Traumatic Brain Injury

[livingwith]

July 23, 2007 changed my life forever. My husband was injured in a motorcycle accident. External injuries were minor, broken arm and nose. His more extensive injury took a week to determine. MRI determined he had a Diffuse Axonal injury. I was told about it and then given the prognosis of less than 10% recovery. At that time he was in a coma in TICU. The never actually said it but it was implied that if he came out of the coma he would probably be in a vegetative state forever. After 2 1/...Read the full article

[Rick.C]

I must admit your story touched me very firmly. Your husband is doin what it takes and you need to be patient. Your doing everything you can for your loved one. That means alot and yes it can be frustrating but your keeping your nose down to the ground a staying focused. It takes time and it helps if your able to understand that part of it. And you are, two thumbs up, because people who are able to stay focused when times are tough, goes to show how big of a character they are. I must admit your character is big....really big. I wrote a story in Feb about my TBI and I'am currently goin through this. My rehab team ( alot of people) tell me to take one day at a time and accept the situation by making the best of it one day at a time. I'm big of Nickelback fan (they were just here in Calgary and I went) and they have a song called "IF TODAY WAS YOUR LAST DAY" it helps, ALOT. Its important to be there for recovery for you hushand it helps so much. My Girlfriend and Mom were at the hospital for me, both takin leaves of absence from work, and that means so much to me, I think it helps in your recovery cause it gives you agoal to shoot for. BE WITH THE PEOPLE YOU LOVE.

[amydipaolo]

Hi. Thank you so much for the story. It has helped, but also left me with lots of questions. Maybe someone can help answer them for me. My dad, 64 y.o, was taken to emergency last month with respiratory distress. SOmewhere along the way, things went bad and he ended up with a hypoxic brain injury. He has been comatose since then (Mar. 05). His drs. too are very negative, saying that there is no meaningful reaction/response although he opens his eyes and moves them to voices in the room. The dr. spends all of 1 minute with him and thinks he knows it all. He just had an MRI and EEG which show brain activity, just a bit slow and also some brain atrophy. The hard thing for me is being so far away--almost 1000 miles. It is hard to keep my mom postitive and to try to intrepret and relate things to her when she doesn't understand the dr. If any one has any advice for us, I would TRULY appreciate it! He is currently in a LTC facility, weaning off the vent but we just don't know what course we should follow to ensure he receives the right treatment and the best recovery possible. All I know is that this situation sucks! (Sorry) Please feel free to email me with any info-- [moderator note: e-mail address has been removed] --Thanks. AMY

[marcus88]

my girlfriend is in the same boat she went to er for pancreas problem things went awfully wrong,she now is not responding to anything,she had high temp throughtout whole time she was admitted on 6-30-09 and now the drs are saying her life is over, she is 36 we have 2 kids 5yrs,18months,they dont know what caused her brain to swell,pancreatitis to pneumonia the high fever throughtout all the treatments for other conditions,now they say even if she does recover she will be in a vegatative state for life,i just dont get it pancreatitis tofull blown brain problems wher she has no prognosis to recover at all. I talked to her mother today andshe's very distraught but i think she wants to take her off life support, ive read other stories where people made drastic recoveries, its still very early for her and i cant visit much because of the kids,my youngest doesnt understand and i just can't be the father i need to be now im so so upset my life has been turned upside down and it hurts so much i miss her so much and the stress of being a single father with 2 hyper kids oh my god no one can just understand the pressure on me i have to try to be there for the kids and i'm doing my best , i just get strength from my kids and by far this is gonna be the toughtest thing i had to deal with in my life.i just pray all the time i just still can't believe this happened. i do not want to give up on her , do any body have any ideas how we should go from this point she's on life support , with nothing good form there,i got her eyes to open the other day and had movement on her face. but i just pray pray pray
thanks