Know Your Enemy

You didn't think my combative language had gone away, did you? :-)

I've written about the size of the problem fatigue was for me, especially early on. Like all the effects of my TBI, fatigue is one of my enemies, to be struggled against and, in the end, to be beaten. You can better do those two if you better (as the saying goes) know your enemy! In this post, I'll write a little more about my fatigue and show you better how seriously I took it.

This website sets out the various forms of TBI fatigue. Of them, I suffered solely from mental fatigue, which the website says affects 70% of TBI recoverers. My mental fatigue is basically like I get drunk. I start slurring more words, my balance and coordination get poorer, my decision-making skills suffer. Unlike feeling intoxicated, however, there isn't anything positive about mental fatigue. It's not a good feeling and I've become very conscious about the danger I am to myself when I'm fatigued. I quickly learnt that the only way to 'sober up' was to neuro-rest.

Early on, when becoming fatigued could do the most damage to my recovery, I could barely manage an hour of concentration on anything at all without neuro-resting. The amount I could do slowly, but steadily increased. Still, any activity that required more serious concentration, such as working (in my job as an economist) or even just writing an email on the computer, would tire me a lot faster.

One of the biggest risks with becoming fatigued is that it can build up and up. Becoming really fatigued one day may mean I feel tired for days and days afterwards. The way I found that out is one of Mike's Regrets.

Each day fatigue gets a little better, though, and my fatigue slowly changed. I eventually found that I could neuro-rest by simply changing activities to one requiring less concentration. I am now three years on from my accident and, while much less of an issue, my fatigue is still there. My fatigue has been a big enemy to take on, but taking it on is what I have been doing and will continue to do.

Cheers,
Mike