Saturday, October 08, 2005

WELCOME

10/08/2005

This is a great, great moment in your life! You have just entered into one of the few sites that will allow people with disabilities/challenges to communicate, learn, laugh, cry, hope and dream with each other!

Whatever our disability(differently-abled)-challenge is, it is NOT, the verdict in OUR lives!  We are ALL alive and well! We will NOT stop living and advancing because of the challenges in our life!

On May 3, 2002, While driving I was struck by a hit-and-run driver. The impact was so hard that I was ejected out of the passenger’s window of my car! I immediately went air borne a little over 50 feet! I landed on my head. I was on life support for 2 1/2 weeks.  Today, I live with a brain injury.  “Having a brain injury does not mean that I am brain dead!” Life and living goes on!

I am also a survivor of being molested and raped.  The person who did this deplorable act to me, signed my birth certificate as “Father of Child.”

I made a promise to my God and to myself that if my God let’s me back on earth. I WILL DO GOD’S WILL!  I WILL DO WHATEVER IS ASK OF ME TO DO! I now have a purpose in life.........My proclamation is to help, serve, stand up for the advancement of my disabled/challenged brothers and sisters and children! We do need better laws to protect us! Laws that allows for better accessible entrances in some buildings. I AM YOUR ADVOCATE! THIS IS MY MOVEMENT!!!...I have made personal revisions in my life to get the job done!

Y-E-S, “A Change Has Come Over Me.” Today, my life is joyful, happy and more productive than it’s ever been, because I have accepted that I have a challenge/disability.  I have also accepted the fact that I can not control the way another person has treated me in my life, but, I can control the way I treat myself and others.  I have also allowed myself to cry when I hurt, get angry when I am mad (not get even)...These emotions are needed on our journey.  It does not mean that we are weak, but crying allows us to love ourselves , love others and finally be free of such hurts and pains.  While on my journey, I have found peace inside of myself-I am my tall glass of refreshing water all day-everyday long.  I like, love and adore myself and I will continue to “Hold On” to God’s grace, goodness and mercy.  In the year of 2006 I was Oprah’s International Chairperson for the disabled for Oprah’s run to win the Nobel Peace Prize (under Rocky Twyman , Director of Oprah 4 Nobel Peace Prize).  I will continue to fight for Oprah to win such a deserving award.  I am also writing my autobiography.  My goal(s) is to have the writing completed by the year 2008.  I am also working on recording inspirational/motivational CDs.  Stay tuned for more things to come in the future.  If you want to keep track to see whatever I am doing just Google my name, Chandra Leigh Brown.

Enjoy this site! If you have interesting news to share-bring it to the site! Join in on the daily forums! You will get to know others on this site! Check out the abbreviated resource site! Share some of your ideas with me. Everyone will get an inspirational thought every Sunday on “Beloved’s Prescription” We have pages for games & riddles and, Happenings, News, Inspirational thoughts, start a blog! This is our home away from home!  So pull up your chair-get comfortable, share ideas, meet others and have fun.

Always treat everyone with respect! No foul and/or obscene language!  Always be kind to each other.

I am always open for suggestions and/or concerns!

I HONOR YOUR GREATNESS!

Beloved Egypt (formally Chandra Leigh Brown)
Survivor/Proprietor/Motivational Speaker

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Teen lives 4 months with no heart, leaves hospital

11/20/2008

By RASHA MADKOUR, Associated Press Writer Rasha Madkour, Associated Press Writer Wed Nov 19, 4:29 pm ET

MIAMI – D’Zhana Simmons says she felt like a “fake person” for 118 days when she had no heart beating in her chest. “But I know that I really was here,” the 14-year-old said, “and I did live without a heart.”

As she was being released Wednesday from a Miami hospital, the shy teen seemed in awe of what she’s endured. Since July, she’s had two heart transplants and survived with artificial heart pumps — but no heart — for four months between the transplants.

Last spring D’Zhana and her parents learned she had an enlarged heart that was too weak to sufficiently pump blood. They traveled from their home in Clinton, S.C. to Holtz Children’s Hospital in Miami for a heart transplant.

