Brain injury and post traumatic stress disorder devastate many lives each and every year. PTSD and brain injury do share numerous symptoms and numerous strategies for overcoming or, at least, dealing with the changes that come.

A military wife writes, "He got hurt over there,but copes. He is now out too. He says he will finally seek help, but I dont know where to turn. He is not the same man, he drinks constantly, is always angry and withdrawn, is mean and distant…"

Another writes, "I didnt meet my husband until he was already back. However there are days that I dont feel like I know him at all! There are days that his PTSD is so bad its like he gets lost somewhere in the shuffle. … I have to remind myself that he is not who he used to be and this is who he is now." (continued below)

Larry and Beth Jameson, authors of Brain Injury Survivor’s Guide, received the following email. "I emailed you a few weeks ago about my husband who is a year post injury. He is definitely getting better, but I get concerned about all the ups and downs. When he is particularly tired (which can last for days), he is more confused. This morning he was going to take a shower, but instead of doing so he put two pairs of pants on (one over the other). Once I convinced him of what he needed to do, he ended up taking a shower in his underwear and couldn’t figure out why that wasn’t right.

"He usually doesn’t have this much trouble. He sometimes forgets which clothes are his clean ones and which are his dirty one, but that is usually it. The only thing I can figure is that he is tired, and it gets frustrating because I think he is getting better and then he goes backwards. He seems to get real tired and then he is like a completely different person. And he is tired a lot of the time."

Another email summed it up this way. "I suffered a brain injury about 39 and half years ago. I have had horrible things come out of this. I need support badly!"

Help is Needed

No one prepares to have a brain injury. Because each brain is different prior to such an injury, the help needed varies from person to person. The medical community needs far more information, and the health insurance industry rarely provides for the needs of a brain injury patient.

Another lady wrote to Larry and Beth. "I just want to say thank you. My father fell ill with Acute Viral Encephalitis on April 24th of this year. It has been quite a battle dealing with insurance issues. He is a retired Marine and even after further years of dedication to our government via civil service, Tricare has denied his coverage for cognitive therapy. My father has always been a pillar for our family and we have all suffered an extreme loss in losing a husband, father, son, and brother. Thank you most for giving us hope, especially the hope my mom has gotten from your book. We are a family that is spread throughout the country, leaving her as my dad’s primary caretaker. To hear the hope and resolve in her voice after discovering your website and then book has given me a sense of hope for her and my dad that I have formerly struggled with. So, thank you for giving hope to my father, my mother, and my family. You are both a blessing to this world."

More Brain Injury Information

Larry and Beth Jameson have a mission in life: to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites with hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver. A longtime friend of Beth wrote, "I have loved Beth since we met in I think fourth grade, and her blog reminds me again why. The blog is one of the things that makes your site so special, her personality coming through, and she frames the realities in ways that communicate the good, the bad, and the hard. I can only imagine what hope she gives people and what a lifeline your site must be to so many."

Memory problems seem to be multiplying as I get older, and that has brought several realizations into my life. Most of those revelations involve the need for pen and paper and a renewed spirit to write notes.

Of course, it’s then important to remember where those notes are. I use iGoogle, a free service, as my home page for when I get on the Internet. You can add gadgets to your home page – like a To Do List. My list has things like, "Change air conditioning filter on the 1st of the month."

I can also use it to tell me where my regular "to do" lists are such as "baseball schedule on refrigerator" or "grocery list on bar" or something like that.

Now, what’s all this have to do with dinosaurs becoming extinct. Well, just look at the cartoon below.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Health Care Reform in 2010 has corrected a few things that, I’m guessing, most Americans did not know existed. Let’s take a look at one item put into law in 2003. At that time, the Bush administration and Republican-led Congress prepared to expand Medicare to include prescription drug coverage.

Nevermind the fact that the legislation did not provide for competitive pricing. A few large corporations that provided prescription drug benefits for their retirees threatened to cut off that benefit since those retirees could take advantage of the proposed Medicare benefit.

