my husband came off his push bike and banged his head on 26th September. he was put in an induced coma as he had bleeds and swelling on brain . he was in hospital for 7 week in the end he doesn't remember any of it apart from the last 2 week where he had physio and speech therapy . We been told he has short term memory loss. At the min he is very tired and light headed and he cant cope with it . the only medication he is on is paracetamol and Sertraline. He wants to know does this feeling ever go away .
He is used to going to work every day and now he cant go this is also getting him down.
can anyone suggest anything for him.
thank you all.
Written by
Bevdave
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Hi Bev. Your husband's fatigue and general un-wellness is absolutely normal after brain injury. His brain will be desperate for respite as it struggles to adapt to its injured state & reconfigures new pathways to compensate for compromised ones. It's a complex and delicate organ and, with all the will in the world, its recuperation can't be hurried
We're shocked and frustrated by the loss of function after a brain injury. Almost as soon as we regain awareness, we assume we can carry on where we left off. It wasn't until I joined Headway, and read the accounts of others here, that I believed my consultant's warning that my life would be very different from then on.
Your man needs many more weeks (or months) of recuperation before attempting anything other than simple tasks, light exercise and regular periods of rest and sleep. Pushing through the fatigue can cause physical & mental meltdown.
To get professional information and advice on the after-effects of a traumatic brain injury you might like to phone the Headway helpline on 0808 800 2244. Calls are free and staff are brilliant. And we on the forum are always here..... Cat x
PS Sorry, meant to say, at 2 months post injury your man is at a very early stage and his progress is only just beginning. If he needs more effective pain relief I'm sure his GP can arrange some. x
Yes as cat 3 said very early stage after brain injury there is hope tell him. Have a look at the “love your brain” website there is mediation and yoga that I have found very helpful. Recovery is not so much of a linear timeline I have found but ups and bumps along the way but still eventually moving forward. Have scheduled rests throughout the day also really helps 10 min break lying down, eyes blacked out every hour or so. And one decent rest with ear plugs and sleep mask for an hour - I do 12-1pm so middle of day - I find this helps with fatigue hugely. I also have started listening to podcasts - about concussion- so nice to hear others stories and no your not alone or going crazy! Concussion Talk is a good one. Anyway best of luck and take it hour by hour day by day - there will be good days followed by better days followed by hard days - the more you accept this and listen to your body the faster I have found I am recovering 😀😀
Couldn't have said it better myself. cat3 and Beachlovingkiwi are absolutely right and as someone who is also in the early stages of recovery (my TBI from my road bike happened beginning of August 2020) I completely agree with their comments and suggestions.
I definitely had the feeling of wanting things to go 'back to normal' (whatever normal means these days!) but I've had to learn the hard way, that the recovery simply cannot be rushed and there is no 'quick fix' as such. Learning to be patient and allow your body the chance to heal is key. However, there is always hope and things will improve over time (to what extent, I cannot say) but rest assured it will get easier.
I will also echo what a lot of people say on here, in that I have found meditation helpful and gentle exercise (walks with my dog mostly). Also, this group has been a lifeline for me, filled with some truly incredible humans who are always on hand to offer support and encouragement.
Bev (and Dave?) i had a major bike induced TBI almost 6 years to the day before yours. I was perhaps lucky to have also picked up a major collarbone break, which rather took my “focus” off of the early months of recovery. I didn’t have the induced coma, but I have 24 hours of total memory loss when I was wide awake and had no idea of who I was. It’s been a very long journey for me and my family. I was off work for 5 months, and even when I returned the head docs were not keen. Everyone is different - in my case i knew how to do everything but remembered very few events. I could get to them eventually, but it was as if my memory was a book and that the index and contents pages had been ripped out. 6 years on and whilst post-bang memory is pretty good, it is like pre-bang has mostly been re-learned or told back to me.
Emergy-wise I still struggle because of pituitary and hypothalamus injury as part of the accident, but aside from that, the brain’s recovery takes massive amounts of energy - my OT from the time told me that normally the brain consumes 25-30% of the oxygen I absorb, and more when recovering. She advised that recovery goes on for two years, and that that might not be total. And she was not wrong. I’d love to tell you it will all be fine, but my experience is that it is a long haul, and certainly life changing. I went through periods of depression-like symptoms, which I believe is not uncommon, and not related to actually being depressed or “down”. I’ve no hot tips other than needing patience and determination, especially with doctors.
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