I feel like a baby after reading all your problems and complaining about mine. I think my fear of what is next behind the corner scared me more than what I have sometimes

This is hard for all of us. Every TBI is unique: because your experience is different than mine doesn't make your suffering any less significant or valid.

Yeah, it's rough, but I've come back a lot further than anyone thought possible. Ironically, I think the severity of my injury helped me work for my recovery. Nobody told me I was going to be better in two months, so I didn't have to go through waiting for that to happen, and then feeling like a failure when it didn't.

For me, every improvement was an unexpected gift. The day I buttoned my own shirt, I was amazed. The things I accomplished, on their own, seemed tiny and insignificant, but they added up until I was again driving, capable of preparing a meal for my family and able to do some volunteer work for my child's sports team.

Is it a struggle? Of course. Do I have TERRIBLE days? You bet. But I'm getting through it - and I'm grateful.

Ha! Ha! My sadistic, twisted neurologist asked a similar question - although far more nastily. He sneered (and I quote), "You are so destroyed that I can't even fathom how you get out of bed in the morning."

My reply was, "That's because you aren't anybody's mommy." (I wanted to add, "dumba$$," but he was writing reports to my insurance company.)

Seriously, I keep going because, as banged up as I am, my child needs me. Without that external motivation, I don't know, quite honestly, if I could carry on.