Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Junk

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
When I'm in school it seems as if for the most part I'm ok. I'll still have some issues with short term memory, word retrieval, swtiching letters around as well as numbers....that sort of thing. But that's been with me from the get go since the accident and I'm fairly used to it. There are other issues but sort of hard to discribe and more noticable by me than anyone else.

As summer vacation has progressed I've been noticing I'm having more and more issues. The one's above are becoming more pronounced, sometimes my brain just shuts off when someone is talking to me......space case lol, too much information will cause it to do the same whether that is reading, being talked to ect. Not all the time.......but I am struggling with it more. I'm getting overwhelmed more easily.

I told easy child since summer started it's like my brain has also decided to take a vacation. lol Maybe the stress of mother in law is contributing too, as I'm finding myself doing/forced to do things for her that I find overwhelming to do for myself.......like bills and balancing her checkbook sort of stuff.

It's more than a little disturbing. I can't recall if it happened last summer. Actually, I can't recall most of last summer. Except that we got back into contact with K.

Maybe I ought to research this a bit with Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)'s.....but I find that I'm not really wanting to. I'd much rather believe this will eventually correct itself. But it's like if I don't keep my brain constantly stimulated and having to work........it stops being able to do it.

Huge example of this.............With all the mother in law stuff.........I have my nursing school orientation Aug 7. But I have to be CPR certified, and have my physical before that date so I can turn in the stuff on that date. That went into the black hole of my memory. While gathering up mother in law's bills and paperwork to turn over to sisiter in law (YEA) I stumbled across the paperwork for school that stated all that and my heart stopped. So now I'm trying to get doctor office to squeeze my fanny in for that physical.....and gonna have to get re-certified online as I don't have time for a classroom type thing.

If I'd been in school, odds are I wouldn't have "lost" that. Seems like now I have to be hyper focused on something in order to keep it in my brain. I do not multi-task well at all.

If sister in law hadn't decided to unload me of the burden of the financial stuff........I'd probably not remembered and not had it done on time.:ashamed:

Man that hoovers.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Lisa...this type of stuff happens to me too. And now they have changed my diagnosis from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) to encephalopathy. I have no idea if I spelled that right. Oh...I just did a spell check and it fixed it...lol. Hooray for spell check! I would be lost without it.

I have my doctors call me to remind me of appointments. If they dont, I forget them. I just realized Friday I double booked for today when two doctors called...Oops! Had to reschedule one. I have a very hard time with banking and reversing numbers and remembering which bills have to be paid when. I have tried those MONEY programs and they just confuse me. I have tried sending reminders to myself with email and that just confuses me. I cant remember if I have paid it or not...lol. Even a file folder gets the best of me. I forget to put the paid receipt in the folder.
 

klmno

Active Member
((HUGS)) I know nothing about Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) but my guess is that all the stuff you've been dealing with and the stress of it is not helping. I have found that I become more forgetful with age alone, and it's worse when I'm overwhelmed and stressed. Throw in a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and I can only imagine.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Then I am in good company. :) The bill thing really bothers me as I was the one who did all the bills because husband is not really responsible enough. But often now I look at a bill and I have trouble making sense of it. And I never remember if I paid one or not. So on mother in law's.....I wrote paid/date for each bill all over the place......so hopefully sister in law won't have too much trouble when she takes over.

Not surprising they changed your diagnosis to encephalopathy. Mine probably would be changed too......but most of this I keep to myself because I don't want it being a issue with school. I'm not exactly sure how the director of the nursing program would feel having a brain damaged student if you get my drift. I'd like to at least see if I can do it........if they knew, I'd likely have never been accepted at all.

