Brenda's Brainstorm & Trevor, a T Man Production 2009 - 2022

Hello and welcome to our 2nd tale for November. This will be our final tale for 2021, as we are taking a break, during the holiday season. Brenda in all candor, would like the whole thing to be over. It's not a joyful time for her. She has no family to celebrate with. It's a busy time for her at work, with total exhaustion by the time she gets home and for what?  The holidays have always been challenging for Brenda. Her memories are not that happy. Not being able to participate in the Christmas concert at school, because Brenda ended up getting sick. Her immune system was already trashed as a young child. Celebrating with her parents and then having to be taken back to her apartment to spend the rest of the day alone, because she was not invited to her sister's. Imagine having that happen to you and not knowing why. Yes, this is the same sister who she has been estranged from for almost 14 years.  Brenda is done trying to figure this nonsense out, because that is simply wha...

Hello and welcome to our November tale. I'm Trevor aka T Man and storyteller of this blog now, for over 10 years.  Our subject comes from the advocate deep down inside of Brenda. She is actually referring to what is about to be shared, as righteous indignation. Part of Brenda's brain tumor journey has been living with frontal lobe syndrome, where she reacts quickly with anger or tears, when she sees someone being wronged or treated unfairly. As you know we are in the midst of a global pandemic, which has been going on for far too long. In dog years, it would be much worse. BOL Pardon me, I had to get a little humor in there, before we get to the meat of this tale. I actually would say that Brenda has a bone to pick with what is going on in relationship to access to some medications or should we say, no access because they are not available.  Here we go! As you know the Corona Virus or what is referred to as COVID-19, is having those who have contracted the virus and are likely...

Hello my fellow readers, it's Trevor aka T Man with another tale for October as promised. This one will be a difficult one to navigate and for Brenda to share, with my paws at the keyboard. BOL We are going to be exploring the subject of loss.  There are many sides of the spectrum, loss of a loved one, your health, job, etc. the list could go on and on.  Brenda knows all too well about losses she has sustained in her immediate family. Family dynamics can be tricky and I'm sure you have even dealt with situations where you are estranged from family members. Brenda always wants this blog to be real and transparent as possible. She has dealt with the estrangement of a sibling for well over a decade. It was their choice to part ways and Brenda no longer can shed tears for something she has no idea what caused this in the first place.  Brenda has even been contacted about how this sibling is doing. She has no idea. Brenda attempted to reach out to them during her mother's illn...

Hello my fellow readers! Trevor aka T Man right out the gate with our October tale. A gate to me is a place where I try to escape. BOL Had to get that in there, but seriously, we are going to explore the aspects of competition. I'm not referring to sports here, but how others make those feel who deal with serious chronic conditions, not always visible. Your comments without knowing the whole story or even giving those who live with these challenges a chance to explain can be hurtful and yes, even harmful. Let me cite for you an example. Brenda had this friend once and sadly, they are no longer an intricate part of her life. Every time she would be with this person and Brenda would try to even explain the slightest thing that was going on with her rheumatoid arthritis (RA) it would be the same song, "You should see our friend's hands, they are so crippled up and she has it much worse." I'm going to stop you right there, how do you doggone know this? Yes, I'm us...

Hello my fellow readers, it's Trevor or aka T Man once again, with our monthly tale. This time we are going to explore interruptions. This is something that Brenda experiences more than she would like. It can be during a conversation with someone, when another person decides to jump in and hijack it. This in all sincerity, makes Brenda angry. In the first place, she was having a nice conversation and probably forming her train of thought, which suddenly is gone, because of this intrusion. Yes, that is what it is, an intrusion.  Brenda has dealt with life experienced interruptions. It might be that you've never heard of these, but they are real and can be difficult to navigate at times. Remember back in the day when you would be watching your TV and all at once, an announcement would come on; "We are experiencing technical difficulties, PLEASE STAND BY!" It was usually during a storm or some other interruption. There was also this big photo that would appear right in t...

Hello my fellow readers and those of you who may have just found us, it's Trevor aka T Man with our monthly tale. Brenda has been feeling lost lately. A month from today, will be her 13th Craniversary or the Anniversary of her craniotomy. It's a big deal. Some in the real world keep telling her, she's lucky. Brenda does not believe in luck and you are also downplaying what she went through. Sure it wasn't a 13 or 14+ hour procedure, but she still had her head drilled open. It was under 2 hours and the neurosurgeon was able to get to her tumor, as it was easy to evict along with the tail. I love Brenda's sense of humor. The Eviction of Mini has gone many miles in sharing her brain tumor story. Brenda had what is referred to as a meningioma brain tumor. Let's get something straight right from the get go. It was a brain tumor!  I want to get into the meat of this tale. I love meat! BOL 90% of these types of brain tumors are considered to be benign, a word that Bren...