So, Congress said, "We’ll give you a subsidy to help you pay for that benefit. Not only will we give you the money, but we’ll allow you to use it as a deduction and get a tax benefit as well."

Think about that. The federal government was giving money to the corporations. When those same corporations spent the money, they could then claim it as a deduction on their taxes just like they had spent their own money.

The recently passed Health Care Reform legislation eliminates that deduction. Corporations will now be paying more taxes since they can no longer "double dip" the subsidy money. Recents announcements about write-downs provide a little insight into how much this ill-advised program was hurting government revenue.

A T & T announced they would be taking a $1 BILLION write off. Caterpillar, the world’s largest maker of bulldozers and excavators, expects to record a charge of about $100 million in the first quarter of 2010, due to new tax liabilities. John Deere is also expecting to write off $85 – $90 million. Verizon is taking a look at how they’ll be affected but hasn’t released any figures yet.

The fact is that the government will receive more tax revenue because of this one correction.

I’m quite sure unemployed workers wish unemployment benefits had worked like that. Yes, they were receiving a subsidy from the government from unemployment insurance that their employers had paid for. But, quite a bit of that income had to be paid for COBRA coverage to continue their health insurance. However, not only did the unemployed have to pay taxes on the amount of their unemployment checks, they could NOT DEDUCT the cost of COBRA coverage unless it exceeded 7.5% of their adjusted gross income and they were able to file itemized deductions on the tax return.

Let me put it this way. I know one person who received an unemployment benefit of $400 per week after losing a $1,000 per week job. (continued below)

Out of that $400 per week, that person had to pay $750 each month for COBRA continuation of health insurance benefits. That didn’t leave very much income for paying bills, eating and things that are a part of everyday life.

Now, that was back in 2008 before President Obama led Congress in providing better relief for unemployed workers. America seems to be taking from the corporations and giving to the people. Is that a bad thing?

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

"We didn’t know how extensive the need was," said William Ditto, head of the Office of Disability Services for the state of New Jersey. Mr. Ditto tried to explain his position in an interview with Susan K. Livio, a reporter covering the Statehouse for nj.com. "Nobody wants to do this. My back is against the wall," he further explained.

The State of New Jersey was a leader among states providing assistance to victims of brain injury. In 2001, the state developed the Brain Injury Fund that paid for speech therapy and other needed treatments not covered by health insurance. Since 2004, about 2,200 people have been helped. That will soon change with new regulations slated to begin in the Spring.

The proposed new regulation will limit access to the program to individuals whose brain injury is the result of a direct blow to the head. If this rule had been in effect in 2004 only 900 of the 2,200 would have received treatment.

Twenty-five years ago, Michael Jankowsky tried to help a friend who had gotten into a fight. He was stabbed in the heart, and his body began shutting down. The lack of oxygen getting to his brain caused extensive cell damage. He is confined to a wheel chair, still slurs his speech and has concentration problems – not unlike millions of other brain injury victims in the United States. In addition to limiting who can receive assistance from New Jersey’s Brain Injury Fund, available services are being cut as well.

Transportation will no longer be provided. Electronics like personal alarms will no longer be covered. Many brain injury victims use personal alarms to compensate for lost memory skills. It helps them know when to go places or perform other tasks. Personal computers play a huge role for these people who have both cognitive and memory problems. (continued below)

Brain Injury Costs

Living with brain injury is expensive. In addition to a regular medical doctor, many victims must see neurologists, psychologists, endocrinologists as well as speech, physical and occupational therapists. Migraine headaches are a common complaint as is high blood pressure and vision problems. Many brain injury victims find they cannot return to work or must, at least, seek stress-free work at a flexible workplace.

Chee Chee Parker worked at the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. Her desk was in a direct line of the impact when the plane commandeered by terrorists hit the building. Though she suffered many injuries, she says the worst was her brain injury. She left the military and was able to find another job…for a short time. The effects of brain injury forced her out.

