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There is Always Hope

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in Concussion
June 9, 2020
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There is Always Hope

by Amy Zellmer, Editor-in-chief

Spring is such a beautiful time of year, and a reminder that what once was dormant and ugly is now blooming and bright!

Recovery from brain injury can feel a bit like the changing of the seasons . . .  one minute you feel like you’re in the darkness of winter, and the next you feel like a bright, sunny summer day There isn’t always a rhyme or reason for this drastic change of season; it’s just how life is with a brain injury.   

This issue is particularly important to me. Dizziness is one of the most common symptoms I hear from survivors in my group . . .  as well as individuals who aren’t sure they’ve ever had a brain injury, but struggle with bouts of dizziness.

Dizziness can be completely debilitating. After my injury, I constantly felt like the world was moving and swaying around me. I never felt stable on my feet, and I didn’t trust my depth perception — I constantly ran into doorjambs or corners of tables (I still have the bruises to prove it).

I told every doctor I saw that I felt my dizziness was coming from my eyes. As a lifelong photographer I was unusually tuned-in to my vision and knew something was “off” with my eyes, but couldn’t quite put it into words. Doctors would listen and quickly dismiss me, saying,  “Oh, that isn’t really possible.”

Little did I know that I was actually on the right track and that traditional doctors genuinely don’t have a firm grasp on all that a brain injury entails. When your vestibular system isn’t working properly, and your eyes aren’t tracking together, your body is constantly trying to figure out where it is in space — is it upright or falling over!?!?

I was fortunate to stumble upon Functional Neurology, after two-and-a-half years of struggling with trying to get traditional doctors to listen to me — and believe me. Rather than take anti-depressants, I wanted to get to the root cause of my dizziness.

Functional Neurology truly saved my life; I was at the end of my rope. I didn’t know how much longer I could tolerate feeling the way I had been, especially since no doctor seemed to understand or believe me. Dr. Jeremy Schmoe took one look at me and validated everything I had been saying . . . my eyes weren’t tracking together and that was exactly what was causing my constant dizziness.

Through a course of exercises over a period of two or three weeks, I was finally catching a glimpse of the old me — the me that had been withering away for two-and-a-half years, the me that had given up hope on ever feeling normal again, the me that knew the medical system needed to take note and listen . . . not just hear, but listen. I finally saw a light at the end of the tunnel, and knew that I was in good hands.

It’s important that we listen to our bodies — they will tell us everything we need to know. It’s also important to understand that traditional doctors don’t necessarily know everything about everything. Many receive less than an hour of training on brain injury, so can we really fault them for not understanding such a complicated condition? It’s critical that you look outside the traditional box and seek out alternative healthcare providers who truly do understand brain injuries and how to help you get better. There is always hope . . . no matter how far out from your injury you may be.

Amy Zellmer is an award winning author, keynote speaker, and TBI survivor and advocate. She is Editor-in-chief of The Brain Health Magazine, and hosts the Faces of TBI podcast series, as well as TBI TV on YouTube. 

                                                                    

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  • A traumatic brain injury is the ultimate “invisible injury” as no one can see what’s happening inside your brain. Even imaging doesn’t show a TBI (unless you have bleeding or severe trauma). It’s impossible to explain to others, and even doctors don’t take us seriously or know how to help us. 

It is incredibly frustrating to go through life being told “there’s nothing we can do. You’ll just have to give it more time and see what happens” and even more frustrating when you find out that there are doctors out there who truly DO know how to help us!  Like @integratedbraincenters 

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  • I remember how I would literally need to lay down after taking a shower because it was so exhausting. And something like going to the grocery store and bringing them in and putting them away would require me to do nothing else for the rest of the day. It was a one-chore kind of activity. 

These are normal, every day things we take for granted before brain injury, and afterwards they require soooo much energy and effort. It’s truly hard for someone who hasn’t experienced a brain injury to understand. 💚

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  • You totally got this!! 
Is it gonna be easy? Nope. 
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  • I remember folks would talk to me and my brain would take forever to process what they were saying. They would be into the next subject and I’d still be trying to decipher their first sentence. It was frustrating and exhausting. 

Friends would tell me to “try harder” and concentrate. But that’s not how it works with brain injury. 

It’s like if you drop your laptop and scramble it’s processor. 

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  • #Repost @integratedbraincenters
Recovery as defined in the dictionary is a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength. 

Missing from this definition is that recovery is a continuum. We often hear in recovery post surgery that a patient is a percent recovered (Sue is 80% recovered post hip replacement) demonstrating that recovery is not an all or nothing situation but is rather a spectrum. 

Not everyone will make a 100% recovery but most people can move forward in their recovery in some way, even if it is only 10% or 70%. 

To say that recovery is not possible in any capacity is probably untrue. The more severe the injury the more likely you will never be the same person you were prior, but that does not mean that you can’t get back to doing the things you love and contribute to your family and community.

#beaininjury #concussion #tbi #pcs #neuroplasticity #resilience #resiliency #TBIsurvivor
  • No two brain injuries are the same, therefore, no two recoveries are the same. Don’t compare yours against someone else’s, as you never know what they’ve already gone through. 

Focus on YOU and your recovery. What could you try differently? What should you maybe give up? I personally gave up alcohol and gluten and that was huge for me and my inflammation. 

#braininjury #concussion #tbi #pcs #neuroplasticity #functionalneurology #funcneuro #neuronerd
  • I know one of the biggest lessons I had to learn from my TBI was asking for help. 

It wasn’t something I was used to, and the first few friends I asked laughed at me, which made it even harder to try again. 

But it was a beautiful lesson for me — as someone who is fiercely independent it is important to ask for help when I need it it — in allll areas of my life. 

What was your biggest lesson from TBI? 

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  • A concussion IS a traumatic brain injury by definition.

#tbi #braininjury#concussion #pcs

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