Hit head, hard - how to heal?
April 28, 2024 7:25 AM Subscribe
Can you recommend excellent books about recovering from a traumatic brain injury?
In a terrible accident, my friend took a very bad hit to the head, causing skull fractures and a traumatic brain injury. He's been very lucky to maintain his personality, intellect, and motor skills, but he now has severe concussion symptoms like headaches, fatigue, brain fog, blurry vision, tinnitus, noise sensitivity, and sensory overwhelm.
He's looking for books, articles, podcasts, etc that might offer insight to his recovery. Ideally the book would focus on situations that are similar to his, with a similar severity and type of brain injury due to physical trauma. Can you recommend any?
In a terrible accident, my friend took a very bad hit to the head, causing skull fractures and a traumatic brain injury. He's been very lucky to maintain his personality, intellect, and motor skills, but he now has severe concussion symptoms like headaches, fatigue, brain fog, blurry vision, tinnitus, noise sensitivity, and sensory overwhelm.
He's looking for books, articles, podcasts, etc that might offer insight to his recovery. Ideally the book would focus on situations that are similar to his, with a similar severity and type of brain injury due to physical trauma. Can you recommend any?
Melissa Urban of the Whole30 has post-concussion syndrome and has talked a lot about it - here's a podcast episode with a doctor who specializes, and she also recommends Concussion Foundation.
posted by restless_nomad at 8:06 AM on April 28
posted by restless_nomad at 8:06 AM on April 28
This article from Slate* talks about how our understanding of best practices for concussion recovery has shifted over the last 20 years (and how in practice, modern medicine has been slow to put the newer, evidence based treatments into practice). I'm not sure if anyone featured in the article has the level of injury that your friend did, but I still think it's worth a read.
*I know lots of stuff on Slate these days is trash, but this was one of the rare articles that is a good example of quality long form journalism.
posted by litera scripta manet at 8:33 AM on April 28 [5 favorites]
*I know lots of stuff on Slate these days is trash, but this was one of the rare articles that is a good example of quality long form journalism.
posted by litera scripta manet at 8:33 AM on April 28 [5 favorites]
The Slate link litera script manet refers to: https://slate.com/technology/2024/03/concussion-symptoms-signs-treatment-advice.html
posted by terretu at 8:38 AM on April 28 [2 favorites]
posted by terretu at 8:38 AM on April 28 [2 favorites]
Thanks! Sorry, I had the link ready, just...forgot to include it.
posted by litera scripta manet at 8:42 AM on April 28
posted by litera scripta manet at 8:42 AM on April 28
The Night The Lights Went Out by Defector writer Drew Magary. He had a traumatic brain injury and wrote about the recovery process. Also he is a really good writer. Highly reccomend!
posted by capnsue at 9:33 AM on April 28 [1 favorite]
posted by capnsue at 9:33 AM on April 28 [1 favorite]
Sex With a Brain Injury by Annie Liontas is an excellent memoir about recovering from three separate brain injuries (bike accident and two things that fell from shelves). Despite the name, it contains very little sex, so don't let that put you off (or excite you too much). It also has fascinating information on the science and history of brain injuries (did you know that the NFL sponsors studies that claim brain injured patients are often malingering?)
posted by wheatlets at 9:50 AM on April 28
posted by wheatlets at 9:50 AM on April 28
Actor/writer/director Sarah Polley's book Run Towards the Danger is a collection of personal essays, not solely about her brain injury but includes information on how she recovered from long-term effects of concussion.
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:11 AM on April 28 [2 favorites]
posted by BlahLaLa at 11:11 AM on April 28 [2 favorites]
Diagnosis Concussion is by an author who recovered from a similar brain injury.
posted by corey flood at 4:22 PM on April 28
posted by corey flood at 4:22 PM on April 28
I have not experienced this solitaire game but the reviews of it were strong and it was created by a person after experiencing a TBI.
posted by icaicaer at 5:51 PM on April 28
posted by icaicaer at 5:51 PM on April 28
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posted by wowenthusiast at 7:48 AM on April 28