Others say: "I lost everything, my home, job, car all.. I have not found fiance help anywhere I get SSI and food assistance I have been in poverty since my injury." – Lynn; "I have been in such poverty since my tbi." – Hope; "I sustained my TBI on March 3, 1994 when a student knocked me unconscious. Needless to say that was the end of my teaching career." – Melba; "We learn to live in poverty." – Terry

Increasing health care costs and limited, if any, sources of income make government assistance almost a necessity. Now, those programs are going away. Congress has pretty much frittered away health insurance reform. Short of Medicare for Everyone, a single-payor system, the people you read about here would still be unable to afford insurance premiums. Yes, some qualify for Medicaid, and some qualify for SSI, but that still doesn’t provide the therapies they need to develop their lives more fully. America, we need to do something.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Health care insurance premiums are rising again, and the health insurance gurus are blaming it on rising health care costs. Well, it’s true. Health care costs in America. It really, really costs.

Regular readers of this blog may remember my wife’s $2,500 sprained, and possibly broken, ankle. That was just the visit to the emergency room and did not include the followup visit to our primary care physician and the $143 boot for her foot.

2009 is behind us now, and I can report to you that our health insurance paid absolutely nothing for our medical care last year. Nothing. Nada. Not one cent. Why? Our deductible was $2,300, and our $2,000 in bills didn’t quite make it. But we got close. This year our deductible is $100 more. And, yes, our premium went up, too. Now, our premium didn’t go up because of our health care costs to the insurance company – they didn’t pay anything last year!

Health insurance costs in California almost made me feel ashamed of complaining about my personal situation. The Los Angeles Times published a story, "Anthem Blue Cross dramatically raising rates for Californians with individual health policies" that told of exhorbitant increases of up to 39%. One couple reported their new premium will be $27,336, up from $20,184. The new amount exceeds the poverty level in California for a family of five.

Now, let’s just assume this family of two earned $4,000 per month, prior to getting laid off. They would qualify for California’s maximum unemployment benefit of $450 per week, or about $1,800 per month. To keep their health insurance would cost $2,278 per month. You don’t even need Jethro Bodine to tell you that you can’t pay $2,278 with $1,800. You could come close if you moved out of your house and ate out of garbage cans.

Is this the health care we want in America?

Health Insurance Profits

The situation with Anthem Blue Cross in California is being investigated to make certain at least 70% of the premium is being paid out in benefits. In other words, 27.3% of that 39% increase must be paid out in benefits. That leaves 11.7% for employee pay raises and profit. And exactly how much do you expect the employees are getting in pay raises? 1%, 2% if they’re good?

But that’s not all. Anthem Blue Cross of California was fined $1 million by the state. Anthem was rejecting 20% of claims and canceling policies of pregnant women and chronically ill patients. Only in California? Not on your life. In Nevada, Anthem was able to negotiate a settlement with the state for about $1 million. In Kentucky, Anthem was ordered to refund $23.7 million to seniors and disabled patients because of inaccurately processed Medicare claims. And Colorado got a $5.7 million refund for its Anthem customers.

Is this what Republicans are trying to protect?

Health care is not okay in America. Health insurance is not okay in America. The ONLY way to fix the problem is with Medicare for All, but we are running from it as hard as we can. Well, at least the politicians are running from it, and those who are blindly following the lies being paid for by the health care and health insurance industry.

Think about it. Get the facts, and tell your friends. America must do something! Oh, and you might want to read about our new American Beer Party.

Sites We Like

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Quitting smoking is not easy. To quote anyone with good sense, "It’s hard." Oh, sure, the world is filled with non-smokers who act like Bible thumpers out to change the world to their way of doing things. Bible thumpers and those who are former smokers are two examples of the most intolerant people on earth.

Can you imagine a drug treatment program where the therapist stares at you and says, "You should quit. I did. And if I can do it, anybody can." Or, perhaps the Nancy Reagan approach to drugs: look at that cigarette and just say NO.

