To all who contributed to and/or prayed for Greg S.
Fitzpatrick to begin the new therapy
– Neurological Reorganization –
for
furthering his recovery from a traumatic brain injury, we first want to thank
you for it is now underway.
Following is the first
comprehensive update, written and posted by Mom, Marylynn G. Stults.
WHAT INITIALLY HAPPENED
(For those reading this for the first time, here is a blurb of Greg’s
history)
Greg was born. 10-20-69. 10 pounds 12 ounces. Whew.
In a moped accident at the end of his high school freshman
year in 1984, Greg sustained a massive skull fracture and severe closed head
injury (bilateral contusions) that hemorrhaged. Though his critical condition
was considered inoperable, he coded and emergency surgery – a bilateral frontal
craniotomy (substantial removal of the frontal lobes of his brain) – had to be
performed. He survived the surgery yet was not expected to live and,
subsequently, spent weeks in ICU and years doing every therapy then known to
man (or at least us) to relearn everything, including all skills of cognition
and the basics of movement and speech. His great intellect and sense of humor
returned, but many deficits have remained including temper issues and inability
to stay on task and hold a job. I did not know there was anything to help him
further. I was wrong!! Also, none of us close to Greg knew what he continued to
be going through. (The one thing Greg has always had, though, throughout all of
his trials, is an incredibly wonderful sense of humor.)
OUR PURPOSE HERE IN BLOGGING
Greg wants to blog to
track the progress of his recovery
AND to cause
awareness of this therapy so others with brain issues can also be helped!
WHAT WE FOUND
By a “chance meeting,” (Jocelyn Williams thank you SO MUCH),
I learned of Neurological Reorganization Therapy (
http://neurologicalreorganization.org/), a clinically tested
method to treat neurodevelopmentally-based challenges in children and adults to
bring about recovery from extensive brain damage. Because of your generosity,
Greg had his evaluation by the organization’s founder and counselor, Bette
Lamont, October 22
nd, and has begun his therapy. He has committed to
a daily program for one year; this is the beginning!
1. WHAT WE DIDN’T KNOW: THE THERAPY AVAILABLE
It has been 31 years since the accident. Throughout this
time, we mistakenly believed that all that was damaged (as if it weren’t
enough) were Greg’s frontal lobes (the area of the brain concerned, in part,
with emotions, behavior, learning, personality, and voluntary movement). Over
time, and time and time again, many – including the therapist – have noted
Greg’s exceptional intelligence, but they – not
including the therapist – wondered why he didn’t drive or hold a job or keep
rein on his temper. I myself would often become frustrated, expecting great
things out of him because he had so much apparent potential, but he just
wouldn’t stay on task and, say, clean his room or keep a civil tongue in his
mouth or accomplish more than one thing in a day. Living with him, I knew deep
inside me that there was an actual INABILITY to do or control these things and
I would defend him as a mother bear, but day after day, we (he and I) would
just get exhausted trying to figure it all out. Frankly, you just keep going on
day after day, knowing there’s more but having no idea what it is or how to
access it. But then, through Jocelyn, I learned of this therapy I did not know
existed and eventually learned it will help Greg in ways I didn’t even know he
needed!
2. WHAT WE DIDN’T KNOW: THE INJURY’S DEPTH
Did you ever try to make a deaf person hear your voice? A
person without legs walk to you? Those are deficits that quickly become obvious
and I use as examples, for you would be unreasonable to have expectations of
their hearing or mobility. But daily, Greg faces inabilities to do things most
of us take for granted, for Bette determined in her examination that the damage
done to him was far more extensive than frontal lobes. In short, when the front
of his head struck the pavement, the impact jarred and injured far more of his
brain than just what contused and bled.
3. WHAT WE DIDN’T KNOW: SPECIFICS
The temper outbursts are limbic rage, a physiological brain
disorder over which Greg (and anyone with this issue) has no control and no
recollection of what has transpired. Bette cited similar examples of other patients
who experience this rage. Understandable irritants might trigger the outbursts
Greg has, or they could be as meaningless as annoyances like the Fresh Market
let the creamer run out or I swallowed too loudly; others might be without any
reasonable justification whatsoever.
Tests Bette performed on Greg revealed that he has deficits
of eye movement, auditory appreciations, tactile incompetence, mobility issues,
and manual incompetence (prehensile grasp issues). Due to issues of the
cerebellum that controls balance, he doesn’t know where he is “in space.” The
issues incorporate the areas of the pons (the part of the brainstem that links
the heart/lung control center the medulla oblongata and the thalamus which
relays sensory information and provides pain perception) and the midbrain (the
central part of the brainstem). The corpus callosum – the nerve fibers that
join the two hemispheres of the brain – is also greatly affected so that,
figuratively, at times, the right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. Now,
guess what?
WHAT WE NOW KNOW!
First, Greg is so RELIEVED to have learned not only the best
news – that there is help and hope for RECOVERY – but that his deficits ARE NOT
HIS FAULT OR DOING. What a burden to be lifted!
An example of what Greg sometimes encounters and his good
humor in handling situations just happened. He has been working on a homework
assignment about an ethical accounting issue that was to have been turned in by
midnight last night. Its length is 800 words, which is the equivalent of about
three typewritten pages. It is now 18 hours late and he is on page eight! Page
eight. He mixed up the number of pages and words. He has some serious
editing to do. (He laughed and said, “I suppose this means I can’t just delete
the last five pages…”) And now, he knows why he does things like this.
 |
| Greg with his godparents, Chris and Larry Prange |
 |
Greg received his Associate's & Bachelor's Degrees from Indiana Wesleyan University.
He is pictured here with his sister Jenny, dad Terry Fitzpatrick, and moi. |
 |
| He is now studying for his Master's in Accounting |
AND THIS IS ALL
GOOD
NEWS BECAUSE THE THERAPY GREG HAS BEGUN ADDRESSES ALL OF THESE ISSUES.
THE BRAIN CAN RECOVER! IT IS CONSTANTLY
GROWING NEW CELLS. AND BETTE HAS ALMOST 30 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE IN DEALING WITH
THE ISSUES OF TBI (TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY), AS WELL AS OTHER BRAIN DISORDERS
INCLUDING STROKE, AUTISM, BIPOLAR, AND SCHIZOPHRENIA.
In our next post, we'll add some pictures and videos of the therapy. Thanks for coming!
