The Scott, I recall you saying a few times before that you got your head caved in with a baseball bat as a four-year-old and left with a double-digit IQ. It's quite miraculous to experience a trauma of that magnitude and suddenly develop into the world's most precocious five-year-old. How did you recover so quickly?
I put it to even at that age, knowing that you and the people with you are in danger takes not a great deal of IQ. The damage to my brain was and remains permanent but per my mother the doctors said there is always hope that the brain will learn to use undamaged areas to assist with functions they are normally not associated with. I began to learn to read simple books like those used in the first grade, at a relatively early age but math and science as well as other studies, were things I struggled with. I also tend to learn via copying others and then adopting what I saw in them to try and help myself to be better. My mother always stressed that if I were to be involved in an accident I might not know I was injured due to not feeling the trauma. I recall asking her if my sisters and brothers were like me and she said no. But she stressed again and again that we all needed to look out for one another and that is probably the main reason I refused to get back into my grandfather's car until he let my mother drive.
Of course none of my learning of any sort was sudden or unearned. My mother worked with me a great deal as did medical personnel and tutors. I learned to be cautious around some people but in the end I wanted to be liked by other children and tried my best to emulate things I admired about them. Whenever I made errors, my mother would instruct me in proper behavior. My second head injury left me with a dent in the back of my skull and I recall being very disoriented for quite some time and not very trusting of anyone, even those I knew quite well. I knew who did this to me and stayed away from them and their neighborhoods as they could have easily killed me when they hit me with that board and I lived in fear of them for years.
John/Reeves and I met at a hospital. We both had congenital kidney problems. Mine was discovered when a drunk driver literally caved in the door of my vehicle and while I was, as was often the case, unscathed despite having the door knocked in (and into me) by over 10 inches, I complained of discomfort on the right side of my torso. Many years later John succumbed to his while I remain somewhat okay but very cautious. I never drank alcohol nor took drugs as my mother stressed a healthy lifestyle due to my mental and physical problems and limitations.
My family looked after me as best they could and as I grew up and then started weight training with a vengeance, I in my own way, tried to look after and protect my mother, my father and my brothers and sisters. I am not smart but neither am I really retarded. Except the strength part but that is now pretty much gone, LOL!
I hope I did not bore you too much and I really tried to explain what I think you wanted to know. Please forgive any errors as I am getting tired and will soon be taking the medicines they have given me. There is a lot.
If I have written things that are deemed inappropriate here, I will remove them if so asked by the mods. Thank you for asking about me.
