Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Concussion Syndrome For traumatic brain injury (TBI) and post concussion syndrome (PCS).


advertisement
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Old 08-25-2019, 04:22 PM #1
guitardude guitardude is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 32
5 yr Member
guitardude guitardude is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 32
5 yr Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vania View Post
Thanks Guitardude! One year out is still early, although I know it feels different. But I'm doing much better now than 1 year out, and I very much hope this will be the case for you as well.

Regarding depression, I followed some very standard advice:
- seeing a therapist twice a month
- exercising as much as I could every day
- making sure I have "pleasurable" activities scheduled every day. This sounds silly but I tend to be a perfectionist / anxious type and I had fallen into a trap where I was either working or resting, and not enjoyibg life anymore. I suspect I was chronically dopamine-deprived So I changed my mindset and forced myself to work less, seek out friends more regularly, find new hobbies compatible with PCS, etc.

All the best to you.
Fantastic. I consider myself extremely lucky in that while my pcs has exacerbated my tinnitus, I haven't had noise sensitivity issues, so I can still mostly enjoy seeing music in town and participating in jam sessions; in fact, I'm going to even more of them now than before. Definitely helps me to have something to look forward to each week. Upping the anti on exercise has certainly helped a bit too

EDIT: I had forgotten about your line of work, and wanted to ask- how are your math skills these days? My background is in physics, and I love working out challenging math problems but can get discouraged when I feel my fogginess is making me less engaged in this craft
guitardude is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Old 08-27-2019, 12:10 PM #2
Vania Vania is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 88
5 yr Member
Vania Vania is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 88
5 yr Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by guitardude View Post
EDIT: I had forgotten about your line of work, and wanted to ask- how are your math skills these days? My background is in physics, and I love working out challenging math problems but can get discouraged when I feel my fogginess is making me less engaged in this craft
Math / cognitive skills is the dimension that has improved the least unfortunately. The brain fog has almost disappeared, which is great, and for short periods of time I feel completely fine. But my problem is that my brain has become intolerant to the prolonged effort required to do math at a professional level. Ideally I should be able to concentrate on a problem for 3 hours uninterrupted, read papers, write equations, etc., but this type of effort gives me strong headaches quite quickly, and even a full-blown relapse if I don't stop. This is frustrating, and this forces me to consider a career change, but at the moment I am mostly feeling happy and grateful about the improvement in my physical symptoms.

About your tinnitus, you are probably aware of this already, but professional ear plugs make a huge difference, as they protect your ears while preserving the quality of the sound. I used to be an amateur musician too and I used these regularly (before PCS forced me to give up on music).
Vania is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Old 08-27-2019, 01:16 PM #3
TheNorwegian TheNorwegian is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 84
8 yr Member
TheNorwegian TheNorwegian is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 84
8 yr Member
Default

Vania, in my experience the brain fog is the last symptom to clear up - it took me 3 years before it was completely gone. So dont give up on your career plans yet:-)
TheNorwegian is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
"Thanks for this!" says:
Vania (08-28-2019)
Old 08-27-2019, 02:13 PM #4
guitardude guitardude is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 32
5 yr Member
guitardude guitardude is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 32
5 yr Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vania View Post
Math / cognitive skills is the dimension that has improved the least unfortunately. The brain fog has almost disappeared, which is great, and for short periods of time I feel completely fine. But my problem is that my brain has become intolerant to the prolonged effort required to do math at a professional level. Ideally I should be able to concentrate on a problem for 3 hours uninterrupted, read papers, write equations, etc., but this type of effort gives me strong headaches quite quickly, and even a full-blown relapse if I don't stop. This is frustrating, and this forces me to consider a career change, but at the moment I am mostly feeling happy and grateful about the improvement in my physical symptoms.