There is a reason behind the fact that most people who try to quit smoking fail. It’s harder to quit smoking than for a teenage boy to give up sexual fantasies. The American Cancer Society says that 40% of smokers try to quit each year but only 4% to 7% succeed.

An average cigarette contains about 4,000 different chemicals, the most well known being nicotine. The Massachusetts Department of Public Health issued a report in 2006 that showed cigarette manufacturers have been increasing the amount of nicotine in cigarettes, thus making them even more addictive. The average increase between 1999 and 2004 was 10%. The Kool brand increased by 20%.

Nicotine, however, is not the only problem when it comes to quitting. A lot of those other chemicals help get nicotine into the blood stream faster which, of course, produces a quick "happy" feeling. One failing of nicotine patches and nicotine gum is that they don’t address the actual habit of smoking. Habits include a cigarette first thing in the morning or a cigarette with a cup of coffee or a cigarette with a beer or a cigarette following a meal. Smokers have geared themselves to smoking as part of a daily ritual.

There is, however, a solution. And it’s a solution that I began a few weeks ago.

How To Stop Smoking – Without Quitting Smoking

Let me tell you about an electric cigarette. Yeah, I know. That sounds funny, doesn’t it? My doctor laughed when I told him about it. He’d never heard of such a thing. A lot of people have heard about them, though. And there are several different kinds. That’s one reason I’m writing this. There are four-part, three-part and two-part electric cigarettes. Go for the two-part. As hard as it is to quit smoking, you want to go for the simple method and a two-part electric cigarette is simpler than the others.

A two-part electric cigarette contains a nicotine flavor capsule that looks like a cigarette filter and a lithium battery that looks like the other part of a cigarette. Flavors include tobacco, menthol, vanilla, etc. The flavor capsules also allow you to choose the amount of nicotine you need. 16 mg is available. So are 8 mg, 6 mg, 4 mg, and 0 mg. See how you can create your own step down program to get off the nicotine habit – if you want to!

You see, the nicotine is delivered in a water vapor that is astoundingly like cigarette smoke, except that the other 4,000 chemicals are missing. That’s right. All the cancer-causing stuff is gone. All the bad health stuff is gone. So you really don’t have to really quit smoking. Just quit smoking those things that are bad for you. No tar. No ash. No carbon monoxide.

Part two of this wonderful story is cost. Electric cigarettes cost a lot less than regular cigarettes. Of course, your initial cost will include a battery charger and a couple of batteries in addition to the flavor capsules. After that, the capsules are like buying a carton of cigarettes for around $15.00. Down the street at the Tobacco Discount store, cartons run nearly $50 for premium and $39 for generic brand.

So, let’s see what we have here. The electric cigarette is less expensive than real cigarettes. It has no tar, no carbon monoxide, and no cancer-causing additives, but it does allow you to get a nicotine fix. The different nicotine levels allow you to wean off the addictive drug if you want to. It sort of sounds like a win-win situation to me, and that’s why I signed up. That’s why I’m smoking an electric cigarette now.

My wife, who is allergic to smoke, has been the ultimate test. I have smoked on the sofa while sitting beside her. I have smoked in the car with her sitting beside me. She is even more amazed than I am. She can smell it, she can see the "smoke" – and it doesn’t affect her at all.

If you are a smoker in the United States and want to give up the part of smoking that’s bad for you without really giving up smoking, click on the link below for more information and to set up your account.

Stop Smoking without Stopping Smoking

If you live in the UK, use this link: Stop Smoking without Stopping Smoking – United Kingdom

If you live in South Africa, use this link: Stop Smoking without Stopping Smoking – South Africa

Webmasters: If you would like to help others learn more about this product, you can sign up here.

Senator Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas) joined a Republican coalition to defeat public option amendments offered in the Senate Finance Committee. Having long been considered by the main media as a fence-sitter on offering a public option to Americans suffering under the current health care system, she finally showed her colors on the issue, and the color is green.

