I’ve been avoiding the mainstream news show in the wake of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. News people tend to emphasize the positive and overlook the negatives in stories like these. The attempt to blame Sarah Palin is the product of new people having a micro focus on politics and not a lot of expertise in other areas, including what actually happens in a brain injury rehab center. The news is filled with stories about how she is reading her iPad, but she can’t even speak yet.
They’re gradually catching on. When I was in the hospital in 2004 after suffering a stroke, Dick Clark had a stroke, and news people were saying the same sorts of things: he looks great; it wasn’t so bad, etc. Have you seen Dick Clark lately? It was worse than the news people said. Have you heard a news story apologizing that their optimistic projections were wrong? No, you haven’t. The same is true of the coverage of Gabrielle Giffords. News people are making it seem as though she will be out soon and that all that is left is a few arduous months of rehab.
This guy gives a brave performance after he got shot above his right eye. He survived and so, he says, can she.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oyxO_eHwPc
But what he actually says shows just how much damage putting a bullet in your skull can do. She will probably have to fight off depression, though I was spared that. But the entire time is was in in-patient and out-patient rehab they asked me every single day how I was feeling to make sure I wasn’t succumbing. It is extremely common, they tell me.
He urges patience, so he says she should not think about walking but should think about sitting up for 5 seconds (SECONDS!!!), or ‘today I’m going to eat a whole thing of fries and keep it down.’ But he is confident (based of no experience with her or her injury) that she is strong and she can do it. But I think to myself that she can’t even speak yet.
If she does it, he’s talking about things like running down the hallway and being able to balance on one leg, but 6 years after I had my stroke I still cannot do either of those things. None of those things are guaranteed. I truly hope that he is correct.
It’s too soon to be giving people hope, just as it was wrong to put the blame on Palin with no evidence except the indifference of politically-oriented news peopleto what is actually happening in the world as it is and focusing on their petty concerns.
What happened to her is horrific. Horrific! She will probably have to endure months of therapy, she may never get her speech back (I don’t know this, and she probably will; my speech therapists were miracle workers). The sad fact is that she will never fully recover.
It sickens me (and sickens is the right word) that anyone has to go through this ever, and this is why I can’t follow the news coverage of her story. It hits too close to home, while at the same time hitting too far afield. But I wish her and her family all the luck in the world. And she can have some of mine. She’ll need it.