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H E A D W A Y  G A U T E N G

Dedicated to assisting people with brain injury and their families
AUGUST 2007
Dear Members
As mentioned in our last newsletter Eric Delmont celebrated turning 60 with ‘celebrate’ being the operative word!  What Eric didn’t know was that the HFC members had organised a surprise party for him on Thursday 19th July.  Eric says my name has changed to Julia Roberts as I am getting the Oscar of the century for conning him so wonderfully.  It was my task to get him back to Headway (where the party was being held) without him knowing that anything was going on.  So I decided that he would be coming to dinner with me that night at the Hyde Park Shopping Centre and that I would come and fetch him.  We all dutifully ‘locked up’ on that fateful afternoon and Tamsyn took Eric home.  No sooner had Eric disappeared out of the door than Kath McRobert, who was the chief organiser of the party, rushed in with all her helpers and frenzied activity started taking place.  At the appointed hour I was duly despatched to fetch Eric and was told to give Tamsyn a call on her cell phone when he got into the car, so they could prepare for his arrival.  When he got in the car I suppose I did look quite flustered with having to make the call etc, but told him that I was very worried because I had ‘lost my purse’ and did he mind if we stopped off at Headway on the way to Hyde Park to see if I had left it on my desk.  When we got to Headway all the lights were off but the gate was open and Eric immediately thought that we were experiencing a burglary!  As we drove in there was a glow of light as everyone was standing in the car park and on the stairs with lighted candles.  It was the most wonderful sight and Eric was quite overwhelmed.

The party then started in earnest.  Mouth-watering food had been supplied by those attending and Eric has asked that I thank everyone for the effort they put in, in order to ensure the success of the function, with a special mention of Kath McRobert who co-ordinated it all.  He also says a huge thank you to those who had brought platters of food.  Another big thank you to Jason and Kath du Toit who generously donated their time share, to the many others for their wonderful gifts and to the HFC members who contributed towards his spending money for this holiday.  He is looking forward to planning a trip shortly.  He would like to add the following : -

“I just want to thank everybody for everything. My life has been transformed by our beloved Headway family. Prior to joining Headway I had little faith in human beings and things are now so very different. There are wonderful people in this world and I am so honoured to have met so many at Headway. I now know the true meaning of love, compassion and bravery. I hug you because I love you all so very dearly. Thank you beautiful people” - Eric

During the party I had the feeling that I was in the middle of an enormous family gathering.  Hugs and kisses were being exchanged and animated chatter and laughter filled the air.  There were no obvious signs that anyone in the room had experienced or been involved with any kind of tragedy, and I thought how fantastic it was that for this brief time people were able to forget their troubles and gain strength from those around them, and what a valuable service HFC actually provides for our members.  Jackie Schoch was the facilitator of a meeting at HFC in February and as the discussion was “Why as a group we should continue to meet twice a month?” I though it appropriate that I should print out what transpired from that meeting.  These are some of the reasons given as to why HFC is so successful.

• Our group is a number of people with a common problem, who find it beneficial to meet for support and friendship.
• We come here because people with TBI understand other people with TBI better than anyone else.
• At HFC everyone is treated with unconditional love and acceptance.
• HFC is beneficial to both TBI patients and caregivers.
• We are educated and learn from our speakers and each other, there are medical/technical developments and personal developments occurring all the time.
• We learn from each other, are role models for each other.
• We validate each other. Jackie asked the group what we remembered from our childhood, most of us remembered our families, Jackie said that was because our parents gave us validation and that is what the HFC gives those who attend.
• There is a distinct change in attitude from negative to positive in people who come regularly. This was confirmed by someone who said that when he first came to HFC having suffered an aneurysm, he had no appetite, he felt lonely and misunderstood and he shook all the time. Now the shaking has stopped, he has new friends and his appetite has come back.

