Monday, September 14, 2015

Pete and Dale

When I first started writing the blog, I knew a guy  named Pete.

I knew Pete because he was the boyfriend of Eli's babysitter Emily (who, after all these years, is still his favorite, and we're all still friends).

Pete was a good guy. If you looked up "good guy" in the dictionary, as the saying goes, you'd see his picture.

He and Emily eventually broke up, he moved, he got married to a terrific woman, and they have a little boy now.

He's still a good guy.

He sent me this e-mail over the weekend:
I wanted to tell you about a book that you might find interesting. Several people in my family have read it, and it's changing our lives.  I'll get to why.

The book is called "The Ghost in My Brain" by Dr. Clark Elliott, a professor of artificial intelligence at DePaul University.  In it, he tells about being in a car accident and suffering a traumatic brain injury, the debilitating symptoms he had as a result, and how he eventually found a new form of treatment called Brain Plasticity. Here's an Amazon link: the Ghost in My Brain.

This is a video of a talk he gave describing his injury, symptoms, and eventual treatment to a full recovery:  Cognitive Rehabilitation after Traumatic Brain Injury via Retinal Stimulation.

If you watch the video, and it's fascinating, you'll get the jist of the book.

I thought you might find it interesting because I remember you writing about Eli getting a concussion a few years ago and some of the treatment that he needed to do to help his brain heal.

Four years ago, my dad was hit by a drunk driver and suffered a traumatic brain injury.  As a result he's been in a steady decline in his ability to function.  Last year he lost the ability to practice law because he just can't remember to do basic things while representing his clients.  A few months back he stumbled on this book by chance and realized as he read it that he was basically reading about himself.  So we're going to get him the same treatment as Dr. Elliott in Chicago.

My family has started a Go Fund Me campaign to raise money to help him cover the costs of his treatment.  You can read more about my dad's story in the link.  I was hoping you might consider sharing the link to your readers, or maybe just to some friends.  We need to spread the word as far as we can.  We're already half way to our initial goal, which I never thought we would hit, but at this rate we may be able to fully cover the years of treatment he will need.

Here's the link: Fix Dale's Brain.

Thanks. If Dale is anything like his son, he's a very good fellow, indeed.

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