#post concussion syndrome

[trash-capable-of-sentience]

'can't' is not a bad word.

i think a lot of the pushback to believing disabled people about our own bodies and ability stems from the fact that we inherently don't possess a 'can-do' attitude. because we cannot do things. because that's the fucking definition of being disabled.

we're 'negative nancies' that need to go through some character growth or training like the movies do so we can emerge positive with a growth mindset because we can accomplish anything! yasss! and of course you are our lovely wise guiding mentor that just gave us the kick we needed to realise The Truth About Life, which is that You Can Do Anything, As Long As You Put Your Mind To It.

but the actual truth, one that you can see if you look past your nose, is that a '''growth mindset'' can't going to fix this. a "can-do attitude' can't un-traumatic injury my brain.

'can't' is not a bad word.

#cripple punk #crip punk #disabled #actually disabled #rant #post concussion syndrome #cpunk

[watercolourcritters]

thirty-four

bday comics: thirty-three

AN: I have an acquired brain injury, and always have a lot of feels about it on my birthday! so, disability bday comics are now a thing :)

[ID: a ten panel comic drawn in simple black ink with messily drawn borders.

One - I sit cross-legged on a sofa with an open laptop in front of me. Text reads: "And what do you do for work?" "I'm on disability." "Oh. And is it permanent?" "I mean. It's been over four years since my mTBI."

Two - Frame zooms in showing just my torso and chin. Text: "So yeah, probably."

Three - I sit forward on the couch with elbows on knees and chin resting on folded hands and sigh. It shows my whole body. I am a white non-binary person with a curly mullet, glasses, and wearing a t-shirt and ripped jeans. Text: The doctor calls me "dear" as she ends the call. It's been a long year."

Four - I stand and walk away. The image shows just my legs and the couch behind me. Text: When I first got injured, permanency was the scariest possibility. The idea of a lifetime of pain and fatigue made survival feel impossible.

Five - I stand holding a cupboard open, my back to the viewer. The open cupboard shows that it's very full of mugs and tea supplies. Text: It's not so scary, anymore. And it no longer feels just like surviving.

Six - A close up shot of a kettle steaming. Text: There's still grief, trapped under my ribcage. But I think there always will be. I've had to put away so many dreams, said goodbye to who I once was.

Seven - Close up shot showing hot water being poured from the kettle into a handmade mug. Text reads: But in the space left empty, new things have grown. New hopes. New dreams. New understandings of myself.

Eight - Close up shot of my hands holding a steaming mug of tea. Text: This injury might be permanent - but it might not be. No one really knows for sure. I love my life. I love my body, and my brain, all the messy disabled parts of it.

Nine - A full shot showing me sitting on my sofa again, and holding a large blanket out in front of me, as if getting ready to wrap it over my legs. Text: If this is the rest of my life, then what a gift to live it. I'm not done growing, hoping, grieving, healing. Still trying, and trying, and trying.

Ten - I sit on my sofa with the blanket wrapped over my legs, leaning against a cushion. I am sketching in a ringed book held on my lap, and my tea mug rests on the blanket beside the book. I am smiling slightly and look content. On the wall behind me is a quilted progress pride flag. Text: It's messy, complicated, and beautiful. But isn't that what life is?

The comic is signed h. graves '23. End ID.]

#comic #disability #concussion #brain injury #watercolour critters art #this is a follow up to last years comic! #might be a yearly thing now #i didn't get injured on my birthday but it always gives me more feels about my disability than the anniversary so #long post #post concussion syndrome #brain injury comics

[lightning-system]

Intersectional

When Kingston was 14 years old he took a basketball to the head and was in the hospital for a month. It’s what happened after that stuck with him.

Post Concussion Syndrome can last days, months. For Kingston, it's been over thirty years and he still feels it. There’s only been one more consistent thing in Kingston’s life: being Black.

-

Or: Years after his concussion, Kingston has a bad day.

#dimension 20 #d20 #dimension twenty #disabled #disability #ao3feed #kingston brown #pete conlan #sofia lee #victoria brown #post concussion syndrome #fluff #angst #hurt/comfort #ao3 writer #ao3 link #ao3 #ao3 fanfic #fanfiction #fanfic

[lifblogs]

Having postconcussion syndrome when you have ADHD is like being possessed by yourself but on steroids.

