This year will be my 5 year survivor day. 5 years since my whole world got turned upside down and everything changed #tbi Expected to die, but here I am, alive! Typically, I like to surround myself with loved ones and friends. This year is going to be a little unique, I’m returning to a TBI facility for a tune-up. Graig Hospital is where I was initially for rehabilitation. Eventually, I enrolled in the outpatient program there as well, before Covid struck. During Covid I went back to New Jersey, attended Kessler outpatient rehabilitation, before finally returning to Hawaii. If I got to choose a coast, I got to choose the east, I lived out there so don’t go there 

My primary goal has been the same since the start of my journey, to walk again. I’ve made tremendous strides recently, but I’m not where I want to be yet. This is what prompted this trip. While I’m certainly hopeful for what’s still to come, I want to give credit where it’s due. There’s been a lot of hard work and tribulations to get this far, and my memory is terrible #tbi so, it’s important for myself to recall by giving credit to what has happened already 

At the start of this year, 2024, I attended a cruise event sponsored by the international hyperbaric association (IHA). I was lucky enough to get to know and have dinner with Dr. Dan Pompa. After spending some time together on the cruise, I decided to enroll in the Pompa program. It’s a 5 month long program where the Brain month, the last month, is apparently where the real magic lies. I still have a few months to go, but feeling stronger and more hopeful than I have in 5 years. I can’t recommend this program enough to anyone battling a health issue. Mahalo Dan, you deserve recognition for helping my situation #tbi

Throughout this crazy journey there has been 1 person that has been through it all with me. She also deserves some recognition. If not for her, who knows where I’d be.  I’m able to feel confident in myself again, because of her. What I attribute her most with is introducing me to hyperbaric medicine. HBOT was able to return my dreams to me, for that I am ever grateful. She’s come along with me all across the country to find healing. It would be an endless list to say all I am grateful to her for, so I will just leave it at mahalo Tina 

I don’t want to set the wrong expectation, and I’m not counting on going there to make me walk again. I’m hopeful nonetheless, looking forward to my time. None of us knows what the world has in store for us #tbi all we can do is keep on trying