The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a report concluding that at least 40% of those hospitalized with traumatic brain injury have problems improving memory and problem solving skills, managing stress and emotional upsets, controlling anger and improving job skills a year after sustaining a TBI. Traumatic brain injury is the tip of the iceberg. Other acquired brain injuries are caused by stroke, lack of oxygen to the brain and drug overdose.
Many brain injuries go undetected because symptoms can manifest themselves days, weeks or months after the brain injury event. Concussions are one example. The CDC estimates there are up to 3.8 million sport and recreation-related concussions each year.
Sherwood, Arkansas authors Larry and Beth Jameson have written Brain Injury Survivor’s Guide based upon their experiences following Beth’s anoxic brain injury in 1990. As problems surfaced in Beth’s daily living activities, the couple would develop strategies to compensate for what her brain was failing to do.
For years, a step-by-step list remained taped beside the bathroom mirror entitled, How to Put On Makeup. A planner included medical information, health insurance information, driving directions and much more. One section includes instructions for operating computer software programs. Cheat sheets included maps and instructions for negotiating airports during travel as well as packing instructions for both carry-on and checked luggage.
The Jamesons include their lists and instructions for how to use them in their book. In some sections Beth writes directly to the brain injury victims while Larry writes to the family members whose lives also changed.
Outskirts Press, publisher of Brain Injury Survivor’s Guide, announced this week that the book was in the Top Ten Sales according to combined data from Ingram Book Wholesalers and Outskirts Press Wholesale Direct.
The Jamesons also maintain two brain injury websites and Beth’s Brain Injury Blog to provide additional assistance to families living with brain injury.
http://www.braininjuryguide.org
http://www.brain-
Brain Injury Survivor’s Guide is available from most online bookstores such as amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com and can also be ordered through local bookstores.
