Hi,

We've sort of had this topic come up before, but I thought it would be a good time to start a new thread on it. We've had a lot of new members recently, so this could be helpful.

Would you post the treatments that have worked for you and the treatments that have not worked for you? Or, if you're a caregiver, the treatments that you feel have worked or not worked for the person with the BI & related head/neck injury. This can include any type of treatment - i.e. medical treatment, surgery, medication, therapies, nutrition, home remedies, etc.

One of the reasons I'm thinking this is important, is that I know many of us are struggling with figuring out how to pay for the medical care we need. So, I think having information on what treatments are useful would be a good thing.

And, just one thing I want to add before I post my own list is this - please don't be offended if you find someone else has listed something that worked for them but didn't work for you. Or vice versa. Not everything works for everyone because we all have such different injuries.

Ok, here's my list:

**WHAT WORKED**

FOR HEAD PAIN (specifically blood vessel swelling in my head):
-Cranial Therapy (performed by an Osteopath) has released most of the blood vessel from being trapped.)

FOR VASCULAR MIGRAINE
-Ice on neck (reduces swelling in head)
-Caffeine
-Vicodin (doesn't get rid of the migraine but does give temporary relief from the pain)

FOR NECK INJURY (bulging disc)
-Physical therapy (helped get things moving - not a cure, but a help)
-Ice
-Heat
-Flexeril (to reduce the swelling enough to sleep at night. Also, I take it occasionally during the day when the pain gets really bad)

FOR VERTIGO (Falling over when walking)
-Walking little bits until I could go further & further
-Fluid in my head/inner ear eventually going down (time)

FOR SPEAKING DIFFICULTIES
-Speech therapy
-Time (some of it just naturally got better over time)

FOR COGNITIVE PROBLEMS (Frontal lobe part of the injury - difficulty with Executive Function)
-Cognitive Remediation (done by the Speech Therapist - who knew all that they do? Pretty cool!)
-Time (Some of it seemed to come back after the Cognitive Remediation stirred the process back)

VISION DAMAGE
-Vision Therapy
-Colored eyeglasses for the computer
-Continuing to try to read and utilized the "homework" given by the Vision Specialist

HYPERACUSIS (damage to the inner ear)
-Too soon to tell but I have ear devices that are supposed to either fix or reduce the severity of the pain & the problem with my ear not being able to regulate noise properly
-Ear plugs (Although I can't hear at all then)
-Flexeril
-Forcing myself to listen to music & gradually turning the volume up has allowed me now to be able to tolerate some noise

LACK OF ALERTNESS
-Caffeine (seemed to help stimulate my brain to function & to stay awake. In the beginning I had trouble being conscious during the day.)
-Time (This definitely got better over time.)

FOR DEPRESSION
-Zoloft
-Getting improvements with my injuries. As I did so, I could do more (i.e. read/write/cook a little) and that helped pull me out of the depression)

FOR PTSD
-Psychologist who specialized in PTSD

FOR CONFUSION
-Went away over time

FOR MEMORY PROBLEMS
-Writing things down
-Having my husband remind me to do things



**WHAT DIDN'T WORK**

FOR VASCULAR MIGRAINE:
-Imitrex

(Note - Also 2 other meds didn't work for me, but that was due to side effects (stomach upset) - they were Midrin (now off the market) and Celebrex.

FOR HYPERACUSIS:
-Time (Has NOT helped. Very little improvement with the passage of time, unlike other pieces of my injury which did get improvement over time.)

FOR NECK INJURY (bulging disc)
-Doing too much (Have to be VERY careful about lifting even light things - can set off vascular migraine in head)

FOR VERTIGO
-Effexor (Made me hostile & hallucinate. Only took 1 pill and said "No way!")


Ok, this is a lengthy post, so enough for now. What's your list? :)