I can honestly say that I have fully recovered. I know that Mark says no one can recover 100%....but I truly believe that I have. I havent had a headache in months and that was my last symptom that I had only occasionally after I passed my one year mark. But my first 9 months were definetly the hardest and I suffered from multiple symptoms. I attribute my healing to good nutrition, resting, Healing Touch treatments, acupuncture, taking my medicine regularly (when I was prescribed medicine), yoga, positive thinking and hope. My best to you all. :)

I would suggest that many who have left here have recovered enough to get on with their lives. This is no different than those who discontinue seeing a doctor except that doctors often discount concussion symptoms causing patients to leave due to frustration or disgust.

We do have people who come back from time to time and tell us about their continued improvement. Many have learned ways to overcome residual struggles that they still have. If you learn to work around many symptoms, stress is reduced and the rest of the recovery comes easier.

I was reading about rehabilitation for more severe brain injuries. Many are released from rehabilitation when they are just arriving at our worst levels. They get released to continue recovering with family and if finances and insurance allow, outpatient therapists.

I would just like to say that it is very helpful to hear from people recovered and near recovered, it gives others with PCS symptoms hope. I will hopefully be another who can come here in future to offer words of encouragment once I am healed.

Is it possible to recover 100 percent?
 

Hi friends,
I think it is possible to recover 100 percent for people who have had one concussion or have a more minor injury. I have passed out at least 8-10 times and hit my head on concrete (diagnosed as hypoglycemia) I have fallen forward a few times instead of straight back and hit my face on concrete. After the first one or two concussions I was able to recover enough to function normally and have a normal life with the exception of migraine headaches. That is something you can learn to work around in life if it is only happening a few times a month. It still disrupts a life though. After 5 concussions I had to work real hard to appear normal and was cutting things out of my life like crazy. It was so exhausting to be normal enough to hold a job that was all I was doing. After being hit and knocked out in a MVA in 2006 , I suffered such severe amnesia and problems that I have not lived anything resembling a normal life since then and symptoms have not improved. I do not know how to live like this. I am hopeful that I have found my way finally to a person (Neuropsychological Testing) who can help me to adapt to the new life I now have. I do not think I will recover. I think there are others on here who will not recover. But I do think we can maybe have a full life despite it. I think there is great hope for many on here to recover enough that they don't notice it and it does not disrupt their life completely.
Sorry if this is upsetting to some. It is my honest opinion with the experience I have lived.
Brain

What does 100% recovery really mean?
 

Interesting question in that all significant life events, positive or negative, benign or traumatic, change us in some way.

My injury wasn’t a concussion per se; it was categorized as moderate to severe TBI (GCS 11) which required craniotomy surgery and a two month hospital stay. After six months of inpatient and outpatient therapies I was evaluated by a clinical neuropsychologist and there were no residual cognitive deficits. So have I recovered? 100%? By this definition yes. That said, in some ways I’ve changed, becoming more emotional in some ways, and more self aware and compassionate in other ways.

:grouphug:

It is incongruent to say that people with just one concussion recover 100% but people who had suffered more than one, maybe multiples have less than 100% recovery. The reason those who have multiple concussion have less than 100% recovery is because each consecutive concussion leaves the brain with less tolerance for future impacts and minor ongoing concussion symptoms. Research shows this second point to be true. Those ongoing concussion symptoms are usually only noticeable during times of stress.

Those who have learned to moderate stress recover the most because this lower stress level prevents many symptoms from manifesting.

nightnurse and others likely have made changes in their lifestyle and environment that make these stress related symptoms almost never manifesting.

This is why I emphasize the need for stress reduction as a life style change. The research shows the value to stress reduction as does my 45 years of the ups and downs of post concussion syndrome.

If you have access to the research of Elizabeth Gronwall of New Zealand (her full research is published in a book that costs $80 ), you will better understand these issues. A past NT member was a patient of hers before Dr Gronwall passed away from a brain aneurism in about 2006.

My point is that we can, by lifestyle and environmental changes/choices, recover to very high levels during the early stages of concussion with a need to reduce any further concussion risk.