Hi guys,

I was just wondering if anyone had any good medical literature or advice as to where to look to understand how or why when this becomes permanent. I am not trying to be a downer just understand the facts of the situation.

I am in a good places, but still have double vision, exercise issues, nervous system things going on (or I'm told that's what it is) headaches and psych issues to name a few. I am 20 months in, and have had a bunch of concussions prior, I would never ruled out further recovery but something in my gut tells me it's here for an extended stay.

I'm almost ready to accept it. I am just wondering if that's the way to go, continue to work to improve it but be resigned to the fact that it's going to be a part of me going forward

Anything helps!

I started reading.......Many books have been helpful over the years....Mild Traumatic Brain Injury explained good...Mango Princess..If I only Had a Brain Injury.....Those off the top of my head...

Its been a long time since I was looking for answers...

My neuro said that the brain can reach a tipping point where it cannot recover. Basically, the processing reserve becomes overwhelmed. That is my case. I have had 3 NeuroPsych Assessments over a 12 years period and the results have been consistent. For me, it was a cumulative process of 14+ concussions. 1 severe, 4 moderate and 9 mild to very mild. Over 35 years, my limitations became more pronounced.

I have work-arounds for just about every limitation except my struggle to process to drive. I can drive but have found myself in too many near misses to drive consistently. There are some things I just cannot do at a pre-injury level, mainly due to memory dysfunctions.

I don't know how you can determine if any of your symptoms are permanent other than testing over a long period that shows no improvements.

I haven't had much follow up testing as my issues aren't to bad cognition wise any more at least they don't bug me, I deal with physical stuff and overwhelming issues sound light etc,

I guess at the end of the day I will have to carry on without closure, I am hoping to have an answer as it would make recovery much easier I think, but it seems to me 2 years one would have to think some of it is sticking around.

Thanks as always for the responses

I would also say that testing is really the starting point. It really helps pin-point the damage. I was shocked by the results of my test. I was then able to make the life decisions.

I was living in denial before the test and everyone around me was covering for me at work. I knew I was having issues but passed them off as bad days or not sleeping well.

I would have been fired (and should have been) if I didn't go on long term medical leave. This would have been too hard to accept if I didn't have the hard data.

MVTBI

I too am about 20 months out and have been wondering a lot of the same things you are thinking about. I experienced a lot of improvement since stopping work in February of this year, but recently it feels like improvement has slowed. I go back and forth between wanting to continue to look for different therapies that might help me, and just giving up and accepting that only time will tell whether or not I get better.

I cannot tell you if you or I will have permanent issues. But this is the way I have been thinking about it... Most days I feel about 80-85% of my pre-injury self. Which compared to how I was 1.5 years ago, feels amazing. So most days I am positive that there is an end to this and that some day I will get back to 95-99% of my old self again (I don't think we will ever be 100% the same). But I still do have bad days where it feels like this will never end. I have to tell myself that these bad days are temporary and that I will feel good again and just slog through them.

It is the good days that keep me going and keep giving me hope that a lot of this will not be permanent. I hope you can hold on to that as well. I understand that it is SO frustrating to deal with all the unknowns.

Get your eyes checked for binocular vision (bv) issues. Could solve some of your problems.