If I knew then what I know now about brain injuries

Thanks to my mom, I have this wonderful collection of letters I sent home during my three years of college. (I was an overachiever and crammed four years into three so that my sweetie and I could get married.) She gave me this packet last year and thought I would enjoy revisiting that period of my life.

I've learned much about myself. First, I thank God my parents had health insurance to cover me four hours away from home. I made several trips to the hospital ER in Evansville, Indiana, and that doesn't count all the accidents I had on campus that didn't require serious medical attention. Second, I thank God I lived on the same floor as a bunch of nursing students. I probably gave them a lot of practical practice.

A letter from January 1977 caught my attention. Walking back to the dorm, I slipped on ice, slide across the ice and hit my head on a glass and metal door. Unfortunately my hood flipped back and removed some cushion.

And that's why I say, if I knew then what I know now about brain injuries …

All the girls have been so sweet to me, even though I've tried to do stuff myself. They'll come up and ask, "Do you remember …" referring to things that had happened Sunday, and I don't recall half of it. I don't remember very clearly being carried out to the car by half a dozen people to go to the hospital. It was a Hughes Hall project. You would have had to see it to believe it.

My sense of balance has been off. I would tend to sway to one side and the person I was talking to would set me straight again. I nearly fell off one gal's bed when I drifted too far right before I realized what I was doing. It's one of the strangest things I've ever experienced. Everyone loved to hear me talk Sunday and Monday because they could barely understand me, and I sounded like a true drunk. But I'm on my way to recovery …

While working on a book about coping with brain injuries, I've learned that we've all got to take better care of our brains. Many people have been incapacitated for a long time or permanently, and even killed by blows to the head that seemed harmless or even funny to witness. I compared myself to a "true drunk."

Kids and adults bop each other on the head for fun or bang their heads against each other or something harder for sport. But the brain can only take so much bouncing around. Some skulls are literally thicker than others. Maybe mine is one of them … in more ways than one.

Think of actress Natasha Richardson earlier this year and her unexpected and tragic death from a bump on the head on the ski slopes. We can't make light of events like these.

Wear a helmet while on your bikes or motorcycles or skating or in unsteady activities like snow skiing. People who don't, they say it's their life, their choice.

Well, it's not just YOUR life. Picking you up off the pavement is not easy for the public servants who have to clean up the scene of the accident. Or if you survive and have permanent serious brain damage, what will happen to you? Or if you survive and look "just fine," the hidden damage may forever alter your personality and what makes you a special person to someone or many.

Yep, your choice.

And if I knew then what I know now about brain injuries, I would have been been a lot more careful with my one and only noggin and gotten myself a fashionable purple and white helmet to match my college colors.

What color is yours?