#adhd #post concussion syndrome #huh it’s 3 words? #my medical paperwork says it’s 2 #pcs #oops

[littleshadowprince]

Long post:

TLDR: my daddy made me a punch card to help me with my head injury recovery and age regression

MUCH more detailed post under the cut:

So because I have trouble with my thinking especially lately my Daddy and I have a Thing based off the game portal 2 where if I'm struggling with a task he tells me to "think with portals" and helps me to figure out what steps need to be done and in what order so I don't get frustrated just sitting there panicking, or getting overstimulated and having a meltdown (or worst case scenario throwing/kicking things everywhere because of it and ending up in a mess and crying)

so my Daddy asked me secretly for a list of my favorite things, mostly characters especially agere related, and made me a cute punch card with my two care bears on it that says "thinking with portals, you got this, 10 punches equals [reward] (mcdonalds night)"

He says he wants to make more woth different characters, each mascot having a different reward and I can pick which one I want everytime I get a new card!

Everytime I start thinking logically and take my time to think things through I get it punched and when I get to ten I get a reward. It's so sweet and made me so happy seeing him do something that means so much to me and makes me feel so proud if myself for doing something correctly instead of feeling guilty for struggling with it

I never had this kinda positive renfircement as an actual kid so having it from my daddy during a time of basically partial perma-regression helped heal me a lot. I feel like I can be so small and taken care of with these things being used for me. And he says he wants to do more things like this during my recovery too!

#agere #age regression #permaregression #concussion #head injury #brain injury #post concussion syndrome #cglre #tbi #personal #bedtime bear

[hellyeahsickaf]

I can't stand that there are so many people in the field of medicine that shouldn't be

The concussion I experienced in childhood was the first case of medical neglect (debatably malpractice) that I remember experiencing. I was playing outside on a scooter, fell off, and landed face first onto the handlebar- hitting my eye. If it were maybe half an inch further it would've gone through the socket and well, you can imagine what would've happened then. I think I lost consciousness, but I felt the pain when I was conscious for sure. I was both dissociated from it and screaming because I mean my face hit the edge of a metal bar lol. Somehow my guardians didn't hear me screaming but lucky for me we had a beagle, and those guys are loud as fuck so he was howling and eventually got their attention.

I don't know how no one realized I had a TBI. It just feels so obvious to me now and I would immediately identify it as one. I was dizzy and uncoordinated, in and out of consciousness, vomiting, struggling severely to stay awake, had a wicked headache, sensitivity to light and sound, I felt like I was in a different dimension or high. They at least eventually realized it was serious enough that I should be taken to the hospital so I was.

They checked my vitals, said I was fine, and sent me to the waiting room with a bucket knowing I had injured my head so you'd think they'd put 2 and 2 together especially with my eye being swollen. I struggled to stay awake, fell asleep multiple times to blurry images of The Simpsons on their wall mounted TV. That was probably two hours. Woke up sick again and they took me home so they could try calling an ambulance and see if they'd admit me sooner. They did not. It was another 5+ hours (I think that's what I was told) in the crowded ass waiting room

When I saw the doctor they were rude as hell. Only checked my eye and vision for optical issues really. No imaging or neuro evaluations. I was scolded for not wearing a helmet which wouldn't have prevented the injury at all. They said I was irresponsible and should have known better (I was 8). I was told by others that saw me that I looked awful but I guess the doctor didn't think so. I couldn't eat much for days, was lethargic and confused. I passed out a couple days later and EMTs came in. They told me to drink Pedialyte

Fast forward over a decade later, I was maybe 19. I have intense migraines of an unknown cause so I have to get an MRI. They find what they believe to be a congenital defect if I had no history of head trauma to that part of my face. Fat had herniated into the injury but more importantly they noted that if not a defect it was clearly a fracture. So I broke my skull and was talked down to and told to wear a helmet next time. Even my guardians commented on me being a bit "dramatic" before it was bad bad. And it was the back of the orbital bone behind my eye meaning it was closer to going through it than I initially thought, which explains why it was swollen but not majorly like you'd see in an MMA fight or something. It just should've been clear. If not to my guardians then at least to the doctors and nurses who I'm sure see head injuries every damn day.

#chronic pain #chronic illness #disability #actually disabled #spoonie #tbi #post concussion syndrome #concussion #head injury #medical ableism #medical gaslighting #medical trauma #medical malpractice #medical neglect #ableism #okay to rb #okay to interact

[angst420]

protect your noggins 😭

#tbi #post concussion syndrome #shit sucks #life

[mental-mona]

#post concussion headache #post concussion syndrome #post traumatic headache #mtbi #mtbis aren't mild #mild traumatic brain injury #concussions aren't mild #traumatic brain injury #traumatic brain injury awareness month #traumatic brain injury awareness #tbi #tbi awareness #tbi awareness month #infographic

[mysharona1987]

#Science #super bowl #superbowl #post concussion syndrome

[woodox-earthtaurus]

I'm trying to recover from a concussion and the couple above me have a child that scream- cries at least twice per 24 hr period. And the other one runs around shrieking. Is that good or bad? I don't know, and honestly at this point I don't care. The floor movement plus any furniture being moved (i mean it sounds like furniture anyway) causes shaking to the entire pipe apparatus attached to my ceiling in my apartment. It sounds horrible. My kitchen light literally swings from side to side. Having a chronic illness like migraines in that situation is hellish let alone a concussion. I just want to recover in reduced noise.

