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By Friday last week, I was exhausted. I don't just mean physically tired. My brain was tired - or more accurately, it was just plain done . According to an article in  www.brainline.org  , neurofatigue is  fatigue  is caused by a decrease in physiological reserve, which includes a person's physical and mental reserves. When your brain is “tapped out,” you feel  tired . ... But generally, people with  TBI  have described  fatigue  as a sense of mental or physical  tiredness ,  exhaustion , lack of energy, and/or low vitality. This describes my experience last week perfectly - think of it as extreme burnout. This is a very real symptom, one that frustrates me to no end because it is one that I still struggle with, even six years later. I am challenged with it in two ways: first, slowing down isn't really something I do naturally - I have to be intentional about it; and second, I am generally pretty determined, so I have to be careful not to push myself too far. I have had t

This year is different. My celebration on this important day is not going to be about me. It isn't even going to be about Emily, my children, or my parents. Instead, this day is going to be about my cousin as she begins her new life as a married person. When Rachel sent her "save the date," I was excited to see that her wedding day was the same date as the 6th anniversary of my accident. That probably seems weird, but I am so grateful to have something equally as wonderful to celebrate. To me, both signify life - my cousin is beginning her new life as a married person, and I am celebrating the anniversary of the day that I didn't die. Wow! how lucky we both are. I will still celebrate with Emily, as we cannot have a year go by and not celebrate the thing that will always make us a part of each other's lives - a part of each other's families. It is important to both of us to mark this event in a positive way. Life has continued to go on. My focus remains