Well, it has been Ten Years. Yes, as of today, it has been ten years since receiving the brain surgery. This brain surgery didn’t work for me as it should have, but I have heard this same surgery has worked well for others. I am currently living on disability money and full Medicare, which is nothing to complain about. When you walk into the courtroom to qualify for SS Disability, and you happen to have a hundred staples on the top of your head, things seem to work out kinda fast there… without saying too many words.

I know, there are different situations of brain damage and surgery that have worked out better. …I also know of plenty of others who have NOT worked out as well.

I’m still alive and functioning just fine. The fact that I am still capable to live just fine (alone) in my own house, is quite incredible. (At least it is to ME!)

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Go ahead and take a stroll back to ten years ago.

I’ll keep in touch on this site and we’ll see where this small amount of “stuff between my ears” wants to take me next in my life…

Like others here in the USA, I got my drivers license when I was 16… (1990).

Twenty-some years ago, I sprained a wrist or finger or thumb or foot or something, and I visited a local clinic to get it looked at. When I was there, I told the doctor my entire story of my “falling (a pretty-good distance) out of a tree” when I was 10, spending a month on a coma and leaving my brain with a permanent bruise on the left-frontal lobe. The doctor at the clinic (after telling my “impressive story”) gave me a sheet to take to the DMV and I’ll get handicap parking. Went there to turn the paper in and I received a handicap hang-tag that had the word PERMANENT on it. I asked the lady…

“Why does this say ‘Permanent’? How long is it good for?”
“You can park in handicap spots for the rest of your life.”

I laughed!

So, after having the hang-tag in my car for some years, I thought…

“If I have a ‘permanent’ hang-tag, does it mean I could just go and get a handicap license plate?”

Well…. YES… Yes I can!

That is what I did. That is what I still have today.

See? Being handicap is cool… 😉

It has been quite the process of healing after receiving the brain surgery (2014), but the day has come for me to finally transport myself from the house to Walmart. I have successfully taken the driving test and got myself a freaking Drivers License. The day-after doing that, I got myself a car. Wow! This is incredible! Something I haven’t done for 10+ years, and the test was pretty straight forward.

I mean, I’d previously drove a car for over 20 years before getting the surgery, so taking the test to drive again wasn’t too new…

What’s next?

Visited the Neurologist today. The doctor asked how I was feeling, since being on this new med.

“I’m feeling good. It’s taken time to have my body and brain get used to this newest medication.”

When changing to a new seizure medication, it takes my brain and body time to get completely off the old and completely on to the new. At this time, I can easily say it’s taken me nearly a year to get through the change. But it has been worth it…

Next thing the doc was able to help me with, is filling out the paperwork to say it’s “okay” for me to finally (after nearly 12 years) get a drivers license. I’m not running out to get this tomorrow, or anything like that. I’m certainly not in any rush. I’ll need to have this doctor fill out these papers every year to say that I’m well enough to drive.

If this is what I have to do from now on, I’ll do it. At least I can get a license.

Now, taking the Drivers License test…. THAT is something that I haven’t done (what seems like) forever.