I've been wondering when I need to think about what I'm dealing with is permanent too. It's been about 18 months since the initial injury for me, but the injury caused me to have iicp for six months after that, so everyone says I need to count healing since the spinal tap that relieved the pressure.
Regardless of whether it's been 12 or 18 months, I still feel largely impaired compared to how I was before the accident in many ways. The people I work with perceive me as very impaired as well. I don't want to talk about all the symptoms or impairments I'm dealing with. Suffice to say I dislike them intensely and I get scared I may have to live with some of them for the rest of my life more often than I'd like to admit.
But I still notice improvements, and so do my friends, family and co-workers around me.
My boyfriend says once it appears that the improving has stopped, then I can worry about having to live with whatever's going on with me for the rest of my life. Once we notice a long period of plateau then we can consider that I might not improve much more. But the improvements really continue to be very noticeable. It just feels like overall very slow progress at the same time. (I was a very accomplished, bright, over-achieving, independent, hyperactive and energetic person before the accident and the impairments have been vast and seem to have affected many areas of my brain, so there's still a lot of improving to do.)
And my Dr. told me early on that I should NEVER ride a roller coaster again. The car accident that gave me the brain injury, gave me pretty severe whiplash and gave me bugling disks in my spine. She told me riding a coaster might harm my spine and I think she also said it could hurt my brain too.
Personally, I would NEVER risk the chance of anything remotely similar to what I'm going through now from jostling my head around for a 60 second joy ride on a roller coaster - it's just not worth it to me! I even bought a HUGE SUV to try to ensure I'll never be in as bad a wreck as I was before... (My compact car was totaled between two large SUV's while we were all at a dead stop by a fourth vehicle that was speeding and didn't see that traffic had stopped...) I'm doing everything I can to protect my brain from another injury.
nwsmith1984 - Can't you just watch your son ride the coaster? Or give him cash so he can go with his friends? Maybe you can be joyful that you can provide that experience for him rather than sharing it right next to him while he's having it.
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Originally Posted by nightnurse30
I kept pushing for the middle months trying to go out and "be normal", go to bars, watch sports, casinos....i did it all. And i had anxiety going in and anxiety and bad symptoms leaving. I knew i shouldnt have been putting myself in those situations. When i finally stopped putting myself in those "normal" situations and started REALLY TRULY taking good care of myself and focusing on just me. I started to get better. Acupuncture helped a lot!!! I stopped going for about a month, and the headaches were starting to creep back in....so i just went a few days ago and i havent need a single pain med besides my nightly nortriptyline.
I also stopped analyzing my situation so much....and honestly...i stopped coming on this website for a while because i started to see that i was picking up other peoples anxieties as well and talking with others who werent getting better were making me think i would never get better. Well, your thoughts are very powerful and if you keep thinking you arent gonna get better....you are setting yourself up for anxiety and failure. Start thinking positive. Start taking REALLY good care of yourself with your diet, supplements, environment control, stop doing things that typically bother you, if it means being bored or learning to read a few good books....its better than a lifetime full of symptoms. The time to start taking care of your self is right now. If it also means spending a little extra money on alternative therapies like acupuncture, massage, or whatever else you think will help....its an investment into your life.
Ive written before about Healing Touch International, and how powerful it is. There are nurses all over the country that do healing touch treatments for clients who need help with relaxation, pain control, overall balancing of energies, and hugely with head injuries. I can say the combination of diet, acupuncture, healing touch, a therapist, supplements and vitamins, and my doctors prescribed meds, and REST all got me to a great place where i was pain free.
The only times i notice headaches now are when i've been neglected my body for many days in a row....like drinking too much, forgetting to take my supplements, or not doing healing touch on myself or acupuncture for a long time. I just get right back on track and do what i know works. Yes, it might be lonelier staying at home, but i make it as good as i want....Ive been using the time to work on my own personal growth, reading, meditating, exercising, and being happy in my own skin at my own home with the good friends that have stuck around or by myself. I no longer think of the brain injury as a curse....but a blessing!!! I'm happier, more positive, and the healthiest Ive been in my whole life once i worked on me! It took total chaos for me to now have clarity and see that i was living an unhealthy lifestyle and truly blessed and thank god that i can know see all the ways i should be living. Good luck
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nightnurse, I'm *so* glad to hear you're doing so much better! BTW: I'm a Reiki Master and a Re Hu Tek Healer, and I'm trained in other healing modalities as well. My mom and her best friend are healing touch practitioners and reiki masters as well as RN's too.