Jackie asked us what we were grateful for, these are some of the responses;

• Grateful for Headway – my new friends accept me.
• Grateful for my family, children and grandchildren.
• Grateful for my head injury – because of my new friends.
• Grateful for my change in lifestyle.
• Grateful for Eric Delmont and Headway.
• Grateful for being strong and positive.
• Grateful that my son has recovered so well from his TBI.
• Grateful to God.
• Grateful I am not in other people’s shoes.
• Grateful for new beginnings.
• Grateful for my animals.
• Grateful for the flowers – for every day.
• Grateful for my life and family and for the humbling experience this has given me.

Jackie pointed out that our responses showed that it was not the material things in life that mattered; many small communities throughout the world lived very well without these (e.g. the San tribe), they survived because they looked after each other and this where HFC is successful because we care and are grateful for each other.
Thank you once again to Charles and Kath McRobert who have the onerous duty of taking notes at the meetings.
POST TRAUMATIC AMNESIA:
In the last newsletter I discussed the Glasgow Coma Scale as a predictor of outcome after a brain injury.  Post Traumatic Amnesia is another predictor.  This is taken from Living With Head Injury – A Guide for Families by Richard C Senelick and Cathy E Ryan.

“As you can probably guess this predictor has to do with memory.  In fact, it’s a useful guide to determine cognitive outcome within the first year.

Here’s how it doesn’t work:  When the brain-injured person wakes up from a coma, he doesn’t sit upright and cheerfully ask for the person he loves.  Nor does he ask for some good, hot food, as actors are prone to do on prime-time soaps.  Here’s how it does work:  Waking up from a coma is an extremely gradual process, and the part of the conscious mind that takes the longest to recover is memory.  The loss of remembering day-to-day events after injury is so prevalent, in fact, that it has a name : Post Traumatic Amnesia.

PTA is categorized from the moment of the accident to the time when a patient becomes lucid, remembering day-to-day events in a continuous memory.  The longer the memory loss after the accident, the more serious the injury – and the less chances for a good recovery.

In the interim, before their memory clicks in, brain injured patients may not understand where they are – or even who they are.  Some patients become extremely agitated and cannot be comforted.  When their memory comes back, they usually have little or no recollection of their hour, days or months of post-traumatic amnesia time.

As a rule, a patient who has PTA for less than one hour is diagnosed as having a mild head injury.  One to twenty-four hours translates into moderate head injury.  Anything longer than twenty-four hours is considered severe.  This is an important reality for families to face, because they usually feel absolutely joyous when their loved one awakens from a coma after “only” four days.  But if both the Glasgow Coma Scale and PTA point to severe brain injury, the patient will most likely have long-term cognitive and behavioural deficits.

PTA as a predictor tool is not absolute.  It’s difficult to pinpoint its time line exactly.  Not only is the patient confused, but family members or significant others are usually too overwhelmed to recall accurately when their loved one began to remember.  Then, too, as a patient regains consciousness he’ll be inconsistent, remembering the time one day but not the next; recalling your name at five o’clock but not at six.  This makes it hard to use the PTA as a predictor of outcome.  Thus other tests are still needed..............”  Watch this space again!!

ANNIVERSARIES OF ACCIDENT/ILLNESS:
When things go wrong treat yourself right – Robert Holden

The following have anniversaries of accident/illness this month :
Richard Arendt             2001                             Ravi Ramjathan             2004
Greg Diab                     1997                             Neal Sandison                           2003
Cheresé Diesel              2001                             Romy Staracek                         2003
Peta Elliott                    1986                             Richard Tumber                        2003
Dean Hollow                 1966                             JJ van Altena                            2006
Paul Whitehead             1990

NEW MEMBERS:
We would like to welcome Marietha and Stephanus Benade, Marie Fourie, Gert, Antoinette and Gert Jnr Helberg and Wayne Schoeman and his son Sheldon du Preez as new members of Headway and hope that their association with us will be a long and fruitful one.

CONDOLENCES:
The Headway Staff sends special love and sympathy to the family of Humphrey Ward who passed away in July.  Humphrey was our library volunteer and as such had become an integral part of the running of our centre.  We will miss his quirky sense of humour and willingness to help out with all sorts of tasks, including the very onerous one of phoning people whose books were overdue!  Humphrey and I shared a love of books and painting and I will really miss the very interesting chats we had on a regular basis.  Rest in peace, Humphrey.

