Friday, February 8, 2013

Working & My Ongoing Recovery

I had a couple meetings with my work supervisor, the call centre manager, Human Resources and my Acquired Brain Injury rep, Dixon, to talk about how I'm doing.
I'm currently at half-time hours. Four hours in the morning.
Then I walk home, eat something, and crash out for three, to three and a half hours.
Kind of crazy.
The next question almost always, and understandably, to be asked is, "and how are you sleeping at night?"

Answer: Fine.
I'm in bed usually by 9:30 or 10, and I sleep through the night till my alarm wakes me in the morning.


I get about twelve hours a day. That's a lot of my day spent giving my brain the rest it needs. Not a heck of a lot of time for socializing.
During the week, I work for 4 hours in the mornings (which sounds sweet, right?), go home, have lunch, sleep for another 3 and a half hours, wake up, (sometimes walk to the YMCA for a spin class), eat supper, walk Chaos (sometimes with my boyfriend-I'll get into that someday, maybe...), watch an episode of The Golden Girls, then back to bed for work in the morning.
Weekends aren't much different. Instead of working in the mornings, I get groceries, be domestic (laundry, dusting, vacuuming, etc), and go to the YMCA.

I used to be very social. I had loads of friends that I regularly spent time with.
I can get pretty bummed out about this part of my injury. Humans are very social animals. I do suffer from brief bouts of depression. Which I'm told is super common for the brain injured.

Yup. Fatigue, anxiety, note-dependency, and depression. 
I know you're jealous of ALL my time off.
(sarcasm runs deep)

Which sometimes makes me wish it was more visible. You wouldn't know just by looking at me that I had a severe brain injury. I can do a lot.
Dixon tells me that only 20% of people with a severe brain injury return to working. I may never get back to working full time. Super bummer.

But hey...I'm working...am I right??