Todays Paper
I had to find today a story about some one with some type of mental disorder. Well I found this one about her husband with Amnesia. He is ok so its not a sad story but for some reason it hit me very hard. Here it is:
A True Story of Amnesia
One day my husband decided to go into the attic. We still don't know why. He can't remember. He can't remember because he fell out of the attic and hit his head three times as he fell. Each strike resulted in a concussion. His brain had literally sloshed around in his head three times.My daughter found him. She was three, she started screaming. I ran upstairs and found him lying on the floor of the landing. He looked like he was asleep, but blood was oozing from his chin. I stirred him and he woke up. He looked at me and told me he wore contact lenses. I thought that was strange, but interperted it to mean that he had his contacts in. I let him know we should go to the ER because of the terrible abrasion to his chin. I helped him up and into the car.
We were driving down the road to the hospital and he told me again that he wore contact lenses. I said I knew that and he said "Oh". He asked what day it was and I told him the date, June 17th, and he said it was his parent's wedding anniversary. He wanted to know if he had bought them a gift, I looked at him and reminded him that his mother had been dead for 23 years and he started crying.
Suddenly I was speeding down the road like a bat out of hell. I started asking him other questions. He thought his phone number was 3-4628 and that Richard Nixon was President. He thought he was in College and he was worried that his Dad, whose was now in his 80s was going to be mad at him for getting hurt in an accident. But he couldn't remember what accident he had been in. Then he would ask the date again and again ask about whether or not he had bought a present for his parents' anniversary.
Now I was going over 100 miles per hour (it was a Sunday, Father's Day in fact). I got to the hospital and went right to the front of the line with my husband in tow. I pushed aside people with make-shift slings and red noses. The woman behind the window asked me the 'nature' of my emergency. I told her that my husband thought Richard Nixon was the President, that he had fallen out of the attic and that he believed his mother, dead over 23 years, was expecting a present for her anniversary. She looked at me for a minute and then said "Come right with me."
We were taken directly into the code room. They put him on the table and immobilized him. I remember that at 1:09 they called out "Patient immobilized at 1 oh nine" I started to cry. What had I done, putting him in the car and driving him to the hospital. He had a serious head injury.
My husband ended up with three forms of amnesia; he could not remember the answer to the questions you had answered within the past minute, he could not remember anything back until he was 19, and he could not remember the immediate past.
After only a brief period of recovery he came to remember the answers to the questions he would ask over and over and over. In fact, I grew so hoarse that I wrote the answers to his questions on the back of one of my business cards. His first question was "What happened?" The answer: you fell from the attic. That was kind of stupid wasn't it? Answer: Yes. How did I get here, in an ambulance? Answer: Yes (he did not like the 'no' answer and the doctors advised against upsetting him) What day is it? June 17th (or 18th or 19, etc.) Oh, It was my parents' anniversary did I get them a present? Answer: Yes. Question: Did my Dad come? Answer : he just left. Q: Did I go to the U.S. Open? Answer : Yes! Pause.....Q: What happened?
Within a week my husband was released from the hospital. At home he was surprised to learn he had little children and a new house. A few months later he had recovered a lot of memory, but much of it was 'suggested memory' from looking at photos and visiting places he had been before. He still does not remember from approximately that June to the previous October and there are lots of other sketchy aspects to his memory. He remembers, he says, the bigs events like when our daughters were born, but there are also video of those events and we can't be sure how much is suggested and how much is real memory.
One thing he was able to do immediately after returning from the hospital is pick up his guitar and play as if nothing had happened. The brain is a very strange thing.
Today my kids still tease their dad about his bout of amnesia. Last summer, while in Florida, they bought him a shirt that said "Who are these kids, and why are they calling me Dad?"
wow thats very sad- i bet it was hard for the wife- imagine losing all those wonderful memories of meeting for the first time- the time she told him she was pregnant- their anniversaries- their vacations together- the funny inside jokes they used to share =/ man thats tough.
This situation and and all types of loss are so impossible to imagine unless we really go through them.
I think we can never know when its our time to go and the key to living our lives without this fear is to encourage and love the people around us unconditionally us like there was no tomorrow so that if we do lose them there is never a doubt about how true the love for that person is. We cant worry about tomorrow- if may come...it may not...all we have in our hands is right now and if everyone were to focus on that people would be more happy and loving everyday.
My favorite quote I wrote that I want to share w/ yall is:
"Live the moment...the moment is now,
Forget the regrets of yesterday...
Let go the wonders of tomorrow...
Seize the moment, hold on to today" ♥
love the quote vivi... that story was sad. sad part was that his 3 year girl found him. hope she doesnt remember taht, im sure it was very tramatizing if she does to find ur dad taht way at such a young age. its good now taht hes better and that the kids bought him taht shirt and stuff like that
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