Are 'setbacks' damaging?
 

Very often, like im sure many of you also experience, Ill have incidents which I would likely have not worried about at all pre pcs but now are a huge deal and can cause many symptoms and bad feelings.

Im an active person so the bumps. slips, jolts, etc are bound to happen, im pretty sure its inevitable.

for instance today I was walking and slipped on some icy stairs. Didn't fall or even come close to hitting my head, my feet just slipped on the ice and landed hard on the other step and then fell down that one landing hard on my feet on the pavement at the bottom of the two steps. I immediately knew this would cause issues and sure enough a few minutes later the symptoms were really starting to come on. It only got pregressively worse and worse as the day went on and now the symptoms cognitevily and physically are just really bad.


Stuff like this happens all the time, I usually stop worrying about it and return to baseline and my regular life after a few days to a week or so.


My doctor said that it is normal for these things to perhaps cause symptoms but that they are not 'damaging' to the brain.


I wanted to ask what you guys thought and if you had gotten similar feedback from doctors or something different? What does Mark think since he is the expert?


Are 'setbacks' like these damaging or is our head just extra sensitive and any minor thing can set off symptoms but then its no worse then before once the setback runs its course?


Really appreciate any feedback, hope everyone is well.

For what it's worth, my physiotherapist said that his experience, from the patients he's dealt with, is that the increased symptoms that follow a setback are typically temporary, and that after a short period of time (often 2-3 weeks) the patient usually reverts back to their prior state.

I had a significant setback myself. At 9 months post injury, I slammed a cupboard door against the side of my head, quite hard... (there were some pots/pans that were about to fall out of the cupboard, and my instinct was to slam the cupboard door shut, not being mindful of the fact that my head was in the way!).

My symptoms spiked, and I feel like it may have cost me 4-6 weeks of recovery time. But after 4-6 weeks, I do think that I reverted back to my prior state.

Ben,

I don't think they are damaging.

While the symptoms we deal with from such worrisome episodes are certainly real I believe they are a combination of physical and mental onset.

The physical disturbances are more prone to happen the closer you are to your original injury is my guess. If your dumb like me I went out to break up some concrete with a sledge hammer in my yard 6 weeks after I had my skull repaired from looking like a broken eggshell...talk about symptology and I undoubtedly prolonged healing but I don't think it produced any new injuries, fortunately.

Another instance I was walking through a parking lot and saw a truck heading for a speed bump he obviously didn't notice and wasn't going to slow down for, I anticipated the impact and when he hit it I got a terrible instant headache and other symptoms that lasted for a couple days even though nothing physically happened to me. Was I worse off physically from it, impossible but it didn't negate the discomfort, I knew I was dealing with a strictly anxiety related issue.

My rule of thumb for such instances was and still is to remind myself would I have given the incident such as yours or a cabinet door whacking my head a second thought prior to my tbi?

If I know that prior to my accident it would have been no big deal then it is no big deal after my accident and is anxiety related and dealt with simply by reminding myself the body is designed to handle every day bumps and bangs, otherwise the entire world population would be full time concussed.

Take Care,
Bud