Professor Cromer Learns to Read

Helping a loved one readjust after brain injury

by Janet M. Cromer, RN, LMHC

After Brain Injury: New Vows Reflect a Changed Marriage

Family Caregivers often flinch at gaudy window displays of Valentine's Day cards and chocolates. Walking past those drug store windows is like sneaking a glimpse in a window best avoided. The window that reveals a happy scene Before Everything Changed. Before the horrible injuries or devastating illness. Read More

After Brain Injury: Learning to Love a Stranger

Remember the part of your marriage vows that covers loving each other in sickness and in health? Would the vows still be relevant if your partner awakened from a coma as a very changed person? The issue of rebuilding marital relationships while composing a new life has received much-deserved attention in three media venues this week.

New vows Read More

After Brain Injury: Five Ways to Give the Gift of Gratitude

After brain injury, the losses, changes, and adjustments can overshadow any sense of gratitude for survival. Both survivors and family caregivers can benefit from cultivating gratitude as a tool for connection, growth, healing, and resilience. Here are five ways to practice gratitude, even during a rough time. Read More

Ten Tips for National Family Caregivers Month

November is National Family Caregivers Month (NFC Month). President Obama issued a proclamation honoring the service and sacrifice of family caregivers. We can all contribute to raising awareness and taking action on behalf of caregivers in our circles. Read More

How Can We Learn if We Can't Remember?

After brain injury, how can a survivor learn to think, read, write, and function through the day if his memory is impaired? When brain injury impacts any form of memory, the person can have serious problems with learning, communication, socializing, safety, and regaining independence. Read More

After Brain Injury: Who Am I If I Am Not Myself? Part 2

Have you ever been responsible for restoring a loved one's memory? I'm not talking about helping an aunt who has Alzheimer's disease reminisce about her dog. I mean planting the seeds of identity and connection after they've been lost to brain injury. Read More

After Brain Injury: Who Am I If I Am No Longer Myself?

You've spent years becoming the one-of-a-kind person you are today. But what if a severe brain injury wiped away all traces of that person? Years of fine tuning your identity, personality, memories, skills, and flaws would be gone. A lifetime of accumulated knowledge vaporized in an instant. How would you even begin to reconstruct obliterated memories of the most essential parts of your life? Read More

After Brain Injury: A Moral Compass through Hope and Uncertainty

My husband Alan and I thought we had covered all the bases. We'd had hours of discussions about how much of what kind of care we would each want if we had a terrible disease, or at the end of life. And, even more important, what we would not want. We had each shepherded beloved family members through terminal illness, and held well-honed beliefs about quality of life. Read More

Eight Strategies to Get a Grip on Brain Injury Caregiver Responsibilities

Are you a new caregiver for a family member who recently suffered a brain injury? The crisis period of early brain injury treatment includes the time when your family member receives treatment in the intensive care unit until he/she begins early rehabilitation. Read More

Six Emotional Survival Skills When Brain Injury Strikes

There's just no way to prepare for a brain injury. One night you grab for the phone in time to hear an emergency department doctor say, "Your son's car went off the road and hit a tree." Or, while working in his garage, your brother trips and slams his head against a heavy metal shelf. He slumps to the floor unconscious. Two weeks after the accident, he doesn't remember how to drive a car. Read More

Brain Injury Changes Lives in an Instant

What if you awoke from a coma into a chaotic world where nothing made sense? What if the anxious people circling your bed and imploring you to speak couldn't understand your desperate gibberish? What if the memories and knowledge accumulated over a lifetime had been erased like chalk on a blackboard? Read More

Janet Cromer, RN, LMHC, is a nurse, psychotherapist, and adviser on brain injury caregiving.

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About Professor Cromer Learns to Read

Janet Cromer's blog offers family caregivers of people who have brain injuries practical stress resilience skills, mind-body health practices, and creative approaches to staying healthy and whole. She also shares strategies to make the most of rehabilitation at home.Janet's wisdom comes from her dual experience as a caregiver for her husband and a mental health professional specializing in psychological aspects of medical illness. Her blog explores the issues and concerns that caregivers face on every step of the brain injury journey.