Hello Trevor here, with our July tale right off the bat. Brenda has been wanting my paws to hit the keyboard to share this poignant tale. Brenda feels like a square peg at times, not feeling the community spirit that is preached. Sadly, that has been in the brain tumor community too. We are not sharing this to make anyone feel bad, but to perhaps help someone out there, who may have the same mindset.  Brenda has been a brain tumor survivor for almost 13 years and yes, she still struggles even though her right frontal lobe nonmalignant meningioma brain tumor was removed entirely. She was left with remnants of big feelings, as we touched on in last month's blog post. Brenda also deals with head pain and oddly enough, some numbness also. Nerves are a strange animal, not as strange as good old Trevor here. Sorry, I got off the track a bit. BOL Back to our tale.  Brenda also deals with vertigo at times and her PCP was kind enough to fill her prescription without her even having to ...

Hello again! It's Trevor with our June tale. This time folks, we are going to delve into something deep and I'm not talking about digging for bones. BOL  We are going to share about Brenda's acquired brain injury, which was a result of her having a craniotomy performed on her right frontal lobe.  She was instantly inducted into the frontal lobers club. Belonging to this club was scary for Brenda at first. She didn't understand why she would start sobbing or become angry at the drop of a hat. She thought something was seriously wrong. The removal of this brain tumor was supposed to solve the problem, not create even bigger ones. That's not how life works, as we know it.  Frontal lobe syndrome was explained to Brenda by a professional this way. It can cause you to become angry quicker or easily brought to tears. It's caused by trauma to the brain. It is considered a brain injury. As was mentioned above, an acquired one. The frontal lobe has also been referred to a...

Greetings my fellow readers! Trevor here with our new tale intertwining both Arthritis and Brain Tumor Awareness Month. The reason being, Brenda has lived with RA for 30 years and is almost a 13 year brain tumor survivor. Her craniversary or the anniversary of her craniotomy falls on September 8th.  We are going to be focusing on the word fortitude. Webster defines fortitude as "strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage."  Brenda has certainly exhibited this in many aspects of her life. None more so than arising to the challenge of living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for 30 years now and continuing on her path as a brain tumor survivor. One cannot be separated from the other and this will be demonstrated with this tale.  When Brenda was first diagnosed with RA she felt her life was over in a sense. She was working full-time, single and 31 years old. Brenda was sole breadwinner even though her first rheumatologist s...

Hello and welcome to our April celebratory blog post. Of course it's Trevor here, bringing you all the juicy and pawmazing facts.  This past Tuesday, Brenda celebrated two significant events in her life. One being, working with CreakyJoints, (don't you just love that name?) BOL 9 years ago. It was the 1st time working with this great organization and it wouldn't be the last. At the time, we were not aware of that pawmazing fact, but things started transpiring the following year, all centered around Brenda taking a biologic. We are not going to get into that for this particular post. This is going to be all centered around her milestone that she also celebrated on April 20th. Here we go! BOL Brenda had her first injection of the biologic, Enbrel (etanercept) on April 20, 2001. Now you see where we are going with this tale. As our readers know, Brenda has been living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) for almost 30 years. After almost 10 years, Brenda was offered a gift to start ...

Hello fellow readers and my people. BOL It's Trevor here with our March tale. To explain our title in depth, you have to understand first, that this is Brain Injury Awareness Month. We are going to delve through Brenda's journey not only of being a brain tumor survivor, but the remnants that were left behind.  Brenda has experienced 2 concussions or traumatic brain injuries involving incidents in her kitchen. We have shared about these before and will not be going into detail. We only share this as background for this tale. Brenda developed an acquired brain injury as a result of having had a craniotomy performed on September 8, 2008. She is almost at the twelve and a half year mark, which will be next Monday, March 8th. Her nonmalignant meningioma was located in the right frontal lobe. It was the size of a golf ball. Her mother named it "Mini" See where Brenda gets her sense of humor from? Dry, but don't you love it? BOL Brenda has what is called frontal lobe syn...

Hello, it's Trevor here with our February tale. Did you realize that today 10 years ago, Brenda's Brainstorm added a new addition? I became storyteller for this blog. It was first; Featuring Trevor's Tales, then it was changed to Trevor the Tell Tale Dog and now it's Brenda's Brainstorm & Trevor. I'm now known as T Man, with my own production company. BOL  Seriously folks, Brenda has allowed me to enjoy quite a plush lifestyle. Get it? BOL Not only am I her storyteller for our monthly blog posts, I was featured twice in her first published blog posts with CreakyJoints back in 2012. I became a mascot for some special JA kids. I've been mentioned over the airwaves by our good friend; Rick Franzo. He thought I was real. Even called me a trickster. BOL Can you imagine that? I was even mentioned in the first book that Brenda coauthored in 2016. We are not going to get into details here, as most of our readers know the background.  We are spending a quiet day ...

Hello my fellow readers, and welcome to our first blog post of 2021. This one is going to be shared in 2 parts, with our next one, being shared next month. The reason is that Brenda had her vaccination with Moderna on December 28th of last year. As you know this particular one is given 4 weeks apart. As of this writing, 2 vaccines have been approved, not by the FDA, but what is called EUA or Emergency Use Authorization. The ones for COVID-19 are Pifzer and Moderna, currently being administered in the United States. I'm only going to be sharing about our country, as we are not that versed on what is going on with how they distribute in other countries. We think it's important to have our facts, so we will only be sharing about Brenda's personal experience and how it is being administered. Brenda thought that this would not be possible, until at least spring. She has been wearing her mask, practice social distancing in public, keeping her area clean at work, for months. Actua...