Linda Wells
Brain Injury Doesn’t Slow Her Down
She is an exceptional motivational speaker, but often can’t retrieve the simplest word. She raises money for the cause that drives her life but can’t tell you how many quarters are in a dollar. She can carry on a conversation with wit and intelligence, but can’t pronounce the names of her two sons.
Her name is Linda Wells and 15 years ago she had a significant brain injury. Like most brain injuries, it changed her life forever. It just didn’t slow her down.
What started as a romantic New Year’s Eve getaway for Camarillo resident Linda and her husband, Rex, ended as a nightmare. They were heading up a hill on a golf cart, Catalina’s standard mode of transportation, when their driver swerved and Linda was thrown out, landing on her head. Her brain struck the front of her skull then rebounded to the back of her skull.
Linda was helicoptered to Long Beach Memorial Hospital where they determined she had an intracranial bleed the size of a lemon. She had repeated seizures and stayed hospitalized there for a month. Linda was paralyzed on the right side and her face drooped like a stroke survivor. Her thinking ability was profoundly impaired. Linda spent a total of five years in rehab therapy, working on motor skills and getting her hands to work together. Most of the work, though, was focused on learning and developing strategies and techniques to compensate for huge deficiencies in short-term memory, concentration, planning and communication.
Because of the brain injury and commitment to rehab, Linda had to sell her successful medical billing company. She struggled to regain her abilities, having to relearn some of the most basic functions, and gradually resumed a more “normal” life. For the past 12 years her friend and driver, Mary Adair, has accompanied Linda as she stays active in the community and moves forward determinedly. Today, at 59, Linda is a lovely, enthusiastic woman who engages in many activities.
Over 10 years ago, Linda helped incorporate a grassroots nonprofit to serve the local brain injury community. The Brain Injury Center, located within the offices of the Independent Living Resource Center in Ventura, is Ventura County’s one and only organization dedicated to improving the quality of life for people who have been through what Linda has. She was the keynote speaker at BIC’s first formal fundraiser in 2005. Linda’s energy, optimism and supportive spirit have been indispensable forces in moving the group forward.
“BIC is my matter,” Linda says. “I love to educate the public about how hard it is to be brain-injured, how hard we have to work just to get by.”
Linda was a dynamo in 2007, going business to business every day building support for BIC’s annual fundraiser. The special event, titled “An Unforgettable Evening,” took place October 26, 2007, at Sterling Hills Golf Club in Camarillo. Linda not only persuaded Sterling Hills to donate the use of its facility but solicited dozens of donated items, goods and services for the fundraiser’s silent auction.
On the night of the fundraiser the first speaker on the program welcomed guests, thanked everyone for their support, and emcede the evening’s festivities. That first speaker: Linda Wells.
# # # # #
(Following are details on the effects of Linda’s brain injury, many of the same problems shared by an estimated 16,000 people in Ventura County and over 5 million nationwide Brain injury is also the signature disability of our troops returning from service in Iraq.)
Notes on Residual Effects
Linda Wells is a very intelligent woman and wants people to know she is still smart after her brain injury. But she does have cognitive deficits that many people misconstrue as a lack of intelligence.
Linda cannot watch movies or listen to music (too much visual and audial stimuli; she gets headaches, or becomes overwhelmed to the point of being unable to think, known as “flooding”). She can’t handle a lot of noise in general, especially many voices in a crowded room. She frequently wears earplugs to decrease the ambient noise when eating in a restaurant.
She is able to process printed words and can read single sentences and short paragraphs for informational purposes, but she cannot focus on longer pieces in magazines or read books.
Linda has a vestibular deficit and problems with balance and dizziness. She cannot look ahead while walking but must watch her feet.
Her brain cannot handle busy, bright patterns on clothing, rugs, etc. (When Linda and BIC Director Joan Moore have a public speaking engagement, Joan wears solid-colored clothes without a print so Linda’s brain isn’t taxed.)
Linda has difficulty with sequencing – knowing how to order the steps in a task, such as making coffee (put in new filter, grind coffee, measure coffee, place coffee in filter, close filter door, add water to machine, put empty carafe in coffeemaker, push start).
She has major problems with her memory. She doesn’t know her own birthday or her address. (She has memorized her phone number.) Instead she relies on what she calls her “memory book” – a personal notebook/date book/calendar that contains addresses, appointments, important facts. She says of it, “This is my memory.” She is very good about taking it everywhere with her and consulting it frequently – something many people with brain injury (PwBI) forget to do. (A coping mechanism, tool or strategy is no good unless you use it!)
