A Chatham woman is sharing her story of survival following a traumatic brain injury.
Katie Vilaranda suffered a migraine in 2015 which caused paralysis on the left side of her body.
As part of her recovery she started writing a blog, which has now evolved into a book called “A Tail of a Broken Brain.”
“I unfortunately lost some of my speech and had to relearn that,” Vilaranda says. “It’s a cathartic process of creativity and needing communication, because I wasn’t able to communicate I started a blog, sharing my story to try to navigate the health care system.”
Through hard work and determination, Vilaranda was able to gain enough strength to walk down the aisle at her wedding, just two months into her recovery.
Vilaranda says migraines tend to be an invisible illness that can be downplayed.
“There’s a whole mental health aspect to that, I was contemplating my life and things like that because there’s such a depressing aspect to this medical trauma,” she says. “I wanted to share my story and hopefully it helps someone if they ever felt like that in one point in their life, especially with medical things or critical injuries like brain injuries.”
Vilaranda says she’s received wonderful support since the book was published and feels it has opened more doors to connect with others who’ve gone through similar struggles.
A Tale of a Broken Brain is available in print and e-book from Amazon, Chapters-Indigo, and Barnes and Noble.