TBI in Perspective

Sometimes when I reflect in the past I can see a different picture of what it is our life today. Our life was one full of responsibilities and personal challenges. My husband a proud US Army Soldier always in military training and in missions and I was a full time clinical researcher trying to advance science through new discoveries. Today I am still who I was but with a new purpose, new journey and new mission. I am going to school full time to complete a doctoral program, I am still working full time, I am now 100% conscious of what it is my husband doing and I am (next to my husband) supporting the efforts to redefine what Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is for the military. When I reflect on the past I see a normal couple just enjoying life with goals and dreams, today I still see that happy couple with a set of goals and dreams that require so much commitment and drive. We are driven by the suffering of so many and because we have experimented what it is to see TBI knock on the doors of our life. TBI came without invitation and when we least expected and sat on our living room as a silent permanent visitor. Today we have succeeded not because TBI is gone but because we know how to manage life with it in our life.

When my husband was medevaced from Iraq I did not know what we were going to faced but now that I know what it is like I have full confidence in telling you, DO NOT GIVE UP, there is HOPE and the possibility of you becoming a more extraordinary person during your extraordinary situation. My husband may not be that Soldier that he was and we just hope he will again one day, but he has become something much larger than that, something that I am so PROUD. He feels social responsibility; he is an advocate and a man of encouragement to others.

I intend to continue my professional career and the path that I had planned but with a new direction and perspective. I believe in research but also I want to see this research being translated into practice. I dream of seeing action, not 20 years later but today. We can still discovering and advancing science; however, Are we ready to translated into practice? How much more our Soldiers need to wait? I strongly suggest, not even one more second. How much more will our civilian patients survivors of TBI need to wait before the health insurance will pay for their treatment?

I dream of the day that we the caregivers and family of TBI/BI survivors can feel free of any concerns and pressure caused by the uncertainty of the care of our loved ones. I wish that BI experts (civilian and military) can work together and advance the knowledge of effective treatment and healing of this condition.