Has anyone heard of the books Brain Injury Rewiring for Survivors and Brain Injury Rewiring for Loved Ones?

I'm trying to help my son whose skull was fractured when he was a baby. As I read more about TBI, I wonder if he would be different than he is today if the accident hadn't have happened. He's even asked me that same question.

He has terrible headaches, dark horrible thoughts that he doesn't want to have and can't sleep without a sleeping pill.

Any ideas or suggestions?

rena,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. I am sorry to hear your son is struggling. There is no way to directly connect his current symptoms to his past injury without some very specialized testing. I don't see the value in making this determination.

The issue is, How do you and your son go forward?

The books you mention sound like they are worthwhile. The solutions require the efforts of both the injured and those around the injured. Understanding the injury allows all to work with the limitations rather than fight against them.

What have doctors said about your son's condition? Has his CSF pressure been tested? Does he breath properly when he sleeps?

What diagnostics has he undergone?

btw, How old is he now?

My best to you.

I have recently read these books, they are very helpful. Only thing is they are full of alternative treatment stuff that in my opinion have very little basis in medical fact; use your own judgment.

Probably quite overwhelming for many TBI survivors, but this TBI author had been writing these books for 30 years so they are chock full of info and must be taken as companion books, don't just read one of them so that both sides, survivor and caregiver, can "team up". Overall, I do recommend them.

Your sons symptoms are all very common in TBI and it is likely they are a result of his injury, but as Mark suggests, that probably can't really be known to be so. Check the side effects of his sleeping pill, especially if he hadn't had the headaches or dark thoughts before he started taking them.

He hasn't had any neurological tests. He fractured his skull at 7 months old and is now 17. They did an MRI at the time of the accident and found no injury to the brain. All the swelling was on the outside of the skull.

He's only been taking the sleeping pill for the past couple of months. He's had the headaches since he was 4 years old and the dark thoughts for a couple of years now.

Has your son been seen by a head injury rehab clinic? There are things they can do or try to help him with head aches and the dark thoughts. There are some new treatments where they target a specific part of the brain to resolve focal head aches if that is what he is having. Has his intracranial pressure been checked? Sometimes, a drain shunt can help with injury induced head aches if they are due to fluid buildup.

At his age, his brain is mature enough to not expect him to grow out of any symptoms.

No, his doctor has only ever referred him to a psychiatrist. I've refused to let him be on psychiatric drugs at his age and concentrate more on behavior therapy for the dark thoughts. I will mention checking his brain out. They tell me the headaches are migraines and he has imitrex nose spray but it doesn't always work.