Recovery from Any TBI

The question I set out to help people answer with this blog was, how do I to recover from a TBI? And, by that, I do mean any TBI. I suffered a severe diffuse TBI, but I certainly don't think that sets me apart from any other TBI recoverer. I once talked to a friend of a friend who suffered a TBI from walking through a heavy door with her arms full. The door swung closed behind her and connected with the back of her head and neck. Compare that situation to my own of going from 40 kmh (about 25 mph) to zero in an instant against the side of a van. Yet, she was still unlucky enough to suffer from difficult problems with fatigue afterwards!

Every TBI presents differently and no two TBIs will be the same. Just because one TBI's severe, however, and another's not won't mean much at all about what each recoverer experiences, how each copes and, at the end of the day, how each recovers. The way I see it, the thing with a severe TBI that's really disruptive is simply the number of problems it causes rather than the size of any one problem. I think that because learning to deal with a lot of fatigue, for instance, isn't much more difficult or disruptive than learning to deal with moderate fatigue.

I know, I know... even aside from severity, right now it's basically only one TBI recovery I focus on - my own. That means I might not cover topics very important to other recoverers. Still, I hope that, by writing about how I dealt with my problems, I will stimulate further thinking on ways of dealing with other issues. I also hope others might contribute discussion of the issues they face as they recover. If you've got an idea for one such topic, please read this post.

So, just because you suffered a different TBI to me, please don't think this blog mightn't be useful to you.

Cheers,
Mike

All That Matters Is, How to Recover

In comments on this post, I talked about how I didn't want to use this blog to focus on anything except recovery. I don't think it really matters how I injured myself; whether I hurt myself out cycle training for a triathlon one morning or, as in Tracy's example, driving drunk one evening. Nor do I think it matters, who I was before my accident.

All that matters, I think, is how I recover; what have I done since my accident? How many doors have I kicked down? It's not, how did my accident happen nor who was I before my accident.

If you're thinking about contributing to this blog, please be aware that what I want to focus on is TBI recovery.

Cheers,
Mike