Measuring progress
 

Early on after my injury, like most people I got little help or support from the medical professionals. My family and I scoured the Internet and found many sources of information (especially this site) to describe the symptoms potential courses of action etc.

One of the sites ( can't remember which one :winky:) had a list of common traits that head injury suffers indicate that are a problem. e.g. simple maths, repeating oneself etc. The idea being that you or your family use this list to give each item a score and then revisit it periodically.

I do mine every couple of months and have noticed - albeit subjective improvements in a number of areas. I don't take it terribly seriously but it does provide an indicator on progress and it does make you reflect on your own behavior and attitudes.

The version I use has around 120 measures and rather than post the entire list here is my summary and progress.

immediately Feb - Apr May-Jun Jul- Aug
Intellectual Impairments 215 182 172 157
Psychological Consequences 60 58 55 52
Mood Disorders 4 4 4 4
Physiological Impairments 90 85 82 81
Personality Alterations 46 45 45 34
Neurological Problems 75 65 60 57
TOTALS 988 896 854 783

I seem to be making progress in the majority of areas -obviously not as quick as I would like but I am happy with this



May be of interest to others - let me know and I will see if I can send you a copy

Sorry about the formatting of the table

Good deal, I think it important to celebrate our successes, looks like you are making great progress.

I had a diffferent experience in that I had tremendous support from many very qualified medical professionals who helped me assess how my recovery was progressing, but as long as you see the progress and have a way to measure it (which you are doing) I think that is very important.

Best to you in your continued recovery.

:hug:

lightrail,

Can you please tell us about the medical professionals who were a big help?

What were their specialties and how did they help you recover, therapies, etc?

Hi Mark.

I was fortunate in one respect, my accident happened about a mile from St. Joseph’s hospital/Barrow’s Neurological Institute in Phoenix, which is listed annually as one of the top 10 neurological hospitals. In fact, there are more brain surgeries performed there than any other hospital in the country.

I had a craniotomy the evening of the accident which saved my life (Dr. Steve Chang). About a month after the craniotomy I was transferred from ICU to Barrow’s neuro-rehab, which is under the direction of Dr. Christina Kwasnica, whose specialty is brain injury rehabilitation. In addition to directing the staff of occupational, physical and speech therapists she personally saw me each day.

Each day in nuero-rehab consisted of at least 4 hours of therapy. Speech therapy started with such basics as what day and year it was (which I didn’t know at the start of my rehab), then as I started to get the day and year thing down, they moved me to other tasks such as sequencing and sorting problems to work on executive functions and memory. Occupational therapy included games and activities to improve coordination, problem solving and short term memory.

Another specialist I saw while there was Dr. Jennifer Wethe, who is a clinical neuropsychologist. Her role was in assessing my cognitive functioning and progress. She also did a neuropsychological evaluation upon discharge to set the direction for my outpatient therapies, gave “homework” activities to work on.

Not to sound like a PR rep for Barrow’s, but I can’t say enough good things about them. I think the key is they see TBI/PCS cases all the time, and have developed care strategies to address these injuries.

http://www.thebarrow.org/Who_We_Are/index.htm

Why are you trying to measure something that is so complex? The fact that you can write this shows your positive progress...And yes, we are getting better. It is very slow.....incredibly slow....While your waiting, don't forget to "live" again. That is try to find things you like to do...anything! whatever you find fun in your new life.....But to wait on something so detailed such as your brain healing and getting better...that's too much! Think about it...we have approximately 1 BIllion Brain cells (neurons). Anything is open..all possibilities! I know your wondering and you want to know something to give you some peace in your mind...believe me, I get that way sometimes, and it always defeats me...I get mad....for not knowing...what is really an unknown.....Our brains are healing...everyday...every second...year...whatever.....But you can't forget to "live" your new life...find new things to love to do....You can do it! Meanwhile your brain (our brains) will continue to make slow-progress! Goodluck to you!

To make this more complex, researchers say we have between 10 and 100 billion neurons. Mind boggling...............

Multiply that by up to 10,000 axons per neuron and it is beyond mind boggling.

Perocker56

9 months into my injury all I have seen so far is a general practitioner whom is unwilling to give any diagnosis until I have seen a specialist. Given the current waiting list it may not be until next year! In the meantime I am keeping the high level records and a diary for a number of reason

I have something (albeit subjective) for the specialists to look at and draw some conclusions from my current levels to ones recorded shortly after injury. Additionally, from experience doctors like to see some progression over time.

The other point is that these are useful for myself and family. I used to be highly organsied, methodical and scientific this gives me something to relate back to in my past existence. It does help as well if I asks my family for input in to some of the measures e.g. "what has my mood been like recently?" I can then compare their answers to what I thought i was like.

When the eventual claim for compensation does come to fruition it does provide some level of documentation.

In terms of "The fact that you can write this shows your positive progress" is not so true in my case. Since my injury I have been able to construct posts like this but typing this response and getting the English understandable has taken me nearly an hour.- much the same as in the early stages. I haven't improved at all - previously this would have taken me between 5-10 mins