Excerpt from "Roller Coaster Ride With Brain Injury (For Loved Ones)"

Bumps In The Road

"Larry was back to being argumentative, disagreeable, cantankerous, belligerent, self-centered and downright unpleasant. If I didn't agree with him about something, he became very angry. He wouldn't discuss anything. He was very upset that he hadn't heard anything about the date for his Driving Assessment - that is what had set him off. It was another 'bump'. I e-mailed the ICBC therapist to let her know that he'd become very anxious about not hearing of a date for when he would be having the Assessment. She responded that she had heard nothing either.

Larry finally decided that he was going to get the insurance on his own car because he was determined that he was going to drive. I told him if he was going to drive when he didn't have his driver's license that I wan't going to take him to get the insurance. He said he'd walk there - a distance of about ten blocks each way. Although he complains about the pain in his legs, he made no comment when he got back about his legs hurting, in spite of the long walk.

Larry had angrily called the ICBC coordinator and told her he was going to drive his motorhome whether he had his license back or not. The ICBC therapist explained to him, when she came to visit, that things take time and he wasn't the only one waiting. I suggested to Larry that perhaps the ICBC coordinator wasn't the one to be having a temper tantrum with because they were the ones who hold the power and will determine when things are going to happen. He only became angrier with me."