But her new heart didn’t work properly and could have ruptured so surgeons removed it two days later.

And they did something unusual, especially for a young patient: They replaced the heart with a pair of artificial pumping devices that kept blood flowing through her body until she could have a second transplant.

Dr. Peter Wearden, a cardiothoracic surgeon at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh who works with the kind of pumps used in this case, said what the Miami medical team managed to do “is a big deal.”

“For (more than) 100 days, there was no heart in this girl’s body? That is pretty amazing,” Wearden said.

The pumps, ventricular assist devices, are typically used with a heart still in place to help the chambers circulate blood. With D’Zhana’s heart removed, doctors at Holtz Children’s Hospital crafted substitute heart chambers using a fabric and connected these to the two pumps.

Although artificial hearts have been approved for adults, none has been federally approved for use in children. In general, there are fewer options for pediatric patients. That’s because it’s rarer for them to have these life-threatening conditions, so companies don’t invest as much into technology that could help them, said Dr. Marco Ricci, director of pediatric cardiac surgery at the University of Miami.

He said this case demonstrates that doctors now have one more option.

“In the past, this situation could have been lethal,” Ricci said.

And it nearly was. During the almost four months between her two transplants, D’Zhana wasn’t able to breathe on her own half the time. She also had kidney and liver failure and gastrointestinal bleeding.

Taking a short stroll — when she felt up for it — required the help of four people, at least one of whom would steer the photocopier-sized machine that was the external part of the pumping devices.

When D’Zhana was stable enough for another operation, doctors did the second transplant on Oct. 29.

“I truly believe it’s a miracle,” said her mother, Twolla Anderson.

D’Zhana said now she’s grateful for small things: She’ll see her five siblings soon, and she can spend time outdoors.

“I’m glad I can walk without the machine,” she said, her turquoise princess top covering most of the scars on her chest. After thanking the surgeons for helping her, D’Zhana began weeping.

Doctors say she’ll be able to do most things that teens do, like attending school and going out with friends. She will be on lifelong medication to keep her body from rejecting the donated heart, and there’s a 50-50 chance she’ll need another transplant before she turns 30.

For now, though, D’Zhana is looking forward to celebrating another milestone. On Saturday, she turns 15 and plans to spend the day riding in a boat off Miami’s coast.

UPWARD WORDS

11/20/2008

A little comfort for when you need it…

Remember for a moment just what brings you to ultimate comfort. Imagine the soothing
experience that lulls you into relaxed reverie… a warm bath in a full deep tub…
a quite walk along a wooded pathway… listening to children squeal as they run
on the beach… And when that lovely sense of satisfaction is so great it’s brimming
over, send a future “you” some of this perfection. Just imagine this feeling of
contentment sailing though time, and enveloping you just when you need it. There
will be a moment when all you require is a little comfort, a sense of reassurance.
Enjoy it it the present moment, and take even more pleasure in knowing that you’ll
have it again in the future, just when you need it…

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Brainline.Org Confronts Traumatic Brain Injury Crisis

11/18/2008

18 Nov 2008

Every 21 seconds someone somewhere in America sustains a traumatic brain injury. That doesn’t include the more than 19 percent of military personnel returning from combat duty in Iraq who may also have sustained mild to severe brain trauma.

“The numbers are simply staggering,” said Dr. Carl Valenziano, director of trauma 0at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson, N.J. “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has identified traumatic brain injury as rising to national crisis levels. While the care of TBI in our military has received a lot of media attention, there is a need to increase discussion about how to prevent brain injuries, treat brain injuries or live with brain injuries among the general public - whether you’ve sustained the injury yourself or are caring for a family member or friend,” said the trauma surgeon with more than 20 years in the field.

Recognizing this national need, WETA, the flagship public broadcasting station in the nation’s capital, in partnership with the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, is launching BrainLine.org.

