Boy, has it been one hell of a ride.

It's been quite some time since I posted on here. For the people who don't know me, I'm Nick and I suffered a complicated mild traumatic brain injury in 2011. The result left me with a bleeding and bruised brain, and a myriad of debilitating and unexplained symptoms.

The first two and a half years of my "recovery" weren't much of a ....well, recovery. I seemed to decline more and more everyday, no matter how much I rested, or followed the advice of my piers. Any form of stimulation would completely shut my brain down which left me with not much of a social life. I would lock myself in the house for days at a time because the slightest bit of sound or visual stimuli would destroy me, and I would only leave if I absolutely had to (doctor appointments, visits with my kids, etc).

It got to the point where I gave up trying to recover and started trying to actually live my life. It wasn't until then that I started recovering.

People kept telling me to push through - which at the time I thought was horrible advice. But, I did it. I slowly but surely resumed a semi-normal life and 4 years later I got it back. My girlfriend of 5 years and I are getting married, we have 4 beautiful children (2 of which are biologically mine), I taught myself how to program games and apps for Android and iPhone and now own a business which I am CEO and Lead Game/App Developer. 2 years ago (even one year ago), drinking any amount of alcohol would completely destroy me for days. I have absolutely no problem drinking any amount of alcohol now. Going to a club, crowded grocery store, theme park etc. was something I never thought I'd be able to do again. But now it no longer causes me any problems. 4 years ago I wouldn't be able to predict my life would be this way today.

I've got my life back!

I won't say it's perfect (then again who's life is perfect). And like Mark in Idaho has said before, people don't ever 100 percent recover from a brain injury and he's right. I still have residual symptoms left over but I'm okay with that. Because I can actually live now.

Thanks to everyone on this forum for the support over the years; especially to Mark in Idaho who stuck by my side through the whole ordeal. I'll never forget the 911 private messages I would send him in the middle of the night when I thought I was falling apart and just wanted to give up.

Never give up, people. You might not ever fully recover but you can live a semi normal and enjoyable life. You just have to want it. Find work arounds, find what works for you no matter how long it takes to find. Keep searching and keep pushing for normalcy!

God speed on your recoveries!

Nick

P.S. Just to show what I've accomplished post-brain injury, here's the link to one of the Android mobile games I developed on my own(which is free to download/play). Hopefully this will provide you with motivation to follow your dreams, whatever they may be:

Panic Rabbit!

This is so great to hear. I've seen some of your posts since I've been on here and have thought to myself what a terrible situation. Truly inspiring to hear you've come so far. Thank you for sharing.

Congrats Nick! What helped you with your recovery?

Thanks a lot, SpaceCadet.

I absolutely needed to hear this.

I've been writing programs too, and I also want to make a business out of it. I've long felt like I was the only one trying to do something like that after an mtbi so I really appreciate you showing up!

Best regards,
Petr

This post is very timely for me, as I've been struggling for the past few months with increasing difficulty. Thanks a lot for updating us on how you're doing. I've read some of your older posts and it's refreshing to hear that you are recovering.

It gives the hopeless hope. Thanks again for the kindness to come back and share with us your experience.

That's a great post. Thank you for updating us it means a lot. So are you able to drive cars and ride bikes outside now ?

Hey SpaceCadet, I'm 23 years old and have been living with post concussive symptoms for the last six years. When I am showing improvement, I will hit my head again and will take a turn for the worse. I read that you had contact info of someone in San Diego who was doing the LENS research. I would really appreciate it if you could pass that onto me as I do not know where else to turn.

HeadacheJake,

Welcome to NeuroTalk.

Spacecadet (Nick) is busy with his life and does not follow this forum. He just popped in to give an update. From what I remember, Nick did not notice a real benefit from LENS. Others have tried it and some were actually harmed by it.

Please feel free to introduce yourself and tell us about the symptoms you are struggling with.

Feel free to start your own thread with the New Thread button at the upper left of the main TBI/PCS page.