By Robert Lyons, Traumatic Brain Injury Survivor, 1990

I lived the vast majority of my life in the Milwaukee area, so I was familiar with places that have a fairly severe winter. Besides being cold and snowy, the days were shorter, so we did not see too much sunshine. I longed for the promise of springtime. In many ways this season like no other, was akin to re-birth. Flowers, grass (nature) was growing. Animals often delivered their off spring in this season.

I feel as though, I am in the springtime of my “new life” by virtue of only the Grace of God.  I have found that when my sole focus is directed toward God, as well as my other loved ones, each and everyday of my development gets better than the last! By the Grace of God, I am learning & understanding concepts continually.

After I was deemed “medically stable”, I was discharged from the hospital where I both had my surgery & very first rehabilitation. After this I attended outpatient services consisting of physical, occupational & speech therapies. It was at that first rehabilitation center where I learned to walk again! I had a couple nurses try to teach me how to walk again, yet I didn’t feel secure with both myself nor their direction. I then met a large physical therapist, who put a “safety belt” around me to give me confidence that I would not lose my balance & fall when I walked.

As I have by the Grace of God developed & progressed, I have been trying to improve my stride by always striking my left heal when I walk. I continue to develop doing this so that it has become something I do not have to think about. I noticed that my left side is weaker than my right, as I have in medical terms “contra-lateral damage.” The right-side of of the brain was where my surgery was, so my opposite side is weaker. An insight which I firmly believe came from a messenger of God, or directly from God, is that I almost always wear a brace around my left knee to assist me. My hope & prayer is to one day travel to heaven without a noticeable limp.