Living with a Traumatic Brain Injury

I'm 51 and I was in a road traffic accident when I was 16 and suffered a tbi. Three years later I was assaulted and concussed. I have short term memory difficulties, often get names muddled, need routine to keep grounded. I get easily irritated. I often feel overwhelmed just dealing with life and work. For 35 years I've struggled on with a belief that something was broken in my head / something just was not right because the same struggles and challenges keep on affecting me in different jobs, different relationships, different locations. My career is peppered with moves and sideways changes every year or two, some by choice, some not. I experience acute anxiety whatever role I'm in. My first memory of such feelings was 6 months or so after the accident. Recently I've looked into tbi. I'm beginning to make a connection with the accident and my struggles. I can perform at a high level, I have a degree and several career achievements despite all my moves, my intelligence and creativity is not in question, but emotionally I'm often a mess. I accept my career will not advance any further but I'm worried it is now starting to be too much for me, even at the level I'm at. My memory is becoming more of an issue, especially when I'm stressed and occasionally I just have 'conscious blanks' - at times there are tasks I know need to be done but I just don't do them and then I have the consequences later (sounds weird but it happens). I don't expect anything can be done now after 35 years, but I'm worried about what the future holds,especially since I can't expect to keep on easily moving job every couple of years at this age.

Hello, 9 years ago I was shot in the right side of my head; the bullet first went into my eye, causing left-sided paralysis. Let me tell you it does get better! I was not a Christian prior to my injury, but I am now! God saved my life!! Now I am living in my own apartment; God has shown me ways in which to handle the day to day things with only half a functioning body, although it’s sometimes difficult and frustrating I keep pressing forward. Now I’m 33 and I am finally living! Even with this disability I have done so much that doctors and others have told me was impossible, but as scripture states: nothing is impossible with God! He has been my hope and my salvation. I actively use this testimony to encourage others going through tough times. As Genesis 50: 20 says: “what man had meant for evil, God meant for good.” He had taken me away from living on the streets and being a full blown addict to become His daughter, off the streets and sober! And even though there was pain involved amid other difficulties; I would do it all again. Please friend I urge you turn from the ways of the world and turn to Christ!! Allow Him to change your life for the better, you won’t regret it; please understand that I’m not some bible thumping preacher trying to convert you; I just wanted you to read how God had changed my life during my brain injury on to today, it is amazing what can be done when you have God walking right by your side and the Holy Spirit residing in your heart

It is good to know we are not alone.
My history of head injury is substantial as well.
Fortunately all were closed brain.
From rolling down the stairs and cutting my head on a beer bottle. Age 2.
To cracking the windshield with my head on return from my drivers test during a car accident as a passenger when a 87 year old driver died at the wheel and hit us head on. Age 16. To being knocked unconscious as a friend fell asleep at the wheel hitting a parked car and knocking it over 30 feet. Age 22. At age 26 I took the mensa test - passed it. So tbi has not affected my intelligence.
But it does create emotional inconsistencies. My most dominate being myself diagnosed disinhibition. Followed 2ndly by critical recall of info, most often I eventually get it.
Things that helped me IMHO - I am not giving advise BUT stating history.
Lots of list making & goal setting. Writing everything down. More than one fellow at college found my notes were better than going to class. Self help gurus Earl Nightingale and Tony Robbins methods are excellent tools for those of with limited critical recall. I started taking Msm at age 45. I have several electro current devices that calm me. Including microcurrent & pemf. But not Tens.
I limited my stories to just 3, I have 7 more just as “impactful” to my skull. I have survived, and thrived. You can too.
The hardest rule, be kind to yourself. Rule number two, talk about it with your friends. Keep trying. Set goals. Enjoy things - find that security blanket. At age 60 I mastered the Rubiks cube. Patterned learning. I work hard at extreme sudoku - average time 25 minutes.
To quote the Sunscreen song - The race is long and in the end, it's only with yourself. Study all the lyrics to that song, it’s just a good tonic.
Oh, and be careful at there.....