A few weeks ago the Huffington Post reported that Senator Lincoln was the top recipient of campaign contributions from the health care industry this year among senators. Blue Cross Blue Shield, the dominant health care insurer in Arkansas, is among her top contributors.

Responses posted on the Green Party Watch website are indicative of why Lincoln may lost her Senate race in 2010. Susan wrote, "That almost makes me want to move to Arkansas to vote against Blanche Lincoln. What a sellout to the insurance industry." Dave said, "Wow, if I lived in Arkansas I’d totally start a ‘move to Arkansas to vote against Blanche Lincoln’ campaign. And Lynn said, "I AM from Arkansas and WON’T be voting for her next election."

In February of 2009 Michael D. Tanner, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, testified before the Arkansas House Insurance and Commerce Committee. He said, "I understand the frustration that Arkansans feel with the problems facing our health care system. In particular, Arkansans are worried about cost and access. Simply put, health care and health insurance cost too much, and too many people, including roughly 486,000 Arkansans, 17 percent of your state’s population, lack health insurance. And the two problems are deeply entwined; cost is the number one reason why people go without health insurance."

Tanner also stated, "…the average cost of a family insurance plan in Arkansas tops $9,900…" According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, in 2001, Arkansas had a per capita personal income (PCPI) of $22,750 which ranked 50th in the United States (including the District of Columbia) and was 75% of the national average, $30,413. According to data released by the US Census Bureau, in 2000, the median household income was $30,293 compared to the national average of $42,148. In 2001, the median income for a family of four was $47,838 compared to the national average of $63,278. For the period 1999 to 2001, the average poverty rate was 16.3% which placed it 48th among the 50 states and the District of Columbia ranked lowest to highest.

With a median income of $30,293, is there any question why Arkansans cannot afford the average cost of a family health insurance plan of $9,900? That’s at the median level. What about the 49+% of Arkansans whose income is below the median.

At a time when Arkansas needs a Senator to stand up for them, Blanche Lincoln chose to support her contributors rather than her constituents.

More About Senator Blanche Lincoln

Blanche Lincoln Opposes Public Option

Blanche Lincoln Feet to the Fire

Sen. Blanche Lincoln Co-sponsors SHOP

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas Republican?!

Blanche Lincoln Rakes in Health Care Dollars – Huffington Post 09/04/2009 – The senior Arkansas senator is also the top recipient of campaign contributions from the health industry among senators this year. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Lincoln has received $325,350 in contributions from the health industry, as of June 30. The large amount in contributions underlies a constantly shifting position by the senator on health care reform.

Monopoly Money: "Our good friend Senator Blanche Lincoln thinks it’s very dangerous for the insurance companies to have to compete with a public plan option: ‘One of our biggest concerns is that it doesn’t need to be a government plan that usurps that ability to compete in the marketplace, which I’m concerned that a totally government-run option would do,’ she said."

For more information about her political contributions, you can visit the Federal Election Commission Blanche Lincoln Page.

Brain Injury Survivor’s Guide by Larry and Beth Jameson made the Top Ten Sales list for the month of April according to book publisher Outskirts Press. A press release stated, "Outskirts Press, the fastest-growing full-service self-publishing and book marketing company, today announced its top ten best selling titles for April 2009 according to combined data from Ingram Book Wholesalers and Outskirts Press Wholesale Direct."

The Top Ten Books run through a wide range of genres from smokehouse design to day trading to lottery numbers and, even, another kind of lottery: How to Become a Man Magnet. Of course, I believe it was Jeff Foxworthy that said all a woman needed to attract a man was to show up.

Lynn Galli’s fictional Uncommon Emotions explores what happens when a woman explores her passions and emotions after being kissed by another woman.

The Top Ten Books are:

Brain Injury Books at Amazon

Additional Brain Injury Resources:

Brain Injury Guide

Brain Injury Online

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog