As mentioned earlier, I’ve been caring for Kim since his last TBI in 2013 which left him with a cognitive disability. Without realizing it, I slowly became a full-time caregiver and part of 53 million people in this country who care for a loved one or a friend without pay! See statistics in above diagram and a link to the survey with these results at the bottom of this message.
The first 5 years after Kim’s last TBI were spent trying to get him to improve. We visited top TBI hospitals & doctors. However, he plateaued about 4 years ago and slowly started a cognitive declined, consistent with frontal lobe injuries of the kind he suffered.
Slowly, he started to lose the freedoms I had so much fought for him to gain – driving; walking alone in trails & parks; using a credit card or carrying cash; being left alone for extended periods or even overnight as occasionally required by my job.
Finally, in 2017 I stopped working full time, continuing to consult as I could and teach part-time, in order to have the time needed to take Kim to his ongoing appointments with doctors and healthcare specialists.
See results of the latest survey on Caregiving in the U.S. 2020, sponsored by the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC) and AARP.
Cunningham-Ramos AML & Stroke after TBI Journey 
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