Deborah Brandon, PhD has been a professor in the Mathematical Sciences Department at Carnegie Mellon University since 1991. She has participated nationally and internationally in dragon boating. She is a mother, a writer, and a respected textile artist, as well as a brain injury survivor.

Her essays have appeared in several publications, including the Weave A Real Peace newsletter, where she has a regular column; Dragon Boat World International, HandEye Magazine, Logan Magazine, SIAM Journal of Mathematical Analysis, and Journal of Integral Equations and Applications. Her books include Birth and Rebirth: Textile Techniques from Around the World. Brandon is an active blogger and regularly participates in social media platforms, including Facebook, where she discusses brain injury and its impact.

When Deb Brandon discovered that cavernous angiomas—tangles of malformed blood vessels in her brain—were behind the terrifying symptoms she’d been experiencing, she underwent one brain surgery. And then another. And then another. And that was just the beginning.

The book also includes an introduction by Connie Lee, founder and president of the Angioma Alliance. Unlike other memoirs that focus on injury crisis and acute recovery, But My Brain Had Other Ideas follows Brandon’s story all the way through to long-term recovery, revealing without sugarcoating or sentimentality Brandon’s struggles—and ultimate triumph.