GradyLady,

Sorry to hear of your struggles.

Lets leave the future alone and deal with now. Go to www.tbiguide.com, download the TBI Survival Guide, print it out and have your family read it. Fabulous resource.

It sounds like you have started figuring out your triggers. With a journal, you should be able to get dialed in on all of your head ache and other triggers. Prevention of symptoms is the key. The longer you can go without triggering symptoms, the more chance you have at healing.

Wow, your story sounds like mine. I had a bike accident in 1965 at 10 years old. Since then, 4 moderate concussions and many, 10 or so, very mild concussions. Now, at 55, I have been on Social Security Disability for 4 years. My life changing concussions was very mild in Jan 2001.

Back to your struggles. Get a white board for your refrigerator. Have your family write down stuff for you there. Then, you can read it and respond when you are up to it. As you are learning, choose your battles. And, with your grown kids, remember this axiom. " A failure to plan on their part does not create an emergency on your part." Been there, done that. Three grown children.

Do you have a blood pressure monitor? They are only $20 to $40 at places like Walgreens, etc. Work at keeping you BP at a normal level. It will likely help with the head aches. Have you had your neck checked out by an upper cervical chiropractor? Check out www.nucca.org or google 'upper cervical chiropractic.' Neck injuries are often overlooked after a concussion.

Post more of your struggles and we will try to help.

My best to you.

hi Grady

omega 3 and good supplements can only help keep hydrated to prescribed levels, we don.t feel like eating with a constant HA but above all don,t do things that make you worse , this term PCS is a misnomer! you have hurt your brain healing is very slow, like mark says deal with the now, this part of an old poem Desiderata" -- written by Max Ehrmann in the 1920s sums it up for me--


Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

if you have the summer to recover thats a + concentrate onthe small victory's , medicine can help only some symptoms

like others have said whip lash type injurys are often overlooked

keep us posted. this is a wonderful support forum welcome, we are, so glad you were able to post, it would take me all day when I joined 2 years ago to type a post ,it still frustrates me, but the good thing, is you can do things at your pace .

hope to see your around the boards

I'm so sorry to hear of your trouble!
I have been suffering with PCS for a year and a half.
From all that I have read is try to slowly increase activity and slowly push yourself with mental activities. Since you have trouble writing, try to write a little each day, make sure you use music too. The biggest thing is keep challenging yourself every day to do a little more a little better.
Other than that, I have found no better answers and I am so sorry. I don't think I would even wish PCS on my enemies let alone people who are just trying to live life.
Good Luck!

His survival guide link no longer works.

I just tried it and it works fine.

www.tbiguide.com

Hey Mark, I tried the web page also and could not get the download. The 1st page was there and then when you go to download book, click, it sends you to another page and it is there when you click on the link to http://briefcase.yahoo.com/debglen that yahoo sends you to " Sorry, the page you requested was not found".

Do you have the book? If so, is it possible for you to scan and email if needed?

I just went back and looked at the page again. You can read the book by looking at the bottom of the first page where it reads : Main Page || Previous || Next
Related Links || Download the Book

If you click on "Next" you can read the book page by page by clicking the the "next" at the bottom of each page. I went ahead and highlighted each page and copied to a word document and saved the 'book' on my computer.

Thanks Mark!

Anybody who wants me to e-mail them the Word doc file of the TBI Survival Guide, send me your email address by Private Message. It is a 3.4 mb file so make sure your yahoo or gmail has room for such a large attachment.