Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark in Idaho
Meghan,
Meghan, I have been were you are. I had a 93 % grade average in the ninth grade. After a concussion early in the tenth grade, my grades plummeted to 85%. It took a lot of work to recover and graduate with a 92.3 %. I had been accepted into the college Honors program. I had a serious decompensation in second semester and ended up dropping out after struggling for the next year.
Be prepared to ask for help with your academics. Just because you may struggle with memory and multi-tasking, if you slow down, you can still reach your objectives. One of the silver linings of brain injury is that it usually does not seriously effect your intelligence, just you performance speed. At a slower speed, you can still do just as well.
If you are serious about this study, you will find there is a lot of information to sort through. The various brain injury web sites can be of great help.
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Meghan, I also have been there. Had a grade average of about 90% (even got 98% in my first year Chem final) but now I am struggling to get over 70% I even got 63% in one of last years finals. But I am still at uni studying, I am still passing and that is the achievement. At some point you have to let go and just realise that you are still doing really well.
I am not ashamed to get help with my studies, Mark is right, we still have the intelligence just are a bit slower processing. I get extra time for my exams in a nice quiet room. Access to a room to take a nap during the day or work on computers quietly away for all the other hundreds of students. Things are possible, you just have to adjust a bit. I wouldn't be where I am without the help the uni provides me with. I am just about to start my 3rd year of PT school!
Also another thing I'm not sure if people have mentioned, I find I need loads of sleep, if I miss out and mess up my sleeping pattern then it takes me a week to get over it. I try very hard during term time to keep to a strict schedule.
I found no meds help for the headaches, I just try and manage them by avoiding noise and too much eye work etc. I am no taking meds for chronic pain and this adds to the memory loss, concentration issues etc.
I had concussion and spent 2 weeks in hospital after then had a series of 3 very close together and then beginning of this year another, I have a balance problem from the first so most of those were due to falling down stairs. I hope you are looking after yourself and trying to protect your precious head!
Take care and just know that despite all things, you can do what you set out to achieve!