I fell from the top shelf of my house’s kitchen when I was 3 years old. I remember being in the hospital while they were stitching my forehead.
My hard working single mom never followed me up to see if my head was ok. My mom said I had a couple more mild accidents involving my head. I was ok in middle school, until I turned 11. Then, after that, I kept feeling like I was being left behind. By 8th grade I was one of the most bullied kids in high school. I kept messing things up, incoherences happened to me all the time. I knew I had something wrong. Nobody could tell what. One teacher told my mom that I was not supposed to be in that school. That means everyone knew about my condition. Everyone turned a blind sight as years went by. I was always the person people would take advantage of. I struggled went to a University. Struggled the hell out of it. Still nobody could give me a hand. I kept thinking I had a disability but how I could explain it?. I isolated myself. I moved to my grandma’s house who at that time was dying from cancer. I graduated. Barely, after 6 years of over studying in order to not distract myself or losing information. I couldn’t have real friends, nobody would trust me because I would reflect so many insecurities. I went looking for jobs but nobody would hire me. I ended up getting mediocre jobs who would take advantage of me every single time, I have been fired more times than I can count with my hands. I moved out of my country, angry and disappointed. I came to the US. And guess what, same story. Multiple dismissals. Depression, anger, anxiety. Hospitalization for depression. Nobody would help me but myself. I went to the doctor after seeing a documentary against Adderall and ADHD. And fell identified with the symptoms. I wouldn’t care about the side effects. I got it prescribed. And my life changed. I was 29 years old. I lost my twenties, my teens, friendships, multiple opportunities. Not too long ago I wanted to confirm how underrated my life has been. I have an IQ of +140. Yikes. So much wasted potential. The tons of things I imagined that I could’ve done but didn’t figure out how to achieve because of my neurological blockage and trauma could’ve been someone different. A traumatic brain injury causing ADHD was my eternal scar. Is my stigma, my loss. My life. Now a year after and a half the discovery. I lay depressed, with PTSD. And somehow I look like am 23. Confused and reborn.

In February 2011, I was in a severe car accident. I had a 10% chance of survival the first night. My injuries were shattered femar, elbow ankle, bones in the forearm, eye socket, internal bleeding in my pancreas & liver, broken jaw. my ear was hanging on by only a 1/2 inch of skin, & a skull fracture. Obviously, I shocked my doctors & beat that 10%. I now have metal & pins in all the places I said were shattered after many surgeries that caused other problems like my right tear duct no longer working & nerve damage in the right side of my face due to going through my sinuses to duck out bone fragments in my face, my left eye socket is now metal, my ear was saved though they said I'd never hear out of it, I only have 30% hearing loss, internal bleeding stopped on its own, I was told I'd likely never walk again (4 months in a wheelchair, 2 months with a Walker, 1 more with a cane & I'm fully able to walk with only a slight limp. Due to all these injuries, I was put into a two week medically induced coma so my body could heal as much as possible before the surgeries started. I was in a morphine haze until the end of my nearly two-month hospital stay. I had a trachea so I couldn't communicate much but by chance my doctor had me follow his light on his pen with my eyes (a week before I was released to a physical rehab hospital for a month) & he realized that my eyes were going in opposite directions & thus the TBI was discovered & after some scans revealed I had damage to my left frontal lobe as well as other places, but that was where the main & most significant damage occurred. I was basically told they wouldn't know how much it'd affect me in day to day life until I was not in a hospital setting with all four limbs casted or bandaged up (144 staples & 24 stitches total). The physical rehab place was a joke. It catered to elderly folk who broke a bone, not to a 22-year-old with metal in all four limbs that couldn't even fit up when I arrived. They could only get me strong enough to learn how to get from my bed to my wheelchair or portable toilet. But they took horrible care of me in every other way. Took my staples out 4 weeks too late so my skin had healed around them, so all 144 had to be dug out of my skin, they changed my catheter ONCE the whole 6 weeks o was there & only because I wouldn't stop complaining that even though I had a catheter that urine was still leaking onto the pad I had to lay on. They didn't believe me even though I couldn't get out of bed & there were yellow wet spots on the pad. The day I was released when some nurses aide removed the catheter there was pink in my urine & the tube she pulled out was covered in blood, she just kinda looked at it & threw it away with no mention in my chart (had to have an outpatient surgery due to the infections caused due to their negligence) & the pad was there for when I needed to poop & its already humiliating having strangers wiping your bum after a bowel movement but they'd make faces & my mom would have to reclean me when she'd come because they never cleaned me thoroughly. This has turned into a story of poor treatment. Sorry. Once I was walking again & didn't have constant care, I was so impulsive. I put myself in very risky, dangerous situations. 10 mins after making a decision, I'd think to myself "wtf were u thinking?!" because the decision was to do bad. The part of my brain that turns short term memory into long term is damaged so I remember things from 3 years old but not what I ate for lunch two days ago. I say whatever pops into my head without thinking it through. I interrupt people when I think of something because I have to say it immediately even if you're talking. Still impulsive but not nearly as bad. Decision-making skills are poor. I now have severe anxiety, worse social anxiety. I have a few OCD tendencies about certain things. I could not focus for very long or complete a task before starting a new one, but I'm now on medication that helps tremendously. Sometimes it's hard to think. I know the answers are there, like on the tip of my tongue but the best way I can describe it is my thoughts are slippery inside my head & just when I'm grasping a thought, it slips through my fingers. I'm more depressed than I was before TBI. No one in my family understands or has tried to understand until my dad recently after 11 years of watching me make bad decisions, not be who I was before, etc. I'm raising a 12 & 7-year-old on my own & besides reminding me constantly about school projects, functions, or homework & the need to go to the dentist or eye dr. I'd say I'm doing pretty well because I have two well behaved, respectful, considerate, compassionate, loving kids. They get annoyed with me sometimes for forgetting things, but I put notes everywhere around the house & on my phone to help with my forgetfulness. I just wish I had people in my life understand & realize how hard things they take for granted are for me to do. My emotions are affected a lot with nothing to set me off, out thr blue feelings every few months that last too long to not affect my life & my kids. But that's my story. I'm 33 now & have had to co.e up with ways or tricks to handle the things that are affected due to TBI but it was a hard 11 years figuring it out & I still dont have it all close to figured out.

