Posting a request from my daughter

[Brian913]

A decade ago my daughter was the victim of a hit and run accident while at homecoming. She suffered a major brain injury, and numerous physical injuries. DBR posters were great at that time.
http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/2007/2/6/4992648/caitlin-donnelly-update

She has started a blog on the issue that has changed her life - traumatic brain injury. If any of you have an interest in the subject, take a look, and if possible, subscribe.

Thanks,

[OldPhiKap]

A decade ago my daughter was the victim of a hit and run accident while at homecoming. She suffered a major brain injury, and numerous physical injuries. DBR posters were great at that time.
http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/2007/2/6/4992648/caitlin-donnelly-update

She has started a blog on the issue that has changed her life - traumatic brain injury. If any of you have an interest in the subject, take a look, and if possible, subscribe.

Thanks,

Can you provide a link to the blog please? I would like to read it.

Prayers for your family, and glad to hear that she is able to blog about the experience and the issue. God's speed and blessings to her.

-- OPK

[Brian913]

A decade ago my daughter was the victim of a hit and run accident while at homecoming. She suffered a major brain injury, and numerous physical injuries. DBR posters were great at that time.
http://www.dukebasketballreport.com/2007/2/6/4992648/caitlin-donnelly-update

She has started a blog on the issue that has changed her life - traumatic brain injury. If any of you have an interest in the subject, take a look, and if possible, subscribe.

Thanks,


I can't believe I left out the link www.tbionthehill.com

[Indoor66]

I remember the incident and am thrilled at her recovery. There is a loving God. Blessings to your whole family.

[OldPhiKap]

I can't believe I left out the link www.tbionthehill.com

What a professional job she had done! Very informative, great content!

Your whole family should be proud, and from reading her work she is obviously a very bright and articulate young woman.

Thanks for sharing it!

[Doria]

Thank you for sharing both her blog and her story. As I'm newish, I wasn't around at the time, but I hope she continues to prosper and am heartened by her recovery.

[fisheyes]

I can't believe I left out the link www.tbionthehill.com

My family was also devastated by a TBI (my Dad at age 62).

Thank you for sharing your daughter's blog. It is a wonderful site providing providing important information.

Congratulations to your daughter and your family.

I will share the site on Facebook as well.

Let' get the word out!

[Jeffrey]

This is a great blog.... Thanks for sharing Caitlin's work!

I'm TBI ignorant and greatly benefitted from reading this blog. FWIW, I'd recommend everyone give it a serious read.

[duke79]

Yes, thank you for posting the link to your daughter's blog. It's very informative. I'm glad to hear she is doing better. I know it is a very tough road to go down. My own daughter who is 20 and a sophomore in college suffered her 4th concussion in December 2016 (two from horse back riding, one in gym class in HS and this one from a fall when ice skating) and she has had some serious post-concussive symptoms - bad headaches, balance issues, and generally not feeling very well. On the advice of her neurologist, she has taken the current semester off from college. Her doctor has advised her to do nothing that would engage her brain - no computer use, no watching TV or movies, no reading or using her smart phone and no exercise. Her doctor wants her to sleep 13 to 15 hours per day! My understanding is that this is pretty much the standard protocol for treatment of concussions. She is very slowly getting better and we hope that she can go back to college in late March for the start of her next semester but this may be a long shot, unless she improves dramatically in the next four weeks or so. Needless to say, it is not good to get your brain bashed around too much.

[Devilwin]

Hope she continues to recover. Prayers sent.

[tecumseh]

. Her doctor has advised her to do nothing that would engage her brain - no computer use, no watching TV or movies, no reading or using her smart phone and no exercise. Her doctor wants her to sleep 13 to 15 hours per day! My understanding is that this is pretty much the standard protocol for treatment of concussions. She is very slowly getting better and we hope that she can go back to college in late March for the start of her next semester but this may be a long shot, unless she improves dramatically in the next four weeks or so. Needless to say, it is not good to get your brain bashed around too much.

