Hi! My name is Marie Cooney, and I am very proud to have the opportunity to start blogging regularly for Lash and Associates Publishing. I have survived, not one, but two Traumatic Brain Injuries. Both happened while I was working as a stagehand in the theater. Most people don’t know how dangerous the theater can be. When something bad happens, it is often very bad. Making “the magic of theater” isn’t always so magical. When a performer gets injured, it’s news. When it’s a stagehand, it’s Work Comp, if you’re lucky.
After my first closed head injury, I self-moderated my return to work. Like many TBI survivors, I was simply trying to survive. I didn’t follow through on retaining a good lawyer and my rights to lost wages, all reasonable and necessary medical care, and retraining if necessary. Like many TBI survivors, my long term relationship ended after my injury. I didn’t believe it when my partner ended our ten year relationship with a two week notice. I was fired as friend and life-partner. What made it even harder is she never explained why.
Once, she said to me, “If you have a brain injury, there is no hope!” I ran upstairs, grabbed a medical report, and shoved it in her hands yelling, “Don’t you dare ever tell me there is no hope!” I have since learned I may have been experiencing the “heightened emotions” of some TBI survivors. Whatever the reason for the breakup, I left almost everything behind. But I fought for Tucker.
My Savior Tucker
Samuel TUCKER, the most handsome and smartest Border Collie, was my saving grace. I don’t know how I would have survived my first head injury and the end of my relationship without the love, devotion and companionship of my dog. Anyone who has a service animal, a therapy dog, or any pet understands the importance they have in our lives. They are even more important, when our previous lives, as we have known them, have been destroyed. Some of the topics I will be writing about include:
- Tucker Taught Me…. Don’t Forget to Eat!
- Tucker Taught Me… Drink Lots of Water!
- Tucker Taught Me… Take Your Medicine!
- Tucker Taught Me… Let’s Chase Rabbits!
- And more “Tucker Taught Me…. Tales”
In 2005, I sustained a second Traumatic Brain Injury, when I fell off the stage and cracked my head on the cement floor below. As I tried to explain to my mother: She lost her other half, when my father died. I lost the previous me, after the second TBI. It’s been a long journey to reclaim a new life: a combination of parts of the old me, who I am today, and who I am becoming. The life I am reclaiming now is not what I had dreamed, but it’s neither all bad nor all good. There is a lot in between.
Please let me know if there are specific topics you would like me to cover. Thanks again to Lash and Associates and all of you for this wonderful opportunity.
Marie G. Cooney