Our love and sympathy go to Trish Erwin, one of our volunteers, and her family, on the death of her father.

Headway also sends condolences to the family of our attendee Eddie Koch whose mother-in-law passed away in July.

CONGRATULATIONS:
Lidia Teixeira an Occupational Therapist at Headway for some years got married recently and has moved down to the Western Cape.  We wish Lidia and her husband Neil every success and much happiness for the future.

NEWS OF OUR MEMBERS:
Derick Poremba-Brumer one of our members who was who was injured in 1986 and in a coma for 6 months sent me an email recently to say that he had received a Trauma Counselling diploma from INTEC correspondence college.  He submitted 2 assignments receiving 69% for one and 65% for the other.  He is also studying Logotherapy through UNISA’s school of Applied Psychology. Logotherapy teaches that people can do anything, if they can give it some meaning – that is unique to each person.  Well done Derick we applaud you for everything that you have achieved after this devastating injury.

The Thomas family were held up and hi-jacked in their driveway just recently.  Fortunately no-one was hurt but it is awful to think that incidents like this are happening all the time.  We send our love and support to Marion and Mike after this traumatic event.

NEWS OF GAYNOR YOUNG:
I have spoken in several newsletters about Gaynor Young.  Gaynor, a young and talented actress was injured in 1989 when she fell 18m down a lift shaft at the State Theatre.  Gaynor has been profoundly deaf ever since.  You can imagine what a blow it must have been to someone who loved music as she did not to be able to hear all the songs that she in fact actually sang.  However, Gaynor, with great courage and determination got on with her life even starring in several one woman plays and writing a book (My Plunge to Fame).  She emailed me recently to tell me that she has undergone a successful cochlear implant and is able to hear again!  These are her words after her visit to her audiologist and the successful ‘switching on’ of her implant - “When I went to bed that night I was exhausted yet I couldn’t sleep.  Something that had been taken from me years ago had just been given back.  Joy is the wrong word for what I was feeling.  Yes, there were elements of joy but I was feeling exultation.  Exultation with a bit of bewildered excitement thrown in.  I never in my wildest moments expected to get all this back.  It…it was mind-blowing!  Thank you, God!”

I am sure that you will all join with us at Headway in celebrating this new chapter in Gaynor’s life.

HEADWAY PORT ELIZABETH:
It is with sadness that we heard that Headway in Port Elizabeth has closed down due to lack of support.  Garth Maxwell has kept it running over the years against all odds and it seems such a pity that a service so valuable has not been sufficiently appreciated.  Although none of the Headway branches are directly affiliated we keep in touch on a regular basis and will refer people on if necessary.  The Eastern Cape will be poorer for this closure.

THANKS FOR DONATIONS:
We would like to thank Nola Blaauw for her very generous donation of a wheelchair.  This will really be put to good use at our centre.  Thank you to those kind members who continue to donate groceries and biscuits on a regular basis.  A special thank you to the Gevers family who donated a mound of groceries as well as photocopy paper.

We have had several wonderful monetary donations over the past month and our special thanks go to JP Morgan Chase who once again donated money to run one activity day at Headway per week for a whole year!  This is a huge donation for which we are extremely grateful.  We also thank The Anglo American Chairman’s Fund and the Edgar Droste Trust for their generous donations.  We thank John van Reenen of van Reenen Steel who has very kindly set up a stop order of R5000 per month which he has asked to go specifically to HOPA our outreach programme in Alexandra.

An anonymous donation of R10 000 (through Eric) has been received in order to sponsor one of our members to attend the activity day once a week for a year.  This sponsorship will make a huge difference to the lives of that family as we have proof that attendance at Headway does help in the rehabilitation process of an injured person, and also provides much needed support for the family. 

