Erik Korpalski

My Brain Injury Journey is the most difficult challenge I have ever experienced, but also a blessing. While I have not been able to recall the night that changed my life, I focus on the journey moving forward. I remember waking up post-craniotomy in the hospital with little understanding of what had perspired the night before. I spent a little over a week in the hospital bed being visited by friends and family. I was eager to get discharged and go home not knowing what to expect with the second chance I was given. After working through numerous sessions with my therapists, I was grateful for all the help they were eager to give. Along with the support of family and friends, I was slowly able to get some of my confidence back. This allowed me to feel more like myself and recognize some of the areas I would need to focus on improving. Over time, I was able to be more independent and take care of some of the responsibilities I had before my injury. Little victories like getting cleared to drive and going back to work helped push me forward and motivated me to find a new purpose in life. Looking back before my injury, I realize I focused far too much of my attention on work and not on others or myself. My brain injury has been a blessing in disguise for certain areas of my life and has given me a new appreciation for what I do have. It has allowed me to spend more time with the people that matter most in my life. It has also allowed me to seek out and excel at new hobbies and spend more time doing what I enjoy most to better myself. Lastly, it has allowed me to explore other careers that would better fit my new limitations and at the same time do work that I enjoy.

I’m on my own journey. I’m still improving every day and striving to better myself. I did not recognize all the areas I was struggling with immediately after my brain injury. Even five (5) years after this event, some of these areas continue to reveal themselves in my life. A few of the mental challenges that I had to overcome with a brain injury were and are short-term memory, information processing, fatigue, focus/motivation, and information comprehension. I realized being aware of my mental and physical limitations has helped me navigate the environment around my new self. The help I received from numerous therapists has given me the skills to be more aware of my surroundings and plan for things I might encounter. It can be challenging with some of these limitations that cannot be seen by anyone but yourself. You cannot expect others to be aware without letting them know your limitations. I have found that allotting myself more time to complete a task has allowed me to do things that were out of reach right after my injury. Being more aware of these limitations has helped turn some of the impossible tasks into improbable tasks. With careful planning, hard work, the right mindset, and help from others, I strive to turn these into probable tasks that I can hope to excel at someday.