Head Injury To Happiness - I'm Stoked With My New Life

Debra Brockelsby(27) was mountain biking in Rotorua four years ago when she went over the handlebars, crashing off a half - metre drop. She hit the ground on her left ear, then her bike came down on the back of her head

- Wendyl Nissen

After it happened, I was pretty sore, but I got up laughing. I drove home that night, then on the Monday I went to my GP, who told me to get a massage and to take it easy.

At the time, I was working for Cycling New Zealand as a performance analyst and when our athlete doctor noticed on the Wednesday that I wasn’t myself, she referred me to a specialist in Hamilton. I had an MRI, which showed bruising on the brain.

The following months were long and bleak. No screens, no books – nothing that would overstimulate my brain or give me a pounding headache, which was a daily occurrence at this time.

For three months, I couldn’t cross the road by myself as I had issues with depth perception. I was unable to drive for five months.