A Tale of Gold...
Hello, my fellow readers. It's Trevor sharing our monthly tale. This one folks is going to be GOLD! BOL
You're probably thinking as you read this, that I am going to talk about myself. You wouldn't be more mistaken. BOL
I am going to share some pretty pawsome events, that have occurred in Brenda's life the past 9 + years. Yesterday, which was March 8th, she became a 9½ year brain tumor survivor. Only 6 months to go before she celebrates her 10th Craniversary on September 8th. Every year that has become a major celebration. Brain tumor survivors refer to it, as their second chance at life.
I'm not big on my fairy tales, but it seems there was this character named King Midas, who hoped that everything he touched would turn to gold.
Brenda likes this analogy, because when she had her craniotomy they used a Midas Drill. Her nonmalignant right frontal lobe meningioma was pretty easy to get at. When they opened the bone flap, they were able to get the entire tumor along with the tail, which is very characteristic of a meningioma. No mistaking what type of brain tumor she had. It was about the size of a golf ball.
It was Brenda's mother's idea to name it "Mini." She had a great sense of humor as well. I see where Brenda gets her dry sense of humor from. BOL Anyway, over the first year of being a brain tumor survivor, Brenda started discovering things.
The first major one was part of her acquired brain injury. I almost forgot to mention that it's Brain Injury Awareness Month in the US. She has what is called; Frontal Lobe Syndrome. It's a real thing folks, and not knowing that, was especially frightening to Brenda. She really thought something was seriously wrong. Her personality changed, in that she now can be brought to anger or tears more easily.
That was discovered about a month after her craniotomy. After her first post surgical visit with the neurosurgeon, she had another CT. It was during this time, when they were trying to inject the dye into her arm, that she started crying. Actually it was sobbing. The technician thought she was hurting Brenda. Quite the contrary! Brenda at the moment came to a realization, that he had gone through something very serious and she made it. Now what was she going to do? She had these new feelings and didn't know what or how to deal with them.
As she got connected with other brain tumor survivors, particularly those who had their tumors located in the right frontal lobe, she was told this was normal. Embrace it! She thought WOW!!
I would also be remiss, if I didn't mention that this is also Brain Tumor Awareness Month for those who live across the pond. They are so great about helping us with our month in May, that we feel a special kinship with them. They welcome me with open paws, so I help Brenda out, where I can. BOL
Brenda also made another discovery during that first year. This my friends, was her true "POT OF GOLD." She sat down one day and composed her first blog post. Brenda had no idea how to even begin, but she looked at some of the others. This was in a private online group, that has since disbanded, but she wanted to give it a whirl.
She had to come up with a name for her blog. It was first titled; Brenda's Brainstorm: An Inspiration Out of the Blue. It truly was folks. This was several years before I became her storyteller.
"Life After a Brain Tumor" was the title of that blog post. It was so well received, so she was excited to continue on this new journey of writing.
Her mother, who has since passed, told Brenda when she read one of her first blogs to her; " I didn't know you could write like that, it just flows." Brenda replied, " I didn't know either.
What you have just witnessed my friends, is that Brenda's frontal lobe syndrome, also gave her a gift of creativity. It definitely was a result of having gone through a craniotomy. Something happened during those 90 minutes and I believe it was pure gold. BOL
I wanted to bring out that stroke victims can also become creative after such an event. We know of one person who now does the most beautiful wood carving. He has lost his ability to speak, but gained this beautiful talent.
Brenda has discovered that her acquired brain injury; frontal lobe syndrome can be a blessing or a curse at times. She chooses to concentrate on the blessings.
Going through this experience changed a lot of things for Brenda. Mindset was a huge one. It helped her to gain a new perspective on how she would continue to live with her other challenge, rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Brenda became brave, in that she started taking risks. Not anything harmful. Things she knew she wanted to try or at least have a chance, to see if the risk was worth it.
Brenda also found her voice, in that she became a true patient advocate. This Sunday, March 11th, will be 5 years, since she testified at the ND State Capitol. She testified on behalf of the Global Healthy Living Foundation via the 50-State Network.
This was her second adventure, working with CreakyJoints. Getting back to taking risks, Brenda contacted CreakyJoints about a project of dealing with RA in the workplace. Brenda made that pivotal phone call on a Monday evening. She spoke with a nice gentleman, who has since become her friend, Louis Tharp for almost 30 minutes. Not once during that conversation, did she give her name, just the fact that she was from North Dakota.
