For those of you that no longer work...
 

Did you make the decision to leave or did your doctor finally say... "I am sorry, you will never recover from your cognitive impairments.. you will not be able to return to work"?

I had to stop driving in most situations. No congested traffic or busy metropolitan areas. My wife had to drive me to my remodel jobs but that got too rough on her so I finally had to apply for SSDI.

It's a tough decision. My NeuroPsych Assessment was a big part in the decision.

Mark- what did your neuro psych show? How long after? I know you have had multiple different head traumas but just trying to assess what my REAL chances are of ever going back to work... can the therapies that they recommend really help?

My NPA at 1 years showed severely limited short term visual and auditory memory and slowed processing. I had it repeated at 5 or 6 years with the same results. For me, it was a slow progression over decades that was accelerated by an injury on Jan 16, 2001.

Many on NT have seen recovery take a year or more but then were able to get back to a more normal life.

I am still deemed "unable to return to work" by my family doctor.

Stopped work myself and Dr said to leave until better.

I could not get anything accomplished, I'd burst in to tears, forget everything, severe headaches, had spells of not knowing where I was, getting lost on the way to different areas, it was so stressful and made everything worse.

I have been told I'll never be the same, on good days I think..blah, blah, I'm going to show them :wink: and on other days I'm a bundle of tears.

So my test on Friday was for a test that is being conducted as part of a brain study... saw the neuro today and she is ordering another one... should be interesting... she after seeing me for 20 minutes said that there was no way where she saw me going back to work anytime soon... really getting nervous...

I made a decision myself. I used to do kids B-day parties either at our facility (I owned the business) or at any place of client's choice within our radius.

Obviously, handling a child's B-day party is a mission impossible after an injury like ours. Plus I couldn't handle any phone conversations, noises, anything that has to do with handling finances, computer, etc, etc. I still can't do most of these things. So, I had no choice, but stop working :(

I was told I would probably not be able to teach (university level). I taught one course last semester. It was very tough and I did not do much else but prepare, suffer, make mistakes and lie in bed when I came home (my poor children. :) )

but I wanted to prove them wrong. Don't give up. It is a very hard struggle but I see progress in bits and pieces.
Take care!!!!

From the time of my injury I was told by dr to limit myself to 10 hours a week and spread that time out. At results of 2nd neuropsych test 2 years after wreck the neuropsych told me to apply for disability immediately.