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Brain Go BOOM!
Author/Survivor: John Cooper
Chapter 13: The Race is on with Apollo Ono
T
o that point of my stay at Hospital J, I was only allowed Tylenol with codeine for pain. I
was told, “We want you to be neurologically aware. We don’t want to give you anything
stronger, as it may mask other symptoms.” What other symptoms? A week ago several doctors
manhandled, manipulated and moved my precious grey matter around like a tossed salad. They
poked, prodded, sliced and inserted seven large metal clips directly into my brain. Then to top it
all off, a quarter of my skull was removed. These jokers can’t give me anything stronger for pain
relief? “No, I am sorry we can’t.” Okay then, that’s the answer. Imagine that!
It was a special day; the day I received my official white,
oversized, protective helmet. What a hideous looking thing it was. I
would have to wear this until my missing skull bone, some six to nine
months later, was surgically reinserted via a procedure called a
cranioplasty. When the nurse first put the helmet on my head, I
endearingly said, “I love you Becca” and she appropriately replied, “I
love you Corky,” a reference from the eighties shows Life Goes On.
Ironically, it was the same nurse that had dealt with my “Cleanup in Aisle 4…Oops, I Did it
Again,” incident mentioned earlier. We had a good relationship and laughed frequently. She
was aces in my book.
I was told to wear it, with the exception of being in bed, at all
times. I could only get out of bed with the assistance of that special
pulley lift attached to the ceiling and the Velcro jumpsuit, so I wasn’t
overly concerned about it.
The left side of my body was extremely weak; I could feel pain
but was next to useless. The rest of my body was also very weak from
being in the coma. It was even a challenge to hold a TV remote with my
good hand. One night, the TV was on and I heard one of my favorite songs—the Olympic theme
song. It was the 2010 Winter Olympics and Apollo Ono was warming up for a speed skating
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