I have asthma – a condition diagnosed just weeks before I deployed and made considerably worse by my time in Afghanistan. At first, I didn’t want to admit to myself that I had it. I was embarrassed by the fatigue and weakness that came along with the illness. Then we moved and my symptoms got even worse; I was like a zombie, and an irritable one at that. I finally recognized that, but it didn’t make me feel better; in fact, it made me feel worse. This was my new life, I thought, miserable, exhausted, unable to workout.
Then, one day, I got a phone call. TRICARE was sponsoring this program to help asthmatics learn more about their condition. I’d been seeing an asthma and allergy doctor and taking medication, wasn’t that everything I could do? As a matter of fact, no. Suddenly, I had new words in my vocabulary like “peak flow meter” and “pulmonologist.” I learned there were some times when I probably should have been in the hospital because my oxygen intake was so low. My pulmonologist added two new medications to the mix and, while my breathing still sucks, things improved.
You might be scratching your head thinking, what on earth does this have to do with traumatic brain injury? My point is that I should have been educating myself. Doctors are great, but I should have known everything there was about my condition. I should have taken control….and that is why I’m talking about BrainLine Military today. Because it’s the perfect place for individuals with TBI to start educating themselves about their condition.
BrainLine Military is a subset of BrainLine proper, a national multimedia project. Created by WETA, Washington DC’s public broadcasting station for TV and radio, BrainLine was designed to help the almost two million people each year who suffer a brain injury, and all of those who work and live with them, learn how to treat and live with TBI. (They also provide resources on how to prevent TBI.) BrainLine Military covers military/veteran specific TBI-related information and has a panel of experts pulled from VA and DoD and partnerships with the likes of the Bob Woodruff Foundation and Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.
With information as varied as new treatment options for TBI-related sleep problems to why you should talk to your school’s disability services office, BrainLine Military has a vast amount of information about all aspects of TBI. Topics covered include how to return to school or work if you have had a brain injury, brain injury symptoms, and how TBI and PTSD are linked. Through videos, blogs, papers, articles, and interviews, BrainLine Military covers all of the relevant topics related to TBI, including the latest research.
As with so many of the conditions we all acquired as part of our service, we aren’t the only ones affected. Whether intimacy or balancing a checkbook is now a problem for a veteran, their families are going to be affected as well. BrainLine Military doesn’t leave them out, with several blogs, articles, and other resources written by or for those who are coping alongside the veteran.
You can find out more about BrainLine Military on their webpage. You can also find links to recent articles on their Facebook page or find a link for their newsletter “The BrainLine Military Weekly” in their Twitter feed.
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