In 2005 I got a permanent brain injury from Shingles of the Brain. I had a 24/7 grade 9 (pain level) headaches/migraines and I lost my ability to remember random immediate events and I could not speak properly.
Before this incident I had a photographic memory, and I suffered from type A personality big-mouth-edness. After the incident I had no immediate memory and I was plagued with verbal affasia.
My confidence was shot. The first 9 months were horrible, but as the Dr's began to map out the damage and find ways to curb the pain, I also got bored. I had no stamina, so my Sons suggested I try out stuff on the computer. It was difficult. I used to be an online editor, it wasn't like I was unknowledgable, but the knowledge was locked in my brain, and I didn't have the access code any more.
Al took me under his wing. He realized that I could no longer learn in my old ways, so he figured out how to teach me by adapting to my new learning skills.
By March 2006 I was ready to come back to the real world, but I still didn't have the stamina to visit with friends and family, or to talk on the phone. I needed my own time frame, and I needed to do something I could work at only 20 min at a time.
Al and Cam suggested I blog. Al sent me a couple of web sites so I could choose what kind of blog. He explained that Word Press might be the best for control, but I could not learn my HTML skills fast enouogh to use it. So I chose Blogger. The old template Blogger world.
For three months Al worked one-on-one with me teaching me a little bit of code at a time, and encouraged me to write, write, write. I was deemed unable to be productive at a job or to learn because of my disability. But Al taught me.
How did he do it? He watched me. He figured out how I could learn best in the situation, and he didn't give me too much information at one time. Then he had me do practical examples in my template so I could see fruitful results.
I learned the basic rules of code, so I could look for my own mistakes, and I spent a lot of tearful days scoping out my errors and fixing them. And only if I spent way too much time on a problem did Al step in and save me. He let me work it out most of the time on my own, because he knew I had to learn to use different parts of my brain to rationalize and map out a problem, and only letting me actually do it would train my brain.
So it is 2007. I have made a huge turn around in my abilities on here. I still have memory issues, but not near the problems I used to have because I have retrained my brain with Al's help.
http://motivated-motion.blogspot.com/2007/10/in-2005-i-got-permanent-brain-injury.html
