Adam Bullough remembers vivid and bizarre dreams while in a coma after suffering a traumatic brain injury in a fall from his bike.

In one, he was a German fighter pilot who’d been shot down in the United States and had to be sent home. In another, he and his brother Seth had been in an accident, Seth had died, and someone tried to remove their hearts and put them into Adam’s leg.

"I remember being confused," he says. "With TBIs, you don’t have a moment when something clicks. It takes forever … a misty memory."

Adam’s journey to recovery was long, hard and exhausting, mentally as well as physically. His condition was such that he had to relearn his body, how to use his muscles, find his balance and regain vision.

As his recovery progressed in a Southern California hospital, Adam got to know his caregivers very well, although not many by their last names. Daniel was a serenely competent nurse. Michele took care of Adam’s every need, even got him away from the raucous friends of his hospital roommate.

Knowing that Adam had learned Spanish on his LDS mission in Southern California, Maria spoke only Spanish with him.

Adam began various therapies — some he liked and some he didn’t. His left side was far weaker than his right, so Kelly, an occupational therapist who’d played Wii hockey with him, made him use his left hand.

"Nobody could beat her at hockey," he said. "She’s Canadian."

Adam didn’t like, or feel he needed, cognitive therapy.

"I think they underestimated my ability to think," he said. "My injury was obviously severe, and they expected me to be far worse. They’d show me pictures of Santa Claus and say, ‘Who’s this?’ I knew damn well who that was."

He was by turns morose, hopeful, fearful, angry, grateful. He was, he told me, mad at God.

But slowly, slowly, Adam learned again how to hold his head up, stand, walk with a walker and plenty of assistance.

A Salt Lake City friend sent him a T-shirt: "Pain Heals, Chicks Dig Scars, Glory Lasts Forever."

In late October 2008, Adam underwent surgery to replace the bone that had been removed from his head soon after his accident.

On Nov. 14, he, his mother, sister and girlfriend, flew home to Salt Lake City. After a family celebration, Adam ate a piece of pizza and went to bed.

Over time, Adam would pick up his guitar again and, despite the weakness in his left arm and hand, did his best to play. Years before, he’d suffered a liver injury that required several weeks of inactivity. He’d learned to play in just weeks and became a songwriter.