It Has Been A While ...

I have been going to college!!  Yay!  Well, I am not going to college, it is coming to me via the internet.  I take two distance learning classes.  Still trying to overcome my anxiety.  But, I finally discovered what it is that I want to do with my life.  I am studying to become a neuropsychologist.  Our brains are fascinating, resilient, and so intricate.  We have the most marvelous computer running our bodies.  I want to know so much now.  After my father's passing from Alzheimer's-related illness, I am curious to find out more.  What caused his Alzheimer's?  Did his war injury from the Korean conflict contribute to it?  Did his war injury result in his pituitary tumor?  How does injury affect the brain?  Did the metal plate replacing his skull seep anything into his brain?  I asked my mom if she had his medical records and she doesn't have his records from Korea.  I would be interested to study his records to see what the doctors saw.  I am interested in finding out if any of his brain was removed due to injury.  In Korea, at the M*A*S*H* unit he was left as last because they expected him to die.  That is the reality of war.  The tv show had them take the worst cases first, but in reality, they took the ones that they were sure that they could save and the ambulatory patients.  My father had had a grenade blow up in his back.  It took a chunk out of his back and head.  He didn't have some of his skull or the inner workings of his right ear.  I don't know how long his recovery was, but he was in Tokyo for a while and then sent home to Utah to recover.  He said that he had to relearn how to walk and talk.  He also said that they put a sign around his neck that he was a war veteran, not a drunk.  So I imagine he didn't walk very well at that time.  All of this happened when he was 17-18 years old.  My dad loved the military and all that it entailed.  He was a very special, intelligent man and I wonder now that I know what our brains are like, how much more could he have done if he had never been injured?