Rebekah Vanderfriff, LMSW

by Rebekah Vandergriff
(Prairie Village, Kansas in Kansas City, MO metro area)

I am a survivor, living half of my life with a Traumatic Brain Injury. I don't like to dwell on what happened, and how I was in a coma for over 8 weeks, and in the hospital for 10 weeks all the summer of 1989. I was 22 trying to establish myself in this society, when all of the sudden the world was shut off.

I don't elaborate on the car accident, because it is irrelevant. It's not about how it happened, it's about what I do with the result of what happened. I have written a book about the journey of how my Mom took me into her home, not because I couldn't afford a Rehabilitation Facility, but because she felt being with familiar people as I was trying to make sense out of who I was would benefit me in the slow process of recovery. The book is titled, "What Day Is It?" A Family's Journey Through Traumatic Brain Injury by Rebekah Vandergriff, LMSW.

I worked diligently to earn all of the education requirements for a Masters in Social Work, and had three children all after the sudden reorganization of my brain, and having to learn how to walk and talk again. It is all hard work, whether you have experienced a brain injury or not. I believe everyone is living with a degree of disability in their life or a unique challenge. The hardest thing (which I shall address as my disability) is my brain injury or diffuse axonal injury. Some people are living with childhood trauma. This can also be a disability or challenge in a sense. Anyone can write a book, but there are few who may climb this iceberg, as it slowly moves. Icebergs slowly move through mountain ranges, leaving their scars on the earths crust. Moving icebergs shape the earth about as slowly as the brain heals from its damage. Healing from a brain injury shapes who a person will become, which may seem as slow as the icebergs moved that made mountain ranges in the Ice Age.


Therapy may seem like riding an iceberg, but all of the hard work pays off. In "What Day Is It?" I begin at the hospital in ICU, and discover family members reactions as well as two friends who stood by me in this frightening chapter of my life. In preparation for writing "What Day Is It?" I sent a questionnaire out to significant people in my recovery (questionnaire included in the appendices). I wanted to explore if they knew the degree of my injury, since it is not evident by a gaping wound in my head, but encased by my closed skull.

I chose the name "What Day Is It?" because this has been my most frequent question since my injury. If you visit Amazon.com or bn.com, for this story of survival, or visit my page at authorsden.com/wdii, education about how I rode this iceberg and became an educated wife, and loving Mother, who will learn skills to figure out what day it is using learned life skill (My Milestaones) awaits you.