Hi Jeni,

Don't worry about not being able to sift through old posts. Feel free to post a new thread anytime you need to.

Most of us are either recovering from a brain injury or have been living with permanent effects of having a brain injury - so we totally understand how difficult it is to sift through old posts, or read or doing anything we used to do just fine with no problems, but now have a lot of trouble with. It can be very frustrating!

Scott is absolutely correct, the more you can rest your brain, the shorter and better its healing should be. Rest for a brain can mean different things to different people. (There's a saying around here: Once you've seen one brain injury, you've seen one brain injury! Each one is different.) Basically, try to avoid things that you have trouble doing because that trouble is an indication that your brain can't do that right now because it's using its energy to heal itself. Trying to force yourself to do thing can actually make things worse. (I know if feels counter-intuitive, but trust me.)

I think if you are having trouble doing something, at this point in your recovery - which is super early on, then it is an indication that you should not be trying to force yourself to do whatever it is your doing. You need to be gentle with yourself and your brain. You won't quite know what microscopic parts of your brain have been affected, so you won't really know what parts need healing. And it can change as the brain is doing its thing. But for now, take trouble doing something as a sign to back off from doing that thing. You might not be able to notice subtle signs of having trouble... but depending on how long this lasts for you, you might become more accustomed to noticing them over time.

I've been healing for more than 20 months from a concussion that had rare complications.

Some people take longer than a year to recover. Some people only take a few hours, days or weeks. While others have trouble for months and then wake up one day, out of the blue, perfectly normal again. And still others have to deal with permanent effects from just one simple concussion. There's no way to really predict what's going to happen and there are a lot of theories about it all. At this point, for you, let's hope you heal super quick!

Pay attention to your nutrition and overall health if you can. Make sure you take your multivitamin and a good B-Complex. Even some additional B12 taken either sublingually or by way of a shot in the arm might be a good idea. (My neurologist is big on taking extra B12 to help a person recover from a tbi.) Omega Oils 3-6-9 will help your brain's health a lot too. Protein is also an excellent nutrient for brain health and recovery.

Some people take a lot of other supplements to help them too.
Personally, I am taking CDP Choline, Phosphatidylserine, BCAA's, D Ribose, and Acetyl L Carnitine. You might want to wait a while before you start experimenting with all the supplements available, they can be pricey. I also checked with my neurologist about taking these too. But my recovery has been a very long and arduous one...

Exercise can also provide a lot of benefits for a healing brain. But exercise means something different to the healing brain than it did before the injury. And it's best to start really slow! Even if you could run a ten minute mile before the injury, start by taking just gentle walks, or doing yoga, or chi gong, just enough to get the blood going - but stop if you experience any negative side effects such as dizziness, a loss of balance, a degrade in cognitive functioning or a serious increase in fatigue. But mild exercise can provide the brain with the oxygen it needs to heal. Only increase your exercise if you can handle what you're doing without any symptoms. And decrease it until you don't notice any symptoms and stay at that level for a while until you can attempt to slowly increase it again.

Mark In Idaho is a very knowledgeable member here. He always tells people that the more symptom free days that you can string together than the better recovery you will have. Figuring out how to be symptom free is the key to making that possible. And figuring out what causes symptoms and avoiding them is also a part of that key.

Stimulation, like talking with people in person or over the phone, watching TV, listening to the radio and other activities that you could do before the injury might be too stimulating for your brain now. It's most likely temporary, so it's best to avoid them since they use your brain's energy to engage in them for a while... or do them until you notice that you are having trouble. (Stopping them before the trouble starts is even better!) And the more stimulation your brain has to deal with, the harder it might be... so like talking in a noisy restaurant has dish noise and music and other people talking that your brain has to filter, so choosing to talk in a calm and quiet setting, like your living room with the TV off might be a better choice.

Don't worry! The statistics are in your favor right now. Most people recover from a concussion very quickly and you can be proactive about it by setting boundaries for yourself to remain as unstimulated as possible. It can be boring, but it's probably better for you in the long run. Try to do things that are less taxing if you get bored like coloring or sewing. Don't put time limits on yourself.

Avoiding stress, worry, and depression as much as possible will help you too. There have been studies to indicate that chemicals created by these kinds of emotions can complicate and prolong a brain's recovery from trauma. Although, given the circumstances, those emotions are almost unavoidable. One of the better ways I've found to handle those emotions is to just have faith that I'll get better, even though I don't know exactly when.

And the people who are the most determined to get better are usually the ones who do.

And the anger you are experiencing is normal. Make sure your kids and husband know that and it will help them to deal with it when it happens. It's called emotional lability and many of us have had to deal with it too. I'm pretty even keel most of the time now, but I was super irritated for well over a year.

And read this guide at some point, and ask your friends and family to read it too, it should help you at least a little.

http://www.tbiguide.com/

Much luck!! And I'm sorry to hear that you're going through this, but welcome to neurotalk.