Hi Nick,

One of the Dr.'s who treated me a year ago, when I was experiencing severe pain in my neck, told me that I would have to live with that pain for the rest of my life. Now, I only experience very moderate to minimal pain only some of the time. I would say most of the time, I feel no pain in my neck. That Dr. who said that to me was very wrong. But what he said made me want to die too, because I didn't think I could live with that kind of pain. He shouldn't have said that to me. And the Dr. who told you that shouldn't have said that to you.

I went to speech therapy for several months and that seemed to help re-route some of the pathways in my brain. I noticed significant improvement in my cognitive functioning while I was attending speech therapy. Speech therapy isn't only for speech issues - it can also help cognitive functioning.

I use an online computer program called lumosity that purports to help people heal from mTBI. I'm not sure if it's truly helping me or not, but I am significantly better than I was when I started playing the games. MarkInIdaho has posted that he doesn't think their games help do much of anything except tucker him out - and that has happened to me before due to playing too many of them in a row, etc. But, I can at least track my progress by having played them for so long now and I notice a difference in how I can play them. I think Mark also says they only teach a person how to play those games... but I tend to disagree because when I first started playing them I had a lot of trouble with simple math like addition and subtraction and a few of the games work with that and now I'm doing much better in those areas - with the games and in real life. So, I think it does have some merits.

I don't want to stress you out at all - but it's my understanding that if you, as a competent parent give your child to someone who is considered to be a negligent parent or caregiver, like your ex, that social services can take the child away from both of you. After hearing about the shenanigans of your ex, it might not be a good idea to giver her your son to watch. I know you need help and rest, but perhaps there is a better way to go about his care to get it. Have you contacted them and let them know that you need help? They already know you are recovering from a tbi and they might have a solution, like placing him in a foster home temporarily, or finding him a day sitter. It will most likely be more difficult to try to fight social services if they do take him away at some point when you're doing better than to try to work with them in regards to this matter.

I'm very sorry to hear that you have to move. I had to move twice after the brain I sustained and it was because of the brain injury that I had to move - I was flat broke! And I couldn't afford paying for my apartment anymore.

I had a case manager that my health insurance provided to me and she was an RN. I also had a social worker visit my home that they also provided me. Neither did much good for me in my opinion. The RN would call me every few weeks to talk to me over the phone and see how I was doing and the social worker didn't understand tbi at all - at one point he suggested that I consider changing my career to help people clean their houses and I am a Mgr. of Technical Operations! I am able to do my job with limitations now, but that is how poorly I was doing when he saw me - I don't think that he understood that I would improve and since then I've improved a great deal. I think you should look into getting them, just in case they can help you more than the ones I got helped me. But, be warned, they might not be able to help you in ways that you actually need help.

And try not to beat yourself up about your past drug abuse - try to be grateful that you don't want any now.

Try to remember that in Dr. Glen Johnson's Traumatic Brain Injury Survival Guide he says that people can improve a great deal up to 2 years after their injuries. So you still have a lot of time to make a lot of improvements.

And in terms of relationships go, remember that you are a different person now than you were before the assault. You need to learn who you are now and then love you for who you are before you try to love another person.