Stamina

In the post, Recovery from Any TBI, I wrote about how a severe brain injury wasn't that disruptive because of the severity of any one problem it caused, rather because of the number of problems it caused. Indeed, my accident caused a bit for me to deal with. I can remember (and there was a good portion of time early on in my recovery where I don't remember) seeking help for eight separate problems related to my accident - things like relearning how to run and learning more about problems with my vocal chords and speaking. All but one of these problems were caused by my brain injury. For those eight problems, I've seen eight different specialists (four of which I saw about this problem with my eyes), two general practitioners and twelve others (therapists, nurses or technicians and the like).

Those eight don't include all the problems I've had, but haven't sought medical help for (normally because I don't think it useful). Chief among them is fatigue, but the nature of those problems extend to things like needing to relearn how to eat without spilling stuff down my front. :-)

I wrote about the very involved approach I take to medical help in the post, I'm the Boss! That approach is difficult to maintain for every problem I've sought help with and so I've called this post, Stamina, not because I think I have it, but because I wish I had more of it.

One idea I've used to maintain my involved approach is to stagger my appointments. For instance, I decided not to seek help with my excessive sweating (probably caused by an injury to my brain stem) until after I'd had my eye problems resolved. Remember this is three years after my accident now. So, yeah, stamina is what I wish I had more of.

Cheers,
Mike