I wrote two novels, then a traumatic brain injury forced me to learn to write all over again

I sat looking out at a crowd gathered for my book launch in Fredericton on March 30, emotional because of the journey it took to get there. 

In September 2022, at the age of 26, I suffered a life-threatening brain injury during a boxing training session.

I was in a coma for five weeks. 

During my recovery, which is still ongoing, there were times I was not sure I would ever walk, feed myself or write again. 

On that day, sitting in front of patients and staff at the Stan Cassidy Centre for Rehabilitation, where I lived for two months after my injury, I spoke about my entire life being restructured for recovery, about my family being told that I might never be able to be home alone again, about engaging in daily therapy sessions to relearn basic life skills.

Going back there, I had to face the memory of all of those hard weeks and months of recovery. But I was also face-to face with people who had suffered injuries just like mine. I had once been where they were and could reach them in a different way than their care team.

I had come so close to losing the ability to write and was now sitting in one of the places which helped me redevelop that skill, among many others. I was looking directly at members of the care team who had worked so hard to help me.

The speech language pathologist who worked with me, day after day, retraining my reading and writing skills was right there. So was the physiotherapist who had helped me learn to walk again.

The idea that I would ever be able to write another novel seemed impossible in those days.

I wasn't in a fight when the injury happened, just a sparring session to prepare for one. I don't remember the session at all. It was wiped from my memory entirely.

I don't remember setting it up, speaking with the coaches, any of the planning, or the trip from Saint John to the club in Moncton. 

Afterwards, I spent five weeks in a medically induced coma at the Moncton Hospital. While I was in that coma, my family stayed at my bedside. 

I was initially fed through a tube in my throat and had to re-learn basic life skills at the rehabilitation centre, including how to swallow and walk, from a wonderful team of therapists. 

Physiotherapists helped me build up the muscle and then retrain myself to walk at the rehabilitation centre, using special equipment and support.