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Tbi many years later

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) | Last Active: Feb 19 1:41pm | Replies (8)
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@lisalucier

Hi, @marialara - welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. It sounds like you and your son have been through a lot with your son's severe traumatic brain injury. Looks like you've also learned many useful tips along the way as his primary caregiver.

I'm tagging a few members in the Traumatic Brain Injury support group who may have input or questions about what you shared about a neuropsychologist, psych evaluation and learning strategies. Please meet @gregd1956 @craigdunn @gwenrn74 @kayabbott @lakelifelady. Also, I'd love for you to meet @IndianaScott, who has talked about caregiving on this site. You also might be interested in checking out the Caregivers support group on Connect, https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/caregivers/.

Would you share more about how the psych evaluation was insightful and helped guide you?

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Replies to "Hi, @marialara - welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. It sounds like you and your son have..."
Maria Lara | @marialara | Feb 19 1:41pm

Hi, Lisa,
Thank you for reaching out and helping me make connections. Yes, it certainly has been a journey...and continues to be.

I'd be happy to share more details about the psych evaluation. The evaluation confirmed many of the strengths and weaknesses that we were witnessing. For example, it seemed to us that his vocabulary was robust. We weren't sure if we were biased because moms and dads tend to think their kids are the best. 🙂 Having the evaluators test his vocab and critical thinking, helps us build on what he possesses and know where he needs to strengthen. The two most valuable take-aways were:

1) The evaluators identified that when Peter was challenged, he became motivated and rose to the challenge. It wasn't entirely uncharacteristic, but it was helpful to have someone else recognize a strength we hadn't sincerely considered.
2) The evaluator(s) felt with hard work on Peter's part, strong familial support, and support from the educational institution, it wasn't beyond Peter's grasp to work on a college degree.

The psych evaluation guided our decisions on what next steps our family, not just Peter, was willing to pursue. In addition, Peter said that it felt really good to have confirmation on many of these things.

I hope this is helpful. Thank you again for the welcome. Have a super day!

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