All the small donations also add up and we are very grateful for those people who add on a ‘little something’ to their membership fees.  Some members give us an annual donation and in this regard I would like to thank the Zaal family who regularly give us R1000.  The Buchel family are others who give monetary support on a regular basis, especially where HFC is concerned.  Every donation no matter how big or small is important to us and we are always very touched when members donate something – be it in cash or in kind.

Headway has received a few donations from churches just recently and this month we thank The Bryanston Methodist Church for their kind donation of R2000.

HEADWAY’S NEW WEBSITE:
We have upgraded out website and invite members to check it out and give us your comments (positive or negative).  Our address is www.headway-gauteng.org.  We thank Susan Nel who redesigned the website and got it all up and running at an extremely reasonable price.  If you are also planning to get yourself a website or upgrade your current one we can highly recommend Susan as nothing was too much trouble.  You can contact her on susan.nel@telkomsa.net.

REVISON TO OUR CONSTITUTION:
As our Constitution has become outdated it has needed to be revised.  The proposed revised Constitution has been published on our website (see above for the address), and will be up for approval at our Annual General Meeting on 20th September 2007.  We would ask that you view the constitution and send any comments to the Governing Body (headway@iafrica.com) before the date of the meeting.  If you do not have access to the internet and wish to have a copy of the Constitution posted to you please contact Ann on (011)442-5733.

FUNDRAISING EVENING AT THE BARNYARD THEATRE:
We still need to sell over one hundred tickets in order to fill this venue.  It would be wonderful if we could do this so we are appealing to all our members to try and support us.  The show is at the Barnyard Theatre in Cresta on Wednesday 26th September and is called “Tonight’s the Night”.  It is a tribute to the greatest male vocalists of all time from Frank Sinatra to Robbie Williams.  Tickets costs R150 per person.  Drinks and food can be purchased there but you may bring your own food if you wish.  For more information or to book tickets please contact Elaine 082 647-0957, Rozanne 082 568-4100 or Barbara 072 234-412.  This promises to be a fun evening and there will be brilliant prizes and raffles on the go as well.

LADIES LUNCH:
Our very popular ladies’ lunch will take place on Saturday 13th October 2007 at KPMG, cnr Jan Smuts and Empire Roads at 12:00 for 12:30 pm.  Last year this got booked out quickly towards the end and some ladies were disappointed as they were unable to get a booking.  We have lovely prizes, gifts and raffles and a well known TV personality is our guest speaker for this year.  Come on ladies this is the ideal opportunity to chill out with your girlfriends while your husband stays at home to mow the lawn or watch rugby!  If you would like to be part of the fun please contact Elaine Blanckenberg on 082 647-0957 to reserve your seat.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING:
The Annual General Meeting of Headway will be held on Thursday 20th September 2007 at 6:00 pm at Headway, 85 1st Road, Hyde Park.  All members are welcome to attend.  The normal HFC meeting will take place after the AGM.  The minutes of last year’s Annual General Meeting will be published on our website and posted to those members whose email addresses are not on our list.

NEXT MEETING:
The next HFC meeting will be held on 23rd August 2007 at Headway, 85 1st Road, Hyde Park at 6 pm.  The speaker will be Ann Nott.  She will be carrying on with the discussion that started at the last meeting.  All members and their family and friends are welcome to attend.  A light supper will be served after the meeting.
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Editor and Compiler – Annie Coe

AFFIRMATIONS FOR EACH DAY

1          Having a sharp tongue can cut my own throat
2          If I want my dreams to come true, I mustn’t oversleep.
3          Of all the things I wear, my expression is the most important.
4          The best vitamin for making friends ...... B1
5          The 10 commandments are not a multiple choice.
6          The happiness of my life depends on the quality of my thoughts.
7          My mind is like a parachute ...it functions only when open.
8          Ideas won’t work unless ‘I’ do.
9          One thing I can’t recycle is wasted time.
10         If I lack the courage to start, I have already finished.
11         The heaviest thing I can carry is a grudge.
12         I lie the loudest when I lie to myself.
13         One thing I can give and still keep is my word.

Thoughts for the day:

The pursuit of happiness is the chase of a lifetime!
It is never too late to become what I might have been.