Do you think you are going to recover?
 

No, I don;t. I hope that I can get used to my situation and be able to live with it.

No, not after 9 years since first insult to the head. I think I can be made more comfortable physically and mentally. But I will never be who I was. Scares me still to say that.

I was in the middle of Very successful career before I got sick, now I am on ssdi. Healthy as an ox now not so much.

But there are choices to make. I can go to the beach and take a walk and look at the water or sit home in the dark like ive been doing, eat more terrible food and have a heart attack in a year lol. I am hoping I do the former. will let you know later :)

bro, this thing is a monster and I have read your posts and know you are going through so much, I am always an ear to chew on if you need.

No. I don't think either that I will recover anymore . I will never be the same person again although it's been just 5 months as some might say. I know I still have time to recover but a part of me knows that that's it, I will have limitations forever and will always have residual effects left. This sucks but brain damages are almost always permanent although you might feel better with time, but never completely fine! Nearly every symptom will come creeping in when you will push yourself beyond your limit and this is the truth. You never actually recover from brain injuries and once you get this condition, there is no shaking it no matter what you do. The classic statement by doctors is true "you will have to learn to live with the symptoms for the test of your life"

No, been told will never be 100% again which devastated me, some days I feel okay about it and this is the new me, other times I cry, hopefully as time goes by i'll accept it as what else is there to do?

The whole brain damage thing scares me, I feel "mental" sometimes, used to be so quick with everything, now notes are everywhere and I still forget to look at them so I feel stupid, I know it's not true of course but I just feel it especially when I'm around others.

When someone is talking to me it's like my brain needs time to catch up with what they just said, often have to ask again.

I also do try to laugh things off if someone says I look so confused, I find if I can see humor in it instead of getting upset it's better.

I did notice a little difference a few months ago when my brain felt a little clearer. I have down days but i am a fighter so try to think positive :)

I am only 7 months in and have not given up hope yet... I am starting to but I have not given up hope that one day I will be able to go back to work at the same capacity that I was before and be the b**ch everyone loves

recovery is a marathon and not a sprint
 

I don't use the past tense word "recovered" for pcs. I say that I do live in recovery and in that I have regained much of who I was and what I had before the accident.

All of this who are afflicted with this eventually have to decide what we have to live with and work around, what is different, and how we are going to be in the world.

It's been said here before and I will say it again. You can live with a very full life with pcs. I have my issues. I am not always as fast as I was, my typing can be off, and the list goes on. None of what I have prevents me from living fully -- and I won't let it.

Hang in there and believe in your healing. Keep positive and do every thing you can to just reduce stress and be positive.

Take care

poetrymom

No, I don't think I'll recover. After being at a completely symptom-free stage, all of my symptoms returned after a very minor bump. It's been almost a year - no improvement at all. I'm just hoping to get used to this and get at least some of my life back.

I don't believe that the brain can ever be 100% the same after TBI. However, most of you will make good recoveries and move on with your lives.

I know, when you're in the throes of dealing with a myriad of symptoms, that that can be hard to believe. To illustrate my point, I'd invite you to peruse my "friends" list. The majority of the TBI ones are no longer on NT, because they got better. Yeah!

I sometimes worry that the presence of "lifers," like myself, can have a depressing and distorting effect on newcomers. In fact, after a long hiatus, I struggled with the idea of returning: I didn't want to bring others down. My injury and difficult recovery are ATYPICAL - most of you ARE going to get better. Hang on.

My providers (doctors, PT, OT, therapist, all who specialize in brain injuries) keep telling me that they expect me to make a full recovery, and my rational side believes them, because most people with mTBI get better. But, for some reason I have a really hard time, especially the last few months, truly believing that, and I don't quite understand why. Normally I'm a very positive person who tries to see the best in things, and am generally have a positive attitude about how things will turn out. But PCS has driven that positive person away, and I can't seem to find him again.

Hockey, I appreciate what you said. I do think that part of my negativity about my recovery stems from seeing the horrible things that TBI can do to people on this board (but mostly the fact that I seem to simply not be getting much better!). I count myself lucky everyday that compared to many on this board my symptoms are mild. And while the presence of "lifers" skews much of what's posted on this board towards the extreme, I think you all also serve as an example of the resilience of the human spirit, and give hope that even if things don't get better, people can adapt.

The ones that are lifers like me, are thrilled you are on the board. And in fact, in some of the more distressing threads where people are hopeless after a month or six or even 19 months, we can give them some perspective of how much time they have left to make marked recovery.

