Hello
I joined this group a long time ago but have been away for a long time, now I find I need reintroduce myself. I’m not sure if I should post to this psych central or neurotalk group. I had joined both, but I suppose the neurotalk is where I belong most.

My name is Sheila I was an RN for a short time, but the stress of the jobs caused problems with an old Traumatic Brain injury (TBI) I had many years ago. The injury was due to a head on collision where the horse I was riding went through the windshield of a pick-up truck. This left me with two broken femurs and a skull fracture ending in a coma for a few days. This was over 30 years ago; I have had several other concussions since then, the last one in January of this year from a beating I received from my son’s girlfriend.

Every time I have tried to work since receiving my RN in 2002 I seemed to become ill after working for a month or two then had to fight the illness as long as I worked. I thought it was depression all the time, it appeared to be, but was not. Will maybe some was depression. I have worked in the hospital psychiatric locked unit, correctional, home health, and long-term/skilled facility as an RN. I started having speech difficulties after leaving the long-term/skilled facility, but after about 2.5 months this cleared up and I tried to work again in another psychiatric locked facility, but only more difficulties started to appear. I had trouble with memory, time and speech again. I have been fighting for disability for over 8 months now. I even went to vocational rehab for help; they set me up with a neuropsychologist for neuropsych testing. All this did was help my disability case. The neuropsychologist told me he could not see any job I would be able to handle that would not cause me to much stress, which only brings on the TBI symptoms stronger.

Other than the above I was divorced three years ago after 23 years of marriage to a drug addict. The only good thing from the marriage is three wonderful children, a daughter and two sons. One son and his wife have given me my first grandchild.

At this point in time my younger sister has allowed me to live with her otherwise I was living in my car. With no income I had to rent out my home in order to pay the mortgage. I’m still waiting for the neuropsychologist report to give to my lawyer to continue with the disability. This is so hard for me because I really would rather work. It is also hard because when I have no stress I function almost normal or at least I think I do, but then my first accident was when I was 12 years old, so maybe I do not know any different. Another thing I find hard is I have been taking classes on line to finish my BSN, I get great grades in the online classes, but when it comes to clinical or practice I have trouble in these areas. I guess it depends on where the damage is at. The MRI and CT-scans both show right frontal and right parietal encephalomalacia, which is softening of the brain tissue.

Anyhow this is me; I’m currently starting a TBI support group in my local area. I wanted to attend one, but found the closet was two hours away. I’m still optimistic and believe all things happen for a reason, I just have to wait and see what that reason is.

Blessings Sheila