Thanks, Tangje.
I suppose each of our situations is different. Now that I am over two years post-injury, I think that I can manage to work without doing myself too much harm. In fact, the extra income means that I can have some therapy which I couldn't afford before.
I was mentioning the financial side because I think that that is a real issue, especially in the first year after an injury, when you are at your worst and haven't adapted your life to the new situation yet.
CS
Quote:
Originally Posted by tangje
Hi CS,
This is a very difficult issue to address. I think that working can be okay depending on the task. The problem is that with an MTBI/PCS, as I'm sure you already know, is that your tolerance for stress is much lower and unfortunately stress can really hinder recovery. In my case I tried to continue working in the lab for 3 months after my injury, dialed it back to working on the computer at home for 5 months, and then finally realized that trying to work was doing more harm than good, which led to a 5 month leave of absence.
As far as finances are concerned, I would certainly look into government disability benefits/insurance that might be available to you. Depending what you were doing for work prior to your injury you might be eligible for some support (granted it might not be a lot). I appreciate that this can be quite a serious problem as you have to delicately balance your health and finances. I would try to recruit help from a family member or friend to figure out what your options are as the stress involved in trying to do it all yourself would certainly be a negative impact on your recovery.
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