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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 2015)
OFF PAGE ONE REBOUNDERS: Miss Oregon is a brain injury survivor Page 8A East Oregonian Continued from 1A contact though they often felt like holing up inside their houses. They shared small victories. Kirk, for example, had opened a shampoo bottle using only her left hand, rather than the two hands the job had required since her stroke. Three years ago, Kirk’s life careened into unfamiliar territory. She had been enjoying an out-of-town girls’ weekend, when the ¿rst stroke struck. One of her friends, a nurse, rushed her to the hospital where Kirk had a second, more severe stroke. Afterwards, she couldn’t move her left side. “I couldn’t sit up in bed,” she said. “I just fell over.” Kirk still struggles with brain fog. “It’s like feeling lost in a familiar place,” she said. “I wake up every morning that way.” Once an accountant at Boise Cascade and a Pilot Rock city councilwoman, she now works as a dishwasher at the Pilot Rock School District. “They call me ‘assistant cook,’ but I’m really a dishwasher,” she said of the job, which she called a gift. “Working at the school is like cheap therapy. I’m so thankful to the school district for that.” Salina’s memories of the accident that injured his brain are hazy. “A deer came through my driver-side window,” he said. “I don’t remember much about the accident except for the sound of shattering glass.” Like Kirk, Salina’s brain injury interfered with the ability to do his job, in Salinas’s case, working with developmentally challenged individuals. He felt confused and frustrated. Information was coming in, “but wasn’t getting processed — every- thing was jumbled.” “It’s just completely different,” he said. “Before, I had 20 things going on all at once and I knew where I left off from one thing to the next. Now I start doing the laundry and forget I am boiling an egg.” Salina said he misses his formerly agile brain. He now keeps a list and tackles tasks one after the other. “I feel lost in my mind most of the time,” he said. Improvement comes at sometimes frustratingly glacial speed and they learn to celebrate the wins when they happen. St. Anthony Hospital speech and language pathol- ogist Ailea Villanueva guides the Rebounders, which met at Suttle Care & Retirement last week, but normally gathers at 10 a.m. the ¿rst )riday of each month at the hospital. At the latest session, Villanueva listed off some famous brain injury survivors such as Abraham Lincoln (thrown from horse) and actress Sharon Stone (stroke). “Did you know the current Miss Oregon is a brain injury survivor?” Villanueva asked the group. Ali Wallace sustained a head injury in 2009 during high school cheerleading practice, landing head¿rst on a hardwood Àoor. The 21-year-old still experiences migraines and balance issues and sometimes struggles to recall words. On Sunday, she will compete in the Miss America pageant where she plans to use traumatic brain injury as her platform. The Pendleton survivors face some of the same chal- lenges as Wallace, without the limelight. Villanueva said there are more stroke survivors than TBI survivors in the Rebounders, though at one time the ratio was 50-50. Those with TBI tend to be younger. The meetings offer members a safe place to socialize, play brain games and compare ideas. “They are always learning new ways to strategize and cope,” Villanueva said. Both Kirk and Salina said they became less social after their brain trauma, but ¿nd a healthy, social outlet during their monthly Rebounders sessions. The group also helps them ¿gure out a real- istic path into the future. “They must develop their new normal,” said Villanueva, who helped start the club two and a half years ago. “Some can’t return to work, but they can return productively in another capacity.” Kirk is inching her way to her new normal and is even learning to appreciate her altered brain. She feels calmer, she said, less Type A. Some changes are bafÀing — she talks rapid-¿re now instead of at the cadence she used pre-stroke — but Kirk is learning to let her old self go. “You wake up and have to accept you’ll never be that person again,” Kirk said. “I work at being the best person I can be.” ——— Contact Kathy Aney at kaney@eastoregonian.com or call 541-966-0810. Tuesday, September 8, 2015 FLAG: May save it for good weather, special occasions Continued from 1A Cathy said people have been honking, stopping by and calling to express their appreciation for the show of patriotism. One person told the family they pulled over by the side of Westland Road in the middle of the night to watch the Àag blow in the wind for a while because it looked so majestic. Cathy said Lawrence didn’t put up the Àag to get praise, but the family is glad to hear that other people are enjoying it. “My