Recovering from Mild Traumatic Brain Injury

Hi All,

It's been comforting and saddening at the same time reading everyone's experiences with tbi. I was a passenger (wearing my seat belt) in a car crash over 2 months ago. Not to be ungrateful but my frustrations over lack of communication and respect with the medical field is just Grr! After confronting a doctor in the hospital for information, I was told there were cerebral contusions (bleeding and bruising), a mild concussion and musculoskeletal injury. I'm basically bed bound right now, am trying to build up my walking again starting with 5 minutes a day with my sun glasses and ear plugs (I used to be able to do high intensity cardio 5 days a week). I have chronic headaches, tinnitus seeing eye floaters and black spots, blurry vision and have pains in my eyes and ears. And I have pain from the top of my head to the tips of my toes just all over really (soft tissue and nerve damage it seems). I feel dizzy, have presyncope, balance problems, memory focus and attention problems. Thank god my family have been amazing and one brilliant friend but I've found that times like this you find out who your real friends are. And I agree with a lot of people on this page, its so frustrating how people just don't understand what you're going through. And you even begin to doubt it yourself until you realise making dinner is like an Olympic sport! I've been given amitriptyline for my pain and sleep problems but I had horrific vivid hallucinations and tramadol made me feel like a non functioning zombie with a swollen tongue. At the moment I can't watch TV, listen to music and read properly. I'm sensitive to light and noise and social interaction so I'm looking at the four walls in my room feeling isolated so you know what I think I'm allowed to feel sorry for myself, anyone who's being through this will understand. But over thinking has made lead to me feeling mentally worse, so focusing on gratitude and getting better needs to be priority in getting better and not giving an F what anyone else thinks. The one good thing I can say is that this has been a very reflective time and it's made me see how time flies by. Even though I have read so many people say that you will never get the old you back, I'm adamant and determined on making a full recovery to the best of my ability. Thank god for another day and thank god for my blessings. It can always be worse, let's be thankful for what we have, because it is only going to get better.

So thankful to find this and read it and all of these comments. Told my hubby it's like finding my species (or community). Nice to know I'm not alone. I have a mild tbi from a car accident, just passed the 1 year mark. Still not able to work. All the same symptoms, headache, d iui zzy fatigue, sensitivity to sound, light, motion, stimuli. Tinnitus. Plan to look into that Choline someone mentioned. I know I've made progress but it feels like I still have far to go. I get a random day here or there where i still have symptoms but my head feels clearer and I'm hopeful that I'm almost over it but then I always seem to slide back a bit. One step at a time I guess. Progress not perfection. Be well everyone.

I normally wouldn't comment but I think I should in hopes that perhaps I can be of encouragement to someone else.

In July 2016 I hit my head while long boarding with my Husky. (It looked easy enough when my 18 year old did it).

Because I already had earplugs becauae of one of my clients I found I had to use them all the time if I was in a group of people of more then 3 or 4. I also use my prescription safety classes even inside. These are dark with dark side panels too.

I will add one other symptom to the above list in addition to the buzzing with was not in the article but someone else mentioned.

I found through observation and documentation that I am heat sensitive too. If the room is 21c then I am fine. But if the temperature goes up I don't notice I am starting to fatigue at 22 c but by 23c I realise why I am fatigued.

The clincher for me on the temp issue was the following.

I often fatigue while driving for about a half hour. This one day I had to drive 400km because we had to be home for the next morning And I knew I couldn't do the drive at night. I put the temp on 16c and remained clear headed the entire time. Yes I was super freezing and my wife had to sit in the sun and warm up for 2 hours after we got home but I realized definitively at that time I was truly heat sensitive also and this was a major factor in my symptoms in addition to the light a sound etc.

Here is my encouragement to all of you. Keep pushing forward. I don't notice improvements on a daily or weekly or even monthly basis. But looking back yes I am improving. I have had a half day without a headache I didn't realize this till it started raising in the afternoon that I had been headache free for that morning.

When I first started to do walkabouts. I could only walk 200 m at about 1.6km/hour it took a long time to improve and it has been slow. Some days I regress and like I said the progress isn't noticeable daily. By September 2018 I was walking every day averaging 6km in one continuous walk without breaks. And I was walking about 6.5km/hour.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel. Yes it is a constant battle. Yes I have to take breaks especially from the computer screen. And yes there are relapses. But keep walking. That seems to be one of the things that has really helped me push through the fog.

I alao believe it really helped I had a friend I was taking to on the phone while I was walking. It was wonderful to hear her voice in my ear and she seemed to encourage me on. Simply by speaking with me and being there

So walking with someone helps. You aren't alone Even if that person is virtually walking beside you. It was when I was talking with her that my walks jumped up dramatically as I seemed to have platoed at 2km and couldn't seem to push past that for many months. From April 2018 to September 2018 was when I really started to improve in my walks while talking with her on the phone.

My point. Keep doing the little things to heal. Don't give up. You might not notice the progress right then. But don't give up. I even can speak Spanish fluidly now again. That also took a long time.

I somehow acquired a TBI in April '18 without hitting my head. I was at a party in Mexico when I noticed something was suddenly wrong with me. The music there was catastrophically loud. I had been the life of the party, but the music had been bothering me all night, and at some point around 10 pm someone asked me a question, and my answer was gibberish. I knew it was gibberish, so I tried to explain my answer, and that answer was also gibberish. The rest of my time in Mexico I was antisocial and had a really difficult time talking to other people. But with two consecutive rounds of food poisoning, until I finally left a week later, I just kept to myself.

