November 26th is a remarkable day

November 26, 2024

Two years later, November 26, 2024, I check into Sunnaas Hospital, Department of Cognitive Rehabilitation (KRESS). My life starte to change, the sun start to rise, the darkness slowly disappeared and the light peeked out. I will remember that date, with both sadness and joy, sadness over what has disappeared behind me, joy over how my stay at Sunnaas gave my life a new meaning again. The people who have come into my life since, for my wonderful family and few very good friends who never lost faith in me, never accepted being pushed away, who have been and still are invaluable support and help in my everyday life. Many good things and feelings are mixed with some bad, sadness and grief over what is gone. I have learned that I have to live my life, looking forward and dont let what is behind me hold me back.

November 26th has been a anniversary day in my calendar for many years, now it is again... but for a different reason. Now it marks the day I started my journey back to life. let go of what was, embracing whats laying ahead.
November 26th is a remarkable day! 

Arriving at Sunnaas Hospital

When I arrived in Sunnaas on Tuesday, November 26, 2024, I was in a dark place. I had lost hope and faith in myself. Yes I was alive, but there are a big difference on been a live and living, and I felt on that time at I no longer was living, just staying a live.

A year and a half had passed since the accident, a year and a half of uncertainty, shame and despair over who I had become, having lost all faith in myself and who I was. Didn't understand, didn't know, had no answers, not even the questions.

So why was I here, why Sunnaas, why, why...!

The first few days at Sunnaas were a bit strange for me. I kind of felt like I didn't belong here. I'm not disabled, I don't have any physical challenges, I'm healthy and in relatively good physical shape. What I saw at Sunnaas in the first few days were all the people I thought really deserved to be there, because they had different physical challenges, that I knew that Sunnaas was incredibly skilled at rehabilitating.

So why am I here, why?

I had been told that I had cognitive challenges, but what was that, what did they actually mean by cognitive challenges? My ex-wife, thx to her, had been talking a lot about me having to go to Sunnaas, ever since the accident in May 2023, partly because of her boyfriend had an alpine accident a few years earlier and he had been sent to Sunnaas for help after that, but I still didn't connect it with my cognitive challenges..., my GP Doctor had also said that I could get help at Sunnaas, but still I didn't understand it and how.

Again why, how, yes a lot of why and a few how, but this was how i felt that day. That cold November day, that remarkable day! November 26, 2024,

When I look back

When I look back today on everything that has happened since the accident, how the hospital I was admitted to actually only focused on the fact that I did not remember what had happened, that I was examined for memory problems, related to whether I had dementia and Alzheimer's, not cognitive challenges related to a head injury, nothing about traumatic brain injury. It wasn't until after around 9 months, my GP Doctor finally got them to send me to a neuropsychologist to be tested for possible brain damage (a 3 hour test😳) who concluded that I had cognitive challenges, I was diagnosed with post-concussion syndrome (PCS) and I was told that Sunnaas could possibly help me with that.

But even then I couldn't accept what was wrong with me, why nothing in my life worked anymore, I didn't feel like anyone understood it, not even myself, I was just embarrassed and ashamed of who and what I had become.., and I hid it, deep, deep inside myself, didn't dare talk to others about it, I was ashamed of myself. I hid from others, I couldn't look others in the eye anymore, I felt useless, broken, I had become antisocial, I was alive, but I wasn't living anymore.

It was not easy for me, to see the challenges i had, and how Sunnaas could help. Mostly because I only had heard I had memory problems and a bit about some cognitive ish challenges. No one, no one had talked about brain damage, about traumatic brain injury and all the challenges that come with this... It was only a little over a week after I came to Sunnaas, I for the first time hear about traumatic brain injury, and the consequence that comes with it, and then it slowly began to dawn on me why I was there.

One person changed my life

Or rather, I had a kind of epiphany moment on the first Thursday, the third day I was at Sunnaas. The first couple of days I was at Sunnaas I felt very much on the outside, I didn't understand why I was there in any way, or how they were going to help me, so I had decided that the next day, Friday I would go home and not come back again, I had nothing to do there! That day was an open activity day on Sunnaas, so I only had one thing on my agenda that day. The rest of the day I could walk around and see and try different activities that were adapted for people with different disabilities. Suddenly a man stopped me and asked if I wanted to try something, and we started talking, Then something remarkable happened, he stood and told me my story..., how I had been, how I had felt since my accident..., but it wasn't my story he told, it was his!!!.

He had been where I was that day. A few years earlier he had suffered from a acquired brain injury. He had been to Sunnaas to received help to live with it. He is an absolutely fantastic person. He is an experienced consultant, who is at Sunnaas a couple of days a week, he also has mentor training from the Sunnaas Foundation. He is truly a remarkable person, to hear him tell his story, what had happened to him, how he had received help at Sunnaas, how he had used the knowledge he gained as a tool to create a "new" life after the injury, both the good and the difficult sides. That! changed everything for me, suddenly it started to dawn to me why I was at Sunnaas, that I had been given a unique opportunity to be there..., but also that it was up to me, and only me, to grab that opportunity, and to put my own effort into acquiring the knowledge and learning to use it. That there are no quick fix, no short cut, no medisin, neither can they give me a new fresh brain, but they can give me knowledge and understanding!. I have said and will continue to say that if I had not met Petter that Thursday, I would have gone home and probably never returned to Sunnaas. He is the reason why I today is well on my way to a "new" life, to accepting and learning to live with a traumatic brain injury.

A journey begins with one step forward!

I travel back home that Friday, tired, out of energy and with a lot of thoughts in my head. I spent the weekend thinking through everything my head has been filled up with these first days I had been at Sunnaas, especially what Petter had told me. Sunday evening I traveled back to Sunnaas for a new week, now with motivation, inspiration and the will to spend the next weeks acquiring all the knowledge possible, learning, understanding and absorbing everything I could possibly learn, to be able begin my journey back to a new and meaningful life, me version 2.0. Learn, Understand, Change, Adapt. A journey begins with one step forward!

As they say, the rest is history... and in a way it is. I have already told the story of my stay at Sunnaas and the time after, in my blog. However, I would like to say again that I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to be at Sunnaas for cognitive rehabilitation. For the camps I have been to through Sunnaas Foundations, and to all the amazing healthcare professionals, patients, mentors and people I have gotten to know over the past 12 months, all have contributed to making 2025 an amazing year, a year where I manage to turn my life around and start the journey back to a meaningful life. The year when darkness turned to light.

The end of my story?

No the journey is not over yet, it is only just started. I know that I am just a rookie on the road, that I still have a lot to learn. I am on my way, one step at the time, I know that I am moving in the right direction... most of the time at least😁, there will be ups and downs. However I will be able to get through whatever lies ahead of me, thanks to the knowledge I have been gathering throughout the year behind me, the people who have come into my life🫶🥰, and those who have been there since the accident, those of you who never lost faith in me🫶❤️.

November 26th is a remarkable day

November 26th is a remarkable day, it is the day I got the opportunity to restart my life, the day thats mark the beginning of finding the new me, its the birthday of me version 2.0.
I am no longer alone, I'm alive and most of all living again, darkness has turned to light, the sun has started to dawn, I have a future, I dont know whats its will bring, but Im prepare to meet what ever it is. I belive in me again. Thx🫶

November 26th is truly a remarkable day. It is mine!.