husband’s phone has been ringing off the hook,” she said. EO Media Group file photo Abi Wallace, of Portland, hugs Miss Oregon 2014, Reb- becca Anderson, after being crowned Miss Oregon 2015 during the Miss Oregon scholarship competition at the Seaside Convention Center in June. OFFICIAL TAILGATE PARTNER OF OREGON FOOTBALL At night the Àag is “mesmerizing,” she said, as it unfurls and twists back around the pole again in the wind while lit by spotlights as required for nighttime display of the American Àag. Cathy said the family has a somewhat smaller Àag that they might end up displaying part of the year instead to preserve the bigger, more expensive Àag for better weather and special occa- sions. ——— Contact Jade McDowell at jmcdowell@ eastoregonian.com or 541-564-4536. TAILGATE HEADQUARTERS OF THE OREGON STATE BEAVERS score big ON GAME DAY FAVORITES & WIN tailgate Buy 5 participating items and receive a code making you eligible to enter the Tailgate Headquarters Sweepstakes*! Headquarters PARTICIPAT ING 9/2/15 – 12/1 ITEM /15 *See in store for details.Look for specially marked tags at the shelf. clip or CLICK! Valid 9/8/15 thru 9/15/15 ® 10 OFF $ 50 or more $ * Save on your next grocery purchase of $50 or more * with your Safeway Club Card and this Savings Award. * Use this Savings Award on any shopping trip you choose at any Oregon Safeway store (except Milton-Freewater) and S.W. Washington stores serving Clark, Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Skamania and Klickitat counties by 9/15/15. This $10.00 Savings Award excludes purchases of Alcoholic Beverages, Fluid Dairy Products, Tobacco, US Postage Stamps, Trimet Bus/Commuter Passes, Money Orders, Container Deposits, Lottery, Gift Cards, Gift Certificates Sales, All Pharmacy Prescription Purchases, Safeway Club Savings, Safeway Store Coupons and Sales Tax. One Savings Award redeemable per household. COUPON CANNOT BE DOUBLED. Online and in-store prices, discounts, and offers may differ. clip or CLICK! ® clip or CLICK! Valid 9/9/15 thru 9/15/15 ® clip or CLICK! Valid 9/9/15 thru 9/15/15 ® Valid 9/9/15 thru 9/15/15 Limit 1 Pantry Essentials ™ Milk 1-gallon. Whole, 2%, 1% or Fat Free. 1 99 ea WITH CARD AND COUPON This coupon must be presented at time of purchase. Offer Valid with Card and Coupon. COUPON CANNOT BE DOUBLED. Coupon valid thru 9/15/15. 3 2 $ Safeway ® Kitchens Variety Pan Bread for 24-oz. Selected varieties. WITH CARD AND COUPON This coupon must be presented at time of purchase. Offer Valid with Card and Coupon. COUPON CANNOT BE DOUBLED. Coupon valid thru 9/15/15. clip or CLICK! ® clip or CLICK! Valid 9/9/15 thru 9/15/15 Limit 1 Whole Roasted Chicken 5 99 ea WITH CARD AND COUPON This coupon must be presented at time of purchase. Offer Valid with Card and Coupon. COUPON CANNOT BE DOUBLED. Coupon valid thru 9/15/15. ® Valid 9/9/15 thru 9/15/15 clip or CLICK! ® Valid 9/9/15 thru 9/15/15 Limit 2 Hill’s Hickory Smoked Thick Sliced Bacon X 3-lb. Sold in 3-lb. Package. Only $11.97 ea. 3 99 lb WITH CARD AND COUPON o This coupon must be presented at time of purchase. Offer Valid with Card and Coupon. COUPON CANNOT BE DOUBLED. Coupon valid thru 9/15/15. Russet Potatoes 10-lb. bag. This coupon must be presented at time of purchase. Offer Valid with Card and Coupon. COUPON CANNOT BE DOUBLED. Coupon valid thru 9/15/15. 1 Lucerne ® Shredded Cheese 5 32-oz. 99 ea 99 ea WITH CARD AND COUPON WITH CARD AND COUPON This coupon must be presented at time of purchase. Offer Valid with Card and Coupon. COUPON CANNOT BE DOUBLED. Coupon valid thru 9/15/15. Prices in this ad are effective 6 AM Wednesday, September 9, 2015 thru Tuesday, September 15, 2015 (unless otherwise noted) in all Safeway stores in Oregon (except Milton-Freewater) and S.W. Washington stores serving Wahkiakum, Cowlitz, Clark, Skamania and Klickitat Counties. Items offered for sale are not available to other dealers or wholesalers. Sales of products containing ephedrine, pseudoephedrine or phenylpropanolamine limited by law. Quantity rights reserved. SOME ADVERTISING ITEMS MAY NOT BE AVAILABLE IN ALL STORES. Some advertised prices may be even lower in some stores. On Buy One, Get One Free (“BOGO”) offers, customer must purchase the fi rst item to receive the second item free. BOGO offers are not 1/2 price sales. If only a single item purchased, the regular price applies. Manufacturers’ coupons may be used on purchased items only — not on free items. Limit one coupon per purchased item. Customer will be responsible for tax and deposits as required by law on the purchased and free items. No liquor sales in excess of 52 gallons. No liquor sales for resale. Liquor sales at licensed Safeway stores only. © 2015 Safeway Inc. Availability of items may vary by store. Online and In-store prices, discounts and offers may differ. PG 1,P1,P2 090915_PendletonEastOregonian_8.725x17_P1