[graydove]

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

[Kitty]

Hi Sheila and welcome (again!) to NeuroTalk! I'm glad you decided to come back to the site.

Good luck with the support group you're starting - it sounds like a wonderful idea.

[Idealist]

How are you feeling today? I hope its one of your better ones. I'm really glad to meet you, and I'm happy that you found NeruoTalk, too.

I don't know much about the type of condition you have, but I'm well aware of how frustrating a serious physical limitation can be. It injures your emotions and dulls your spirit as well as making you hurt. I hope that you have many more good days than bad. For me it varies all the time.

When I saw your post it made me grin a couple of times. I'm divorcing after 23 years of marriage, and have three kids, except two of mine are girls. And being a life-long auto technician, the first thing that popped into my mind when you mentioned TBI was "throttle-body injection". I used to work on those a lot.

Anyway, I hope that you like it here and come back often. Good luck and best wishes to you, Sheila...

[graydove]

Kelly (hearkitty1960)
Thanks for the welcome, I found the need for a TBI group in our area, because I wanted to attend one and couldn’t find one close enough. Then I have a friend that both she and her son have TBI’s and we decided to start this group together. Now the local hospital is going to let us use one of their rooms once a month, they will even help us get speakers for the group.

Idealist
I have more good days than bad days now that I accept what is. Fighting the issue and trying to do what I wanted to do with my life caused more problems. I have accepted there are things I cannot do and will just do what I can. I know I cannot work as I wanted to, I cannot be in large groups of people or lots of areas of stimulation. This is just the way of it.

Blessings Sheila

[vini]

hi thanks for you info your tbi group sounds like a great idea
all the best vini

[AfterMyNap]

Hi, Sheila! Welcome back to NeuroTalk!

I'm glad you've come back, sometimes just being part of a community helps a bit. Let us know if we can help you with anything.

[Koala77]

Hello Sheila and welcome to NeuroTalk.

I'm sorry to hear about all the problems that you've had, but I'm glad that you've found your way here to us.

I'm not sure if you've found the forum for Traumatic Brain Injuries yet, but just in case you haven't....this link will take you straight there. http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum92.html

[tamiloo]

Sheila, Welcome to NT. You live in a beautiful part of the world. We have some pretty fine folks here at NT.

We have a few things in common...divorce after 22 years of marriage...he has been living in a gated community here in the state...prison. We are so blessed to not have him in our lives.

You take care!!!

[DM]

Hello Sheila and Welcome to NeuroTalk. Glad you found us and please don't give up~~ your'e stronger than you think. That's evident in all that you've been through. Hang in there.