I disagree with Mark on his views of the potential for recovery, but I'm in agreement with him that you need to be willing to make some sacrifices to make this situation better. For me to get where I am now from where I was 3 years ago (when I was at my worst) or 6 years ago (when I initially hit my head), I had to give up alcohol, tobacco, soda, candy, fast food, and put my life's plans on hold to give myself a low stress environment to heal in. That's a lot of lifestyle changes, but I'm sure you can understand that it has been absolutely worth it.

The point here is that Mark and I probably disagree on a lot of things, but I am absolutely in agreement with him that you probably aren't going to get too far if you're unwilling to make any changes to your lifestyle to improve your situation. Particularly if you're still wrestling, things are a lot more likely to get worse than they are to get better with that mindset.

Albert Einstein once defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Miracles do happen, but sitting around waiting for one to happen isn't a good treatment philosophy. If you want to make sure you get beyond where you are right now, you need to be willing to make some sacrifices to help yourself get better.

What I mean by no recovery is this. The studies show that any concussion will have long term permanent effects. They might not be noticable most of the time but they are there. The symptom I noticed most is the one with the most scientific study. I am prone to problems at altitude. In 1980, I was a private pilot. I bought a nice plane, a Beachcraft Bonanza P-35, the Porsche of private airplanes. I flew it often the next year and a half until I had a few scares. Pilots live (stay alive0 with checklists. The landing checklist is GUMP. It stands for Gas (full tank with the most gas in it) Undercarriage (landing gear), Mixture (maximum fuel mixture for best power if you need to aborted landing ), Prop (propeller speed at maximum for an aborted landing). I had performed this checklist many times before without incident. Twice, each after a two hour flight from Los Angeles to San Jose, when I parked my plane and stuff off the engine, i noticed that I had not set the Mixture and Prop to maximum. After the second time, I parked the plane until I could figure out what was wrong with my checklist routine. After not finding an answer that gave me confidence to continue flying, I sold the plane.

Years later I found the answer in Dr. Dorothy Gronwall work. She studied PCS subject to find out about long term healing. Her basic test was using an altitude chamber to stress the brain. The developed two groups of subjects (cohort), both had similar educational background and other characteristics to make the study valid. Both groups were put through a series of tests to gauge their level of performance at sea level. Then she retested both groups in an altitude chamber set to 8,000 feet (2600 meters). The results were straight across the board. Statistically, all of the PCS subject had a decreased level of performance at altitude while the non-PCS group maintained their performance levels.

This was an eyeopener to me. My failure in the airplane cockpit were most likely directly attributed to the reduced oxygen levels at altitude. I was flying at 12,000 feet (4000 meters). The short time as I descended to land was not enough to overcome the long term hypoxia I experienced at 12,000 feet.

Other studies show similar results using other stressors. Loud noise, bright or flashing lights, sleep deprivation, emotional stressors, etc.

The point is that PCS subjects may get a recovery that appears to be 100 percent at low stress levels but that will not hold true under stress. Thus the need for good nutrition, especially B vitamins and other supplements.

Another point to my statement about "no complete recovery" is to get PCS subject to make changes in their lives. Learn the work-arounds and other accommodations.

Many PCS subjects have problems with outbursts or anger management. I can get real loud real fast. Other strike out. It is due to a part of the brain that is often injured in concussion that controls impulse. Lack of impulse control during times of stress can lead to big problems. The jails and prisons in British Columbia, Canada are a good example. A recent study revealed that close to 60 percent of the inmates have symptoms of PCS of MTBI. The homeless population in the USA has similar statistics.

I carry a card in my wallet that I use at airports. It says, " I suffer from a brain injury that may cause me to over react and get loud in loud or stressful situations. Please help me minimize these situations." I have been kicked off a flight because I over-reacted when the inspector was too physical in a pat down of my crotch. Another time, the TSA agents were all yelling different commands at the same time. I responded to one by yelling, "What do you want me to do." I was quickly grabbed by a cop. He got even louder and in my face. Finally, I got my composure and said in a quiet and calm voice, " If you are trying to de-escalate the situation, you might start by lowering your voice." He began to understand and we had a very informative discussion about the TSA agents yelling.

So, now when I fly, I take my note in my wallet, and I do not let the TSA agent search me by pat down. One time they wanted to and were about to kick me off the flight. A police office approached me and I suggested that we go behind the curtain. We did and I undressed for him to do a visual "Pat Down" and check my pants and shirt. All was well. He understood my concern.

So, I have work-arounds and other accommodations so I can deal with my disabilities. I usually have foam ear plugs in my pocket if I am going to be somewhere where loud noise or crowds is likely.

I use Firefox for internet browsing because it has a built-in forms spell-checker so I can type in forums like this without confusing people with my giberish spelling.

