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Member
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Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 214
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Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 214
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Idaho
The brain never recovers to 100%. It may recovered to an appearance of 100% but it will be less tolerant to stress. When under stress, the less than 100% recovery may be evident.
You are far too early in your recovery to be worried about how much you will recover. You may recover to 99%. Nobody can predict how much you will recover.
What specifically are you afraid of ? Plenty of people live full lives with residual symptoms from a brain injury.
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I agree with many here that the idea of the brain not being able to fully recover is upsetting, and seeing posts on this board, many from you Mark, about how once concussed, always concussed, and that stress will likely bring out symptoms even if they go away, has caused a lot of distress for me. I loved who I was before the injury, as I'm sure everyone here also did, and the thought that that person is gone forever is profoundly upsetting.
So, I'm wondering (and I don't mean to sound accusatory here, I'm not trying to be!) how you (or the field in general) know this? That is, what is the evidence that a single, mild concussion leaves permanent damage that can always rear it's ugly head if we stress our brains? I understand that if there is structural damage, this likely will always be there, but whether or not that damage results in a permanent functional deficit (or propensity for such a deficit with stress) seems harder to demonstrate definitively.
Are there studies that have demonstrated this? Or is this just the consensus of the field, or your personal experience having been an elder on the board for a while and being very knowledgable about TBI in general?
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26 year-old PhD student in evolutionary biology, slipped on ice in Feb 2014 while clipping my fingernails and walking to save time (dumbest reason for PCS ever?). Initially just had headaches and didn't feel quite right, but a minor head bump 5 days later started a downward spiral of anxiety, depression, insomnia and fatigue. Had trouble concentrating on reading/looking at screens
April 2014 - did exertion test, passed, started exercising and doing more, but didn't feel much better.
May 2014 - Went on backpacking trip OK'd by doctor, trip itself went fine, but felt worse a few days after getting back, more difficulty concentrating, worse headaches.
June 2014 - Bumped head on ceiling walking slowly down stairs, no immediate symptoms, but caused worsening headahces, more difficulty concentrating and looking at screens. Have not felt as good as I did before this since this bump.
December 2014 - after feeling relatively better I went xc skiing and fell but didn't hit my head (something my psychologist who specializes in brain injuries told me he hoped would happen so I saw it was OK), felt worse
Feb 2015 - back in grad school, light teaching load and some research, nowhere close to operating at my full capacity. Still have constant headaches, difficulty reading/looking at screens, mild anxiety and depression, and just not feeling like my normal sharp self.
Trying, but struggling, to believe that I'll get back to my old self, or at least get close.
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