftermath/dp/0374531951/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1279766572&sr=8-1

Mason is a Brain Injury Specialist and he’s also an incredible writer. Although I may be biased because I’ve read almost every neuropsychology/brain injury/weird mental conditions/oliver sacks and r.s. ramachandran-type book I can get my hands on, I really couldn’t put this one down.

It’s really heartbreaking but fascinating. Each chapter is about a different patient and it cuts back and forth from the moments of the actual injury to what their life is like now. There’s a woman who has no memory (LITERALLY NO MEMORY) and is lost in a perpetual present. Reading that chapter I began to realize that memories make up your identity, that they are your identity, and without them you are literally just a shell that reflects only what it sees in each broken instant.
“Every sentence is the first sentence. Every scene is the opening scene.”

I man roams around believing he is dead after the herpes virus infects his brain. He cannot be convinced otherwise. He just feels dead. How can you convince someone they’re not dead when they just don’t feel alive?

Mason also talks about the state of health care and how no state (or even country) is really prepared to deal with people who’ve had massive head injuries. It costs families thousands, if not millions, to keep a family member under constant care, or in rehab, or on certain medications.

That’s really the paradox of medicine and technology these days. Due to advances in medicine and technology people are surviving devastating injuries more than ever before, and, yet, surviving seems a small feat when compared to the daily task of living with the repercussions of the injuries.

I remember reading The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jeane-Dominique Bauby , and thinking, would it even be worth it? If all I could do was lift an eyelid, would it even matter that I was alive and sane?