How are people doing with TBI recovery?

Well, FrontRunner, if and when you find that balance--or a path toward getting there--please do share! Thanks so much for the reaffirming reply. Ann

The road of life is not the Bonneville Salt Flats or even an Interstate Highway. It is a winding road with hills and valleys. It has snowdrifts, ice patches, standing water, potholes, even construction zones and detours. Thus, life is a series of adjustments we need to make to keep moving forward. If there is a “sweet spot,” it has to be a pretty big spot. Often it is described as “comfort zone.”
A comfort zone is well and good, but there is so much out there to see and do and learn. To get there we may need to venture out of our comfort zone. But this has its risks.
In an earlier post I commented that the only way we can determine what our limitations are, is to exceed them, or at least try. Sometimes we fail, but is there a detour, a work-around? Sometimes we don’t know we have exceeded our limitations until the next morning when we can hardly move and hurt everywhere. Take note!
There are questions we should ask ourselves before we embark on any endeavor: Why am I doing this? Is it necessary? What is the value? What could go wrong? Should I get help? And on and on…
Are there secrets? Not really. Look for and treasure the good and positive things in our lives. Do our best to address the difficult things that life throws at us. View them as an opportunity to grow rather than an impasse. Encircle yourself with friends who build you up and help you when you need it. (Help them too,)
This group has been so good for me in three ways: It has made me realize how lucky I am. Sadly there are some that are worse off than me. It has given me hope the there is always room for and a possibility of improvement. It has forced me to examine myself and my thoughts well enough to put them into words, thus getting to know myself and others better.
In summary, Perfection is not an absolute! Perfection is adequate to accomplish the task at hand. A crumby job is not perfection, but neither is overkill. Be happy with the progress you have made, but not so satisfied that you stop growing.

@woodsyann , @hevykevy,@frontrunner thanks for asking the question Ann. This brought a flood of thoughts as to where I was almost three years ago. Had my first TBI in January and my second almost six months later. In all, I have improved but I do know I have to pay attention to progress made and if not continuing to work on say balanced, I can see some slippage of milestones. Is that the “ open ending” Ann spoke of? I still need that piece of paper hevykevy spoke of whether it’s the shopping list or the to do list. Someone mentioned the multi-tasking is gone or limited. That was true more in the beginning even making dinner I could not see how to make meat, potatoes and a vegetable all together to have ready at the same time. Now it works but I know I have to think about it but it’s not t he second nature it use to be.
The last comment I will share is when other health issues come up give yourself some extra time and understanding. It takes more work but it does workout.

You can use a piece of paper for a to-do list, but the TO DO list I use is an app on my phone, tablet and computer. It is a Microsoft product, but they make a version for i-phone and android. The nice thing is, they synch between devices, so I can add a task on my computer and it goes to my phone. It's always with me.

I will checkout the apps. It is simple, I was doing some baking over the weekend, noted items that need replacement and now I can't remember any of them. It's just annoying.

I thought I was doing so well. I have been remembering thing I haven't thought of for years, my son told me I was doing so much better, not searching for words. Doing well with my mind exercises. THEN CAME FEBRUARY AND MARCH!
It started out with my wife's brother passing, leaving us to take care of all his end-of-life matters, possessions and legal issues. Then came taxes, much more complicated than last year. Also the opportunity to return to in-person, not virtual Congregation meetings and the preparations for that. Three significant snow incidents.
Suddenly my brain is struggling to keep up. Names that I had figured out are gone again, People say "Hi, Kevin!" and I have no Idea who they are.
What I am trying to say here is: We have limits, large amounts of stress has a detrimental affect on our brains, hopefully not permanent.

I had a moderate TBI 30 years ago next month. It took me about 1.5 years to get to the 80% point and 8 years to finish the recovery (driving and taste/smell back to before). My EEG of my left temporal and basal frontal lobes are still anomalous (slow) and words are tougher to find and save than before. Recovery is a stairstep process with upward, downward, and plateau stages. It helped that I gave myself permission to fail, that I was now at bottom and every step up was an achievement, rather than getting back. I learned a lot about myself and how the brain works. The brain rewires as long as you push it and keep learning. It is a slow and hard process, but part of life. If you have lost part of yourself, then replace it with something new. I can't always remember my address, but other important parts of my life are good.

I am still having trouble with accepting mental limitations even though I have developed work arounds. I am finding that I have mounting rage and frustration that leave me furious. It seems I find things I can’t do, that I could do before. One In particular is my mathematical skills. I seem to discover new things all the time. What is frustrating is that I don’t know, what I don’t know.
How do you cope? I have no acceptance only rage and fear it is CTE!

It took me 1.5 years to accept/realize this was the new me and I had to work with what I have. I kept a log of my recovery. With brain damage we keep finding new parts of us that are missing, so the healing/pain is continuous. Work arounds are important, and escapes even more so. You have lost a lot, and it is good to focus on your strenghts. What do you have an need. It is a journey we all must do alone (hopefully with help).

Hi;

I still make changes, improvements and insights 31 later. A tutor is the key to recovery.

Craig