TBI and recovery?

Anyone have any experience with traumatic brain injuries and what the road forward looks like? I know it's a weird question, but this community always manages to be helpful.

Thanks, Bryan

The wife had a mild stroke, and we help out with the brain injury group at her hospital so I may be able to answer some questions or pass them along to someone that can.

depends on the injury. my half brother wrecked a motor cycle without a helmet and managed to get a jersey barrier with his skull at about 40mph. the impact swelled his brain, and came close to pushing his brain stem out of his skull from the pressure. he was clinically dead twice. it took 4 months to regain consciousness, a year to speak and walk, and even now, almost 8 years later, he is not the same person.

he had what was called a partial reset. he lost a vast majority of his past, his memories, motor skills, etc. he remembers only shadows and even then only those who were very close before the accident. him and i are lifelong friends, so i was fortunate enough to be in the pool of 10 or so people he knew immediately.

he currently has trouble holding a job, but has an army pension that prevents that from being an issue, just an irritant to his daily happiness. his temper is shorter, his short term memory was bad before, and its almost non existant now (think dory from 'finding nemo'), and he has made a few attempts at his own life, and been violent to others.

on the plus side, he hasn't had an episode with depression in years, and is finding ways to calm his constantly searching brain. since his memorys are so vague, every place he goes, whether hes been there or not, feels like new, and that newness gives him axiety cause he feels like he should remember it, but doesn't. we have helped with his self consciousness for a long time, and he improves still.

its a long road, and there were times at the beginning that we all wondered if it would have been better if he had gone to the Lord, as life can be cruel to even the best equipped people, let alone the emotionally and mantally damaged. but in the end, he was given a second chance for a reason, and his life has become about finding that reason, and that gives him purpose. purpose is pivotal. without purpose, the drive to continue to heal goes away, and thats where you find depression, anxiety, and thoughts of suicide.

i know im not painting a pretty picture, but i feel the best way to prepare you for this is honesty.

again, i dont know the extent of the injury, the memory loss, or the depth of the 'reset', if any, but this was my experience.

we love Tim, hes a good person, and a great friend. he may not be the man we knew the day before his accident, but he's still Tim, and for that we are grateful.

-J0N

Like strokes, every TBI and level of recovery is going to be different.

This is something that hits quite close to home, as a good friend of mine suffered a TBI in a crash at Mid-Ohio, and is now very involved in raising TBI awareness.

PM me, and I will put you in touch with him, if you'd like.

I'm not really clear on the details of what happened to me. I woke up in the ICU with staples in my skull and a neuro-surgeon personally monitoring my vitals. I know I pretty swift impact with a very hard concrete floor did a number on my neck and head.

I've always been the kind of of person that's a little on edge and slightly short-tempered and I feel like I'm worse now on both counts. The memory issues are eating at me most of all - I've always been very academically gifted and I feel like I've lost something.

The physiological symptoms are mostly just tremendous pain, nausea, and weird sensation of dizziness or instability.

My wife took a softball to the forehead during a college game and it broke her skull. She had troubles remembering stuff for a solid month. Her best friend at the time was a huge life saver for her; leaving post-it notes everywhere like what her name is and her friends phone number and what class she had next. Even years later, my wife is hypersensitive to even the slightest head bumps or a good jostle and she would start crying/balling. It's been the last year or so she's notice the biggest improvement. Little bumps to the head don't send the tear flying but she still might have to sit out a few minutes. As for her mental capacity, she got the injury during her undergrad, finished that and her vet schooling, learned French and did year over there at vet clinic. She's been a VMD for couple years now and doesn't show any signs of knowledge loss. I didn't know her when she got the injury so I can't comment on how she was then but I have some small fears that later in life memory loss will become an issue but since we are in our early 30s I'm trying to forget those fears for a couple of decades.