And we can share our experience with the myriad medications and treatments we've had regarding personal efficacy and side effects for specific symptoms, and, although of course not universally applicable, are useful nonetheless.

we can prove to them that there is hope because with a stroke, ABI and TBI under the belt, I can still write a sentence like this previous one :)

AND we can stress the caution that is needed after a head injury, and being once a 19 year old male, I know how easily that caution can be thrown to the wind without proper warning.

And I find myself telling newbies at least once a week that it is unfortunately expected that their neuro just told them it's all in their head because their MRI is fine. and that MRIs will not pick up most concussions

... and the list goes on.

That's my two cents :)

shoot for the stars, if you miss you will land on the moon.

You will have the best case scenario if you believe you will recover. Do not underestimate the power your belief. Not only do your beliefs affect your decisions (ie how aggressively you seek out treatment, etc), they have significant influence on your mind and body. Do not stop until you exhaust all the possibilities; you owe this to yourself.

Will, this is true.

When I was first injured, my prognosis was terrible. My evil neurologist kept asking me why I was "wasting" my time on physical and cognitive therapy. I told him that, sure, if I tried, there was a possibility I might fail. However, if I didn't try, failure was 100% certain. There is nothing to lose in trying.

In fact, there was lots to gain. No, I'm not all better, but I'm doing much better than anyone thought possible.

Hockey- you have a wealth of knowledge... and have gotten me through some issues that turned out to just be anxiety.. I am so thankful to have this board and "lifers" like you ... you have made this journey more manageable

I am improving significantly. After 4 years I just started working full time again on August 1. Before the accident I worked 1 full time job and 3 part time jobs, so I'm not "normal" yet - but I still have hope that I will be someday and it's definitely worth the hope and effort it's taken me to get as far as I have to this point.

But that doesn't mean it was roses and peaches for me and that I didn't question it. It's very human to feel awful about such an awful thing that creates such a huge challenge in one's life.

Hang in there!! :grouphug:

I'm 7 months in and am very much feeling like I'm never going to recover. I've seen very little improvement and possibly none at all, but I'm trying to adjust to the possibilities of never being back to my previous level of functioning.

The way I'm trying to look at it for myself is that I feel it's unlikely I will improve significantly, but I'm trying not to be negative about that, rather trying to accept it as a fact. If I'm right, then my expectations will be met. If I'm wrong, I can be pleasantly surprised.

I had an extremely promising career ahead of me, I was going to apply to start my doctorate this year and I've spent the last 10 years building towards that. I'm trying hard to come to terms with that.
One of the other things I'm doing is trying to think of the positives, like I will have a family, I think of all the things I can do like walk and talk and still live life fairly fully.

On a side note, my friends and I were talking recently about invisible disorders and my work speciality is autism, you may familiar with the t-shirts to spread awareness, 'I'm not naughty, I'm autistic'?
I was saying I'd quite like a t-shirt that says 'I'm not stupid, I'm concussed!' :P

When are you going to start taking orders?

When somebody, who knows I've had a TBI, grossly underestimates my cognitive function, I say "I'm brain damaged, not brain dead."

Abbilee,

I saw very little improvement post 7 months. However, I did continue to get better very slowly. The month to month improvements have been almost negligible. However, if I compare myself right now to where I was few months ago, I know I am getting better.

Amy Cuddy's IQ dropped 2 deviations after her TBI and she was told by her doctors that she will never graduate from college. She never gave up. It took her 8 years to complete undergrad and now she is a renowned social psychologist and a professor at Harvard Business School. Check out her TED talk.
http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_y...es_who_you_are

keep these videos coming, thanks will. for now i just listen to the audio. some day i shall watch them!! :)

Do you think you are going to recover?
 

Yes; while I still have some residual minor vertigo and some mood changes I can’t fully describe, I’ve recovered by most objective measures.

My NPA five months after my injury stated “On examination, the patient demonstrated intact cognition in all domains assessed including learning and memory, attention, processing speed, language skills and executive functions. He has shown an excellent recovery from his severe injury only five months age. From a cognitive standpoint there are no concerns with respect to the patient returning to work full time or returning to driving.”

That said all major life experiences, whether traumatic or benign change us in some way. I have an enhanced level of gratitude for life, and remain very grateful for all those who participated in my recovery, from the doctors and other medical professionals to family and friends. Miracles happen.

:grouphug: