The months-long haze instantly set in when the horse I was riding stumbled at the exact moment I shifted my seat. I don’t remember falling, but I do remember feeling the leather reins move in my hands. My thigh hit the ground. Then the flat of my back hit the wall of the indoor arena so hard it felt like every vertebra in my spine was broken. A few minutes later I got back on my horse (everyone always asks if I got back on my horse) and I haven’t ridden since.
It wasn’t until I was on my way home that my thoughts started to slow down, like a fog had settled in my head. As I tried to think, I heard ringing in my ears. Everything was too bright and too loud. Each of her next three days she slept 17 to 20 hours. I woke up, ate, went to the bathroom, then went back to bed and walked around exhausted.
The moment the brain fog started, I thought I had a concussion. Just a week ago, I heard on a podcast that you can get it without hitting your head. The day after the accident, the doctor confirmed my suspicions. The impact of my back hitting the wall gave me whiplash, and my neck jerked back and forth after the impact. My brain, which was moving around inside my skull, was also damaged.
In my opinion, the risk of concussions is most severe in people who suffer from frequent concussions: soccer players, boxers, veterans, and those who have sustained repeated brain trauma and suffer from chronic traumatic encephalopathy. did. One bump on the head? It wasn’t a big deal — except then.
For months, a five-minute phone call left me feeling exhausted as if I had been swimming for an hour. I couldn’t drive, and looking out the window as a passenger made me feel nauseous. Observing something felt like work. My eyes darted around as if the world were a slowed-down film reel. My real job, which is to get paid to write, was impossible. Having fun was also out of the question. Trying to regain my thoughts felt like rummaging through empty filing cabinet after empty file cabinet. That person, the person who exists in my brain’s wiring, has gone missing. I was worried that she would be gone forever.
During that time, I began to rage against a system that ignores bad or outdated advice and leaves people suffering from concussions and “mild traumatic brain injuries.” Research shows that when people undergo rehabilitation that targets concussion symptoms, faster recovery, but that’s not what the average patient hears. Many people are still told by their doctors to just wait for a concussion to occur because early treatment can make a big difference.
The doctor told me to rest. Most concussion symptoms subside within a few days. After 3 days, the doctor said not to worry until 7 to 10 days have passed. She then updated that range to her 1st month.
When I was awake, I ate, searched online for information about concussions, and used what little mental energy I had to email experts. I wanted to know what was actually going on in my brain and if I could do anything to speed up the recovery process.I knew it was a helmet cannot be completely protected Be wary of concussions, as simply accelerating or decelerating rapidly can exert enough force to cause brain damage.
Then I took a nap.
I learned that researchers are working on a blood test that can detect concussions by measuring protein fragments from damaged nerve fibers. (The first commercialization was FDA approval ) Douglas Smith, director of the Brain Injury Repair Center at the University of Pennsylvania, describes these nerve fibers as the brain’s urban power grid. “A concussion is like a power outage,” he told me. Brain connections aren’t lost, but “signals don’t get through.” And it’s not uncommon for long-term symptoms to persist after a single concussion. Smith said these symptoms occur in about 20% of concussion patients.
I took another break.
I read books about concussions a few chapters at a time. Most said they were told nothing could be done because the CT scan showed nothing. (Concussion rarely appears Or I mentioned people leaving the hospital with brains so badly damaged they could barely speak. Conor Gormally, executive director of the Concussion Alliance, said he believes concussions are a treatable injury, but that the average medical professional just doesn’t treat them. “The biggest issue people face is that there are barriers that prevent them from getting the care they need,” he said.
I closed my eyes in a dark room.
Every time I woke up and spent a little time being active, I felt pressure building up behind my ears and my brain felt like it was swelling. I was able to continue working even though I always felt tired. I couldn’t do it now. When I reached the limit, I heard a buzzing sound, as if a bug had entered my eardrum.
I took another break.
This went on for weeks. I started researching concussion treatments in my area and found pages and pages of lists of chiropractors and special centers that promised they could fix my brain, although they didn’t always take insurance. I found each. I joined a support group on Facebook where patients shared what worked for them and what didn’t. Sometimes there were hopeful posts that people were getting better, but many of those who remained in the group still had problems years later. What happens if I don’t recover?
After five weeks with no answers, I started sobbing during the day. I’m a journalist who believes in evidence-based medicine, but I found very few resources, so I started researching alternative treatments. When I was feeling particularly bad, I went to see a doctor, whose website didn’t seem to have been updated since his early 2000s. On the phone, he kept mentioning things like “clean eating” that gave me pause. He pretty much promised to make me better, so I ignored my concerns. I really wanted to get back to myself. He sold tablets at the front desk that promised to fight 5G radiation. At that point I thought about leaving, but decided against it. Alternative treatments, such as wearing tinted glasses and blankets to block electrical radiation, were also ineffective. It certainly cost $500.
I went back to bed.
No one really knows how many people suffer mild traumatic brain injuries each year. He is an expert in brain injury medicine and “ shake brain, told me, because “a lot of people just go to their GP.”statistics of 3.8 million Americans are verbally abused once a year, sometimes leading to minor head injuries From sports It can also sometimes lead to all kinds of brain damage. waterfallrecreational activities, car accidents, domestic violence All can cause head trauma.
One reason concussions are so difficult to treat is that each brain injury is a little different. He has more than 30 concussion symptoms, Smith told me. Some people have problems with cognition, balance, and vision. Treatments may vary for each of these conditions.
Until recently, doctors often advised brain-injured patients to “cocoon” in a dark room and rest for the first few days, Sandel said. Experts now have a better understanding that for some patients, rest is beneficial, while for others, activities that don’t unduly worsen symptoms may speed healing. The latest guidelines for concussion recovery are: October 2022, we will continue to shift toward proposing better rehabilitation faster. If his dizziness, neck pain, and headache persist after 10 days, the guidelines recommend “cervicovestibular rehabilitation.” This is exactly the kind of treatment that helped me eventually recover. It combines manual therapy of key muscles with rehabilitation of the vestibular or balance system. multiple the study shows the benefits of this type of rehabilitation. 2014 survey They found that 73 percent of treated patients recovered after eight weeks, compared with 7 percent of the control group.
By the time I made an appointment at a multidisciplinary brain injury rehabilitation center near where I lived, more than two months had passed. After many phone calls with my eyes closed, I found a vestibular therapist because I was able to focus longer if I limited external stimulation. This type of therapy focuses on restoring the balance system through a combination of physical and eye exercises. My eyes not working together was a classic sign that this area needed rehabilitation.
The therapist taught me an exercise to get my fingers back in sync by following them with my eyes. When I first met him, I could barely open my eyes and stand on one leg without falling. After a few weeks of practicing the balance exercises he taught me, I was able to stand on one leg with his eyes closed.
Manual physical therapy, especially for the back and neck, can help re-stabilize and strengthen muscles after an accident. For me, this meant a visit to a professional chiropractor who used targeted physical therapy, strengthening exercises, and X-rays to make gentle adjustments to get my neck back in its natural position.
Some things I discovered through trial and error, such as using a stationary bike for an hour every day, were recommended to me by a brain rehabilitation center anyway. However, long wait times to get into such places are not uncommon, and having the right doctor made a big difference.
I soon noticed that my stamina was increasing day by day. The neighbor’s dog didn’t seem to be so noisy anymore. After driving for 20 minutes, I was able to drive for a full hour. I was also able to talk on the phone with friends and family that I hadn’t been able to contact for months. I didn’t need to take a nap because I read books and went outside. It took a long time to heal, but I finally got better.
Three months later, I started taking writing assignments again. I used to have trouble keeping more than one thought in my head at once, and now it was like my brain had rebooted. I was also a person of memories.
Six months after falling from the horse, my last symptom, the feeling of pressure in my head when I worked too long, disappeared. I recovered, but wondered why it took me so long to get the treatment I needed. I don’t know if I would have recovered without it, but I think it would have at least taken longer. As a brain injury patient, why was I researching scientific papers and online support groups without getting a referral from my doctor? In the American healthcare system, many patients are their own advocates. However, it appears that this was not necessary in this case, with a better and clearer path to recovery established.
I often think wistfully of getting back to riding, but then I think back to the moment I slipped out of the saddle and the months it took me to get back on my feet. We ignore the danger of a single concussion, but sometimes all it takes is one fall or hard blow to the head to change your life forever.
