Introduction
I view the period between my hospital discharge on 4th November 2015 and commencing voluntary work in August 2016 with the Midlands Air Ambulance charity as home rehabilitation. At the time I thought that this period was essentially a case of simply getting through each day. With hindsight, I can now see that due to my involvement with Occupational Therapists (OTs) I was actually making positive steps forward.
In combination with my OT engagements, I was transported on a weekly basis to the local Headway (brain injury association) centre in Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent. I typically visited between the hours of 10AM and 2PM; I played table tennis, pool, took part in pub quizzes, and had lunch together with other attendees.
When not involved with the aforementioned activities, my days were largely spent at home trying to keep myself occupied. The main purpose / anchor I had were the almost daily visits to my mother’s house, which were precious.
I’m updating this page in 2022, after visiting my mother in her care home, where she is being cared for due to her dementia. I reflect on the outcome of spending so much quality time with my mother due to my brain injury, prior to her dementia inhibiting her life. I’m certain that without my injury I’d have been in my usual workaholic mode, with limited opportunity to make the most of my mother during her last few years of good mental health. ‘Clouds and silver linings’ springs to mind.
Ongoing Ailments
Since the time of my injury, I’ve lost my senses of smell and taste. I’ve sub-consciously considered these deficiencies to be trivial matters, so I shan’t consider them any further here. 🙂
One of the few physical symptoms I experienced due to my TBI was an uncomfortable tingling sensation in my fingers and lips. I tried a twenty-week course of acupuncture to relieve the symptoms, but it didn’t help. Following this I was assessed at my local NHS hospital, which diagnosed focal epilepsy. Despite receiving a prognosis which I imagine in different circumstances would be unpleasant to hear, I felt validated. I started medication suitable for the diagnosis and soon made rapid progress, however, I felt it was actually the validation which made my symptoms go away. In just a few months, I reduced and then eliminated my medication altogether – my tingling symptoms didn’t return.
The following image shows the letter sent by my rehabilitation consultant to my GP regarding my tingling sensations.
The following page contains records of the daily routines I planned for myself, as well as my daily diary entries.