Today’s guest post is about how one moment can mean losing everything and yet realising you still have all you ever needed…. I’ll let Todd explain …..
It was 2007 and that night changed my life forever. I was riding my Harley and it was 11:30. I was in my way home from a friends when a car pulled out in front of me on a one lane road. As I swerved to miss them, I realised I was losing control and I hit the curb. The bike’s frame broke in the impact and it jammed into the wheel, making it stop suddenly and buck hard. I was thrown into the road. Landing on my head, I was bleeding out of every opening; eyes, ears, and mouth. Knocked unconscious, I was in a coma for 16 day’s in coma. But the medical team decided it was necessary to extend that, and induced the coma so I was out for a total of 27 days.
My wife was by my side throughout my coma. Once I woke they moved me to a rehabilitation unit. She would stay there as she was able to shower there too. This helped us both as our lives were crashing around us.
Life’s achievements washed away.
I had my own trucking company, Eisenschenk transport Inc but a total of 2 months stay in the hospital meant it wasn’t generating any income. Everything I had a loan on was eventuality repossessed. So to make a long story short, my life as I knew it was flushed down the toilet. A traumatic brain injury was the outcome and nothing has been the same since.
It was very hard at first to cope with losing everything, but the love of my family helped a lot. My brain injury created many struggles. I had to learn how to walk again and I couldn’t even get dressed without help. 10 years on I still struggle with headaches but for the most part I’ve adapted.
My kids are my priority and I take care of them and the house. It took a long time to get the family finances back on track, but we did it. I’m very good at being a stay at home dad. My truck driving background, with the independence and always being on the move made it difficult to adjust to my new lifestyle. At only 38 when my accident happened, I was in my prime and was enjoying the successful career I had built for myself. Nevertheless I adapted and in the end my family is all that matters.
Todd’s children, from the left: Wyatt, Tracy and Allyssa. Wyatt, anged 17 and Tracy, aged 10 live with Todd and his wife (also called Tracy), whilst 21 year old Allyssa is finding her independence, making her parents very proud of her.
Many of the material things people dream of owning, I used to have and have lost. But that’s not a big deal. My family depend on me for more than money.
This whole experience has taught me not to let the brain injury win. My advice for others would be; don’t spend your life chasing after material possessions. Just concentrate on the people who are there for you when you need them the most.
This is my story hope whoever reads it takes a little bit from it. Todd T Eisenschenk aka the shankster as friends call me now.
6 replies on “Guest post: Todd Eisenschen, how a brain injury meant losing everything”
Yep. Drs said I could work, we needed the money so I carried on. Nearly finished me off ?
That surprises me that they were happy to be drawn on that. They just said it’s up to me when I try… and I tried too soon and it ended my career.
My story: TBI in 2002. Short term memory & other executive skills lost … as well as job, career, marriage, and time with my only child all lost. 2014, after 12 years, I underwent EMDR (eye movement desensitization & reprocessing) as PTSD set in after the TBI. Then I was suddenly able to read books, many books ….. but since I am over 60 yo, and with no meaningful work for over 15 years, I feel it would be delusional to think I could get any meaningful work now, even though I have decades of experience plus a masters degree. I am very grateful for what I have, but not very encouraged pursue anything meaningful.
Your experience of relationship breakdown is a story too many of us have experienced. It must have added so much to the trauma of your injury.
It’s great that the treatment has restored your ability to read at length. Perhaps you could get into writing?
A massive change for me, I can’t work now, so the career I had as an communicator for the deaf is over, and so is my income. I’ve lost friends and family which have walked away, this is hard when your trying to accept your brain injury and that your poorly brain doesn’t work as it used to. Change can be good to, I’ve discovered swimming and gardening soothes my brain and helps my mood, I’ve joined a creative writing group, and it seems I can write poetry and short stories, life is very different, there’s still endless possibilities even with a brain injury.
My career ended to, but yes I also enjoy the garden more now. I mean I’m rubbish at growing things, but I enjoy having a go.