Just wanted to add my .02 here.

The most significant healing leaps that I have perceived were both past the one years mark from the initial injury I sustained.

Now, my case is complex, because I had iicp for the first six months after the initial injury... I've asked my self, "At what point do I start this healing timer" so I can accurately judge when it's been a year; from the accident/initial injury or from the spinal tap that relieved the iicp?

The accident I was in happened in July 2010. The spinal tap was performed in Jan 2011. The first major perceivable leap in my recovery was in Sep 2011 and the second one happened just a couple of weeks ago in Feb 2012.

When I say perceivable leaps, I mean that my brain was able to filter more background noise out from what I was trying to focus on. And this happened twice to me in a very short amount of time, within minutes I perceived a huge difference between what my brain was filtering before and how that amount increased. Each time, the amount went back and forth a few times within those few minutes until it stuck. This helped my overall functioning in many ways, since I had more cognitive resources to work on things other than consciously trying to not pay attention to noises and visuals that the brain normally filters out for people. And each time was a very noticeable effect for me and my boyfriend who was with me each time. He could tell the difference in my level of functioning just sitting in front of me and it improved my speech, articulation and understanding of my surroundings, etc.. I feel like each one was a miracle and I'm very grateful for them and all the other healing I have experienced.

Other than that, I've had steady, ongoing improvement since the spinal tap. (Before the spinal tap, I degraded a great deal in the six months after the injury but before the iicp was relieved.)

I had friends visit me every week, or twice a week, for the first six months after the spinal tap who said they noticed distinct improvement with me every time they saw me, which would have been every 4-7 days or so.

I started working again, albeit part-time, in Aug 2011, and my colleagues have noticed steady and marked improvement in my functioning levels overall since that time.

It's difficult for me to really perceive, or label what the improvements are other than vague ideas, since I never had neuropsychological testing and don't know what all the different specialized areas of cognitive functioning are called. But one week I will just notice that I have more reasoning skills. Another week, I will feel like I have more control over my emotions. While yet another week, I will suddenly realize that it's easier for me to speak to someone over the phone. And I know that my working memory has improved too.

Playing games on Lumosity has helped me to notice a difference. I notice that I am able to play the games much better than when I first started playing them, and generally from one week to the next as well.

I haven't come close to my previous functioning level that I had before the accident. But I'm a LOT closer now than I was one month ago, and I was a lot better one months ago when compared to how I was functioning four months ago, etc..

Since I haven't experienced any kind of real "plateau" yet, my family and friends and I are still expecting me to get very close to what my normal is. When I worry about whether what impairments I'm living with now will be permanent, I am told, "there's no evidence yet that you're not still improving". And that's true.

I try to keep in mind what the neuropsychologist wrote in that tbiguide, and I'm paraphrasing here, but he says something to the effect of: the first two years can yield a lot of improvement. So I try to keep myself calm about the "timing" of it.

I've never been a patient person, and recently as I've improved my patience seems to dissipate even more in regards to when I'm going to be normal again. But I try very hard to remember that there is still a possibility that I will get better and to just calmly deal with whatever perceived disability that I'm dealing with as a temporary nuisance. And that brings me a lot of hope. And that hope helps get me through every day feeling at least a little better than if it wasn't there.