It's probably no surprise that those who knew Aaron before his accident, one of the things I fell in love with when I met Aaron was his sweet personality! He was so easy going, helpful, and caring...he did whatever it took to make everyone else around him happy (including ME)!
I remember the first week in the ICU when I started learning about what a traumatic brain injury was. The unit manager did a good job explaining everything to me. I can remember to exact moment when she started telling about how a person with a TBI's personality can be changed significantly. She went on to tell me that especially in young men that you could see a lot of aggression, among other horrible things. She said that often people were very different from the person they were before the accident. My heart was crushed and whatever she continued to say I didn't hear. It was an awful feeling to know that I could have him but not have him if that makes sense. I stood there thinking about how much I loved Aaron's personality the most and how it would be sad to never have that part of him again in my life.
Fortunately for Aaron this was not the case at all, another one of our many blessings. Slowly but surely, to this day, his brain continues to heal. As each month, week, day, and minute passes I see more and more of that sweet personality that I love so much!
I'll be honest, things are not exactly the same. There are what I often refer to as "short circuits" from time to time. Most often it's just me who notices or people who really knew him well before the accident. Aaron sometime says something random or does something completely off. He sometimes doesn't have as good of a "filter" as he used to and will say those things you think but aren't supposed to say out loud! He also tends to have a little bit of a potty mouth now and then, especially when he is frustrated! And there are the times he wants to be heard (literally) and it comes out as yelling....I have had to really work on not worrying about these things, especially the part about what other people think. We get most of the old him, that is enough and I am learning to thankful for that!
He was also said to have short term memory loss. I don't have an recent evaluation that tells me how his short term memory is but from my own unofficial observations, it seems to keep getting better and better. People used to always ask me if his memory was like the movie character that Drew Barrymore played in 50 First Dates. I can't hold it against them, they don't know but I can tell you that I will NEVER watch that movie again and for the record Aaron's memory is not even close to the character in the movie :)
His long term memory has been evident since early on. Little things gave me hope that he was him the first few months...like him giving thumbs up, the ways we told each other we loved each other, and a favorite nickname Aaron had for me! He has recognized family member and friends the entire time. He also was able to start recalling personal information early on.
He completely surprised me recently, we were in the grocery store and ran into someone we used to go to church with (I am talking back in 2006). Aaron was polite, said hello and as we chatted for a minute. As we walked away and I asked if he knew who that was he instantly told me the man's name. When I proceeded to ask how we knew him, Aaron not only replied from church but was more specific and reminded me that we had been in a small group with him.
He seems to have the same filter around me he always had. But, I don't have much of a filter either and may be a bad influence on him.
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