Brenda's Brain and Trevor's Tale...

Hi, it's Trevor here with our monthly tale. This one is going to be unique. It will be broken down in two parts. I will share first and then Brenda will finish. The title for this particular post, came from a co-worker. Brenda thought it was a great time to use it.

Brenda started this blog in 2009, almost one year, after having her brain tumor removed, or the correct name for this procedure, a craniotomy. One of the gifts she received from this whole experience, was being able to write. The original title for this blog was; Brenda's Brainstorm: (An Inspiration Out of the Blue).

As you know, Brenda has been a brain tumor survivor, for almost eight years. She had a right frontal lobe meningioma which was found on an MRI on August 26, 2008. It turned out to be non-malignant. She no longer refers to it as benign, as the connotation is confusing. Benign doesn't necessarily mean harmless. Even though 90% of these types of brain tumors are benign, they are still many things that can go wrong. She has a friend, who had to learn to walk all over again, from a harmless meningioma.

Brenda still experiences a lot of motion issues at times and nausea. Imagine, dealing with that pretty much every day. It is hard to deal with and you still have to go on with your activities. Brenda continues to work full-time. She also lives with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), so try to imagine that on top of dealing with motion issues.

Along with the brain tumor experience came another gift, Frontal Lobe Syndrome. It is real folks, and was very scary in the early stages, because Brenda did not know what was going on. She thought she was possibly going bonkers, as she would cry for no reason. It turns out that the location of her brain tumor or the right frontal lobe, is the high functioning level of the brain. It can cause a person to react quickly with anger or tears.

This has also caused Brenda to possess more empathy for others and even herself. She has met some wonderful people, in person and online, during this journey.

She has been writing about this more. She joined a wonderful group of writers, last November and has been enjoying this experience, immensely. It's the Grief Diaries, where all the writers share their journeys. Their motto is; "Healing hearts by sharing journeys" Here is the link for that wonderful site.
http://www.griefdiaries.com/

Brenda has connected with some wonderful people. She has contributed to two books in the series; Grief Diaries: Loss of Health and Grief Diaries: How to Help the Newly Bereaved. She is co-author of another book, Grief Diaries: Living with a Brain Injury, which is due for release soon. I'm a dog so I don't know what soon means, but I cannot wait for it to come out. Brenda has been working hard this winter with writing. She loves to write and I couldn't be happier for her. Brenda will now share the second part of this blog.

This is Trevor, my storyteller. He has been on board since 2011. I thought it would be kind of interesting to have stories told, with a golden retriever's point of view. It was originally, Trevor's Tales as he was Trevor, The Tell Tale Dog. It has since been changed to Brenda's Brainstorm & Trevor, because by now, you all know who he is. He began telling tales of my mother's journey in the nursing home and leading up to her passing. We have used the word *Tale* in every title, since he joined me in February of 2011. His dog collar was made by my mother, just before she became ill and had to go into the nursing home. It is special because the purple ribbon was my from my sister Bev's sewing kit, that my mother received, after her passing from colon cancer in 2003. It is purple, because that is the awareness color for meningiomas. It has two dog bone charms and TT for Trevor's Tales. This is also the photo that was used in my first published blog post in 2012. It was titled; A Tale of 21 Years, sharing my journey of living with RA. This blog is all about awareness and hope. We thought it would be fun to give you a dog's eye view (see what I did there?)

I know many of you enjoy Trevor, and for the longest time, you even thought he was real. We had quite a conversation about this with my friend, Rick Franzo, during his show; Brain Tumor Talk: Worldwide Radio Show, when I was a guest via telephone. I was however, able to share about my brain tumor and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) journeys. That was pretty cool!

Trevor is my helper in so many ways. He has been featured in several 'Tumors Suck' videos and also offers encouragement with his tales. We have really tried to make them once a month and so far this year, we have succeeded. We hope you have enjoyed this. Now you know the whole story behind our blog. It all started with a brainstorm and ended with a tale.

We wish you all good health and happiness, until next time.

Brenda & Trevor