If you're reading through my musings here and haven't yet picked it up, there is one fundamental thing I hope you take away from this blog. It is this: as a recoverer, it's your decision to recover or not to recover from your brain injury!
A brain injury can give you a hell of a kicking! And it will be a kicking the an effect of which others can only guess at. My TBI certainly did. This is me, almost seven years ago.
I stayed in roughly that condition for a long time, too. This photo is taken approximately one month on from my accident.
Yet, do we have it within ourselves to choose to recover? I cannot talk with confidence about what pulls us through when life hangs in the balance. Once we're through that stage, though, I hope all of us recoverers believe absolutely, it is our choice to recover. I've dedicated these last seven years of my life to proving this is so.
Five years on from my accident, I finished an Ironman triathlon, a goal I'd had from well before it.
Last month, I graduated with a Master of Arts from Victoria University of Wellington after writing, having written an 80,000+ word thesis to complete it.
I believe it is up to us to choose to recover. I hope you will join me in making that choice and that the posts on this blog will help you for it.
Cheers,
Mike
18 comments:
I am much earlier into my recovery than you (26 months) but I agree very much with your point. This is not easy. You can either choose to fight or choose to quit. I choose to fight. Your posts are always very meaningful for me even though I haven't commented. Thank you so much for sharing your experiences.
Thanks heaps for the comment, Heather. It is to help out people like you that makes this all worthwhile.
Best of luck with your fight to recover. If you to chat over anything to do with recovery (I'm not one who likes talking about accidents or how our brain injuries happened), please feel free to get in touch (howtorecover@gmail.com).
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike,
Your story is inspiring. I was wondering if you have any advice or suggestions regarding getting back into physical activity? Did you have a problem with exercise intolerance and if so how did you increase the threshold?
Congrats on the Masters : )
Hey Leigh,
Thanks for the congrats. On exercise and almost everything else post-TBI, my only real advice is make sure you enjoy yourself. That is what I think counts.
With physical exercise, did you have some sport that you liked before your brain injury? If so, why not just try that again? If you don't like it, is there something else you might enjoy?
Cheers,
MIke
Thanks Mike. Pre-accident I was fit and into sailing, tramping, skiing and running. 4 years on post-accident, I'm fine with day to day life, but have a problem with exercise. I have tried building up slowly and the threshold has increased a bit, but anything that requires exertion still results in headaches and severe fatigue. I'm interested in how you have managed to get back into physical activities and if you had similar problems?
Sorry, Leigh. I personally haven't had problems like yours since my TBI. I've had (and continue to have) certain problems getting my muscles to work properly, but they only really affect my abilities with, not my enjoyment of, my sport. Still, as I've written elsewhere on here, every TBI is like a finger print: the effects we experience will very often be different.
Your case doesn't sound simple. I'd recommend starting to run experiments on yourself: does it make a difference doing your exercise in certain environments, is it better in the morning or when the weather's fine or when you're well rested? Consider yourself a Sherlock Holmes on your issues. :-)
Most importantly for you, I'd recommend you relax and maximise the enjoyment levels: if conditions aren't conducive to that, I reckon you can find something better to do.
You used the word tramping. You're not another Kiwi, are you?
Cheers
Mike
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the encouragement. Yes, you're right every injury is different. And while I'm thankful as things could have been much worse, I still keep working toward getting back out there.
Good spotting on the tramping : ) I'm in Dunedin so am enjoying the awesome summer we're having down here.
Thanks again for your suggestions.
Small steps, Leigh, small steps. If you want to do those things badly enough, I'm very confident you'll crack the puzzle. With these things, though, I reckon it's best not to hold out for that magic bullet, but focus on the gradual improvements. For me and my sports, those have been what's counted.
Best of luck with it, too. Those are cool activities to aim at and that's a great part of the country in which to do them (I live up in windy Wellington).
Cheers
Mike
Hey Leigh,
How's it going? Hope you're making progress with figuring out the issues impeding you from doing what you want to do.
Last night, I read this article in the Economist magazine. It discusses all sorts of cool devices for quantifying how we live, for helping us understand ourselves better. Unfortunately, no one seems to have invented an iPhone app to suss out post-TBI issues just yet, but I like the Sherlock Holmes philosophy the article discusses.
I think I'll put a post up on this blog about this thinking. Thanks for helping me see how recoverers might benefit from it.
Cheers,
Mike
Hey again Leigh,
I just put together that post I mentioned, if you're interested in a read. Have a look here: http://howtorecover.blogspot.co.nz/2012/03/being-sherlock-holmes.html
Cheers,
Mike
Hi Mike,
Your story is so inspiring to me and brings hope as I had a car accident 14 months ago which left me with a TBI.