When I was 16 (2004) I fell off of our roof (15ft) and hit head first on concrete. I was in a coma two weeks and life support for one week. I had to learn how to walk and talk again. I tried and still try to ignore symptoms because physically I look normal and I don't want to use it as a crutch. I joined the Army at 22 made it through the clearing process and finished my contract out with no issues. I used my GI Bill and got my Bachelor's Degree. I kept so many feelings to myself and decided to see a doctor to save my relationship because my mental health was/is a mess. My depression and anxiety hit me so hard some days it's hard to function and I have really bad mood swings. I also have bad tinnitus and trouble sleeping. I'm just really scared because I need to take care of my family and I know I have to take care of myself as well and don't know if everything is going to be ok.

I'm writing this in search for some sort of study that specializes in TBI or trauma and the aftereffects.

My son has seen every kind of specialist there is for the many physical issues that he has. He has chronic pain in his neck sometimes causing severe headaches and now has GI problems that are debilitating — also high blood pressure. No doctor can diagnose him. He has been tested for everything including infectious disease and rare disease. Hep A, chrones, all those stomach diseases. Prolotherapy, massage, chiropractors, ortho, pain management, neuro, cervical epidurals, acupuncture. There's more I just can remember it all. We have spent so much time and money trying to live with his pains. And still nothing. No diagnosis. I need to find someone that can help. There has to be someone out there that can figure this out. Please help. Thank you. Here's our short story:

My 17-year-old son (now 23) suffered a TBI while playing high school football. He's pretty good now after a long time rehabilitating. He was on life support and then a breathing machine as he also ended up with pneumonia and pneumothorax because they had no idea that his lungs had collapsed. He was bedridden and couldn't talk or get up on his own. I had no idea what the outcome would be. He then suffered a DVT in his left arm and neck (the jugular). This was from being in bed not moving. Six years later my son is about to get his BA at San Marcos state. He has come a long way.

My daughter was in a auto accident back on Father’s Day 2015. It’s definitely life changing for her and all of us. She was 10 years old at the time with no issues and now at 14 she is still unable to walk, speak or be independent with any normal task. The hardest part is not having a clear path or a for sure answer on what to do or where to go or if she will ever be able to speak to us again.

I was in a bad car wreck in 2006. My brain split apart and I have a cyst in the middle of my brain. I can't drive, live alone, work or have a normal life but I'm still here. I was told I was paralyzed from my neck down but I'm not. I cook now and remember things. Doctor's gave my parents no hope of me living or when I did they said I would never walk. I've been told I was probably gonna have seizures but it's been 12 years and not one. I was a new baby at 20 years old. I had to relearn everything all over from walking, feeding myself, dressing, and even wipe my own butt. I have gone through a lot but I'm still not stopping

My first brain injury was when I was a year old I fell two stories on concrete. They did know about traumatic brain injury back in 72 my eyes swelled and the doctors told my parents that I'd be lying in that I could see if they can find it cuz they couldn't find my eye but I was not I didn't start wearing glasses until I got older for reading. But back in 2001 I got into a car accident and I was in coma for three and a half weeks and had to learn to do everything all over again I was exactly the same because I always had traumatic brain injury this one just made things a little bit more harder for me. And in 2010 we moved to New Mexico which they hit me five times within a year-and-a-half and all those accidents just made my somatic brain injury worse. But like I tell people it is what it is

In 2003 I had T.B.I brain injury to my head my head smashed the windshield and I had a bump behind my head, a cut and I lost consciousness, I have arthritis in my right leg, lower back, and I have pain on both sides of my jaw and behind my ears.