Chapter 19 : Why a blog?

Since starting this blog I have been lucky that many people have been inspired to tell me certain things.  These people have been various and disparate but their comments have often been very similar. To answer these comments there are two things I need to do. Tell people why I started the blog and what the aim of the blog is.

I initially started the blog because I found myself going through something which overwhelmed and confused me. At the age of 59 I knew nothing about having an acquired brain injury and spending 7 weeks in hospital. You could say I was lucky not knowing about such things.  I was able to find something out about having a brain injury by writing about it. By putting down my thoughts.  I was more able to see the main themes or ideas. The blog made my life easier. It helped me make sense of my life. It helped me but I can imagine people that it would not help. Everybody is different. Other people would be helped in different ways.

I did not have an acquired brain injury or go through all of this in order to have something to write about. I would much prefer a happy, boring life with nothing to write about than my life of the last six months.

I then found that there were other benefits of the blog. Not necessarily for me. More for other people.

One benefit was for staff and patients of Tasmanian Health Service or any similar Health Service. In both cases they (the staff and the patients) would hopefully get a vague idea of what the other side was thinking. Hopefully they would realize that staff and patients are not on opposing sides. They are not enemies. They are actually on the same side and ultimately they have the same desired outcome.

 A nurse or carer would hopefully think about the patients she/he is managing. She would think about things differently or from a different point of view. Hopefully her management improves.

From the patient’s point of view they can see what someone else has gone through. They may read about someone else who had it worse than them or not as bad as them.  It doesn’t matter. What matters is that they will not feel so isolated or lonely. They would feel something in common with someone else. They would have empathy for someone else and imagine people thinking of them. Hopefully their relationship with the staff improves. Their relationship with the staff depends on the staff and them. It depends on both of them. Hopefully the patient will realize this.

Other people have read the blog. Some of these people are not staff or patients. Some are acquaintances of mine. Some are people I have met for a variety of reasons. Hopefully the blog will explain a bit about my life in the last few months. Also I am hoping that when these people meet someone who has been sick (a neighbor or relative) they think about the way to act. They think about what to do.

The final group of people that has read the blog is people I have never met. I hope these people have got something positive out of the blog and that one day, when I least expect it, I may get something positive from them.