In an Instant - quotes

originally written May 2010

I took away SO much from Lee and Bob Woodruff's book In an instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing.  I have attached a long list of quotes that struck a chord with me - I hope you enjoy them.  Later in this blog I will discuss my journey a little more and explain just why these specific quoes freally hit home with me so stay tuned and see what is yet to come.    I hope that you can take away something real and meaningful from these quotes, I know I did.  I also feel like if given the opportunity I would totally be friends with Lee Woodruff, she is quick and smart and she gets my offbeat sense of humor, while I may offend some people sometimes I truly believe she would find me entertaining.



In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.

"The cognitive injuries a person could suffer were impossible to predict at this stage. Each brain injury is highly individual, and recovery still remains somewhat of a mystery to medical science. But the more faculties a person has going into an injury - intelligence, motivation, engagement in life, even support from family and friends - the better the prospects for recovery."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"This kind of injury...it is complicated. It takes a long time for the brain to heal; it's about patience. Always remember that this is a marathon, not a sprint. Healing from brain injuries can easily take up to eighteen months, even two years."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"People responded to tragedy in so many different ways. I would lead the charge with my offbeat sense of humor and somehow, by doing that, give everyone permission to laugh. Laughter would keep us sane, it would provide relief. Even laughter was a tiny way to take action."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"It was easy to hear the word injury and assume that meant it would be a matter of weeks before things knitted themselves back together. A sane person, a person whose mind was not in the zone, would have taken one look at Bob and wondered if he would survive, let alone ever function again."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Gallows humor has its roots in the quest for sanity. When the situation is so black, so dark, that grief or fear threatens to overwhelm, there is nothing like a good joke or two to resuscitate hope."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"the brain is a big hurdle. There is no way to say how much will come back."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"The magnitude of the story and how our family's experience would touch a chord. ...but with countless others who had suffered grave injuries and fought hard to recover. "  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"If you are a person who sharpens pencils for a living and you have a brain injury, you will probably not have as many neurons from your former life to help rehabilitate yourself."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.
 




"recovery from a brain injury would seem eternal. Improvement would occur at a snail's pace. If anyone believed this would be a smile healing, like breaking a leg, they needed to think again."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"If I had only known then how wonderful it was, that simplicity of life's everyday routine"  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"No matter how black the hours, light, laughter, and feeling will slowly begin to trickle back one day."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"But I also learned that the scar is always there, just below the undergarments, although the raw wound may close. And when you turn, examining yourself at the end of the day before bed, it is you who can see it best in the mirror."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"there are no shortcuts to healing. There is no circumventing the pain. To truly heal, you must walk right through the blazing core of grief and face it head on, every agonizing day. Only then can you begin to take baby steps towards recovery."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"There are no good luck charms, no talismans or deals with the devil. Misfortune and trouble can find you at any time."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.

 "characteristics common to traumatic brain injuries. many people with head injuries exhibit actions that are inappropriate: agitation, frustration, and outbursts not unlike an infant's."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.


"Abnormal behavior might simply become part of what Bob's therapists would teach me to call "the new normal"."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.


"With most brain injuries, the filter in our heads that we all use to get along in society slips. People lose their inhibitions in ways both shocking and painful for their loved ones."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.


"The brain heals in amazing ways, You can't discount that."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.