About your tinnitus, you are probably aware of this already, but professional ear plugs make a huge difference, as they protect your ears while preserving the quality of the sound. I used to be an amateur musician too and I used these regularly (before PCS forced me to give up on music).
While that does sound frustrating, I want to side with norwegian and say keep your chin up - it seems like your ability to think properly has just about restored, it's only the fatigue that is getting to you. Maybe with some more time and exercising properly, you'll have the energy to work for longer! While nothing is certain in this whole realm, it does seem encouraging that you have periods where you can think clearly.

Just curious, have you used any specific modalities (LLLT, chiro, etc...) over the course of your recovery? or has it been more 'organic'
guitardude is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
"Thanks for this!" says:
Vania (08-28-2019)
Old 08-27-2019, 10:35 PM #5
RPulver RPulver is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 6
3 yr Member
RPulver RPulver is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 6
3 yr Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by guitardude View Post
While that does sound frustrating, I want to side with norwegian and say keep your chin up - it seems like your ability to think properly has just about restored, it's only the fatigue that is getting to you. Maybe with some more time and exercising properly, you'll have the energy to work for longer! While nothing is certain in this whole realm, it does seem encouraging that you have periods where you can think clearly.

Just curious, have you used any specific modalities (LLLT, chiro, etc...) over the course of your recovery? or has it been more 'organic'
This is a great post! I also am having issues with post concussive syndrome, but mostly with anxiety with re-injury. I especially appreciate he fact about setting yourself up for a timeline is a setup for failure. In my mind I figured I would be back to normal in 6 weeks because that is what I had been used to with past concussions. Now I am almost 1.5 years in and still working on it. I have seen psych and neuro optometry. I think there is something to the vision piece, but wish I could find a good doc for the anxiety component. I’m sure I have poor coping mechanism with no prior psych history though. Glad to see you are recovering though!
RPulver is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
"Thanks for this!" says:
Vania (08-28-2019)
Old 08-28-2019, 03:17 AM #6
Vania Vania is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 88
5 yr Member
Vania Vania is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 88
5 yr Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by guitardude View Post
Just curious, have you used any specific modalities (LLLT, chiro, etc...) over the course of your recovery? or has it been more 'organic'
The chiro helped with my tesion headaches, but that's it.
Vania is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Old 08-28-2019, 10:48 AM #7
guitardude guitardude is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 32
5 yr Member
guitardude guitardude is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 32
5 yr Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vania View Post
The chiro helped with my tesion headaches, but that's it.

I've been meaning to give 'brainHQ' a shot. If you haven't heard, it's a computer app for cognitive skills, and supposedly it avoids the pitfalls of 'lumosity' and similar apps in that the training carries much better to overall brain aptitude. I'm not 100% sold on it, but its low cost and they did one study on veterans showing that it fared better than other games, so I want to give it a go
guitardude is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Old 08-29-2019, 07:28 AM #8
Vania Vania is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 88
5 yr Member
Vania Vania is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 88
5 yr Member
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by guitardude View Post
I've been meaning to give 'brainHQ' a shot. If you haven't heard, it's a computer app for cognitive skills, and supposedly it avoids the pitfalls of 'lumosity' and similar apps in that the training carries much better to overall brain aptitude. I'm not 100% sold on it, but its low cost and they did one study on veterans showing that it fared better than other games, so I want to give it a go
I had a look at it and that sounds interesting. Would you mind sharing your experience once you know more about it? Thanks a lot! And all the best to you.
Vania is offline   Reply With QuoteReply With Quote
Reply

Tags
brain, fog, issues, progress, time


Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off



All times are GMT -5. The time now is 09:29 AM.

Powered by vBulletin • Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

vBulletin Optimisation provided by vB Optimise v2.7.1 (Lite) - vBulletin Mods & Addons Copyright © 2024 DragonByte Technologies Ltd.
 

NeuroTalk Forums

Helping support those with neurological and related conditions.

 

The material on this site is for informational purposes only,
and is not a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment
provided by a qualified health care provider.


Always consult your doctor before trying anything you read here.