At my last neuro-psych assessment, the psych put in his report that someone like me could benefit from counseling. I asked him what he meant at a follow-up phone call. He said that it would be an opportunity for me to learn more work-arounds and other accommodations. He acknowledged that I already was doing quite well with the work-around skills I had developed and that there might not be many more work-arounds to learn.

In his report, he actually was confused by the varied test scores. I ranked all over the scale, from the bottom 10 percent to high 90 percent level. He attributed this to poor effort or maybe malingering.

He neglected to note that this is highly indicative of a highly intelligent person who lost memory skills and processing speed after developing the high intelligence. This is a common problem with neuropsych assessments. The reporting psych tends to go to either extreme, all brain injury so all scores indicate brain injury, or all scores indicate psychological problems (depression, bi-polar, etc.)

One of the psychological issues they tend to push is "denial." The problems may have been real shortly after the concussion but continue because the subject never accepted the reality of the problems to begin with. They will claim that if the subject would acknowledge them and learn how to work through the difficulties, they would heal faster. When PCS subjects develop these realities and work-arounds, they can better see if they are healing and better communicate to their doctors. Until then, the doctors just write them off as complainers or malingerers or worse yet, put a term in their medical record that can be the kiss of death, they will call your condition

"SOMATOFORM." Somatoform can be interpreted two ways; The symptoms are real but we can not identify a cause, or The symptoms are caused by psychosis and have no organic basis, sometimes called Psychosomatic. The later record reviewer usually interprets it as the later and refuses further treatment. The first definition should be applied to Idiopathic, meaning symptoms of unknown origin.

One doctor put Somatoform in my record in May of 2002. Since then, it has been difficult to get help until I found a knowledgeable Physiatrist and rehabilitation medicine specialist. She confirmed my brain injury just by listening to how I spoke. She scheduled me for a neuropsych assessment, then she dismissed me.

It appears the only thing we may disagree on is the recovery issue. Not unexpected since most neurologist would agree with you. That is why many in the MTBI community consider ourselves the invisible wounded. The neuros will say we are fully recovered just because they did a standard neuro test. Often they do not even do a MMSE (Mini Mental Status Exam) and say we are fully recovered. Some will say we are fully recovered because they have nothing more to offer us and do not want to get hate mail from our health insurance company for submitting a bill for seeing a patient who is "healed."

I can look back at my 44 years since my first bad MTBI. During my good times, I would have thought I was fully recovered. During times of stress, I knew I was not. When I finally decided to make decisions based on my brain injury history and stopped trying to force results that I could never achieve (I am an optimist and entrepreneurial, so I take on risks and new challenges), my life started to stabilize. Until then it was a roller coaster. My successes would trigger a decompensation (relapse) and the cycle would start again.

There is another worthwhile saying.

An fool does not learn from his own mistakes.
A smart man learns from his own mistakes.
A wise man learns from OTHERS' mistakes.

Healing is a personal thing, regardless of what you tell them, people will find out for themselves what they can and cannot do, and what changes they are and are not willing to accept into their lives.[/QUOTE]

Hi PCS McGee,

Very good point. People are different - we do all have different strengths and weaknesses. Good reminder, thank you

Shez

received a concussion from a blow to the back of the head, staying nauseated, more than anything seems headachesare there but this nausea is awful. MD PRESCRIBED ATIVAN FOR THE NAUSEA, BUT IS USED ALSO FOR NERVES

What does MTBI stand for? All of these acronyms ! Mild traumatic brain injury?? I certainly consider myself to be invisibly wounded. I look completely normal, until I talk. I often fumble over my words, stammer, and struggle to recall what I was talking about in the first place. NOT fun ! People often become confused and/or frustrated as I struggle.

I had surgery on my left temporal lobe, 3/06 for epilepsy one year before my tbi . It caused more memory problems, word-finding difficulty, major depression. In 3/07, I slipped on the ice and fell on my head. Caused the plate atop the LTL to shift, intracraneal bleeding and moderate concussion (which equaled a mild tbi). Long-lasting effects were worsening memory, loss of seizure control, major depression even worse, and outbursts of anger. My memory is in the 10th percentile, short term and instant.

Thankfully, my doctors (epileptologist, psychiatrist, internal medicine doctor, psychologist, and occupational therapist) were much more understanding of my situation as I was. They saw probable complications l-o-n-g before I even realized it. I continue to push myself very hard - just to do things that many people do everyday, piece of cake for them. It is a major challenge and very frustrating for me & everyone somehow attached to me (my family, work, friends). Yet, that is my everyday life. I just got diagnosed with refractory seizures again, as I was prior to surgery.

That's my experience.

Shez

Hi popeye,

Sorry about your tbi Yes, the nausea is a symptom. I don't recall it lasting more than a day or two.

I do recall getting a list of possible symtoms, from the ER after being diagnosed. I developed every one of those symptoms as the week went on. I then slipped a disc at work and that intense pain took priority over my tbi symptoms. Kind of interesting My brain can only handle so much, I guess!

