Traumatic Brain Injury: Come introduce yourself

I had a fall 3 months ago with a brain bleed and concussion and now some permanent brain injury. I am doing fairly well, but have two issues I'm working on. I have dizziness off and on and haven't found PT or OT that seems to reduce that. They tried treating me with vertigo exercises but then when they concluded there was no vertigo there wasn't another solution. I cannot sleep more than 4 or 4-1/2 hours. I tried melatonin but that doesn't work. I am wondering what others have done to secure sounder sleep following TBI. No problem getting to sleep, but wake up after 4 hours and can't get back to sleep. Love to hear ideas about regaining sleep quality! I know healing occurs over 6 months and maybe I am premature in thinking I should have a solution.

Quick answer to what has worked for us:
Neurofeedback, Chiropractor/activator therapy/exercises, mental games, TENS

I was a passenger in a car accident 23 months ago. The accident was outside our small subdivision. I do not remember hearing sirens and essentially woke up enough a week later to go to my DR. That's the short accurate answer. I don't remember much of the first 3 weeks. First week, slept (couldn't move, pain through the roof). Second week, went to DR office and tried to force myself to stay awake longer each day. Third week, trying to make sense of things, major memory loss, jumbling words, saying the wrong word, saying the opposite thing I wanted, wrong word coming out. Bruises and broken ribs took 4 months to heal and another 4 months for the deep pads. underneath to break up. I had problems with dizziness, nausea, headaches, falling over, tripping over myself, etc for the first year. Ringing in ears is 24/7. Concussion headaches (6 spots initially). Eye pressure. Lots of pain. Brain just struggles to concentrate and I get a weird pain between the eyes from tryign to focus.

I just bought a new vehicle and bought one based on safety, as I planned for possible future grandchildren in 5-10 years and having a reliable vehicle til death. The other party had an old truck that looked lightweight/altered - so the driver obviously had bad injuries.

Despite being in an extremely new and safe vehicle with tons of safety features, I was hurt very bad but somehow was released at the scene.

Apparently the response was so fast, and we were close to our home, that they thought we were ok. Still can't figure that out. I slept the first week, barely waking for a few seconds at a time, only to pass back out from the pain. Broken ribs made it extremely difficult to breathe and I thought that pain would never end - but it did after 4 months. Seat belt bruising was so severe, that the abdominal swelling made me look pregnant. I drived driving after 5 months and still couldn't sit long. Driving 7 miles caused pain. It would take me 7-10 days to email anyone because it would take an entire day to correct all the errors from my brain throwing in wrenches and jumbling things up - that if I didn't get the email finished (without interruptions), I'd have to start all over again because I would forget - hence 7-10 days (minimum). Sometimes I completely forgot, no recollection, have to trust the person who told me or showed me.

* While improvements have been slow - the best recommendation was neurofeedback.

I have no healthcare insurance and since I was driven home and didn't go to the ER - I guess auto insurance blew me off on medical care. Letter came stating they closed my file. But Doctors, nurses, friends, said to seek out a neurologist. Not that easy when you don't have medical insurance and the cheapest one is $500 per visit. But I went in person to numerous brain injury clinics and they offered information. Neurofeedback and TENS meant nothing to me. Then like anything, after you dig a bit and ask questions, someone knew someone, and someone had medical home devices in homepathic groups and health advocate groups that were FDA cleared.

A women offered low cost neurofeedback trial sessions one morning a week. I noticed short term improvements the first 4 times. The 5th visit, I was shocked when I stood up - I was sound. I was wowed that when I turned from the chair and then turned the corner a couple of steps away, that I did not fall or need to hold onto the chairs or table. My husband was so surprised at my improvement, that he went and tried it - AND HAD THE SAME EFFECT on his balance, although it only lasted a day. After seeing the obvious improvements, our Chiropractor was impressed. We rented the equipment and did sessions morning and night. We had made so much progress that we stopped. I got my balance back a year after the accident. My husband's improvements reversed and slowly worsened, so we bought the neurofeedback medical device (while waiting on the VA to set up his benefits and will finally see a DR next week). As his Doctor said from the beginning (2 years ago) - he needs a Neurologist. But he also said, the good news is that he is responding to the neurofeedback. Electrical signals are getting through. I watch my husband get up from a seated position and walk better right after a session. He claims he feels stronger and can use his hands better. (For reference: he was extremely healthy, big, muscular, 230lb guy, Blackbelt, physically active, would run 3 miles at work during break to release stress, didn't need weights because he was always doing helping someone.) Only known him to be sick and go to a DR once in his life - for antibiotics.)

* * * * Fast forward to today. 23 months later.

I still have brain glitches. I still have trouble with basic math, so I now rely on bank statements. My walking is schizophrenic, so I chose to stand when people are around - because sitting seems to make my brain and legs think it can play games with me when I get up and try to walk.

I still have ear ringing 24/7. My face feels broken. Like if someone took a picture of you, then stepped back 2' and snapped another - cut them in half, then taped half of one photo to half of the other. Left face is flatter, slower, and eye socket still hurts like I was punched. Vision is 20/15 in each eye, when only using one eye. Otherwise, I can't see very clearly up close and need readers. Left eye is worse and doesn't seem to want to focus. But when using both eyes - I feel one eye is 2' behind me. It takes a lot of energy to look and focus. Then I still have comprehension issues. I still say the wrong words or say the opposite of what I mean to say - at times. I still forget.

I worry I may be slipping back, like what happened to my husband - because of bad days where I'm limping or my foot just will not bend and roll normal.

I have dark hair and while gray strands are becoming noticeable, but it was a DR who pointed out a snow white patch of hair where one of my concussion headaches was in the back of my head.

So we are still doing the journey. I'm waiting 6 months to see a Neurologist. So next month, we'll see what he says.

From reading posts, seems like they can run tons of expensive tests, but unless it's something really unusual - it's just time. Lots of time. And precautions to aware of your limitations.