Half a Mind to ..

Life after brain injury – one small victory at a time.

Tag: brain-injury

  • Insight 040 Small problems too big

    Insight 040 Small problems too big

    Some small problems are now too big to fit in working memory (Insight 040)

    Before my brain injury, I rarely thought about thinking.

    Like most people, I simply got on with it.

    If someone asked me to multiply 17 by 13, I would mentally break the problem into smaller pieces. Ten times seventeen is 170. Three times seventeen is 51. Add them together and the answer is 221.

    The arithmetic is straightforward. What matters is that the intermediate results have to be held somewhere while the calculation is being completed.

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  • Sorting medication: full story 044

    Sorting medication: full story 044

    Quick summary: A medication mistake revealed that my problem was not simply forgetting tablets. I was losing my place in the sequence. A new pill organiser, bought for travel convenience, unexpectedly offered a simple solution: raising the next compartment so the organiser remembers the process when my brain cannot.

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  • Start Here: What Half a Mind To Is About

    Start Here: What Half a Mind To Is About

    If you have just arrived at Half a Mind To, welcome.

    This blog began as an attempt to document life after neurological injury. In 2008 I underwent treatment for a brain tumour. In 2024 I suffered a stroke. Together they left me dealing with a mixture of cognitive and physical challenges that are often difficult to explain to people who have not experienced them themselves.

    Some of those challenges are obvious. Others are subtle. A task that appears simple from the outside may require a surprising amount of planning, memory, concentration or adaptation.

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