My concussion was now officially 4 months ago. And many of my symptoms are pretty solidly here, managed by medication (which I've been having to slowly increase to my dislike - topamax).

At what point do you decide that this is something you might have to work with for a year or more?

My work is a major trigger for me. I've had to already deny a promotion that was too cognitively demanding of me (spreadsheets, emails, memory, too many hours). But I still work in a warehouse with noise and motion. I work with noise cancelling headphones and ear plugs in, in a dark corner by myself on a computer, for about 5-6 hours a day. My employers have been very accommodating, but its still stretching what most could ask for!

Stores are totally horrible, even the local co-op grocery store with natural lighting makes me feel drunk with a vice on my head - Target, Officemax, etc is totally out of the question!

When do you re-arrange your lifestyle beyond the 'healing' phase, and into the 'this is the new me' phase? How do you do that?


Thanks

To be honest its a bit early talking about 'this is the new me' at 4 months.

My situation now approaching 8 months is completely different to 4 months - like comparing night and day!

At 4 months I was really ill and unable to function, now I am more or less getting on with my life. It just takes patience and time, but you will get better.

I think one can look at your question two ways.
1. When do we know what our future will look like? Can we handle our current job?

But then I think of your question in a completely different way

2. Is the life that I am currently living, the life that I want to live?

I am 8 months pcs and it has made me think long and hard about my careers, how I can modify/ change them. My relationships, some have grown stronger, some fallen apart. The way I pass my time is completely different.

Maybe this experience causes some to make some serious life changes. Hopefully some for the better. I have already lost a job that I miss dearly. That was one of the most difficult things for me. But hopefully something better is on the horizon.

4 months is very early for many of us on the slow boat to pcs recovery. It will give you lots of time to think.
Su Seb

I guess the way I mean is - when do you decide to stop making stop gap measures to keep things together 'until you get better' and change your lifestyle and take that pressure off and just have life work for how you are now?

For example: I could go on short term disability 'until I get better' instead of working. But what if in 6 months when it runs out I'm still not quite well enough to handle all the commotion of work? Instead, I have to make a career change.

Another example is shopping/stores. Instead of asking for friends to just pick things for up for me for a few months... when do I realize that I need to train my dog to help me as a service dog complete these tasks?

Thanks again all

Heatherr, so sorry this has happened to you. I am 13 mos now and they are no clear answers to what you are asking. Many difficulties revolve around quality of life issues. As far as accommodations start making them now and as you move thru the healing process you will be able to eliminate them. The NP I saw put it this way Drs do not know why some are affected and others not. Or why some heal in one time period and others are different.

I am 15 months pcs now and have not gone back to work. I face my insurance expiring in 8 months. Will I be able to go back to work within the next 8 months and function or will I start and have to many symptoms to go on.... No body knows and it does not make life easy.

I am now looking at modifying my career to not include so much computer or reading. It seems that everyone with post traumatic vision syndrome has not been able to work a full day on a computer. Maybe I will or maybe I won't.

It drives me nuts sometimes to have so few answers. I think you just have to go with the flow. I had a job lined up for last July, it amazes me to realize I still can't work.....but yet I see others that have gotten back to work in 3, 6 or 9 months.

You have to respect that each brain injury is different and it is going to take as long as it is going to take.

Good Luck I know it is not easy and there are not a lot of answers. I think that you will have to look at your life differently after a brain injury, rest and taking good care of yourself is so much more important. Overdoing it takes us too long to recover from.

Heatherr,

I think the question you are trying to ask is this. Will I be better off taking STD and working on healing or should I continue to push through hoping for a good recovery ?

The follow up question is: Can I take Short Term Disability and truly make the best of it toward recovery ? You need disciplined quiet rest. Not bed rest but disciplined at how much you take on and how you stay engaged so your mind has reason for blood to be flowing.

It sounds like your job is not giving you much chance to heal.

How much STD do you have available ?

What can you do with yourself to help with healing ?

Over the years I have had many, many injuries broken bones, severed fingers and always bounced back and got on with things. For nearly a year a year I struggled with how to "heal" myself like I had done before.

Then it dawned on me, damaging the brain is much like having a severe break in your leg. You know it is going to take a long time to repair and whilst you can do some things you are going to rely on people to do things for you. You will need physio and support during the mending phase. However, just like you may suffer a limp after a broken leg, your brain will have lingering symptoms.

Accepting that I found the hardest part.

I agree with Mark, you need to decide if working is actually slowing your recovery.

I went into work for nine days after my injury, and ended up being off for 5 months when I went off again, with a phased return to work when I returned.

In work I am doing virtually everything I used to, except I restrict computer use to an hour at a time. Good luck with your decision making.

I understand the dilemma in trying to make a decision in long term adjustments. I'm over 2 yrs PCS now. I remember early on, I would have plans in my head of when I would get better- "If I finish off the semester things will get better after that", "Maybe by the end of the summer" etc. etc.; It just seemed to drag on a lot longer than I wanted it too. I've had to keep resubmitting academic plans of delaying when I'll will graduate (delayed by 2 yrs now), as I need to keep taking a reduced course load when I thought I would be able to handle full time by now.

Its really a personal decision to make. For me, there just came a point where I realized I was in this for the long haul (it hit me around the 8 month mark) based on the extremely slow rate of recovery and severity of lingering symptoms. It was a bit of a shift in my mindset where I realized every time I overdo it and exacerbate my symptoms, it is further delaying overall recovery. I could no longer think, "I'll just push through it this one time and it will get better soon" because I know it won't be soon. At one point, I even posted a sign in my bedroom "Your goal today- to not give yourself a headache". I shifted from my main focus being on school/work to main focus on recovery (I like to think I'm in the full-time concussion recovery business, part time student)

So for now I've tried to be conservative in planning on what future work-loads I can handle. But at the same time, keeping the faith and trying to remain optimistic that things will get better.

Also, my biggest regret is that earlier on I did not take more time to rest!!! Unfortunately, you do not know how long symptoms will last until looking back in hindsight, but my advice to anyone early on in concussion recovery is take as much time as your brain needs to rest/recovery! So you don't end up like me, sitting back and wishing I had rested more so that maybe I wouldn't still be suffering 2+yrs later