"His head wound needed to be stable to heal, and his brain was not yet ready to wake itself up. It was still rebooting; the connections inside were not yet complete."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Remember, love is in the guts and the rest is in the brain."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"emblem for life: the need to be kind to yourself every single day because you simply can't know what is next. "  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"We could finish each other's sentences and use nicknames or code words that made no sense to outsiders."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Sometimes it was easier to operate on blind faith."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"we treasured our friendship like a rainstorm in a desert."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"someone who looks effortlessly put together. one of those rare gals who women and men gravitated toward; the type of person my mother's generation would call lovely. Try as you might to find some reason to dislike her, you simply couldn't. She was intelligent, articulate, giving, and poised, with a wicked sense of humor."   In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Danger was impossible to avoid. Bad things could happen to people everywhere, no matter how safe they tried to be."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"You can take precautions in life, but they are like seat belts, they won't necessarily keep you safe."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"different ability"  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"We made it impossible for him to take himself too seriously."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"I understood the strength of being in the company of women. It was powerfully good medicine."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"I have heard it said that when God takes something away he gives something back."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Life is so much more interesting when there is someone you truly respect who is trying to kick your butt, who makes you rise to a higher level to compete. "It raises the level of your game."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"an explosion caused the brain to slosh around against the skull. This sheared off millions of neurons and caused damage that wouldn't be revealed until Bob woke up. Even then it could take time. Sometimes the differences were subtle - slightly impaired judgement or cognitive ability, perhaps - and sometimes they were more grave, like major personality differences. One of the greatest frustrations with a head injury is that while the person might seem just fine to others, things are profoundly changed inside."   In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Research showed that caregivers routinely reported feeling isolated and trapped."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Damage to the front of the head, or frontal lobe, often resulted in a loss of executive function. This is the part of the brain that organizes our actions without even thinking about it."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Many victims of car accidents whose head slammed into the windshield, or soldiers who had blast injuries, came home "flat" and unemotional. Sometimes the personality came back. More often than not, it didn't."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"People have a whole new appreciation for the value of life, of what it means to be spared."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Everything has to start somewhere as his brain relearns how to give commands to his body."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"It's sad," Dr. M said. "It's sad what happened to you and your children, but I've never seen one family yet who didn't rise to the occasion. People love you and will support you. People put one foot in front of the other every day. They figure out how to do this."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"On the wall opposite my bed there were blown-up photographs of my family, and just looking at them was motivating. Those pictures brought me more than happiness; they gave me a powerful will to recover. "  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Your recovery is going to be painstaking, like the way ants are bailing the tunnels, one grain at a time. But you will get there, I just know it."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Those pentagons represented the two halves of his brain. One contained the love he felt for his family and the gratitude he had for being alive; the other side was the tempest, the horrible raging fear and disorientation that lived in his brain right now, as he tried to make sense of his new world."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Every long-winded well-meaning expression of sympathy was a giant highlighting marker over the fact that I was different."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"I wanted people I knew to acknowledge my pain and then move on, with the speed of a wedding receiving line. I wanted, more than anything, to be one of them again."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"I saw potential head injuries everywhere."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.




"I had been on go mode, always moving forward, making decisions, not allowing myself to feel very much."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"Although I was often hard on myself and the slow pace of my progress, I could see small changes."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"As much as I loved and respected my therapists, they were not there to give me a break. It was their job to help me put it all back together, to teach me coping skills for my deficits."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"it was a matter of building the new neural connections that led to them. Much of it was time. The brain takes longer to heal than any other organ." In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.

 

"I've earned these scars," he would joke.  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"We've all endured a crisis. And we've survived to feel the miraculous force of recovery at work. What I do know is that I have been blessed. I have been very, very lucky - "  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"The exact extent of my injuries is still difficult to measure, but I see improvement everyday. With the help of intense cognitive rehabilitation, the healing powers of the human body, and the profound support of friends and family, I have come closer to my old self, little by little. But I will never be the same."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"No one can undergo a life-changing event and be the exact same person they were before it happened. I am a more grateful person now, on so many levels. I truly appreciate the depths of friendship and I'm thankful"  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"I've also had to relearn how to do certain things I once took for granted."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"I'd missed all these people and it was clear they'd missed me too. It felt like coming home."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"I have to say that I spent very little time looking back at what was lost."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"traumatic brain injuries: diagnosing the problem is just the beginning. The real work takes place in rehab. ...needs professional cognitive rehabilitation to help connect those neurons, to work with any individual deficits, and to develop coping strategies as they heal. There is so much more to be done on this front."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.






"I cannot imagine what it must have felt like to hold my hand, praying that I would wake up and someday recover."  In an Instant: A Family's Journey of Love and Healing, written by Lee and Bob Woodruff.