TBI Voices

Brain Injury Survivor’s Tale of Adaptation and Success

Posted on April 9th, 2011 · Posted in TBI Voices

Brain Injury Survivor: Gina Part One One of the hot topic debates in brain injury circles has always been: Who is it that survives? Some brain injury survivor’s talk about the death of themselves and being reborn as a different person. I have always shied away from such characterizations, it is..
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Waking Up From a Coma Insurance Demands Transfer

Posted on April 10th, 2011 · Posted in TBI Voices

Waking Up From a Coma: Gina Part Two On a Friday, the doctors at Theda Clark are talking about doing brain surgery on Monday. But by that Monday, because of her emergence from the coma, her health insurance company is demanding a transfer of Gina to a hospital within the “group”...
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Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation: Time Spent in Green Bay

Posted on April 11th, 2011 · Posted in TBI Voices

Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation: Gina Part Three Despite the dangerous transfer of her to Green Bay, Gina does make good progress while she is in traumatic brain injury rehabilitation there. But for her and the family, it was still rough going. It takes her a day or two after her transfer for..
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Craniotomy: The Brain Injury Survivor Before Craniotomy

Posted on April 12th, 2011 · Posted in TBI Voices

Craniotomy and Who Was Gina Before: Gina Part Four In this part we talked to Gina about who she was and what she did before her accident and her craniotomy that they had to perform because of her injuries. Another old saying about brain injury: It is not just the injury..
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Brain Injury Return Home Was Too Soon After Accident

Posted on April 13th, 2011 · Posted in TBI Voices

Brain Injury Return Home: Gina Part Five All treatment for those with brain injury involves a balance between the right of the patient to make their own decisions, be independent, and the need to maximize treatment, protect them from harm. As important a goal is to not endanger family relationships that..
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Brain Injury Accommodations in Workplace

Posted on April 15th, 2011 · Posted in TBI Voices

Brain Injury Accommodations in Workplace: Gina Part Six As would be expected by an insurance company that forced a non-medical transfer during the acute stage of her recovery, outpatient therapy didn’t last long for Gina. Yet at a time her recovery might have resulted in major mood and behavioral detours,..
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Relearning After TBI to Go Back to Work and Do Her Job

Posted on April 16th, 2011 · Posted in TBI Voices

Relearning After TBI: Gina Part Seven Denial will only take a TBI survivor so far. Without cognitive relearning after TBI and accommodations, even a story as upbeat as this one would turn sour. Gina tells of the problems she had relearning after TBI at work: Listening. It was getting on the phone..
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Seizures and Driving: Epilepsy Causes Driving Issues

Posted on April 17th, 2011 · Posted in TBI Voices

Seizures and Driving: Part Eight Near the same time that Gina returned to work, she started driving again. She explains the issues she encountered with seizures and driving. I never lost my license. It was more a – I think my – there was three or four people that suggested that..
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TBI Headache and Physical Problems from Brain Injury

Posted on April 18th, 2011 · Posted in TBI Voices

TBI Headache: Gina Part Nine Like most people with brain injury, she also has some physical manifestations of the injury she suffered along with her TBI headaches. Gina discusses those issues: The hearing and this is a big thing with the hearing aid, and that wasn’t diagnosed for quite a while...
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Brain Injury Mood and Emotional Problems

Posted on April 19th, 2011 · Posted in TBI Voices

Brain Injury Mood and Emotional Problems: Gina Part Ten While Gina’s doctors weren’t interested in hearing about brain injury mood emotional problems, we are. I asked her to elaborate on her brain injury mood problems: I think the biggest problem I have is I’m flat. I guess I don’t have, I..
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