Traumatic Brain Injury: Come introduce yourself

Thank-You Colleen,
I am having a hard time with my fiancee's family putting demands on me to go to too many family gatherings. I cannot handle a lot of people and noise and they don't understand because I look normal and they have seen improvements I have made, so I think they think I am all better, even though, they know I am still in rehab. I had to attend three last minute gatherings in the last 10 days which to me is ridiculous. I spent the last two days in bed with a migraine, so I need to learn to say "No" just not sure how. Another challenge I face is scheduling breaks I need and not over doing it. I was always on the go before my accident and it does not come easy to me resting, but if I don't I have consequences. Small steps on the road to recovery... I have adapted to new ways to do things which is a work in progress. I got a lot of my balance back after being in physical therapy, so I actually am running again on my treadmill which is exciting. Running is my life line to fighting the anxiety and depression that comes with a brain injury.

Hi All. Kevin here from Grand Marais. Good to chat this morning with others who know what it is like.
My experience is chainsaw/tree related. I am told that a branch bounced up and hit me. I remember starting to cut the branch, then woke up 6 hrs. later in a HCMC. Thankfully I was not home when it happened as I'm 2 hrs. from the nearest trauma center. Both bones in my left forearm and both jaws broken in addition to the TBI. Why is a 66 year old guy running a chainsaw? Because I can. I finally bought a replacement last week, It got wrecked too.
I feel fortunate because even though "full" recovery is still a long way off, I can do most anything I want to do. I went roller blading about a month ago and I have bought my season pass for Lutsen Ski Area. I can't do anything as fast as I used to, But I can do it!
Hopefully you all will too.

My name is McKenzie i am 23 live in pillager mn i acquired my tbi a little over a year ago & then vs now is amazing i wasn't able to use my left arm at all and now im working on making it stronger which is amazing. It isnt ever easy however ive learned that your attitude& mindset plays a huge role in your recovery. Right now my biggest issue is making good choices & remembering things which i write everything down to help that. As for making better choices still working on it

Hi my name is Tony S. my trumatic brain injury happened November 9, 1997. I was riding a bicycle and pulled out in front a truck that was do 50 miles per hour. I hit the truck flew over the truck landed on my head receiving a open head injury, torn skuala, two broken ribs, collapsed lung and two broken legs. I was bleeding so bad that I got life flighted to LDS Hospital where I was in a coma for two weeks and then transfered to Salt Lake Region Mediacal Hospitat where I spend releanrning how to walk and talk. All that I remeber before getting on the bicycle is smoking a joint the size of my thumb and taking 2 Sudafed because I had a cold. I mother told me latter that my blood alchol level high

Hello, my name is Alan and I had a TBI May 2025 fell off ebike late at night on a really nice railtrail ( old railroad bed blacktopped very well maintained along the river and through woods. Had nothing to do with the 85lb bike and drizzle. The new mag flashlight kept going out shook it so much I lost too much speed and was swerving across all 10ft of trail hit fresh new gravel and happened to be at the 6' steep drop to the ditch. Bike was just to heavy pushed me laying down in the 2ft of water. Drove it up the hill, close to home something broken and must have fallen 20 times on the trail. Found the next day by the first jogger. A day to bring my body core up. Nothing conclusive after 2 weeks in the hospital. Home help did not come. Then just a mess. Finally home help is suppose to arrive 6 mo late. Neurologist is confused looking into systems developed 2 years ago. 4 1 hr sessions of speech therapy and everyone called it good on the TBI. Symptoms are getting worse with a huge divide between recall and memory. New and the last few years are fading. Explained balance issues, constant mistake well above the norm. Black Friday included an entire new cook set. 12 meals left on over night to cook. Put up a smoke detector on the wall next to stove and a camera because it left on. Rather than worry I'd rather see if i left in a rush. Volunteers I have been with for 7 years can't name but a few and need their name tag in site. Much is off. The doctors around me can't diagnose 1 out 5 things I've thrown at them. There is nothing. I lived most of my life in the country outside of Detroit where you certainly had options of some of the best care in the country. They put the neurological testing back up with a wait list of 6 mo again at U of M, after that it will be a year before any other appointment gets made. I am alone. Continuously making adjustments and mistakes. I have exhausted every possible resource. I moved into the city to be 2.5 miles from the large hospital campus. They know own everything except a few off shoots but pretty much bought out the entire top half of the state. Every hospital. I move up here with 2 very serious 2nd opinions regarding a different operation, went in for a 3rd here and was told nothing wrong. My top specialist said a few years ago you need to get to the Cleveland Clinic by pass Ann Arbor. Just hasn't been possible regarding that issue, all he could say is yes there is something serious wrong related to your lungs nothing will show up on about 10 tests but he can tell it's there but can't see it any form of test results or imaging and that is why I have needed to see a neuromuscular specialist along with the team of 5 physician well that ship sailed. The comment was just for overall perspective.
Winter is not my happy time nor productive time of year. With all the chaos I think I only got 5 days of summer. You become to get worried when no one will listen. I can't even get my words close enough that grammarly can help out and have had to resort to asking Siri how to spell words I just can't access. What do you do except double down on access to apps or anything cognitive that puts a strain on the brain the good ones wear me out just like my hour with the speech pathologist. I hope the good news of a home help aid living near by comes to fruition after waiting a month at a time for what should have occurred in a week. Thankfully I heal fast because I was black and blue and scraped all over and really nothing needed bandaging things are just broke where they can't see.

