Veronica’s hypothalamus was damaged. It lies right above the brain stem, and hers was sheared. It controls many things, and two of them are body temperature and metabolism. Veronica gained 4 lbs every week after her 3-month hospital stay until she had gained 70 lbs. That was 14 years ago. The rest was gained over the years. Now she has gained about 80 lbs since she sustained her severe traumatic brain injury and here is how she feels about it.
Written by Veronica Oct. 12, 2022
It makes me so angry when I get hungry every hour from the time I wake up until the time I go to bed. I don’t feel it’s fair for me to have a severe tbi, not be able to run, have a damaged hypothalamus, etc. if I can’t even be skinny. I just feel like since I had to go through all this- my reward should not have to be me staying fat. I would love to take a magic pill and be skinny the next day. It doesn’t help that my brain forgets that I feed my stomach, or that now that I’m so heavy I could eat my family out of house and home. No. I hate that I am sitting and writing down my complaints. You’d think my name would be Karren (a slang name for someone that complains all the time) or something.
All this low self confidence really comes into play when I am in a relationship. I get overly jealous of the stupidest shit. I acuse constantly. It doesn’t help in my last relationship my boyfriend was a huge Liar about everything, he was very good at keeping secrets, then there came a point in our relationship he told me, “I better not gain anymore weight because then he 100 wouldn’t be attracted to me. He only had himself to blame tho. All he would feed me was shit you could buy at 7/11.
The funny part about that situation-I couldn’t care less what he thought of me. He had rotten teeth in his head and was an alcoholic.
It’s weird-I feel like I’ve grown up (all the way) this time around so, I know what I want and/or need.
Dawn Corbelli 