6 months post severe injury

[MeganAl]

My boyfriend was in a serious car accident 6 months ago and suffered a tbi and anoxic injury due to cardiac arrest.

28 days in coma.

He can talk but hes not anywhere close normal self.

What sort of imrpovement do you see post 6 mths injury?

[Beachlovingkiwi]

hi, sorry to hear of your boyfriend’s accident. Everyone is so different when it come to head injuries so unfortunately there is no magic answer to your question. I took probably about 10 months after first tbi to be at about 90% normalish- but then at 11 months had another knock to head and it set me back and took so much longer to recover from. And to this day I am still dealing with fatigue, head aches, brain fog and some processing challenges and it’s almost been 4 years since first one. However everyone is so different. Celebrate the small improvements and take time to appreciate how far he has come. As others will probably say it is all a wait and see and time thing for recovery. Sometimes you go backwards for a bit before you go forwards too - one of my very wise recovery nurses said “recovery is not linear for a head injury” meaning it is not in a straigh line but has bumps and curves up,and down along the way . Hope this helps. Take care 😀

[Leaf100]

Hi Megan

There is no way to know. Everyone is differenr and they can tell somethings but are often wrong. There are people on here told 'you will never...' and they do. Some are told they will this that and it isn't what happens.

It is hard cause you want to know, but it just usn't like a broken leg or something like that.

Contact Headway to find resources, and don't forget yourself. Learning about it will help.

Six months in is considered fresh.

A lot of healing happens in the first 3 years ish, and goes on from there though usually at a slower pace.

Getting the right advice and therapy from the beginning helps a lot, and don't forget to look in to income and all that. You may need yo get a lawyer to help.

Also know he wont be aware of all the things going on, and if he seems irrtated or easily angry that is fairly common in the beginning, though not everyone goes through that. It kind of feels like a really tight pair of shoes you can't get out of and that would make anyone crabby - or it may feel like burning ... etc. Justcdo you know it is not you if it happens.

Sorry the news isn't more encouraging and the parh unfolds differently for everyone to a degree.

It is great you are hanging in there. It is impirtant.

There are the injured and those who care for them and about them here, so you will get lots of different perspectives.

Take good care, keep us posted

Leaf

[cat3]

Hi Megan. Is your boyfriend still in hospital ; I'm wondering what stage he's at therapy-wise? The long-term effects of brain injury can't be determined as, unlike other organs, the brain is complex and doesn't follow a simple pattern of repair

But from my own brain injury, and from those of countless others here, it seems most of us have evolved from helplessness to a decent quality of life. Progress is always slow (often one step forwards & two or three back) and many of us are left with symptoms such as poor balance, fatigue and emotional issues - all of which need acceptance and management.

At the 6 months point there's great potential for further progress though the rate of improvement can feel painfully slow. It's only looking back when we can appreciate how far we've come.

I hope you're both headed for better days ; keep us updated m'love. Cat x

[MeganAl]

Yes he is still in hospital. He was so badly hurt the doctors are amazed and he had so many polytraumatic Injuries that he is the subject of medical studies.

Yes he has gone backwards and forwards in his recovery I think after being in a bed for six months and realising the gravity of your situation he can get quite depressed but he's quiet and doesn't really express too much. I'm not sure how much is actually going through his mind and he just not saying it.

He's only 29, I'm a fair bit older and he had only been in Aus for a year working when this happened, no family here etc.

I think although wonderful, hospital care can get to a point where it holds them back. He may be more motivated once he sees some normality. He's in a specialist brain injury unit and has physio, occupational therapy and other treatments daily.

He still comprehends, speaks but slowed and his conversations are simpler. He forgets a lot of short term, day to day, the last year or so before the accident too.

He has only just started walking on a walker, as he had many physical injuries including broken femur, bad pelvic fracture, all his ribs, arm, foot, knee socket torn to shreds, bad internal Injuries which caused his hemorrhage and two cardiac arrests while waiting to be cut from the wreck.

And can you believe he had to have his right index finger and half his thumb amputated due to a blood clot where the cannula thing is from the hospital that wasn't monitored!

He was very fit and motivated prior, but he doesn't seem to have any drive at the moment, he will do everything asked of him but doesn't initiate.

We are blessed he has even come this far

long and windey roads ahead😚

[fity123r]

hi megan

my husband had a hypoxic brain injury its abit like anoxic the first 6 months i swear on it he made no progress at all he would be agressive hitting everyone would not sleep for 4nights in a row his short term memory was badly affected his cognition was very bad and it was so severe he could not walk or talk or even do anything now after 19months his walking and talking aalittle lts a very very long journey and its very slow but eventally u and him will get there dont give up thats all i can say keep us updated all the best x

[Skulls]

I wish your BF well. At least he appears to be receiving the sort of aftercare I dream about…. The amputations are shocking. The trusts over here have policies that cannulas must be changed every three days. It is a wonder I didn’t end up black and blue but the nurses must have become expert at changing them. As for improvement, be patient. It may happen, it may not. Nearly four years on from my own hypoxia after cardiac arrest, I am physically and mentally worse but I attribute that to neglect by the health service. My wife got a different and far less tolerant person back from the hospital. I now have no filter and am often blunt (rude??!) when I speak out about things that seem wrong. I feel occasionally that I was returned to the wrong version of this Universe. A celebrity footballer’s death was announced and I was puzzled because I believed he had died several years in the past. So, is the world odd or just me? I would advise that you temper your expectations of your BF to include his new reality. It is you who has to adapt, not him.