Traumatic Brain Injury is nothing to laugh at... or is it?

Drew Magary is a writer for GQ and Deadspin. His long-form essay is at the same time, frightening and funny, and worth a read.

But why, you might ask, am I sharing this story? Well, it brought to mind some thoughts and feelings from a couple of recent experiences in my life. A little over 2 years ago, I didn't feel to good. Truth be told, I hadn't been feeling great for a few months, but I powered through. It was winter, I was busy working, we had just moved... Anyway, I went home Friday, early, not feeling 'right'. That weekend was a blurry haze. I couldn't drink enough water, I couldn't stop peeing, I had trouble focusing. I was a mess. Monday morning, I had my wife call me in sick, and then take me to the Immediate Care. They did the intake stuff, listened to my symptoms and did something I had never had done before: they stuck my finger and touched it to a bit of cardboard sticking out of a machine. The machine returned an error message. Apparently, a Blood Glucose reading higher than 600 can't be read by their machine. They said, run, do not walk to the Emergency Room. That's what we did, and to make a long story short, (Too Late!) I spent 3 days in the ICU with an insulin drip. My intake BG was over 700. A normal range should be between 70 and 120, YMMV. My A1C, which is a measure of glucose in the blood, over about 6 weeks to 3 months was over 11. Normal is 7, excellent is 6. Fast-forward to now, I am no longer on insulin injections. I take MetFormin, count carbs and try to watch my portion sizes.

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The other situation that has occurred in the recent past didn't happen to me, but to my wife. Last February, she seemed to have an ear infection, which didn't respond to antibiotics. We thought maybe it was an infected tooth. She had pain that radiated through the whole right side of her face and head. I won't tell her whole story here. I expect she will write some more details in her blog. She is now pain-free, but that was after 6 months of powerful anti-seizure meds, two brain surgeries and eight weeks of intravenous IV treatments.

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So what do these things have to do with the article, which is about a guy who got a brain bleed, collapsed, cracked his skull, and entered a coma? Well, In the past couple of years I've been on both sides of some of what Drew talks about. When I realized how close to dying I was in that diabetic crisis, I was scared, not for myself, but for my wife, my kids, my parents. How would they manage? When I was sitting in the Emergency room, or the waiting room, or the ICU, I was scared, not just for my wife, but also for me. How would I manage?

I know how that sounds. And I don't care. No, that's not true. I do care, but I can't take it back. When evidence of mortality comes that close, my emotions become much simpler. Drew Magary went through much, much worse, and came through it with his wits and humor apparently in good shape. My wife has come out of her ordeal with a great deal of drive to get better, and is being very open about her struggles and her progress. I'm proud of her for that.

I don't know if I would have done as well as either of them.