My Story by Jim Hegarty
My name is Jim Hegarty and I'm married to Sheila and we have four children, three boys and one girl. Last year we had a welcome addition to the family, my first grandchild, Sean. I worked for 37 1/2 years as a supervisor in Ballinahina dairies, this was then known as Dawn dairies and retired in April 2005 just before my brain injury.
On the 1st of September 2005 I went to bed early. I had a pain in my head for about two
days and when I tried to get up in the middle of the night I fell back on to the bed. I next remember seeing two ambulance men and I don't remember anymore until I woke up in the hospital. I went for a CT scan, which I remember having and this showed a haemorrhage. I spent 8 weeks in the South Infirmary and have very little memory of it.
I do remember one incident when I was feeling confused and thought I was being held against my will. A doctor came around and lent over my bed and I hit out at him. This was very out of character behaviour for me and I was totally confused at the time. My balance and particularly my right side were also affected.
After 6 weeks in hospital my memory slowly started to come back. My eyes began to open and I started to recognise my doctor and his entourage on his daily rounds. I then gradually started to recognise my family when they visited me.
When I left the South Infirmary I went home to my wife and children. I went for regular speech and language therapy and physiotherapy. I suffered with headaches and found that I got tired quite easily. I had difficulties with my memory and often had a problem recognising people when they would come to visit me. I found that I was quite low in myself and was spending most of my time at home, which was very different to my life before my brain injury.
A few months later I started in Headway's Day Service programme. We do a combination of group and individual work and I enjoy meeting with the other people in Day Services. I attend on Tuesdays and Wednesdays and I really enjoy it. On Tuesdays we do "movement to music", "reeling in the years" and FETAC award art and design. I particularly enjoy "reeling in the years" as we discuss and reminisce on specific years in the past, which is good for jogging my memory. We are now up to 1993. On a Wednesday we go out and about on the Headway bus and do different activities in the community such as visiting museums, art galleries, coffee shops and garden centres and are given specific tasks to complete with support.
At the moment as part of our Art sessions on the programme we are doing a project for Brain Awareness week and the theme is "hidden key". We are each doing an individual piece and they will all be exhibited in the Wilton library in Cork from the 9th of March for two weeks. We are all working towards our FETAC level 3 in art. My art work is a country scene and Iím enjoying this project. However I do face additional difficulties due to my eye sight deficits but it is not stopping me from completing my work for the exhibition.
I have also participated in the Community Access programme, which aims to encourage and support people to participate in social leisure and recreational activities in their local communities. I attended my local gym in 2007 with Julie, the Community Access Officer for a few months and I used the bike and the treadmill. I enjoyed attending the gym and my confidence and independence was increasing but unfortunately I developed a problem with my leg and I was advised to stay off it so I can't attend any longer.
Last year I was unwell and couldn't attend the Headway centre for about eight months. I met with Julie in my local shopping centre every Tuesday during the time I couldn't attend Day Services. I missed attending Day Services but found that participating in Community Access gave me an opportunity to get out in my local community, interact with other members of the public, it gave my wife a break and also made me feel that I was still linked to Headway and what was happening in the centre in Ballincollig.
There is no doubt but that my life is different now to before my brain injury and unfortunately my eye sight is deteriorating. I am now more reliant on my wife and can no longer drive. I miss the independence of just jumping in the car and heading off myself but I am very grateful for the support my wife and family have given me.
I was always on the go and I particularly loved fishing but I unfortunately had to sell my boat after my ABI as I no longer had a use for it because I couldnít head out on my own. I also still suffer from headaches and tiredness. There is no doubt but that I have faced some huge challenges in the last few years but I have also had some particularly memorable days.
On June 19th of last year I got the opportunity to attend the Áras an Uachtaráin to attend a Forum on Disability: Access and Attitude. I met Paul and Julie, the Community Access Officers, in the train station in Cork at 7.00am and we got the 7.30am train to Dublin. We arrived in Dublin at 10.15am and the sun was shining. We got a taxi to the Aras and it was the first time any of us had asked a taxi driver to take us to the President's house! We got on a bus at the front gate that took us through the gardens to the house and we went into a big meeting room. The president was the first to speak and welcomed everyone to the Aras. We then listened to various people speak about different abilities and disabilities and about the importance of supporting all people to reach their potential. We then went for a stroll around the grounds and went into the main building for finger food and coffee. We took some photographs around the Áras as evidence that we were there! It was then time to head back to the train and we got back into Cork at 6.00pm after a very enjoyable day.
In September of last year I travelled to Spain for a very important event: my only daughter's wedding. Due to the difficulties with my leg I was worried that the doctors might try to stop me travelling but I knew that no matter what they said nothing would keep me from giving her away. Thankfully I was fit and well to travel in September and we had a great week in Spain and daughter's wedding went very well. We all had a fantastic day and I managed to stay awake until about 10pm when I was found fast asleep on a couch!
I still also have some great friends and we often meet up. I still love to go fishing and even though I sold my own boat and cannot go out alone, my friend has a boat and when the weather is good we head out together. We go to Roches point and then we generally head east. I love the peace and quiet of being out on the sea.
I am following a healthy eating diet and catching and cooking fresh fish makes sticking to the healthy eating plan much easier and tastier! Like everybody else I have hopes and dreams for the future. I hope to increase my days in Headway from two to three days a week. My youngest son has recently left for the blue skies of Australia and I hope that my wife and I will visit him for a month some time this year. I have always loved to travel and I have visited America and many countries in Europe and I have a long list of places I still want to visit. Mostly I want to live a long life and watch my grandson as he grows.