Note to self: Preparing for 4th Brain Surgery

Written By Liz Salmi
Handwritten note about what I learned after brain surgery

Today I found bits and pieces of notes I wrote after my third brain surgery in October 2021.

Here’s a note I wrote to myself before my fourth surgery.

What I learned last time, to remember for next time: a list (to my future self)

  • If it’s too hard to use your right hand, use your left.

  • If it feels really hard today, you are making progress for tomorrow (it gets better and you get stronger).

  • Take naps.

  • Don’t be sad at what you lost, because you are rebuilding, always becoming something greater than before.

  • Because of your “deficits” you can see things others cannot, and that makes you really cool.

  • You are at your most creative when walking, with your kind open.

Liz Salmi

Liz Salmi is Communications & Patient Initiatives Director for OpenNotes at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Over the last 15 years Liz has been: a research subject; an advisor in patient stakeholder groups; a leader in “patient engagement” research initiatives; and an innovator, educator and investigator in national educational and research projects. Today her work focuses on involving patients and care partners in the co-design of research and research dissemination. It is rumored Liz was the drummer in a punk rock band.

https://thelizarmy.com
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