Feeling anxious

I experienced a mild tbi in early October and felt a relatively good, speedy recovery for the time being (5 weeks). Then everything changed when I clumsily hit my head on my bedroom shelf. The weeks that followed were the worst of my life; constant headaches, mental fatigue, mood swings, worse memory and probably worst of all was the stress and anxiety of trying to get urgent medical attention. Unfortunately I did read things online that were unhelpful to my situation and made me believe I was in an imminent state of danger but I'm here now, 2 months on. I went to the doctors and they appointed me to a neurologist in February which is soon and won't be a long wait considering how quickly time flies nowadays but I can't help but think that my recovery has worsened to the extent that I have very little to improve on. I know it's early days but does anyone have experience of second injuries?

[charlieab]

Hi

My knowledge is very limited on TBIs. But I think that the real danger from a second hit on the head is if its relatively soon (days up to a week) after the first hit. I think thats why American football players now get taken out of the game after one hit on the head. Im guessing that 5 weeks would have given your brain sufficient time to recover from the first hit so that the second hit would not in effect combine with the first one but would be a discrete event the seriousness of which would depend on how hard the second hit was.

Anyways, good luck with appointment in February.

[LindaHannah]

I cannot say whether the the first BI added to or compounded to the second, but the second has been significant, it sounds like. A neurologist is a good call and personally I think you need a CT scan.

I walked into a cupboard and got concussion from it. My head felt muzzy for about 3 weeks. I have an ABI from when I was a child.

I hope you feel better soon and you feel more back to you x

[Hidden in reply to LindaHannah]

I think my recovery would've been a lot smoother if it weren't for how the first one actually happened (which I'm always quite reluctant to say). I almost feel like I deserved what I got but at the same time I was socially pressured into doing cannabis on the night of my good mate's party. Once I got to his house, a drunk kid in my year threw a bottle at my nose and that was it. I didn't realise it gave me a brain injury until long after as I still assumed the effects of the drug was wearing off and I didn't black out. Anyway, teenagers are meant to make mistakes but sometimes they are so stupid that they cause permanent damage. I'd like to turn back time because I feel like it was preventable but I guess I would've been a lot safer staying inside as a gamer geek than trying to be sociable for short term fun with friends who are unlikely to be there for me in the future.

[charlieab in reply to Hidden]

Going out was the right thing to do. Childhood/ teenhood is there for enjoying and learning. You just got unlucky. No way you could have predicted that. imo nothing to blame yourself for.

Dont let it eat you up. Unless you have a time machine, it cant be chnaged anyhow, so no real value in tfreting about.

btw that advce is from the world's greatest fretter i.e. me!

[Hidden in reply to charlieab]

Thanks, you're right. I'll try my best to live with it.

[Hidden]

This is quite reassuring. I have been thinking about buying a book to read about overcoming brain injury since I find that I can only concentrate on writing that means anything to me.