Traumatic Brain Injury: Come introduce yourself

@msa1396, as a member of Mayo Clinic Connect, you have access to all of the support groups (in addition to the great support you'll get here). You may also be interested in following the Addiction & Recovery group https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/addiction-recovery/

Someone else mentioned dealing with hearing loss, if I remember correctly. If yes, then this group may interest you:
Hearing Loss https://connect.mayoclinic.org/group/hearing-loss/

You can see the entire Group directory here: https://connect.mayoclinic.org/groups/
Because while TBI brought you to Connect, we are all complex human beings with multiple health concerns.

Hi @badbenny, welcome to the TBI group. I invite you to read through the messages in this discussion thread and get to know your fellow travellers. Pull up a chair and tell us a bit about yourself. What brings you to the group?

Hello I am Ben from St Paul. October of 18 I suffered a brain, neck, middle back, lower back and knee injury when I was hit in my car from behind at a stop light. I'm currently able to work part time with restrictions. I just take it one day at a time and continue ot, pt and mental health therapy weekly to help my improvement. It is a much slower recovery than ever imagined and as a single parent very hard on my son.

Hey @hevykevy @icydecember @kimfeist @littlepitzen @lolabelle1 @luckylizardlady @mkgarrity @msa1396 please join me in welcoming @badbenny to our group.

You are certainly not alone in finding recovery to be a painstakingly slow process. It can be frustrating to say the least. How old is your son? It must be hard for him to understand what is actually going on and why you're not bouncing back, especially if you "look" fine. Have you considered having one of your therapists describe to him how the brain works and why recovery is necessary and slow?

Join me in welcoming @dprins and @frontrunner to our group.

@frontrunner, what is your recovery story? What is your biggest challenge?
@dprins, would love to hear your recovery story too. What is a tip that you'd like to share with the group? What has most helped your recovery?

Welcome Laura. For many of us, just discussing our TBI symptoms is a helpful process. I think a few of us along with you have Type A personalities.....indeed problematic after a TBI. Over the last year I have adapted by just backing off a bit. Not easy at first but getting better. I think my BP even has gone down. I used to take the lead/volunteer on almost everything I did. Not so much anymore. Hope you are recovering from your August fall. Again, welcome to the group!

Hi Laura,
Your (first) fall injury is similar to mine. I've also had issues with dizziness and hearing and sense of smell/taste. These issues have been slowly improving (I'm nearing the 1 year mark). I hope yours will also improve.
Best regards,
Jim

Dan, welcome to the group and glad to see you are improving. It can be a very slow process, so patience is a key.
One thing I've noticed people say is "YOU'RE DOING REALY GOOD FOR YOUR AGE!" And we are, but before the injury we were doing a lot better.
I have to admit, You are the first person I have ever heard say "With a little bit of luck my next picture will be of me shoveling snow!!" It makes us all realize how much we miss the things we could once do and how much we appreciate making progress, enabling us to do them again. Don't be afraid to let your friends know what is happening. It can help them be more understanding, which will be more encouraging for you.
As for the dizziness, mine just diminished slowly after 3 0r 4 months. I had to learn to just move slower, and when it happened, just give it a few seconds to clear. I did have two recurrences of dizziness. It was found that I had excess fluid in one ear. I did get antibiotics for that, but the dizziness had cleared up by then.
I wish I knew some magic to make everything better, but maintaining your general health, having a desire to do more (trying things you used to be able to do) and patience, mostly with yourself are so important. Be very careful with the balance issue, you don't want to hurt yourself more, and pace yourself on that snow shoveling. They say it can be pretty hard on the heart.

Laura, welcome to the group. Looking at your story, your second fall was definitely a case of adding injury to insult. On a positive side, you would have felt horrible if anything had happened to your grandson.
It's good to hear you have slowed down even if it is a constant struggle with your type A self. I too thought I was fine mentally after I got out of the hospital, but when I went back to work, less than two weeks after the accident, I could figure out how to do everything, but by the time I got to step three I had forgot what step one was. I had to write each step down. I also could only work 4 hours a day at first. I just got so tired. After 13 Months I still have to pay attention to how I feel and stop to rest. Sure, part of that is my age, but much of it is not. We are still healing inside, that is a process we need to work with, not against.
I also dealt with discouragement when the healing process took longer than I expected it to. I had never broken anything bigger than a finger before. I had no Idea what to expect. At least I did not need surgery on my forearm, but they spent 7 hours on my face.
Learning to be positive and patient with one's self is a lot harder than I thought. But are so important.
Enjoy the Grandchildren as much as you can.

Hello, everyone! I’m Mary in St. Paul. I’m a bit late getting here, so I promised Anne the last time I spoke to her I’d join up.
My injury happened on 11/28/18. I live in a condo building with townhomes to our south and apartments to our north. I regularly walk around this area for exercise, using the fire lane between the town homes and us. There are also paths from each building leading to the fire lane.
I had set out for a short walk, and was returning to my building via the fire lane when I suddenly was on the ground and didn’t know why. Turns out it was black ice. I couldn’t get up, so I lay there yelling help until one of my neighbors came by and helped me onto a nearby bench. I’m pretty fuzzy about things after the ambulance arrived.
They gave me the choice of go to the hospital or just go home. I opted to go home, because I know how expensive it is to get an ambulance ride. The next morning I was in so much pain that I called a friend to take me to the ER. I was immediately admitted because I had 2or 3 bleeds, I’d gotten a concussion, and the doctors were wondering where I got my 2 black eyes. Oh, and I’d broken two bones in my ear, which made all the health care professionals say “ You really fell, didn’t you.!” was admitted immediately and had xrays of my brain a couple of times a day. I was also on anticonvulsants and had these things on my legs that were rolling up and down.
I was in the hospital for 3 days, then transferred to a in-between old folks home. I got home about a week after my accident. I hadn’t been eating because I was so dizzy and nauseated. I didn’t get any sort of aftercare suggestions, and felt pretty lost when I got paperwork for MBI and went to a gathering there. They helped me get in touch with Mayo, and here I am.
I’m pretty angry that the hospital and transitionary places left me with no aftercare other than a couple of appointments for follow up.
I’m so glad I’m able to access the members and directors of the study! I’m getting PT and speech therapy plus I was getting acupuncture as well.
I forgot to mention that I was rear-ended pretty hard In February, and I was referred to a concussion doctor who made me realize that I needed to be getting other treatments.

I have no sense of smell, which makes me really sad. Taste is okay. And I discovered later that I’d broken my elbow as well.
I’m glad I’m here, and look forward to discussions with the group!