The advice your daughter received while somewhat "standard" you should realize has very little evidence behind it. I am a physician and my sports medicine doctor friend was remarking we have come up with a protocol based on so little evidence we may now never really get the data we need to make evidenced based recommendations. Yes I am a physician and I have actually had a stroke and if you go digging into the medical literature there are really very few good studies on concussion recovery. My "gut"feeling on reading a lot on this subject. I would question no exercise, perhaps no strenuous exercise but I believe walking, yoga, swimming can be helpful and there is evidence to support this. No reading or watching movies again screen time can be strenuous but I think watching old movies you have seen before rereading favorite books is sort of like comfort food for the mind. The fallacy is you can keep your mind from working and short of heavy sedation that is just not true. I think stress is tremendously detrimental and taking away all normal activities can be stressful.
http://www.momsteam.com/cerebral-blood-flow/controlled-aerobic-exercise-rehabilitation-helps-post-concussion-syndrome-by-restoring-cerebral-blood-flow

[tecumseh]

Yes, thank you for posting the link to your daughter's blog. It's very informative. I'mOn the advice of her neurologist, she has taken the current semester off from college. Her doctor has advised her to do nothing that would engage her brain - no computer use, no watching TV or movies, no reading or using her smart phone and no exercise. Her doctor wants her to sleep 13 to 15 hours per day

Interestingly did you see on the link referenced above there is an article about the benefits of exercise on recovery from traumatic brain injury.

Feel free to private message me I am an ophthalmologist but have read an awful lot about exercise over the years and fair amount about brain injury and normal brain functioning. OK I hate intuitive arguments but here I go I find it extremely hard to imagine how a nice springtime walk for a half hour can possibly be bad for you. By what mechanism is it harmful? I can imagine a half dozen mechanisms by which it might help.

[duke79]

The advice your daughter received while somewhat "standard" you should realize has very little evidence behind it. I am a physician and my sports medicine doctor friend was remarking we have come up with a protocol based on so little evidence we may now never really get the data we need to make evidenced based recommendations. Yes I am a physician and I have actually had a stroke and if you go digging into the medical literature there are really very few good studies on concussion recovery. My "gut"feeling on reading a lot on this subject. I would question no exercise, perhaps no strenuous exercise but I believe walking, yoga, swimming can be helpful and there is evidence to support this. No reading or watching movies again screen time can be strenuous but I think watching old movies you have seen before rereading favorite books is sort of like comfort food for the mind. The fallacy is you can keep your mind from working and short of heavy sedation that is just not true. I think stress is tremendously detrimental and taking away all normal activities can be stressful.
http://www.momsteam.com/cerebral-blood-flow/controlled-aerobic-exercise-rehabilitation-helps-post-concussion-syndrome-by-restoring-cerebral-blood-flow

Thanks for your input. Yea, I'm NOT a doctor but I question this standard protocol for concussion patients. It seems sort of crazy to me (and even my own doctor, when I told him about it, questioned the data behind it). My daughter's doctor has allowed her to now do an hour or so of computer, tv, reading and phone use per day and to do some light exercise. She still gets bad headaches if she tries to do more strenuous exercise. At least for her, it has been a very slow healing process.

[tecumseh]

Here is the best of the almost no evidence and it pretty much says if you are doing something that causes headaches back off otherwise take it easy and go about your business.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/818840#vp_2

It is sort of interesting in that I am also class of 79 and when we were growing up there was like zero concussion awareness in sports. My high school soccer coach played me 3/4's of a game after I had been knocked unconscious and my teammates were telling him I was hurt !! ( my sub was really bad and we were playing arch rival). I think this simple fact: that there were thousands of people getting concussions with no treatment and very little long term sequela you and your daughter should find very comforting.

Healthcare is complicated, who knew right and there was a lot of political pressure to come up with firm post concussion guidelines even in the absence of good data. Unfortunately the geeky explanation of how we don't understand the brain well don't even understand consciousness doesn't fly. Best of Luck

[Jeffrey]

Here is the best of the almost no evidence and it pretty much says if you are doing something that causes headaches back off otherwise take it easy and go about your business.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/818840#vp_2


While resting the brain would it be prudent to take Vitamin B?

http://blog.alz.org/brain-atrophy-and-b-vitamins/

[Brian913]

I am not an expert of any kind in this area, but can offer my experience.
My daughter had a severe TBI with fairly massive damage to her left temporal lobe and "rebound" damage to the right side of her brain. When she was released from Duke hospital, she was, at best, a "2" on the Rancho Los Amigos coma scale. That was around two months post injury.
At Duke they had been doing as much physical and speech therapy as they could. That was necessarily limited because it's not really equipped for that type of rehabilitation. When she arrived at Kessler for her rehab, they had her doing everything she was physically capable of doing. It was difficult because of two broken legs and back, but they did not let her just stay in bed. As much physical, speech and occupational therapy as was possible. As well as various drugs The idea was, since the injury was stabilized, to push her boundaries as much as possible. It worked for her.
One thing I do consider myself an expert concerning, is the need for a physiatrist/neurologist who knows about the rehabilitation from brain injury. Most do not and can do more harm than good.
As far as "best practices" go - in my experience, it's as much trial and error as anything else. The effects of simiilar brain injuries can differ greatly in different people - so they try a lot of things, and look for what works.

