How I Recovered Quickly From A Traumatic Brain Injury
At the age of 44, I had a TIA, Transient Ischemic Attack. They’re often called mini strokes because, unlike other types of stroke, TIAs resolve themselves within minutes or hours after happening. While mine was called a mini stroke, I did not seek treatment and the damage it did was great.
My neurologist showed me a video of my brain dying. It was horrible to see. The scan went from grey to white on the right upper half of my brain. Each time he showed me, I turned my head. It was horrible to imagine, the thing that makes me, me, dead in there. Floating around, unused, not firing, not living. Yes, it was only part of my brain, but it was a big part. The ghost of what I used to be was in there sloshing around doing nothing. It was not one hundred percent clear if I could wake up the dead parts of my brain and bring it back to life. But what was clear was that the faster I got to work, the better off I would be.
This past May, the neurologist in charge of my case retired from my case. He wrote in my file that I was fully recovered. In the hospital, after my stroke, the staff discussed the possibility of putting me in a care facility. Typically, with the level of brain damage I had, a person would require 5 months in a nursing home setting. I asked my neurologist when he broke up with me, how I recovered so quickly. Fully recovered two months after I was supposed to be released from a nursing home? He gave me four reasons, most of which I had no control over: Age, Intelligence prior to stroke, determination, and family support.
Age, however you look at it, lucky or unlucky, I was younger than the average stroke victim. Lucky because it gave me the ability to bounce back quickly, unlucky because what the heck?
Intelligence. When I went to speech therapy, which is not speech alone. It’s a lot of cognitive testing. The therapist did a series of tests to see if I was suffering from language loss and cognitive loss. One such test was a word game. She’d time me and ask me to name as many animals as I could in the time given. She noticed right away that I employed an organized approach to the test. Domestic animals, farm animals, zoo animals, jungle animals and animals in Africa. When I was done, she nodded her head impressed and said, “You outscored people who never had a stroke and took the test.” My organization in thought was a great sign. I started to question whether I’d ever put my full brain power to test and bemoaned that a stroke where the top right half was dead weight, was the first time I really tested my ability.
Determination, I’ve always been determined. I believe part of that comes from birth order, being the youngest of three and always unable to keep up. I grew up the underdog. I grew up at a size and ability disadvantage. So, the obstacles faced after my stroke were not a huge frustration to me. My body did not always perform the way I wanted it to but my therapists gave me work to do to get that performance back. My left hand was weak and my fine motor skills were a struggle. I was given therapeutic putty to use and exercises with the putty to regain what I lost. I religiously did the exercises every day. I also started a home workout routine that they fully endorsed. It was a barre workout. People who have strokes often struggle with balance. Barre is similar to ballet and has a strong core, balance aspect. I did that workout five days a week. I started researching whether or not I could wake up my brain and get things firing again. An article by Jon E Bentz, PhD. Can The Brain Heal Itself After A Stroke, published at lancastergeneralhealth.com states, “ When a stroke deprives the brain of blood, the nerve cells in the brain are either damaged or die, causing physical and mental changes typical of a stroke. Now, research is telling us that the brain is a fighter and does try to heal itself.”
Prior to learning about the information in the article, I tried to get parts of my brain working. I immediately went back to work as a reporter for the newspaper at which I work. I wrote my first article the day I got home. I started reading right away, thinking reading is always good for the brain. And, on the off chance I could get new receptors to fire, I tried to learn to crochet. My therapy team was very excited about crochet. Using both hands together, they thought would help a lot.
It turns out, according to John E. Bentz PhD, the brain can create new nerve cells. Previously it was believed the only ones you were born with would be the only ones you have. But now research suggests that the brain can create new cells. And that process is called neurogenesis. Learning to crochet was probably causing my brain to develop new cells and connections.
Family support is important to recovery. I relied on my family to get me to and from every therapy appointment. I was not permitted to drive for close to three months after my stroke. And during my test, the therapist testing my driving skills stated that it was very fast for someone to be driving after a stroke. I sometimes needed rides three days a week. My daughter is in preschool and a family friend drove us to and from school every single day. The support I had was very important to my recovery.
If you or a loved one ever have a stroke, do not think the struggles you have in the beginning are struggles you will be stuck with forever. Get to work right away and attempt to rebuild what was lost. Determination and a good support structure will definitely improve your odds.