When I got back to the States, I immediately started a new job. The guy that hired me accused me of lying on my resume and later of doing drugs to explain my odd, stupid, antisocial behavior. I initially thought I had meningitis because it felt like my brain was swelling. I was hypersensitive to everything, I had very poor balance (felt like I was drunk), had very low awareness of everything that was going on around me, I couldn't hold a conversation, and I couldn't form any thoughts. I honestly thought I was dying.

I went to urgent care and she sent me home with ibuprofen. The symptoms persisted and a few weeks later I went to a different doctor, who did the same thing.

By the 2.5 month mark, I started doing research. It took almost a week to narrow down that my symptoms were probably related to a TBI. It took so long because I never hit my head.

I went back to that doctor and told him what I'd found. He asked if I thought I needed to see a psychologist or a neurologist. The insinuation that I might be out of touch with reality vs. experiencing serious medical issues destroyed my faith in him.

I saw a neurologist who was far more interested in regaling me with stories of his medical residency 30 years ago than in helping me out. He also didn't believe me and said I seemed fine, but said he'd order an MRI if I wanted. I did, and I had it immediately after his stupid visit. I wish someone would have warned me that the machine sounded like a jack hammer, but I grit my teeth and bared with it.

The results came back with a big white splotch in the prefrontal cortex in front of my left ventricle. Brain damage for which they couldn't determine the cause.

EVEN AFTER getting these results back, he was skeptical, "Well that could've happened to you during birth...." He didn't offer me any guidelines, suggestion, or support about how to recover. He spent the rest of the 90-minute meeting telling me about his trip to London and France. Thanks.

It's taking me a very long time through trial, error, and research to come up with things to avoid and things to engage in to, at least for my recovery, improve and recover from the symptoms. I still worry that there'll be some permanency to some of the symptoms.

I've already come to terms with the fact that even when I recover and feel normal for a while, it's not permanent. Too much stimulation suddenly causes relapse and then I'm dull and stupid again and it's like no one's home, and I can't handle social situations or complexity.

Things I've found to avoid: electronic screens of any kind, noisy places or situations where there's too much going on, too much sensory stimulation of any kind, anything bumpy or jostling, heart rate going too high/intense exercise, focusing or having to focus or concentrate...

Things I've found that helped: CDP choline (a supplement in the US, a prescription for brain injuries everywhere else); regular, low-impact mild-to-moderate physical exercise like walking, hiking, kayaking (running and sports probably have too much bounce); sitting quietly, doing nothing; and spending periods of time throughout the day being mindfully aware of bodily sensations, feelings, and thoughts. That one really seems to help. Getting out of my head seems to be when most of my progress has been made.

I had a TMI from a bike accident October 2018 and went to the ER. I was wearing a helmet, and the CT scan indicated no bleeding. 2 months later, however, after experiencing dizziness, and weakness on my right side, and being miss diagnosed, I was admitted to the ER with a subdural hematoma. Had emergency brain surgery and now recovering. I'm still resting a lot and can't handle fluorescent lights. Headaches come and go.

I have a mild TBI - got a concussion by hitting my head off 2 walls. Left side at the back hit first and ricochet to the the wall on my right. I also have whiplash. I've been getting acupuncture to help. My fatigue if awful though. By afternoon I'm exhausted. I sleep for 2 hours and am ready for bed by 9 pm. My eyes are still very light sensitive. My balance isn't quite right either. Has anyone ever tried on of though vibration exercise machines to help with symptoms? would it even help? My physio doc said low impact exercise would help with the fatigue.

Been out of work for 8 months due to TBI...I have apparently suffered multiple undiagnosed concussions and the last one did it. Didn't have any symptoms for about 2 months, besides a wicked headache and then the other symptoms hit me like a truck! I have all of the symptoms mentioned in the article and more. The worst part is the feeling that other people think you are making it all up because the symptoms are not "visible". To the point where sometimes I'm thinking it too...and then I try to move quicker than I should and realize it is still there! I'm glad I am not the only one out there going through this. Haven't started treatment yet as the doctors took forever to figure out what this was, looking forward to it though and hopefully finding some relief

Even being the one having the symptoms, I can't shake the feeling that my TBI isn't "real" or "worthy" because the physical damage was so minimal (barely broke the skin), I never even lost consciousness at all, and I made mistakes (even knowing better) in my initial healing, which was only four months ago anyway.

Being around people who don't understand TBI -- who does, really? -- and all but roll their eyes when we talk doesn't help my misconception. It's a common one, eh? Thank God and Physics and whoever you pray to, too, that my husband is so extraordinarily compassionate and understanding. Even so, I could really go for a conversation with someone else in my specific situation. Such a personal experience as TBI recovery sure can get ...so very... lonely.

Even so, here I am and I'm pretty convinced the light and sound sensitivity will be my final frontiers of healing. I just have to keep the faith that there will be a "final," ever. I have to, because whenever I forget to have faith, right down I go into the spiral of frustration and self-recrimination. Happened just two nights ago, and then I found this page. Thank you all for helping me get back to faith and hope.

Take it easy, and keep the faith. This is my new mantra.

I am TBI survivor trying to figure out my issues after 8 years