But I don't understand how I can seem to re-master a lost skill, only to lose it again if I don't continue to use it. And boy, can I lose it fast. (we're talking a mere matter of days at times)

The emails for the gathering............I can't make head nor tails of them. It's all jumbled gobble de gook to me.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
The emails are confusing because everyone is replying to someone else and hitting reply all. So Totoro may be talking to Suz but everyone is getting the email. Nancy may be telling all of us whats for dinner. Then I may be asking where to give out the name tags.
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
Yep. I can still handle one on one emails just fine. I even have trouble when one of my girls forwards me a joke or something they want me to see if it is something that has been sent to other people. They wind up having to copy paste it onto a new email for me or I miss the message.
 

Fran

Former desparate mom
Lisa, I have several of those issues just because of a hectic schedule, poor memory and juggling many balls in the air.
I would be lost without my tools. I keep a calendar with everything on it. Many cells phone's have calendars.
Just as you would expect Travis to use tools to overcome his obstacles so should we.
I hate having to make excuses and/or apologizing for missing an appointment. or forgetting to do something that is my responsibility. It sounds so poor or inadequate to not have done what I should have. Consequently, I keep the calendar pretty current.

Sounds like you need to set up a system to support your weaknesses.
 

mstang67chic

Going Green
Daisly.....that kind of stuff happens to me all the time. It's helped somewhat since I went to the doctor and was put on Ritalin but it's still there. And I don't have a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) to blame it on. I try to keep notes and reminders on my phone...anything I can use that I won't over look. If I have sticky notes too far in advance, they just sort of blend into the background after awhile and do me no good.

Janet....husband does the bills here and has this rack thing that he uses. It has a a bunch of slots and each one is numbered. He puts the bills in a particular slot depending on when it's due. You could get something like that and maybe stick them in a slot for a few days or a week before they are due. Then when they are paid, he (or me if I do it) writes PAID, the date and check number if applicable. Sometimes we pay online or over the phone and will write the confirmation number down too. Another thing about the rack....unless it's a small post card (like our water bill) everything sticks up and is visible.
 

trinityroyal

Well-Known Member
Lisa, I find that this sort of thing happens to me as well. Not because of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), but because of the combination of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)/ADHD.

I too find that if I haven't used a skill for a little while, it just disappears. Re-learning it the second (or 10th) time around is faster than the first time, but things just don't stick unless I use them every day.

As for remembering stuff, I've found one system that works really well for me. I've tried so many, but this one seems to be the charm.

I use a hard-sided notebook, like the kind that you use for lab notes. Every morning first thing, I write a to-do list. It's numbered, but not prioritized, just listed as I remember stuff. And it's EVERYTHING. Work stuff, home stuff, Residential Treatment Center (RTC) stuff for difficult child, etc. etc. and I leave space (2 lines, maybe) between each item. I always write the list in blue pen. In a pinch I will use black, but it's not as good. As I go through the day, anything I finish gets checked off with a red pen, and a write a note in the blank space if there's anything special about the list item that I have to remember.

The next day, everything from the list that hasn't been checked off in red gets put on the new list. Then I go through the notes in red and add new items as needed. If anything comes up, I add it to the list.

It sounds elaborate, and it kills off 30 min to an hour every day, but without it I literally sit there staring at the wall and blinking. I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing and my mind just whirls. I just make sure to get to the office a bit early so that I have time to make the list before the day's chaos begins.

I don't know that my system would work for anyone else, but if you find the right cue for you, maybe that'll do the trick.

Trinity
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
You know what kills me about the bills? Tony knows that I am getting worse about them but he expects me to still be the one to tell him when things are due! I have been telling him for years now when things are due and he is good as gold about giving me the money to pay the bills but he cant or wont go to the work of remembering when something is due! I have no clue at all how they did it when I was in the hospital!!! They managed because nothing got turned off...lol. I even have my notifications sent to his phone but he doesnt open text messages. So it does no good to have bill reminders sent to him.

Just last week I called him to ask him and listed a set of bills and asked him if these were all of MY bills. I wanted to make sure I had paid all of my bills for the month. Just being careful ya know. He was like...well I think so. Uhhh.
 
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