#post concussion syndrome #concussion recovery #noise noise noise #i get that kids make noise but apts mean neighbors #like omg

[watercolourcritters]

the little things

Today is the 5 year anniversary of my brain injury - so I wrote this about some of the most cherished small moments of healing. Five years ago, and for a long time after I got injured, I couldn't do any of these things. Car noises were too loud, music was too overwhelming and hurt my head, and the sun coming in through an open window was too bright to face. I still have times when all three are too much - but I also have moments where I can sit with them, bask in them, for a little while.

Healing from a brain injury is a long, slow process. There have been big steps forward, and big steps back, and still so far to go. It's measuring progress in inches, rather than miles. But every inch is still worth celebrating <3

(for the few other brain injury comics i've done, my tag is here)

Instagram | Etsy

[ID copied from alt text: An eight panel comic, featuring hand-written text only panels beside art only panels. The art is simple black lineart. The panels read as follows:

1 - it's the little things.

2 - it's the way i can put ear plugs in and drive with my windows down in summer, feel the wind on my face.

3 - art panel showing the driver's view from a car driving down a highway, with the window down, wind blowing in.

4 - art panel showing a cell phone with the lock screen showing a music player app, which is playing "The Omen" by Camp Cope. Headphones lay across the phone.

5 - it's the music i can now listen to for hours, rather than minutes.

6 - it's the open window i can now sit facing, watching the light stream in.

7 - art panel showing a large window with plants along the windowsill, light streaming in through them.

8 - it's the way the world keeps opening up, inch by inch by inch.

The comic is signed hank graves, 2024, january 30th. End ID.]

#brain injury #brain injury comics #post concussion syndrome #disability #watercolour critters art #happy five year healing to me <3

[compressednerve]

Feeling a bit melancholy today about my brain... having some symptoms flareups that's on par for the course of mid February, I'm not surprised but... man... sadness... 🧠💔 I try to keep a good attitude about it every day, cuz what's the use in moping about something that can't be changed... and I try not to let it bog me down too much. But days like these, and it reminds me how much that the people who should have treated me with the most love when I was at my smallest, hurt me the worst.

I wish I could take my brain out of my skull and put it on a soft velvet pillow, and gently soothe the parts that are broken forever. The parts that hurt the most. I can't fix it, I can't get "better" in the medical sense, I'm only human after all... but I want my brain to know that it's ok to be damaged. That it doesn't need to be like everyone else's to still be me. But it hurts a lot, regardless.

🌧️

#post concussion syndrome #chronic traumatic encephalopathy #brain damage

[yaybadluck]

I'm 9 months into this goddam concussion bullshit and it's still here on top of me already being a schizoid lump living alone in a filthy decrepit house with cat shit on the floor and various detritus sitting in the same spot for years because I literally don't see anything but a screen when I'm at home and can't focus on any task unless someone is counting on me to do it and now with this concussion I can't even focus on anything remotely mentally or visually taxing for more than 30 minutes or so.

I was barely functional before and now with the concussion syndrome a lot of shit is coming to a head and I'm losing the 2 fucked up friends I had and my parents are in their eighties and I'm as useless to them as I am to myself

I used to drink and smoke and stuff but I'm in my late forties now and that shit was going to kill me so I stopped. Now I sit here and get fat on chocolate soy milk and yogurt and diet soft drinks

I am simply not equipped with the fortitude needed to recover from a traumatic brain injury

#post concussion syndrome #schizoid #pcs #spd

[hellyeahsickaf]

Been thinking a lot about the untreated concussion I had in childhood and the long term effects of that. Aside from PCS and the possibly lifelong insomnia that might've developed from that, there's a bit of research that indicates a possibly unique form of ADHD caused by childhood TBIs with people that have no genetic predisposition. ( 1 2 )

I guess I wonder a lot if I'd have ADHD anyway? One of my guardians who doesn't believe much in psychiatry says they were diagnosed in childhood but it was just to "trick them into being medicated for it". I know that TBIs can also worsen existing ADHD and having ADHD increases the likelihood of experiencing head injuries. It's a genuine issue that pwADHD are more likely to both experience and die from a TBI. I think I had difficulty with focus after that. Hard to remember, a lot of my childhood is a blur but it's wild wondering how that affects me now but knowing it very likely does

#chronic pain #chronic illness #disability #spoonie #actually disabled #actually adhd #adhd #adhd brain #tbi #concussion #post concussion syndrome

[angst420]

rate my notes app poetry

#brain injury #post concussion syndrome #poetry #writing #life