That ended up with several phone calls, including a teleconference call with Seth Ginsberg, the President and Co-Founder of CreakyJoints. Brenda had been receiving their newsletter for years, so this was very exciting. Not long into that conversation, Seth mentioned that they would be coming to North Dakota and work with Brenda.
Brenda even got to choose the date, April 20, 2012, to help her commemorate being on a biologic for 11 years. It has now been almost 17 years, so this makes it almost 6 years that Brenda had her work advocacy day. She did things that day, that made this golden boy proud. I even got to meet everyone, and have our picture taken before Brenda's local TV interview. She also had 4 meetings and met with the Bismarck Tribune for an interview. I was so doggone proud of Brenda that day. She was tired by the end, but oh so happy, that she took that risk.
Working with Seth, sparked a new energy in Brenda and she became a true RA patient advocate that day. She since has branched out to other organizations; The National Brain Tumor Society and The American Cancer Society: Cancer Action Network for ND.
Brenda has even been a guest on Brain Tumor Talk: Worldwide Radio Show 3 times, with her friend and host, Rick Franzo, who is now a 3 time brain tumor survivor. Rick has been such an encouragement to Brenda, each time before she went on the air. Brenda enjoyed doing this so much. She truly has found her voice. She even talked so much, that Rick said that half of the hour was almost gone. BOL. They even talked about good old Trevor here and that made my golden heart sing.
Getting back to Brenda's writing. She really wants to thank another person, who always was so encouraging when it came to her writings, and that is none other than Rich Woods. He told her that she was a good writer. Coming from another author, that could possibly cause one's head to swell a bit. BOL I see where Brenda gets her sense of humor. Her mother could really come up with some great one liners herself.
So I think we have established that Brenda truly did find her "POT OF GOLD" at the end of the rainbow. She had to go through many storms to get there. I'm glad she found me too. I enjoy sharing her stories and being a golden retriever makes them all that much more sweeter to share.
We are going to leave you with our monthly graphic. This one again, speaks for itself, but it goes along perfectly with this tale.
Until next time, this is Trevor, The Tell Tale Dog, sharing my golden bones with you. BOL
You're probably thinking as you read this, that I am going to talk about myself. You wouldn't be more mistaken. BOL
I am going to share some pretty pawsome events, that have occurred in Brenda's life the past 9 + years. Yesterday, which was March 8th, she became a 9½ year brain tumor survivor. Only 6 months to go before she celebrates her 10th Craniversary on September 8th. Every year that has become a major celebration. Brain tumor survivors refer to it, as their second chance at life.
I'm not big on my fairy tales, but it seems there was this character named King Midas, who hoped that everything he touched would turn to gold.
Brenda likes this analogy, because when she had her craniotomy they used a Midas Drill. Her nonmalignant right frontal lobe meningioma was pretty easy to get at. When they opened the bone flap, they were able to get the entire tumor along with the tail, which is very characteristic of a meningioma. No mistaking what type of brain tumor she had. It was about the size of a golf ball.
It was Brenda's mother's idea to name it "Mini." She had a great sense of humor as well. I see where Brenda gets her dry sense of humor from. BOL Anyway, over the first year of being a brain tumor survivor, Brenda started discovering things.
The first major one was part of her acquired brain injury. I almost forgot to mention that it's Brain Injury Awareness Month in the US. She has what is called; Frontal Lobe Syndrome. It's a real thing folks, and not knowing that, was especially frightening to Brenda. She really thought something was seriously wrong. Her personality changed, in that she now can be brought to anger or tears more easily.
That was discovered about a month after her craniotomy. After her first post surgical visit with the neurosurgeon, she had another CT. It was during this time, when they were trying to inject the dye into her arm, that she started crying. Actually it was sobbing. The technician thought she was hurting Brenda. Quite the contrary! Brenda at the moment came to a realization, that he had gone through something very serious and she made it. Now what was she going to do? She had these new feelings and didn't know what or how to deal with them.
As she got connected with other brain tumor survivors, particularly those who had their tumors located in the right frontal lobe, she was told this was normal. Embrace it! She thought WOW!!