The site features video webcasts, recent research, personal stories, and articles on living with, treating and preventing traumatic brain injuries. On Nov. 7, BrainLine.org hosted a live webinar featuring former WWE professional wrestler-turned-researcher Christopher Nowinski, who will discuss sports-related brain injuries.

“Up to this point, much of the information available online was very clinical and difficult to find,” said BrainLine.org executive director Noel Gunther. “We wanted to present valuable information in easy to understand language that anyone—a service member, a mother, a teenager - could use because these injuries are having a huge impact on a large and growing segment of our country.”

An estimated 1.4 million Americans sustain a traumatic brain injury each year from incidents involving motor vehicle crashes, bicyclist or pedestrian injuries, falls, sports-related accidents, and injuries due to physical abuse and violence. Among those most at risk for traumatic brain injury are children, late teens and older adults.

Lesley LeMasurier was 19 years old when she suffered a concussion that ended her chances for a spot on the U.S. Ski team—it was her fifth traumatic brain injury.

“I didn’t know anything about the brain or brain injuries. I didn’t know how serious a risk I was running. I was just a kid trying to chase a dream and didn’t know I was hurting myself in the process.”

In the years leading up to her final competition, LeMasurier suffered daily migraines, nausea, weakness on her left side and loss of balance. Still, she says, she felt pressure from all sides to compete.

“I feel like traumatic brain injuries are downplayed, especially among athletes,” LeMasurier said. “If there is no break or no blood you just keep going. I never pointed to my brain and said there was something wrong with it.”

Traumatic brain injuries are also taking a toll on military members fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, 28 percent of battle-injured soldiers admitted to Walter Reed Army Medical Center have sustained a traumatic brain injury. Most often, the injuries are caused by improvised explosive devices. Improvements in field medicine mean more service members survive wounds that would have killed them in previous wars, but that also means dealing with this new, largely invisible disability.

Whether on the battlefront or at home, a brain injury can be life altering. Depression, memory loss, debilitating headaches and erratic behavior can often persist for months or years after an injury. But patients are often sent home from emergency rooms without referrals to services or follow-up care. That leaves families scrambling for information.

Today, LeMasurier, a senior at the University of Colorado, is working with BrainLine.org and other organizations to raise awareness of the long-term damage traumatic brain injuries can cause.

BrainLine.org explains what treatment people with brain injuries should receive and what kind of support they will need to begin their new lives. The resources BrainLine.org offers provide those living with TBI a 24-hour network of support.

BrainLine.org is a national multimedia project produced by WETA, the public TV and radio station in Washington, D.C. The project is funded by the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center, the primary operational TBI component of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, through a subcontract award with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine.

http://www.BrainLine.org

Sunday, November 16, 2008

DEVOTED TO INTEGRITY

11/16/2008

You may find yourself in a discussion today that brings up issues of substance, integrity and honor. This gives you the opportunity to examine your feelings and reaffirm your devotion to your commitments. In being honorable, we also recognize that circumstances and people change, and therefore the nature of our commitments may need to be re-evaluated with time. As we grow in experience and understanding, it becomes necessary to look at the motivation that prompted certain agreements, and honor the spirit in which they were made rather than blindly following rules that have lost their meaning. As we move through different phases of our lives, our priorities are likely to change as well. Changing can be a factor to helps us to determine who we choose to be. Today we allow this energy to help us feel honest and devoted to our commitments.

Questions of honor and integrity are dependent upon knowing our selves, goals, and priorities. Just like painting a car. We don’t need to take the motor and all of the parts out of the car to paint it. Or redecorating a kitchen, we don’t have to tear down the entire structure of the house to make remodel the kitchen. We can maintain our commitments but also rejuvenate them when we take the time to examine them and shift our approach. Such as the growth of a child, your parenting techniques may change (as the child grows older) while the core of your goal as a parent remains the same. You may even need to let go of some aspects that are not working, but when you can honor the spirit of the commitment, you can make changes and renew your devotion with integrity.
BORN FROM GREATNESS!
BELOVED EGYPT

FOR AN INSPIRATIONAL MESSAGE http://www.WEPRAISE.FM