Hi everyone. I found this site while looking for something else. HealthUnlocked has just about everything I need. I joined Cloudy with a chance of pain because of my own issue. July 4th, 2017 (my un-independence day) my entire world changed forever. I had just gotten home from my night-shift at the county jail medical department. I was building a treasure chest toy box for my son and wanted to paint it. Yep, worst mistake of my life. Spilled the paint, slipped, fell backwards into my bathroom and the base of my skull landed on the edge of my vanity (it's only 16 inches off the ground). The result was devastating. I have not been able to return to my nursing position. I was diagnosed with coup-contracoup, occipital and frontal lobe brain damage, ripped muscles around the circumference of my neck, damage to my shoulder, executive functioning deficit, mental and physical processing deficit, personality changes, PTSD, anxiety disorder, zero immediate recall ability but my delayed is still intact, so that helps. I have to wear special lenses in my glasses because of strabismus in one eye and nystagmus in the other, I call them my Prism sentence..lol. I am extremely photophobic and noise sensitive. I feel sounds now, yep that one is creepy. Oh, occipital seizures and migraines like nobodies business.
You don't realize how much control your frontal lobe actually has until you no longer have that. Chronic pain I am at your mercy.
After being denied to be seen by the fifth neurologist I decided I wasn't going to go to the doctor anymore. My short term memory sucks (pardon my french), but my long term is still intact and I decided to nurse myself back. I have gotten to the point where I am back in college (online cuz I don't handle crowds anymore, I used to be a center of attention person, now I don't ever want to leave the house) re-training so that I can get back into the workforce and stay in a field that allows me to help others.
I am studying integrative health and plan to do nothing but holistic alternatives to traditional treatment. Oh, with the help of my sister-in-law I am training my own service dog (that's what she does for a living), his name is Mr. Pants and at 5 months old he is absolutely amazing.
Thanks for letting me share my story and letting me join this community.