[duke79]

Here is the best of the almost no evidence and it pretty much says if you are doing something that causes headaches back off otherwise take it easy and go about your business.
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/818840#vp_2

It is sort of interesting in that I am also class of 79 and when we were growing up there was like zero concussion awareness in sports. My high school soccer coach played me 3/4's of a game after I had been knocked unconscious and my teammates were telling him I was hurt !! ( my sub was really bad and we were playing arch rival). I think this simple fact: that there were thousands of people getting concussions with no treatment and very little long term sequela you and your daughter should find very comforting.

Healthcare is complicated, who knew right and there was a lot of political pressure to come up with firm post concussion guidelines even in the absence of good data. Unfortunately the geeky explanation of how we don't understand the brain well don't even understand consciousness doesn't fly. Best of Luck

Thanks for the link to the study. Very interesting. This is essentially what my daughter's neurologist (who specializes in concussions and TBI's) has her doing - "cognitive rest". I.e., using her brain as little as possible (although her doctor has now allowed her a certain amount of "brain time" per day and this is about 90 days past her concussion episode). She is going to try to resume her college studies in about 3 weeks, when a new semester begins. I believe she is going to take a reduced course load (she's an astrophysics major, so she has to take hard and demanding courses). I hope she can make it through, without too many problems. Time will tell.

Yea, I was class of '79 too at Duke. I played a lot of sports growing up - soccer, hockey, baseball, etc. - and kids were always getting their heads bashed in and the going right back out again to resume playing. They used to call it "getting your bell rung". You have to wonder how much permanent damage kids suffered back in those days?

[Jim3k]

I won't link it, but former Forty-Niner Dwight Clark has just announced that he is suffering from ALS. Although not yet announced, it is probable that these symptoms are the result of long-term concussion syndrome. The symptoms are almost identical.

He was a wide receiver whose catch of Joe Montana's pass in the 1981 NFC championship game is legend. Known simply as The Catch, it took the Forty-Niners to Super Bowl XVI. Clark had an eight-year NFL career. How many times did he get his bell rung?

I don't know, but there are plenty of former NFL players involved in a class-action lawsuit trying to get compensation for the post-concussion effects they are now suffering. An estimated $1bln settlement in the case was finalized in January. Clark would appear to be the latest in a long line of such players. He has until August 7 to register as a victim.

(Aside: ALS is often called "Lou Gehrig's Disease." Ironically, Gehrig probably never had ALS. He was beaned so many times that he undoubtedly suffered from post-concussion syndrome. No batting helmets in his era.)

[duke79]

My daughter got good news last week - her doctor cleared her to start college again next week. She is still not feeling 100%, after her concussion, but her doctor thinks she should be able to handle a reduced college course load. I hope she can make it through the semester!

[Jeffrey]

My daughter got good news last week - her doctor cleared her to start college again next week. She is still not feeling 100%, after her concussion, but her doctor thinks she should be able to handle a reduced college course load. I hope she can make it through the semester!

That's awesome news! Congrats!!!!

[duke79]

That's awesome news! Congrats!!!!

Thank you.....and, yes, I'm very happy for her. At her age, it is not fun to be out of school and away from your friends.

[Jeffrey]

Thank you....and, yes, I'm very happy for her. At her age, it is not fun to be out of school and away from your friends.

I'm very happy to hear she is heading in the right direction! I can only imagine how horrible this experience has been for her and her parents. Thanks for posting the great news and please continue to tell us about her progress.

[OldPhiKap]

My daughter got good news last week - her doctor cleared her to start college again next week. She is still not feeling 100%, after her concussion, but her doctor thinks she should be able to handle a reduced college course load. I hope she can make it through the semester!

Very happy to hear that!