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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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New concussion book: The Ghost in My Brain
I just finished listening to the audiobook version of a new concussion book called "The Ghost in my Brain: How a concussion stole my life and how the new science of brain plasticity helped me get it back" by Clark Elliott, PhD, a professor of artificial intelligence. He suffered a relatively minor concussion from a car accident that left him with symptoms as bad as I've heard about for 8 years, until he started seeing 2 professionals, a developmental optometrist who gave him a series of glasses over the course of a few years, and a cognitive psychologist who gave him a progression of brain puzzles.
He now considers himself essentially fully recovered, after 8 years of truly debilitating symptoms. Aside from being a very hopeful story, this book is a fascinatingly detailed portrayal of how the mind works, and how things can go wrong after a concussion. It also has a very clear explanation of the science and reasoning behind prism and other corrective lenses, and goes through in detail how his doctor prescribed them. As someone who has had prism lenses prescribed (without much benefit), it the diagnostic tests and attention to detail of his doctor in prescribing his series of glasses was well above and beyond what I experienced.
Worth a read or listen if you're interested.
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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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