winic1,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry to hear of you struggles. I can't imagine what you are going through.

My first recommendation is for you to download the TBI Survival Guide and print it out. It is at www.tbiguide.com

Second, I have serious doubts about the validity of the neuro-psych assessment. If it was done in just the morning, it was a seriously abbreviated assessment. Many neuro-psychs have a bias against mTBI causing long term problems. They also tend to use the wrong battery of tests and even misinterpret the results. A proper mTBI neuro-psych assessment is the Halstead Reitan battery. It can take all day.

Is a car insurance company paying the medical and testing bills? This can be a source of the bad information. Many health insurance companies also are ignorant with the idea that if he is walking and talking, he must be OK.

What kind of work does your hubby do that he can do with these severe symptoms?

His work may be wearing his brain out. It is called sundowning. His brain fatigues and starts failing at sundown.

When he is getting his wires crossed, it is usually a problem with executive functioning. Fatigue makes this symptom worse. Any kind of stress makes it worse.

A baby step for you to start is getting his nutrition upgraded. He needs to help his brain detoxify. No more coffee or caffeine. No MSG or processed soy products. They cause a glutamate toxicity in the brain. No alcohol beyond a single serving per day.

Get him started on a serious B vitamin regimen. Check the other thread for some vitamin recommendations. B's at up to ten times the RDA, D3, folate, all of the anti-oxidants, and others you will find in the other posts.

Get his folate, B-12, hormones including all thyroid, tested by blood test. This will help get his B-12 and folate up to normal. He should be at the top of the normal range for these. An injured brain is very hungry for good nutrition.

His neurologist can order the tests but most neuros are not very good with concussion. A Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation doctor may be a better choice.

Also, get an application for Social Security Disability Income started. It can take a while to get approved and his work performance is likely lacking so he could qualify.

And, when he is confused and screwing up his thoughts, please do not yell or sound harsh. It will only make his brain dysfunction worse for the moment. His tasks should be one at a time. If he tries to take on multiple tasks, try to redirect him to just one task.

I am very high functioning but still have to only take on ONLY one task at a time.

If there is anything you can do to simplify your household, it will be a big help. The new dog can be a challenge unless he can take it on as his only household duty. Trying to follow a disciplined dog training regimen can be just the task for him to focus on. Plus, the dog's companionship can be very supportive to his condition. Their demands are much less.

Try to keep the noise and visual stimulation at a minimum. His brain easily overloads. It tries to process everything at the same time. This is a gating and filtering dysfunction. The brain does not gate (or direct) the information to the proper area. It also fails to filter out distractions (the power company trucks) that cause his mind to flit from one idea/task to another. I have the same problems.

He is going to need the whole family's help to simplify his tasks and thoughts.

And, when he has unexplained outbursts, try to redirect him to something else. His brain can get locked on an idea (the power company MUST stop at our house) to such an intensity that he explodes. The problem may be real (yes, you need the power company to stop) but the outburst is way beyond any acceptable response.

I put my family through these same problems since a concussion in 1996. Three subsequent head traumas since then took me on a steep downhill path. So, YES, BEEN THERE, DONE THAT.

Your are a saint for hanging in there, especially with your own injuries to deal with. BLESS YOU.


Let us know any specifics we can help you with.

My best to you.

btw, It will help many of us if you could format your posts into paragraphs of 5 or 6 lines at most. Those of us with vision difficulties struggle to follow from the end of one line to the start of the next. I cut and pasted your post into WordPad and added a bunch of paragraph spaces so I could read it.