Hang in there - I know 7 months is a long time but the recovery period can be a lot longer. It's incredibly difficult but try to stay focused on making good decisions every day (rest, sleep, good nutrition, relaxation, maintaining a good daily routine, minimizing stress and overstimulation, etc) and let the rest take care of itself. There is a lot of good support and info on this site.

Actually my sense of smell was never affected. My issues have been primarily around sound, sight and balance. Balance being the worst of them and the longest lasting for some reason and came back.

So I am afraid I am of not much help or guidance on the smell issue. Have faith that it will come back with enough time to heal.

I am also at the "lucky 7".

After going out for lunch with my wife and having two beers which wiped me out for days, I haven't touched a drop for 5 months. For the first two months my taste buds were completely shot and couldn't stand tea or coffee which was fortunate. However, as a substitute I used to drink diet cola (2 litres per day) if only I had found this site previously....

Minor bump on my head a few weeks ago that set me back - but I do feel a lot better now than I did back in January. To prove it I have a list of about 130 measures that my wife and I score on a month by month basis. It is surprising how even a small change can make a difference

Sospan,

I like the idea of that score chart, sometimes it's hard to see improvement after it takes so long and the improvement is slight.

I may have to start doing something like that as I myself am getting pretty frustrated. Missed out on X-mas and now with 2 kids not able to do alot of the outdoor stuff that I had hoped with them.

I'm in Ontario and same thing! LOL little buggers!

I had to wait a while for my CT

Here is a site with a check list... http://www.headinjury.com/checktbi.htm http://www.headinjury.com/getstarted.html
The lists on the left of the page under "Advocacy Skills" and "Getting Started" has several more.

Maritime for me so often appts are out of province. Had my CT within 6 weeks. Still no neurologist yet.

I would caution everyone about overuse of a score chart. Using it once a month may be OK but more often will end up being confusing and cause anxiety.

Its best value is to be aware that a concussion can negative effect all of these areas. Many of the improvements can come from learning to focus or behave better. Accepting that you have control over many attitudes and behaviors is the start at making changes and improving.

The Brain Injury Checklist is quite overwhelming. You can shrink the width of the window so the chart is narrower.

Be prepared for the roller coaster ups and downs of PCS. You will find that you can even plan for a down period. If you have a stressful event or task coming up, you can rest up before hand and be prepared to have rest time available for after the event or task.

Day to day changes are rarely consistent or long term. If an improvement lasts 2 weeks, it is the start of a possible long term improvement.

Just remember to let your brain have the time it needs to improve.

My best to you all.

I certainly agree that doing check lists every day would be just toooo much! As long as trends are tracked it could help to just check off a few occasionally as symptoms occur ... but maybe that would get confusing too since so many need set schedules to follow.

I guess everybody could just adapt whatever lists suits them to meet their individual goals in keeping track, according to ability and need, and set a schedule accordingly. I just hope one day my son gains enough self-awareness and motivation to even try to use something like this.

I refined mine and got one of my kids to put it into an excel spreadsheet - much easier to complete.

I only do it monthly to coincide with my family doctors appointment. What I have found out is that doctors seem to be more understanding if you can them some sort of measure especially if you can say so and so is better but this is still a problem. I find it useful if someone else helps - reduces the strain on the brain plus you get another opinion.