The Iliad of the Odd D. C.
The Experiences, Recollections, Rantings, and Epiphanies
of an Everyday Traumatic Brain Injury Victor

David Cole
Traumatic Brain Injury 'Victor'

Approx. size 6"x9"
343 pages, color photographs, Paperback

The mental after-effects of a traumatic brain injury (TBI) can be likened to a beautiful mirror that shatters. As the precious glass shards are retrieved and painstakingly pieced back into place, the mirror will be repaired and it can look much like it did in the past. But there will always be places where the glass does not quite fit together. Though the pieces belong in that location, the ability of the glass to reflect a perfect image is gone forever.

Both the victim of the traumatic brain injury and the victim’s loved ones will experience an additional trauma of a different sort. Though ecstatic over the survival of their loved one, the joy will be mixed with the bitter reality of the shattered glass and the losses they will encounter. Day will stretch into day, and as the weeks go by, it slowly sinks in that their loved one is forever changed. The victim, too, suffers the trauma of adjusting to the sudden, new, and difficult circumstances of his life.

David Cole is an early survivor of traumatic brain injury recovery. Injured while a college freshman in 1980, he has been a pioneer of sorts as he struggled to recover from a six-month coma, regain his life skills, earn a college diploma, work for his living, marry his beautiful wife and produce three healthy offspring. His driving goal is to educate others about the experience of traumatic brain injury, to answer the question, “What is it like?” In The Iliad of the Odd D.C., David Cole brings the full inside experience to you, and he permits you to know, firsthand, what it is like to have a TBI. By reading his work, written in his way, you can learn what it is like for an everyday, average person trying to obtain optimal strength, health and function in a world turned upside down by a traumatic brain injury.

David writes, “After patching (stapling) me up enough so that no more bodily fluids could leak out and stain my shirt, pants and socks, they [medical professionals] were able to arrange the pieces in a bed for the next 3-5 months, after which I was to begin the stepped up regimen of bodily re-education...”

Let David be your guide to coping with the lifelong consequences of TBI with hope, humor and relentless reality!

The Iliad of the Odd D.C.
$19.80 – Paperback