Hello, I am Lisa. I work as a psychiatric RN in a psychiatric hospital that only treats involuntarily hospitalized patients. I was assaulted in April of 2025 by a patient and sustained a significant right shoulder injury and head injury. I did not lose consciousness. I was assessed at ER, no concerns. However over the next few days I noticed changes. My vision became blurry, I was running into things, getting very lightheaded and dizzy, the nausea kicked in, my headaches began, my speech was slowed, I stuttered, my cognition was slowed, I could not taste vinegar, sugar or salt, visual changes, anxiety was constant, sleep was nonexistent, pain, ptsd and much more. I was unable to drive for about 4 months. Headaches for weeks at a time. It is 8 months past injury and I'm back to driving since mid-August because I decided to try to take my life back and my distance vision was good and oculomotor skills had improved a lot. However I am still unable to converge my eyes at 10-12", I still get very uncomfortable shifting my gaze upwards/downwards regardless of my head movement. Headaches come and go frequently, occasional ringing in my ears, I have a blind spot in my left eye, anxiety and ptsd are still present as well but improved. I'm only able to work 10-15 hours a week doing light duty work such as chart auditing and helping out with computer stuff but my eyes get very tired and the headaches continue and I'm exhausted after a few days of this, I cognitively slow down to the point where I stutter still at times. I've completed concussion therapy with OT, speech and PT. However I've been waiting months to see a neuro-opthamologist and finally get to go this coming Monday. I'm not exactly hopeful that they can do anything for this blind spot that also increases in size during activity such as exercise and my headaches. It is always present but definitely grows. Sometimes nothing helps the headaches. I tried sumatriptan but that made me cry uncontrollably. I take showers/baths to help with the headaches. Excedrin helps for maybe an hour. I eat nutrient dense foods and get regular exercise. I'm not sure what else I can do and what the future holds but this is all very discouraging how long it has lasted and impacted my life. I try to push through it, then find myself cognitively fatigued. I do give myself grace, I try my best and wing it. But hope is dwindling.

Hi, my name is Patty. And having a bad day, where BP is through the roof, heart racing, nausea, headaches. I always had BP on the lower side : 110/100 over 75/65, heart rate of 48-62. So having high BP problem etc is new. It's been 18 months. I was a passenger in a car accident.

I was told post concussion syndrome could be years or possibly permanent. So I'm a bit down today, wondering if it will ever get better. I've always bounced back from anything, but this is SOOOO different. And stumbled on to your group.

You know, I was bummed when I was originally told a concussion's effects could last f 3 month. Then I anxiously waited for the 6 month deadline to celebrate. No luck. Then a year. Nope.

Now it's 18 months and I still have memory problems, doubt and question myself a million times/afraid I'll forget or say the wrong word or just not comprehend what was said the first time. I still have headaches everyday and my eye socket still hurts. Teeth still not completely tightened up yet and arm shakes at times. I always avoided Drs and pills. If I was ever sick, did some good old homeopathic stuff/only went to DR if a sinus infection didn't go away after 2-3 weeks.

I was recently diagnosed with ADHD. Ya, made sense, I just thought it was normal for me - everyone just said I had a lot of energy, that I was just hyper. Always stayed active to wear myself out and was always highly productive. Now I can't concentrate and struggle with basic math, yard and house have fallen to the wayside.. I don't know if it's fear of getting it wrong or something else. This is long enough, so I'll stop. I hope I can learn from you all.