Other Mild traumatic brain injury & post traumatic stress

[micky]

has anyone been unlucky enough to get both theses conditions and is there any light at the end of the tunnel?
I have been seeing my therapist now for a long time and still can still not put a face to her name when talking about her to my partner.then when I am away in different places, I see people and I keep thinking I know them from somewhere,even thought I would never of met them before.
not sure if this is dissociation or from the brain injury.
the problems from the brain injury never cleared up.i was told they "should only last a year.

 

[Virtues]

the problems from the brain injury never cleared up.i was told they "should only last a year.

I suffered a TBI in Iraq from an IED blast (as well as PTSD from several traumatic events) and I can say nothing has "cleared up" for me. I'm sorry I know that's not the answer you wanted to hear. I still suffer with visual spatial recognition, but also suffer with some more "common" problems. Sometimes I'll forget people that I've met even though I've had in depth conversations with them, sometimes multiple times; it's rather embarrassing. I find myself introducing myself to people that are like "... yeah we've met like a dozen times before..." I also have difficulty with short term memory and concentration. I also struggle to retrieve words from my vocabulary when I'm talking to someone face to face. This is why I prefer to text or e-mail, because I am a very fluid speaker if given the time to think about what I want to say, but if I have to converse with someone face to face I will struggle with speaking and stumble over my words.

I can honestly say my PTSD has become more manageable with therapy and medication. I am in therapy 5 days a week, both group and individual. I have attended several inpatient programs as well. I have been in therapy for 4 years and have been going 5 days a week for at least the last year if not year and a half. I can tell you that this part does get better. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that everything is a rose garden; I've had my low points. Actually I just did a stay in an inpatient facility over Thanksgiving because I hit a low point and my meds weren't right, but for the most part I'm doing good on a day to day basis. The TBI however, I don't see any light at the end of the tunnel. I've heard that the brain is able to recover fairly well from injuries, but I believe there are a lot of factors that play into that. One huge factor is age. I was 27 when I was blown up. Maybe if I was an 18 year old kid I would have bounced back a little better than I did, but I was already pretty old. The brain is fully developed around the age of 25 or so. So my brain was already fully developed. If I was a younger kid I maybe would have stood a better shot of recovering better. IDK These are all just my opinions and my experiences; they may differ depending on who you talk to.

 

[micky]

thanks for the reply florian7051.
Was your brain injury mild/moderate/servere?
mine was a mild brain injury,but I did have a moderate brain injury when I was younger,but it never caused me any problems.i have the problem when talking to people,i find it hard to hold a conversation and find words when I am talking.i try to avoid these conversations.
this has been going on for a number of years.
the neurologist says the problems stem from ptsd/dissociation and the therapist thinks it neurological,especially when all really stated after an accident.
who helped you when you had these problems?

 

[Virtues]

Was your brain injury mild/moderate/servere?

My injury was a mid traumatic brain injury. The situation was as follows:

We were on a mission north of Ramadi, Al Anbar province Iraq. We were tasked out with supporting an Iraqi Highway Patrol check point that was getting attacked by what was suspected to be a cell of Syrian terrorists for the purpose of clearing the highway to open up supply lines for the purpose of illegal arms dealing between Syria and Iraq. This Highway Patrol check point was a major control point along said supply route. Because of this the check point had been attacked on several occasions and was a main focal point for the enemy. At the time the Iraqi Police were having a tough time standing on there own so we were tasked to fight along side of them.

The situation was we had been in about a 3 day firefight (small arms fire, mortars) when my Platoon Commander decided to make a push late one night. In his infinite wisdom (sarcasm) he decided to send out a black out patrol; it was a mounted patrol of about 3 vehicles all with their lights out. I don't know why he thought that 3 diesel vehicles could sneak up on anyone in the still dead air of the desert night, but these were the orders we received. You have to realize that our vehicles not only had headlights but additional mounted spot lights and flood lights all over them that helped us detect IEDs at night. This particular night we were ordered to turn them off. Instead we were given the order to go with NVGs (night vision goggles) which offer no real definition or depth perception. I remember thinking to myself how stupid this order was and how this "boot ass Lieutenant" (a term of endearment we give to new officers with little experience) was going to get someone killed. Just as I was thinking this, everything went white and I heard a PINGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!! sound ringing in my ears.

When I came to I remember seeing the muzzle flash of small arms fire. We were taking enemy fire. I was disoriented; I knew I had just hit an IED, but I didn't know if anyone else in my truck was OK. I was on the machine gun turret, which means I was on the outside of the truck when we struck the roadside bomb. I dropped in from the turret and tried to yell "IED IED IED" but I could barely hear my own voice. It sounded muffled, like I was yelling under water. The first person I saw was my Corpsman. Doc looked at me, and I remember thinking to myself "I am really out of it; if I talk to Doc he's going to know I'm f*cked up. I'm just not going to say anything so he doesn't think anything is wrong with me." So I looked Doc dead in the eyes and gave him the thumbs up. Doc shined his pocket light in each one of my eyes and then gave me the thumbs up back, and then I popped back up in my machine gun turret and started looking for my target...

Anyways, what had happened is we had run over an Italian land mine that was wired to a pressure plate switch; we called the pressure plate switch "Christmas tree lights" because the circuit worked much in the same fashion as a set of Christmas tree lights. It was a long strand of wire with several pressure circuits in it. Like a Christmas tree bulb, if one goes out they all go out, if one pressure plate is struck the circuit is completed and the bomb goes off. When we drove over the wire we blew a tire off of our truck pretty much right under the gun turret. I don't know if the concussion from the blast is what gave me the injury or if the blast knocked me back and I smacked my head on the gun turret.

What has helped me the most in my recovery has been Equine therapy. My equine therapist has worked with me in pretty much all areas I am deficient in. One thing that hurt me is I didn't get diagnosed right away. I started to complain of symptoms almost immediately after the incident, but the medical doctors threatened to take me out of the fight if I persisted with complaints of symptoms, so I covered it up and pretended like they didn't exist. It wasn't until years later that I took a neuro assessment battery and it was determined that I suffered a MTBI.

 

[micky]

that's like story from a movie,only it real life.
what did they do after the neurological battery test?
I was told a few years after that I suffered a mtbi and the symytoms should only of lasted 12 months,so it could be ptsd making the memory/concentration linger.

 

[Virtues]

what did they do after the neurological battery test?

They literally did nothing for me after the neuro assessment battery. But I was already in the process of a med-board (a medical discharge from the military) for PTSD and a spinal injury, that they couldn't start treatment on any new injuries. Unfortunately the military looks at things from an administrative angle and not the best care for the individual. They think that the VA (Veterans Affairs office) will take care of us once we are discharged. For the most part the VA has taken care of me, but my neurologist has failed to do anything to care for me beyond my migraine headaches. I have other physical issues that the VA hasn't been able to answer, such as episodes of vertigo. They checked my inner ear but found no damage beyond permanent hearing loss and tinnitus.

 

[micky]

I had ptsd ,(was on the mend)when I got the mtbi.but I had never any memory/concentration problems when I just the ptsd.now roll on a few years and I still have the memory & concentration problems.my pts is there,but iv just adjusted to it now.
one therapist I seen said I may just be left like that now.i was shocked,but glad he was honest with me.at least I can learn to deal with the problems instead of always looking for the fix that will never come.
I think not unless you have what they call a serious head injury,you are let go with out any care.
maybe they don't want to open the flood gates as to the long tern effects of a mtbi.