Nell’ America Meridionale: Brasile, Uruguay, Argentina (1908)

I went into a coma that lasted fifty-two days, and during that month and a half I was in it, I stopped remembering most of the important things Iad been taking for granted all my life. It wasnat as if Iad forgotten everything Iad learned in life as this tries to imply; itas more like sometimes things take longer to slip from my short-term memory into my long-term memory than other times. Sometimes this happens quickly. Other times it doesnat. As it turned out, I have this traumatic brain injury that will never be going away like bad dreams go away. Even if a lot of the newer brain-damaged people still insist on calling their brain damage one of those confusing contemporary-sounding names like head injuryawhich only makes the injury sound less severe than what it isaI still call my injury brain damage, because itas still damage done to the brain, isnat it?