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Junior Member
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 20
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Junior Member
Join Date: Jun 2013
Posts: 20
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Slight relapse maybe?
I hope everybody on the board has been having a good Holiday Season.
Though I have to work this week, I had a very good Christmas, and I am quite thankful for the past year, even though it has been very challenging.
For me, the Christmas Season involves a LOT of traveling, and a fair amount of parties. At one of them, I got emotionally upset over some trifling matter, and, since then (three days ago), I have been having a minor relapse.
The usual (for me, at least)--it feels like my brain is inflamed and my spine hurts..
It probably didn't help that I had a few drinks and was not properly hydrated that night. (There have been other nights I've had a few drinks, but made sure to drink water constantly. On those nights, I had no ill effects.)
A good thing is that my "relapses" are becoming less and less bad; I still am able to remember things, even though my brain hurts to think too much.
I have have had two exceptionally good months (even so much that I had considered myself healed).
Why do I write, then? To vent maybe, but also to let the board know that, despite the above, I am still confident of ultimate healing or at the very least, long stretches of fairly good function where I have to manage PCS as a somewhat chronic condition.
I am also respecting my brain more and more, as I did not really feel that I was abusing it too too much, yet it is demanding to rest again…
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What happened: in February of this past year, I suffered a fall. Though I did not hit my head, I came within three or four inches of hitting the ground, and the whiplash/ coup countercoup has caused lingering concussion symptoms.
I have had five or six prior head injuries, most of which completely healed within a few weeks, though one took about three months.
When I get my most depressed, I remember that I could have killed myself, which would have been far worse than anything I have gone through. June and July of 2013 were the absolute worst.
I have managed to keep my job in a field that demands a lot from my brain, though I do get cognitively tired very easily, and have some problems with reading comprehension and short-term memory, though some days I feel close to my pre-injury self.
The headaches of the Summer are gone (mainly) and I drink a lot of water and rest more than before.
I am on a supplement regimen, and that has helped; probably the medical intervention that helped the most were seven chiropractic manipulations of my neck in June and July.
I am fearful that I will be slightly brain damaged the rest of my life, but I am determined to enjoy the same things I enjoyed before, and I, even on days that I despair, know that the odds are with me.
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