Introduction
Despite having made what I consider to be an entirely satisfactory recovery, I’ve some remaining limitations / symptoms due to my injury. The areas below are a record of outcomes which in many cases could be considered unusual.
Pain
I don’t seem to feel discomfort or pain if an event such as a cut or sting or injury happens without visual or audio prompts. I think of my lack of pain awareness as my brain not getting any incoming pain signals, but it’s more likely that my brain simply doesn’t process the information anymore.
If I knowingly inflict pain upon myself, I do sense it. To test my hypothesis, I once deliberately crushed my fingers with pliers – it hurt 😥
I’ve articulated some of my unusual pain experiences here:
- I severely burned my leg from a red hot metal fire bin while having a barbecue in our garden. I didn’t realise until I saw the deeply scarred and scabbed over gash down my shin on the following day. The damaged area was about six inches long, a quarter of an inch wide and an eighth of an inch deep. I determined that it must have happened by brushing my leg firmly against the fire bin.
- I regularly find cuts and abrasions on my arms and legs for which I’m unaware of the causes.
- I can be wearing shorts and walking Ronnie (our dog) through fields full of nettles. I may become distracted while throwing Ronnie a stick, and after five minutes my legs are a hive of nettle stings.
- I’ve received mosquito stings on holiday abroad and wasp stings in the UK without feeling anything. I only realise I’ve been bitten when a swelling or spot shows up on my skin.
- I no longer suffer from headaches, which I used to have about thrice daily. I haven’t experienced a single headache from the day of my injury until now (2023).
- I observed an irregularity in my groin in 2017, but felt no discomfort; my doctor determined without any hesitation that I had a hernia.
- I developed sepsis in 2018, the only symptom I had was extreme tiredness. I spent 4 days in the infectious diseases ward of the Royal Stoke hospital, where I was measured as having an infection marker of 271 – normal is between 1 and 10 and moderate / high is between 10 and 40.
Taste
I don’t sense the taste of food. I can sometimes recognise the food I’m eating from its texture, but without a visual cue the taste is zero.
Some people ask “Does nothing taste of anything?” My response is “Everything tastes of nothing.” It’s a subtle word play, but it describes more accurately the feeling I have when eating. I could take the negative view of considering nothing tasting nice, but I’d rather go with the outcome that nothing tastes bad.
I satiate hunger feelings very quickly. I can go a whole day without eating, then just one bite of a sandwich is enough to make me feel full. Finishing a sandwich or meal can feel like a chore, rather than an enjoyable experience.
Smell
My smell sensation is almost zero. I don’t recognise toilet smells, perspiration smells or any kind of perfume fragrance.
July 2019 anecdote: While walking through a Manchester suburb, I smelt what I thought was dog excrement. I asked Ruth if this was indeed the case, when she responded in the positive I was delighted 😀
Touch
My touch sensation is significantly impaired. I regularly fail to distinguish between wet and dry items (such as towels) on the washing line. I have reduced right hand dexterity – manipulating coins in a purse with this hand is almost impossible.
I have significantly impaired ability to write legibly, and doubt I’ve signed my name the same twice in succession since my injury.
Short-Term Memory
I have severe short-term memory deficiencies, which affect me in almost everything I do. However, I deal with it really well by being an avid note taker. I wrote a short page about my thoughts on memory testing.
Early Onset of Tiredness
I become tired before early afternoon of every day. When I’ve attempted to ignore tiredness and plough on regardless, I’ll have an almost bed-bound evening.
I learned that a twenty minute sleep / bed rest during the middle of the day (typically around 1PM) was hugely beneficial. I discovered this coping strategy by chance and it works well, so I stick to it habitually.
Spatial Awareness
I first became aware of spatial problems on a weekend break to York in 2016. Whenever I went out in the day or evening for just a short walk, I had no idea how to return to the hotel. It wasn’t just a case of not knowing if a turn was the second or third left, I couldn’t recall if my target destination was north, south, east or west.
In July 2017 I started working in a different Met Police office building near London. It took me over a week to grasp that the toilets were a simple left when exiting the office door.
My hugely depreciated spatial awareness was a significant observation for me, as I’d previously enjoyed being very capable at finding my way around new places I encountered.
Limited Learning Capacity
Three years post-injury, and one year after returning to professional employment, I attended a training course in June 2018 to learn new IT skills – Amazon Web Services (cloud technology). I spent 3 days studying hard and enjoyed the learning experience, but before the end of each session my recollection of what I’d newly learned was zero.
Not unexpectedly, I failed the ensuing exam test. This was a new experience for me, as I’d always been skilled at learning new material and passing exams. Rather than become frustrated, I simply accepted that learning any new skills was beyond me.
General Observation
18th December 2017 Diary Entry
“I think I’ve developed the flu – my eyes are streaming, my throat is very sore, I feel lousy. In short – ace news! After going thirty months without a headache or a cold, it feels great to have normal symptoms.”
Positive Mental Attitude (PMA)
I’ve written a great deal on this web site, but there’s one person’s story I found on brainline.org which I feel puts recovery into context far more succinctly and convincingly than anything I’ve articulated. You can view the entire published article, from which I’ve snipped the following paragraph:
”I want to share what I consider the thing that makes every pain-staking minute of recovery worthwhile. The silver lining, if you will, is ALL OF THE MOMENTS OF LIFE I didn’t miss out on thanks to my good fortune of surviving”.