Read this thread: http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/sprockets/dear-diary-apparently-i-crashed/68862/page1/

Holy crap, Bryan! We never met in person, but you're local to me and we were thinking about it before you shipped out. If you are back in the Maryland area, please don't hesitate to let me know if I can help in any way at all. AT ALL.

Best of luck and medical science to you in your recovery.

MG Bryan wrote: I'm not really clear on the details of what happened to me. I woke up in the ICU with staples in my skull and a neuro-surgeon personally monitoring my vitals. I know I pretty swift impact with a very hard concrete floor did a number on my neck and head. I've always been the kind of of person that's a little on edge and slightly short-tempered and I feel like I'm worse now on both counts. The memory issues are eating at me most of all - I've always been very academically gifted and I feel like I've lost something. The physiological symptoms are mostly just tremendous pain, nausea, and weird sensation of dizziness or instability.

Wow, is this something that happened recently?

Foxtrapper recently had a brain injury from a motorcycle accident. He may be able to shed a little light on his process.

MG Bryan wrote: I'm not really clear on the details of what happened to me. I woke up in the ICU with staples in my skull and a neuro-surgeon personally monitoring my vitals. I know I pretty swift impact with a very hard concrete floor did a number on my neck and head. I've always been the kind of of person that's a little on edge and slightly short-tempered and I feel like I'm worse now on both counts. The memory issues are eating at me most of all - I've always been very academically gifted and I feel like I've lost something. The physiological symptoms are mostly just tremendous pain, nausea, and weird sensation of dizziness or instability.

Scary- My FIL had a similar injury, but much more minor. Way much more. But it was nerve wracking to us.

Also, a guy just died yesterday after he hit his head on concrete after being pushed to the ground.

Good luck- you know there's a lot of people who want you to work at recovering!

Oh, wow. That's a helluva thing to wake up to! Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

I lost consciousness for about 20 minutes sledding when I was 18. Lost all short term memory for a couple of days and some long term memory for somewhere between a couple of months and forever. It's hard to say what you've forgotten when you don't remember. Even this summer, 20 years later, I was talking to my sister and it was clear that there were some significant events from that time that I have no memory of.
It still bothers me.
I don't really have any advice other than don't focus too much on trying to be the person you think you remember yourself as. Try to be the best highest functioning person that you can be today. Then tomorrow, then the next day, which is pretty much what you would be doing if you didn't hit your head.

My stepfather had like 10. They never really figured out what caused any of them yet, but there is nothing permanently lost from his memory... yet. For the first hour or so afterwards he's a mess, usually waking up thinking that something is going on that is not really going on.

tuna55 wrote: My stepfather had like 10. They never really figured out what caused any of them yet, but there is nothing permanently lost from his memory... yet. For the first hour or so afterwards he's a mess, usually waking up thinking that something is going on that is not really going on.

Ten what? Strokes? Seizures?

Woody wrote:

tuna55 wrote: My stepfather had like 10. They never really figured out what caused any of them yet, but there is nothing permanently lost from his memory... yet. For the first hour or so afterwards he's a mess, usually waking up thinking that something is going on that is not really going on.

Ten what? Strokes? Seizures?

Sorry, TIA's

In retrospect I got TIAs and TBIs confused. I apologize.

From the wife unit who works in the ICU; it seems that low stimulation is the current practice. Let the brain heal and don't give it a ton of input while it is doing so.

TBI is rough, My father had to go through treatment for that after a couple of his heart attacks, and it slightly damaged his short term memory and did more significant damage to his long term memory

As has been mentioned, there is a very wide range of effects/outcomes. Many years ago I had a bad fall while skiing and was knocked unconscious. Only out for a short time, but when I came to, I couldn't remember how to ski. I had been skiing for 15 years and was on an expert trail. Long story short, some memory returned quickly, I lost most of the previous 6 months and to my knowledge suffered no long term memory problems. Listen to your doctors and try not to stress too much. The body has tremendous healing ability and attitude is very important. Good luck!