City: Kalispell

Brain Injury: Closed head injury, then strokes

Explanation of Mask:  I was just 21 years old when I smacked my head – wow did it ever hurt!  I did not go to the emergency room because I didn’t have insurance and I was still paying for my back injury the previous year.  So I took aspirin for the pain.  Lots of aspirin.  A couple of weeks later, my left arm was paralyzed, so I went to the doctor – I would not let anyone take me to the hospital because I didn’t have the money.  I would go to work, but my speech became garbled, or my hand wouldn’t work, so they sent me home until I used all of my vacation and sick leave time.  It was all so random and unpredictable.  I believe that the people around me were as frightened as I was because nobody knew what to do.  My choice of survival tools was to work harder and to pretend to be the way I was before.  Friends would tell me that I was never the same again, but I would only try harder.