I would also be remiss, if I didn't mention that this is also Brain Tumor Awareness Month for those who live across the pond. They are so great about helping us with our month in May, that we feel a special kinship with them. They welcome me with open paws, so I help Brenda out, where I can. BOL
Brenda also made another discovery during that first year. This my friends, was her true "POT OF GOLD." She sat down one day and composed her first blog post. Brenda had no idea how to even begin, but she looked at some of the others. This was in a private online group, that has since disbanded, but she wanted to give it a whirl.
She had to come up with a name for her blog. It was first titled; Brenda's Brainstorm: An Inspiration Out of the Blue. It truly was folks. This was several years before I became her storyteller.
"Life After a Brain Tumor" was the title of that blog post. It was so well received, so she was excited to continue on this new journey of writing.
Her mother, who has since passed, told Brenda when she read one of her first blogs to her; " I didn't know you could write like that, it just flows." Brenda replied, " I didn't know either.
What you have just witnessed my friends, is that Brenda's frontal lobe syndrome, also gave her a gift of creativity. It definitely was a result of having gone through a craniotomy. Something happened during those 90 minutes and I believe it was pure gold. BOL
I wanted to bring out that stroke victims can also become creative after such an event. We know of one person who now does the most beautiful wood carving. He has lost his ability to speak, but gained this beautiful talent.
Brenda has discovered that her acquired brain injury; frontal lobe syndrome can be a blessing or a curse at times. She chooses to concentrate on the blessings.
Going through this experience changed a lot of things for Brenda. Mindset was a huge one. It helped her to gain a new perspective on how she would continue to live with her other challenge, rheumatoid arthritis (RA).
Brenda became brave, in that she started taking risks. Not anything harmful. Things she knew she wanted to try or at least have a chance, to see if the risk was worth it.
Brenda also found her voice, in that she became a true patient advocate. This Sunday, March 11th, will be 5 years, since she testified at the ND State Capitol. She testified on behalf of the Global Healthy Living Foundation via the 50-State Network.
This was her second adventure, working with CreakyJoints. Getting back to taking risks, Brenda contacted CreakyJoints about a project of dealing with RA in the workplace. Brenda made that pivotal phone call on a Monday evening. She spoke with a nice gentleman, who has since become her friend, Louis Tharp for almost 30 minutes. Not once during that conversation, did she give her name, just the fact that she was from North Dakota.
That ended up with several phone calls, including a teleconference call with Seth Ginsberg, the President and Co-Founder of CreakyJoints. Brenda had been receiving their newsletter for years, so this was very exciting. Not long into that conversation, Seth mentioned that they would be coming to North Dakota and work with Brenda.
Brenda even got to choose the date, April 20, 2012, to help her commemorate being on a biologic for 11 years. It has now been almost 17 years, so this makes it almost 6 years that Brenda had her work advocacy day. She did things that day, that made this golden boy proud. I even got to meet everyone, and have our picture taken before Brenda's local TV interview. She also had 4 meetings and met with the Bismarck Tribune for an interview. I was so doggone proud of Brenda that day. She was tired by the end, but oh so happy, that she took that risk.
Working with Seth, sparked a new energy in Brenda and she became a true RA patient advocate that day. She since has branched out to other organizations; The National Brain Tumor Society and The American Cancer Society: Cancer Action Network for ND.
Brenda has even been a guest on Brain Tumor Talk: Worldwide Radio Show 3 times, with her friend and host, Rick Franzo, who is now a 3 time brain tumor survivor. Rick has been such an encouragement to Brenda, each time before she went on the air. Brenda enjoyed doing this so much. She truly has found her voice. She even talked so much, that Rick said that half of the hour was almost gone. BOL. They even talked about good old Trevor here and that made my golden heart sing.
Getting back to Brenda's writing. She really wants to thank another person, who always was so encouraging when it came to her writings, and that is none other than Rich Woods. He told her that she was a good writer. Coming from another author, that could possibly cause one's head to swell a bit. BOL I see where Brenda gets her sense of humor. Her mother could really come up with some great one liners herself.
So I think we have established that Brenda truly did find her "POT OF GOLD" at the end of the rainbow. She had to go through many storms to get there. I'm glad she found me too. I enjoy sharing her stories and being a golden retriever makes them all that much more sweeter to share.
We are going to leave you with our monthly graphic. This one again, speaks for itself, but it goes along perfectly with this tale.
Until next time, this is Trevor, The Tell Tale Dog, sharing my golden bones with you. BOL
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