I would like to ask you if you found it hard keeping in contact with friends as I kinda feel like my friends don't keep in contact with me much cause I am a little different to before.
What steps did it take you to start studying to get your masters as I want to have a degree in a sport subject in the future but I wouldn't really know where to start?
Ben
Thanks, Ben. I'm really glad you enjoy my blog: you sound like just the sort of person I write it for. Keep up your hope, man. If you keep focused on recovering well, I’m sure you’ll do something similar to what I’ve done/am doing, hopefully even better! Doing a sports degree might definitely help you out with that! Go for it!
You asked me about two things. On the issue of friends, I was very lucky to have been raised in a way that I only bother hanging out with people who want to hang out with me. I am a different person now and I’m sure that caused some people I used knew to treat me differently. That’s their choice, though, and, if they don’t want to hang out, well I’ve got better stuff to do, anyway.
In terms of meeting new people who might want to hang out with me, I love picking up new sports, joining new teams or trying new activities. Which activities do I try? As I explain in this post, Get Into It, I love trying things I reckon I’ll enjoy.
In terms of study for a sports degree, I definitely encourage you to go for it! In terms of working out how to do it, I encourage you to find the right people to talk to about it. Do you have any family friends who have done one before? Have a yarn to them about it: it’s time to get talking!
Best of luck wtih further recovering, though. I really hope things work out your way.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi this is a lil message just to say well done u both! And how did you go about this?.. Basically Ive had a traumatic brain injury from an attack which took place on 17 may 2010 which left me in a coma for a month where in I woke up new born 26 year old baby. Could talk, eat, sit up, keep my head up etc. Two years on Ive got better slowly but surely but left side is weak n stiff n nerves r messed brain not sending messages to certain parts! I go gym as much as I can but I've got no gym partner! Physio stopped for me too! Wanna know what else I can do because this really gets me low! I walk with a delta frame ATM but can't walk for long as I get tired easy so if I'm going out for long il have to use wheelchair. Also no grip in my left hand so I'm only holding frame with the right. Any help? Please!!!!!!!
I'm junior by the way! Not used to this sorta sites
Hey there Anonymous,
Your issues sound complex and it does sound like you're really having problems with them. I think the world of knowledgeable, empathetic physiotherapists and highly recommend you find some way to start seeing one.
You say that your physio stopped. Do I take it that that's because your insurance ran out? If so, I encourage you to move heaven and earth to find a way to restart physio: might you be able to help out around their clinic, say with cleaning, in exchange for their giving you extra help in their spare time.
You'll hopefully have some ideas of what you can do for the physios so that they're able to give you some more help. I reckon that this is the most certain route for you to get better, to get the use of your left side again.
Cheers,
Mike
Hi mike
Na it's nothing to do with insurance running out it's just that these physio's here seem to just give up on people an think that there's nothing more they can give to the person they would rather the person go off on there own with the knowledge they've lernt from physio and do there own thing, which I think is crazy!!!.. So anyway I've re applied for further treatment but the physio's only give clients like an hour lesson a week! Shocking!!! What things can you Surgest me to do, anything could help! .. Thanks mike
Oh, that's good. I was worried it was one of those tricky health insurance things that cause issues for so many recoverers.
I'm not a physio, but I know one major thing about the discipline: the thing that will best help anyone is entirely dependent on their current state, what they can and can't do right now. Since I have no way of assessing that in you, I'd never wish to give you advice on specific exercises.
I can recommend one thing, though: talk with your physios heaps about what you've been doing and what you could do in between your appointments that might help you out. One thing with physiotherapy is that it's very difficult to make progress unless you do exercises in between physio appointments. In spite of that, you'd be amazed by how many people don't do the exercises their physio gives them for in between appointments.
I encourage you to enthusiastically attend your 1 hour sessions. Talk to your physio about what you can do, what you want to be able to do and what you have done since you last saw them. My experience of physios here in New Zealand makes me believe the majority will really respond if you show them you're keen to get better and are listening (closely) to what they say.
Let me know if you have any questions on this. I think it's the advice I can give that will help you out the most. I want to make sure I get across so am more than happy to chat.
Cheers,
Mike
Thanks for the comment Georgia Injury Centers. I'm not at all interested in people using this site for advertising. If you're making a comment as a person, rather than as the company your username suggests you represent, I'd welcome your making it under a personal username.
Cheers,
Mike
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