Welcome to my new blog! I am a Certified Life/Career & Business Coach/Consultant. Last year, my life was very suddenly interrupted and “put on hold”, as a result of a split second decision (by a careless motorist), to run a STOP sign. This year has been an arduous journey of healing, self-discovery, self-advocacy, self-educating and enlightenment.
I have learned to be unrelentingly pro-active in the face of adversity and systemic opposition! I have also learned the importance of being unapologetically one’s own advocate against a medical and justice system that is not always fair, staffed or equipped with “active listeners”, (but rather scientists called doctors). The journey served to motivate me to kick my Behavioral Life Coaching skills into “high gear” and my emotions into “survival” and eventually, “victor mode”. I feel blessed and fortunate to have had this training in my “tool kit” as this journey unfolded. It has equipped me to hang-onto my sanity and sense of humor, when other much-needed faculties deserted me.
My business name is Sunflower Transitions Consulting. I chose the sunflower as my business logo as the sunflower is a symbol of resilience and tenacity (words that have been used to describe my personality in the past). The sunflower seed will grow in the most difficult drought tolerant conditions and thrive in almost any type of soil. It is “weed resistant.” It is a symbol of hope that is strong, grows tall and pushes its beautiful sunny flower toward the light or the sun. It blooms almost anywhere it is planted!
Recovering from a complicated concussion (mtbi, Mild Traumatic Brain Injury) this past year has been a journey (much like that of the ultimately, thriving sunflower), one of determination, resilience, tenacity, constant and deliberate striving towards the light and a “new beginning”. Refusing to be “choked out by weeds” (specialists, doctors, insurance adjusters, who all at various points along the way, insisted “there’s nothing much wrong with you)”. There were (and still are), some very obvious and some not-so-obvious signs that there was definitely “something wrong” (i.e. loss of speech, loss of balance, impaired hearing, vision and cognitive functions, to name a few). The fact that it took two full weeks from the date of the accident for these things to begin to manifest themselves threw a huge “curve ball” into the initial diagnosis and any subsequent treatment that I received from the professionals mentioned above.
I have decided to blog and chronicle my journey with the hope that my experience of dealing with Health Care Professionals in Alberta, the Health Care System, insurance companies (as well as the lack of insight and awareness around concussion injuries in general), may help other un-diagnosed victims of concussion injury, to pro-actively seek out and demand the treatment they so legitimately need and deserve, in order to restore their health to pre-concussion status. Or at least to regain some semblance of a “new normal” successfully, with empathetic, appropriate, timely treatment and support. This support (along with the support of treating medical professionals who just might be out-of-their depths, or even God-forbid out-of-date in their knowledge concerning concussion and mtbi), hopefully includes a relative, community, a Health Care Professional, therapist or Brain Injury Coach Specialist/Advocate, who is able to navigate the system on the concussed individual’s behalf.
If you or someone you know has sustained a “concussion-like” injury I would really love to hear from you, especially if your symptoms (like mine), have stumped every medical professional you were exposed to on your journey to healing because your injury was, or is not “A typical”, as understood by some in the medical, or insurance profession. More to follow.
I have learned to be unrelentingly pro-active in the face of adversity and systemic opposition! I have also learned the importance of being unapologetically one’s own advocate against a medical and justice system that is not always fair, staffed or equipped with “active listeners”, (but rather scientists called doctors). The journey served to motivate me to kick my Behavioral Life Coaching skills into “high gear” and my emotions into “survival” and eventually, “victor mode”. I feel blessed and fortunate to have had this training in my “tool kit” as this journey unfolded. It has equipped me to hang-onto my sanity and sense of humor, when other much-needed faculties deserted me.
My business name is Sunflower Transitions Consulting. I chose the sunflower as my business logo as the sunflower is a symbol of resilience and tenacity (words that have been used to describe my personality in the past). The sunflower seed will grow in the most difficult drought tolerant conditions and thrive in almost any type of soil. It is “weed resistant.” It is a symbol of hope that is strong, grows tall and pushes its beautiful sunny flower toward the light or the sun. It blooms almost anywhere it is planted!
Recovering from a complicated concussion (mtbi, Mild Traumatic Brain Injury) this past year has been a journey (much like that of the ultimately, thriving sunflower), one of determination, resilience, tenacity, constant and deliberate striving towards the light and a “new beginning”. Refusing to be “choked out by weeds” (specialists, doctors, insurance adjusters, who all at various points along the way, insisted “there’s nothing much wrong with you)”. There were (and still are), some very obvious and some not-so-obvious signs that there was definitely “something wrong” (i.e. loss of speech, loss of balance, impaired hearing, vision and cognitive functions, to name a few). The fact that it took two full weeks from the date of the accident for these things to begin to manifest themselves threw a huge “curve ball” into the initial diagnosis and any subsequent treatment that I received from the professionals mentioned above.
I have decided to blog and chronicle my journey with the hope that my experience of dealing with Health Care Professionals in Alberta, the Health Care System, insurance companies (as well as the lack of insight and awareness around concussion injuries in general), may help other un-diagnosed victims of concussion injury, to pro-actively seek out and demand the treatment they so legitimately need and deserve, in order to restore their health to pre-concussion status. Or at least to regain some semblance of a “new normal” successfully, with empathetic, appropriate, timely treatment and support. This support (along with the support of treating medical professionals who just might be out-of-their depths, or even God-forbid out-of-date in their knowledge concerning concussion and mtbi), hopefully includes a relative, community, a Health Care Professional, therapist or Brain Injury Coach Specialist/Advocate, who is able to navigate the system on the concussed individual’s behalf.
If you or someone you know has sustained a “concussion-like” injury I would really love to hear from you, especially if your symptoms (like mine), have stumped every medical professional you were exposed to on your journey to healing because your injury was, or is not “A typical”, as understood by some in the medical, or insurance profession. More to follow.
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