Brain Injury Support Group
Traumatic brain injury occurs when a sudden trauma causes brain damage. TBI can result from a closed head injury or a penetrating head injury. Symptoms of a TBI can be mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the extent of the damage to the brain. Outcome can be anything from complete recovery to permanent disability or death. A coma can also affect a child's brain.
I thought a discussion about how funny it is the way we think we are fine and don't have any problems until reality, or someone shows us we are not. When I had my first consult with a neurologist in 2007 about TBI he asked me how I was feeling. I responded, "Fine but how would I know." He laughed and said in his 30+ years of being a neurologist nobody had ever answered that way but it made total sense because a person with brain injury generally thinks everything is okay until something reminds them that they are not.
My example: I think I'm fine; I get up, rush to my therapy appointment and tell the therapist I'm fine. She starts the evaluation and tells me my head is not on straight!
Sidenote: head alignment is critical to brain recovery because the brain doesn't get full oxygen or blood is the alignment is off. I did not know this until yesterday. So, get your head alignment checked
My example: I think I'm fine; I get up, rush to my therapy appointment and tell the therapist I'm fine. She starts the evaluation and tells me my head is not on straight!
Sidenote: head alignment is critical to brain recovery because the brain doesn't get full oxygen or blood is the alignment is off. I did not know this until yesterday. So, get your head alignment checked
Would you mind if I asked what kinds of discomfort you feel? Besides the noise sensitivity (which I've recently made good progress on), there's the feeling of congestion, as if blood can't get to the right places that need it (I've also started to make progress on that).
Besides taking whatever they prescribed for you, have you tried taking anything on your own? Try some Folic Acid, after taking some strong protein like beef or even veal. Try using a ceramic bulb (long-wave infrared bulb) like I did - I bought one from the pet store, and I shine it on myself at night. You can even order one off Amazon or wherever. It improved the circulation in my brain, and made me feel a lot better. I still sleep like that every day, and benefit from it.
I once made the mistake of swallowing Ibuprofen, and it caused further stuff to burst in my head. Ibuprofen can cause further bleeding - a nasty lesson for ignorant me.
The key is to arm yourself with better and better knowledge, so that you'll find newer and better ways to make yourself more comfortable. All this time, it never really occurred to me to even look for a forum like this, to find other people who had brain injury difficulties. I could have probably saved myself a lot of time and misery if I'd been smarter.
The fact that this goddamn injury is so painfully super-sensitive has a curse which I've tried to turn to advantage. I've tried to use its painful sensitivity to figure out what aggravates it and what stimulates repair. My injury gets strongly bothered by stuff that the rest of my body would never ever even feel. It's so sensitive that when repair happens, I can actually feel it happening in vivid detail.
Folic Acid does work - I've literally felt it go to work on me. My case isn't as as serious as yours, but we're all made of similar flesh and blood, so if it works for me, it could likely work for you. But make sure you get some good protein & carbs into you before you take the Folic. Try finding a highly pure crystalline version with good dosage. If your digestive system is a liability, then consider trying to take Folic intravenously.
Try the ceramic bulb thing - it can boost the blood circulation in your head and elsewhere, along with your metabolism. Try a multi-vitamin. Try videogames which can boost hand-eye coordination. I bought that Nintendo Wii motion-gaming system when it came out in 2008, and it helped me. My speech was a bit slurred, but when I would play some of those motion-games so intensely, that afterwards the slurring would go away and I felt more alert. I could feel the benefits.
What do you mean by "ceramic bulb?" Could you please post a link to one. When I searched all I found was these weird bulbs that were heat emitters
You gotta remember my case is 31 years old now. Most of the healing took place in the first few years. A lot of it took place in the hospital. But I can't remember even being in the hospital. But I did hear when I was there that my mouth was paralyzed and that they had to teach me how to talk and walk again. I don't remember anything about that.
I'll suggest to you that you consider sucking on it instead, until it dissolves in your mouth. I've found that sucking on the Folic Acid instead of swallowing it produces a better effect, especially if you take it at bedtime following a heavy dinner (high in protein).
I'll also tell you to consider taking the Neprinol. That's produced the most dramatic and tangible effects for me so far, out of anything I've ever taken. This Neprinol stuff can really dissolve fibrin very effectively to soften up or break up scar tissue, and I'll swear by it.
--What do you mean by "ceramic bulb?" Could you please post a link to one. When I searched all I found was these weird bulbs that were heat emitters--
Yes, a heat-emitting bulb, like this one:
http://www.amazon.com/Zoo-Med-ReptiCare-Ceramic-Infrared/dp/B0002AQCPK
I have one of these screwed into my reading lamp mounted above my bed. It radiates heat onto my head, in the form of long-infrared waves which penetrate the skull and improve blood circulation. It feels great, and really improves the quality of my sleep. I get a very restful sleep when I have it shining on me at night. I'm someone who prefers to sleep in pitch darkness, and fortunately this heat emitter bulb doesn't emit any visible light to disturb me. You just have to remember to mount it safely so that you won't touch it, because it gets very hot (hot enough to cause burns if you touch it)
Remember, you can absorb certain things through your mouth walls, and so sucking on some stuff can help to increase your absorption (since whatever doesn't get absorbed through the mouth will wind up in your stomach anyway)
Folic Acid isn't going to benefit you in one sitting - it's something that's going to gradually produce benefits over time. But it sounds like your injury hasn't necessarily affected your thinking capabilities. With my injury, it hit my memory and my mental clarity, etc. The Folic Acid significantly helped improve that stuff.
As for energy, have you tried any stimulants like caffeine, or these energy drinks? Group motivation could also be a helper -- I've heard of people who do group workouts through Skype and similar software. You may want to do some googling on that stuff. Group social interaction can help with exercise.
But as you say, it may be lack of nutrients. Have you tried chewable vitamins?
http://www.centrum.com/centrum-chewables
How about medical assistance for meds? I cant do it because I have too much money . I cant access it, but they count it against me. Maybe you qualify?
What about the protein powder stuff? I used to take whey powder as a teenager and young adult, when I used to work out. The stuff is always being marketed as being very easily absorbed by the body, to help boost your energy and muscle mass. Also, have you ever heard of Creatine Monohydrate? That's another health powder you can take which is supposed to pack your cells with the ATP molecules that your body uses for energy (so that you can have a more vigorous workout). You can get the stuff more cheaply if you buy it in bulk.
Dude, don't despair - life is too important to ever give it up, or give up. Life is a precious gift, even if we sometimes get some bad breaks. At least we are living in a time where all kinds of medical breakthroughs happen on a regular basis. Just imagine what people faced 50 years ago.
I would not touch Creatine. The first time I ever heard about it was back in the 90's. A reporter found a bottle of it lying in Mark McGwire's locker when he was with the St. Louis Cardinals. I heard a lot of talk after that of how dangerous it could be. I know his brother who is a professional body builder and takes whatever he can get away with introduced it to him. It raised a lot of controversy for McGwire at the time too, even though baseball had no rules against it. It was my doctor's suggestion to just use iron supplements. So I'm sticking with that for the time being. And will check the iron level in my blood possibly next week.
I will ask my doctor about head alignment. I don't know how much it really matters though after all this time or 31 years, all the damage has been done.