Recovery Miracles
 

Here are a few stories I read over the years of some really amazing recoveries from brain injuries. Helped to keep my positive.

__Brian Boyle (car accident, in a coma for 2 months)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65ugopJ5S4A

__Alison Delgado (struck by a car, coma, brain injury, returned to medical school and able to work out for 2 hours a day)
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/03/05...ncy/index.html

__Robert Hughes (beaten into a coma, brain injury, returned to professional soccer team 6 months later)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/e...on/8185304.stm

__Josh Harris (beaten into a coma, brain injury, returned to soccer)
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7...fter-coma.html

__Debi Arnold (car accident, brain injury, ran marathon after 2.5 years of recovery
http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/new...crash/?ref=rss

__Jenna Phillips (felt 14ft onto her head, brain injury/coma, now runs a successful fitness club)
http://www.lemondrop.com/2010/09/29/...-brain-damage/

__Amii Calway (fell 30ft onto her head, 2 days in coma, recovering well)
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar...-shopping.html


Now, these stories are probably miracles and may be outliers, but recovery does happen. Time and patience are the emphasis within these stories. Hopefully just reading some of these will help many of you through another day!

Carmell

These accounts may be miracles but are more likely the result of focal injuries and/or recovery to a much less that 100%.

The main stream medical community considers a 100% recovery to mean the person can go on to lead a normal life. They are referring to someone who is:
!. Fortunate to be alive.
2. Likely had catastrophic disabilities immediately after recovering from the coma.
3. Likely endured many hours and/or even months to years of therapy.
4. Likely have very abnormal Neuro Psych Assessments
5. Likely have undergone personality changes and mood struggles
6. Have learned many coping mechanisms, work-arounds, and other accommodations.
7. Have a propensity to struggle under mental stress.
8. Will be predisposed to Alzheimer's and other dementias during later life, as early as 40's.
9. Is one out of hundreds who did not do as well with injuries that by all observations were less traumatic/intense.
10. Did not suffer just a concussion but rather a severe traumatic brain injury that left them with a steep climb back to any form of normal life.

They all likely have symptoms that are similar to those endured on a daily basis by many on this forum. Those symptoms are small in comparison to the level of improvement they have achieved.

They lost 90% of their abilities and recovered 80% of those lost abilities. They are still at a net loss of 20%. People with prolonged PCS have lost 10 or 20% of their abilities to function in a normal life and recovered only a small percentage.

I am not trying to rain on the parade of others. I am trying to explain that true recovery is not just a physical recovery but also must include changes in how we live our lives so that we can minimize the impact of those functions lost. If we lose 20% of our function and recover half of what we lost, we can make lifestyle and behavioral changes to live as though we recovered most of the rest. I can be at 100% most of the time. I do this by avoiding the situations that would cause me to crash back to 20%.

We all are learning many new ways of doing things because we can't do those things the old way. The more we apply ourselves to learn new ways to get things done, the more it appears that we have recovered fully. Just don't ask us to do things the old way. We will likely fail miserably.

I find this thread very thought-provoking. On one hand, it is very uplifting to see these examples of amazing recoveries against many odds. And on the other hand is our own frustrating experiences of the painfully slow healing progress that many of us are experiencing and many are from a far less dramatic and serious accident.

I strongly believe it's very important to remain hopeful, but Mark makes some excellent points about the reality. I suppose it's a balance of hope and positive attitude with a certain amount of acceptance so that we can start developing the work arounds that we need in order to start living again rather than just existing. I'm still struggling in this phase of the process. Many days I just need someone to give me a glimmer of hope. Personally, that is when I really need some examples of recovery.

From the very beginning, I have struggled with people's perception that others have gone through far more serious accidents, end up in a coma and are well within a year. They say (think), well so and so is OK, what's wrong with you? Your little soccer mishap is pretty minor shouldn't you be well by now?!

This is a thought that continues to disturb me. Perhaps its more in my mind than in the mind of others. Logically through experience and research, I understand my situation. Emotionally I'm not there yet. I often think to myself, come on, tough it out... push through it. Ya right. Most of us know where that gets us... in a nice long and frustrating relapse!

I guess I'm just venting/sharing here. It's something that is often on my mind. Perhaps as we understand our limits and develop our work-arounds, maybe we can start living similar to the way we used to, and as we begin to experience some success, we can maybe stop beating-up on ourselves.

Thanks,
Soccergal

Yes, my intention here was to provide some positivity here for those of you still experiencing symptoms. However, symptoms have little to do with the severity of the initial concussion. So these coma patients may indeed have less symptoms than you do.

Mark: Many of these people are able to get back to their sports and work lives. Though they may not be exactly who they were before, they consider it pretty close to "normal". In other words, they feel their recovery is complete. I do feel many people on this board will find normalcy like these miracle stories have.

However, often the location of the injury is what makes one concussion easier than another. Injury to the prefrontal lobe heals better than injury to the temporal lobes. Temporal lobe/occipital injuries, because of their proximity to the ear, cause more physical symptoms (you can hear them) and often involve loss of sleep for that reason.

Take these stories as positivity boosters, and don't let your parade be rained on. You are allowed to have hope. Reality can be full recovery. It doesn't have to be "accept who I am now because this is how I will always be".

Now fully healed from my post-conussion syndrome, I can say if I had had no hope at the time of my recovery, things would be different. I look back now and wish I could have told that girl then she would get better fully!

I pray for the day I recover...and it isn't happening fast enough.

Did you hit the back of your head or front?? I hit the back...and sounds bother me tramendously...even my own voice bothers me!!

Can I ask also Carmell, how long did your recovery take? I love hearing stories of recovery!

Glad to hear you are well!

Thanks!
Soccergal

It took me 6-7 months to recover FULLY. I was struck very hard in the temporal lobe. I experienced a lot of brain swelling on the sides of my brain and could hear blood pumping to the area for 4 months. I had every symptom in the book. Dizziness, vertigo, insomnia, depression. It all eventually got better. As the headaches went away I got more sleep. As I got more sleep the rest of the symptoms went away. For me the last symptom to go was sensitivity to noise.

I am a youngster, 20 years old, however I am not sure if that has difference or not in a speedy recovery...

Hang in there!!

Carmell

I went through this feeling 24 hours a day for the longest time. Although I found success stories encouraging, I was rather frustrated with other people's stories of a speedy recovery (not because I wish hardship on them, not at all, just that I prayed everyday for my own recovery which was extremely slow).