Author Archives: Cecylia Witkowski

My second visit was interestingly, nothing like my first visit. My first visit was during the baking time as well but everyone there was new to me, except for one individual, Ann*.

The first time I was there, I was told to be wary of Ann since she did not usually like other females, and was often found to be even a little hostile and aggressive towards other females. I made sure to be exceptionally nice to her – although this almost upset me that I needed to be extra nice to someone simply because of my gender…

Before the baking started, we played a quick game of Trivia. Another classmate and I were in charge of asking the trivia questions. It was amazing to see how the members were so good at answering the questions. I’m ashamed to admit, I originally picked the easy ones thinking that their intelligence was altered. One individual (who was amazing at getting the questions right) actually commented that after his brain injury, he was significantly better at remembering facts than anything else. Ann was almost as good as the trivia-master and I would congratulate her every time she answered correctly.

We were all split into teams for baking banana bread – one wet items and one dry items. Funny enough, Ann and I were put on the same team. I was rather hesitant about this pairing but hoped for the best.

Ann was exceptionally knowledgeable in the art of baking, and I like to think that I’m fairly good at it but honestly, she blew me away. She took control and was handling everything like a pro. In fact, I had trouble cutting the butter and she gently took over and helped me out (the butter was rock-solid, I SWEAR!). Essentially, everything was cordial and it was a really great time.

The issue of emotional changes hasn’t really been brought up in class, but rather the emotional impact of going through a TBI for both the victim and the family. However, I thought that permanent emotional changes is something equally as important.

Why was Ann so hostile towards other females? Was she always this aggressive? She definitely displayed a huge difference in appeal to males so what was triggering this aggression towards other females? Did her injury cause her to be this way? So many questions that I want answered but unfortunately, cannot be. Baguley et al.  performed a study on the commonality of aggression and found that it is surprisingly common! Roughly 25% of their participants were classified as aggressive. However, does Ann’s situation fall within this spectrum? Again, it is difficult to answer these questions so perhaps someday there will be more information on specific aggressive personality changes.

All in all, it was an entirely different experience, but one that opened my eyes nonetheless!

Mmm Banana Bread

*Changed name to protect privacy

Upon arriving at Headway, I was immediately greeted with a “Hello!” but it wasn’t from the staff, it was from a member. This instantly changed my perspective towards my time at Headway from wary to calm as I initially had this irrational fear that it would be difficult to communicate with the members.

I had the pleasure of spending my time with two members and another volunteer (not from our class) and we spent the first half playing Wii bowling and the second half baking oatmeal cookies but all the while enjoying communicating with one another.

Both of the members were at first glance seemingly impaired due to their injury, but after a mere 5 minutes of being around and talking to them, it was obvious that they were ordinary people as you and I.

The first member I had the pleasure of talking to, was very animated as she loved to talk about her children and her grandchildren and in no way did it seem like she or her family was truly affected by her injury. She expressed polite interest and asked about my life but was definitely more focused on telling me about her family.

During class, we have talked about the struggles that the victims, both direct victims and family members, of TBI face: communication and understanding. Secondly, the struggle of adapting to the consequences of suffering a TBI has been a large factor in how it affects family dynamics. However, it was amazing to see that this member had fully adapted to her change in lifestyle and if anything, loved her family more because of how it knit them all together.

The second member hardly spoke and if so, it was in two word sentences. At first I couldn’t quite understand what he was trying to tell me or what he was doing. I soon realized that although he couldn’t quite communicate with his words, he was very clear in his actions. It was a constant playful game and everyone who was there at Headway truly enjoyed both his company and playful antics.

What was also really interesting was that he had an app on his iPad that allowed him to communicate via conventional methods: speech. There were pre-recordings of sentences that he frequently used and when needed, he would simply press play and viola! Although he himself wasn’t the one speaking, it was interesting to see how easy it was for him to tell us or ask us something.

Despite the two of them having different communication abilities, it was very easy to understand both.

Although I didn’t get too much into the nature of their injuries for fear of prying, it was clear that despite having been impaired, the way they had adapted was incredible. Looking past their exterior, they were functioning just as you and I could and if anything, had a better grasp on living life.