She continues to have speech issues. She has trouble with some lingual sounds, especially consonant blends. She cannot say the names of her sons, Trent and Trevor, because she can’t pronounce the TR blend. She pronounces them “Frent” and “Frevor.”
She cannot do math. She has no idea how many quarters are in a dollar. She cannot count money. She uses credit cards for all purchases.
Linda cannot drive. She relies on her driver or other friends to drive her. She has a handicap placard since she must watch her feet when walking and so cannot watch for traffic, and she still occasionally has seizures. She tells of the time she was approached and criticized by a “normie” (as she calls those without brain injuries) for abusing the privilege of handicap parking. Since then, she is on a crusade to let people know that not every disability is visible. She says, “Don’t be judging of people with one of these things [holds up her placard]. It doesn’t have to do only with a wheelchair. It might be heart, or blind, or hear, or something that doesn’t show. I may have a seizure.”
An injury to the brain’s frontal lobe can cause deficits in critical-thinking skills, specifically the ones called the “executive functions” – planning, organizing, problem-solving and decision-making. This is why some BI survivors need support in developing short- or long-term goals, plans to achieve those
goals, creating schedules, and problem-solving ad hoc issues and/or interpersonal conflicts.
Many people with brain injury must expend tremendous effort to accomplish autonomic, reflexive functions “normies” take for granted, such as paying attention in a conversation or switching her attention from one speaker to another.
In addition, conscious acts of thinking and reasoning, such as making decisions (What movie shall we see tonight?), require considerably more effort for PwBI. Thus a day in the life of a survivor is intensely more physically and mentally fatiguing. (Chronic fatigue is a typical residual effect of brain injury.)
LINDA’S MARBLES
Linda has learned that her brain can only handle so much cognitive activity before it runs out of energy – she likens this to having a fixed number of “marbles in her bag” – so she “rations” her thinking and reasoning to make sure she has what she needs for important tasks. Thus, if she has a speaking engagement at lunch, she may choose to not answer the phone or email in the morning, saving marbles for the public speaking task.
She can “recharge” her brain a little bit – add a few marbles back into the bag – with a nap but it’s not the equivalent of a full night’s sleep.
Good quotes: “Public speaking – I love it. That’s my ‘matter.’ That’s my total matter.” – In other words, it’s her purpose, a gift or talent, and makes her feel productive and valued. Also: “I love making a difference in the community. We are working hard to re-integrate, to be accepted in the community. Normies need to know we need their kindness… and their money.”
FLOODING
This is when a brain injury survivor’s brain becomes so over-stimulated by stimuli that it becomes confused, gets “stuck” and stops working (cognitively) altogether. Linda said when this happens to her, she calms herself and repeats her mantra, “pause and plan, pause and plan.”
One survivor described flooding as having a “head full of cotton.” If too much information comes at a survivor too fast, or if there is an unexpected change in routine (especially of an emergency nature), the brain can “flood.” Some survivors actually freeze like a “deer in the headlights.”
(In her book “Over My Head,” author and survivor Claudia Osborn describes missing her bus. She said she literally couldn’t move, couldn’t even step back up onto the curb, she was so thrown by the unexpected obstacle. She couldn’t develop an alternate plan for getting to her rehab program and so returned home for the rest of the day.)
SOCIAL SKILLS, JUDGMENT
Like many people with frontal lobe injuries, Linda says she has trouble with certain social skills – e.g., using tact when speaking with others or not blurting out whatever thought passes through one’s brain – and in exercising sound judgment.
Many PwBI are in denial about their injury or certain residual effects; this can exacerbate problems with judgment, social skills, interpersonal relationships, etc.
For example, one survivor we know went through the training process for a new job but then forgot about certain protocols, such as filling out a daily timesheet. However, this survivor is so convinced that he has no cognitive deficits that he failed to recognize that he had forgotten aspects of his training. Instead, he blamed his supervisor for not training him properly! No amount of discussion could persuade him that he needed to implement more coping strategies to compensate for his poor memory. (He was subsequently let go from the job.)
Linda says it took years but she finally realized she had to choose to accept herself and her abilities and to admit that she cannot ever be the person she was before. As she says, “It is what it is. I am what I am.”