Hi Sheryl,

Try not to worry. Your daughter has statistics on her side now to make a full recovery.

There are several people here who've made full recoveries; I'm hopeful they'll chime in.

Most of the members here are struggling with long term effects of concussions and are frustrated as a result of it and that's why we've seeked each other out here - so you're asking a very small demographic about our experiences. People who make full recoveries don't look for forums about how to recover and cope with long-term effects of concussions.

I was a straight A student in honors classes when I was in High School too. I went on to college and graduated with very good grades; I became an over-achieving, independent and successful woman in a fast-paced and demanding field. I worked more than full time and was very energetic. I worked with a lot of people who had PHD's and was considered "higher functioning". I was even offered a couple of free Master's degrees after working for a few years.

For more than a year after the bad auto accident I was in that gave me the concussion that I am still trying to recover from, I was functioning on a "below average" level. It was completely foreign to me to suddenly be challenged by the simplest of tasks! It is still very frustrating for me at times even though I'm currently functioning at a level "above average" it's still well below my personal norm that I'd grown accustomed to for 33 years.

But I suffered from a complex concussion with a rare side effect. Before recently, when I asked my Dr. whether I would recovery, she would tell me, "We'll just have to see". After 20 months of recovering, she was finally able to tell me that she believed I would be "normal" again based on the recovery I had already made. My point is that you should not lose hope! And neither should your daughter!

The doctors advice is correct - your daughter's brain is trying to repair itself. Doing anything that overtaxes her brain, such as shopping, watching high-stimulating tv or fast-paced music, or even being in a room with a lot of conversation, is counter-productive to her healing process. A healing brain a great deal of energy to heal itself; trying to do anything that takes energy away from that process will prolong its recovery.

The process of my recovery has been excruciatingly boring. I'm personally still bored a lot. But when I overdo it, or try to do more than my brain can tolerate, I experience setbacks. And that is very common.

In an effort to keep myself entertained during this process, I've done a couple of sewing projects, felt Christmas stocking kits. It's all laid out and I don't have to think about what to do next, or be creative, I just sew what the directions tell me to. Maybe that could help your daughter? I also intend to learn how to knit or crochet.

I've also colored a lot. I bought more adult type coloring books from Amazon.

I watch very light TV. Like shows on HGTV that are cleanly edited with a slow paced plot. A lot of jerking camera moves, harsh background music, fast cuts and the like can really overstimulate my brain and do me in. Some cartoons are tolerable (content wise) and not too stimulating too.

Maybe some simple cooking or baking will keep her entertained?

There are craft kits and easy crossword puzzles and other activities that she might be able to handle. It's kind of a trial and error thing.

My own Dr. told me early on that I need to do what I feel like doing and not try to do what I don't feel like doing.

Since she's an athlete, she needs to not "push through" the feeling like she doesn't want to do something. As a very active person before the concussion I sustained, that was very difficult for me to learn to do, especially with decreased cognitive functioning.

Basically, anything she has trouble doing at this point in her recovery is a warning sign from her brain that she's trying to do too much.