Hope that you feel better soon, and not through another injury! ((hugs))
Shez

hi all

supplements are good advice ,I can say they have helped me
repeat concussion is a factor for sure just, falling hard as I did 5 months after, made me go back to square one and get stuck there , for 3 months

facts can be what we don,t wan,t to here and in telling our story people can think it will apply to them, but all opinions should, I feel, be valid on a forum ALL CASES ARE DIFFERENT, I was attacked so you would imagine I would have ptsd I don,t think I have but I probably couldn't tell it from my tbi symptoms

hi popeye welcome

MTBI stands for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. It is more commonly referring to closed head injury, head injury with no or minimal LOC, head injury with no positive imaging results, no hospitalization, etc. MTBI is often the best way to define the "invisible wounded." PCS is a subset of MTBI. MTBI is a subset of TBI.

PTSD has been mentioned many times in this and other threads. I am confused how so many claim PTSD. The proper diagnosis of PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, requires a professional psychological work-up. PTSD is caused by a combination of factors, the most important being:

Involvement in a traumatic event, This can be physical trauma, mental trauma, observing physical trauma, or the extreme likelihood of physical trauma. i.e. Being held hostage. Witnessing an event that is traumatic to others. Being pinned down and shot at as in war. Being subjected to a phobia antagonist, for the claustrophobic, locked in a small area, for the agoraphobic, overwhelmed by a crowd of people that you cannot escape, etc.

There is an expectation that in a normal situation, the subject should be able to escape the trauma or provide assistance to others.

Often there is a belief that "This should not be happening."

This is often combined with knowledge of what to do to escape the trauma. Sometimes combined with the skills to escape the trauma.

But, do to circumstances beyond the subjects' control, they cannot escape, evade, or otherwise reduce or alleviate the trauma.

Examples would be:

Watching someone being mauled by an animal but being unable to help them. The PTSD may be signified by recurring thoughts such as: Why couldn't I help them. I should have helped them. It is my fault they are hurt because....

Being claustrophobic and getting trapped in an elevator. Why isn't someone answering the emergency phone? Is someone trying to get me out? A sense that the elevator is getting smaller.

The Columbine shooting. The students and teachers wanted and needed to escape. They knew the way out. But it was blocked by the shooters. But they were not sure where the shooters were. How did these shooters get in the school with guns? Why are they shooting people? Am I going to be killed? I just saw my friend killed.

In each case, the subject has recurring thoughts from the traumatic event. During the event, these thoughts were like gears grinding inside their head. Without properly understanding the trauma and thoughts, the brain continues to grind gears after the event. Studies show that even when there is no visible physical trauma, there is physical trauma in the brain. It sort of pollutes itself with these pervasive thoughts and carves memory ruts in the memory pathways.

When PTSD and PCS are combined,often at the same event, the injury caused by the PTSD accentuates the symptoms of the PCS and vise versa. At least that is what the studies appear to show. This is currently still being studied as soldiers return from Iraq. The symptoms exceeds the sum of the two parts.

When this traumatic event occurs at a school, they bring in counselors to help the victims understand their thoughts and explain that they did nothing wrong, They have no reason to feel guilty. They explain the cause of the trauma as beyond their or anybody else's control. etc. This kind of counseling is extremely important to fend off PTSD.

I suffered from PTSD after being assaulted by a bunch of cops after telling them they could not go in my father's house without a search warrant. They assaulted and arrested him too. Unfortunately for him, he was in the very early stages of Alzheimer's Disease and nothing was done to help him with his PTSD.

My PTSD was related to being locked in handcuffs and locked in the back of a police car alone for almost two hours. I am severely claustrophobic. The cops prevented me from using any of my relaxation techniques to deal with my claustrophobia. After being diagnosed, I refused the psychotherapy that was suggested because it was intended to get me to believe that the cops acted legally and behaved rationally. They had not. I got better with to therapies. Medication and a self-contrived Cognitive behavioral Therapy. When i got anxious about the event, I would reframe the issue with the thought; There are two rules with cops, cops are always right and when cops are wrong, remember, cops are always right.

My father never recovered partly because this event turned his world upside down. He had alway had a strong respect for the police since he had worked in an ultra-top-secret and high security field and since his father was chief of Police when he was a child.

I hope you people get the idea of what PTSD really is. If a Family Doctor or other non-psychologically or psychiatrically trained person has diagnosed you, I would seek a second opinion. A diagnosis without an offer of legitimate treatment is worthless. This also holds true for those of you who have been prescribed psychotropic medications by a non-psych professional. Many doctors prescribe meds to just help you feel better, not help you get better. Read the literature on anxiolitics, anti-depressants, sedatives, benzos, SSRI's, MAOI's, Tri'cyclic's, etc. They are not for casual use. I know that the meds I take can cause some very aberrant behavior if not used properly.

Check out the web site of Peter Breggin, M.D. by searching google. Dr. Breggin is an expert on this medication stuff.