Brain Injury: Motorcycle Accident

Explanation of Mask: My accident was on September 23, 2010. I had several surgeries for physical problems in the first three years after my accident but it took me three years to get help with the changes that happened in my brain.  In that time, I thought I was going crazy and my marriage almost fell apart.  It was hard for me and my family to understand.  It still is sometimes.  I have been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress and I have had a lot of social anxiety, which is so different for me.  I worked hard at the Frazier NeuroRehab intensive outpatient program and they became a safe place for me, my comfort zone.  It was sad to leave when I “graduated” but I continue to work with my psychologist and the therapy dog there.

My daughter and I worked on the mask together and it helped me communicate my journey and connect with her. We even shared some memories we hadn’t yet talked about.

Road-journey I have been on since the motorcycle accident

XXX’s on the month-I am uncertain on what and how to speak at times so silence is the choice I take a lot.

Watch in the right eye-shows how time stopped and changed my life forever. I have the watch I was wearing at the time of the accident.  The lens is scratched and still has dirt in it.  It stopped working, like a moment etched in time.

Person above left eye-represents the image of my out of body experience, seeing myself lying on the side of the road after the accident.