Traumatic Brain Injury & Post Concussion Syndrome:Do's & Dont's A Personal Journey

By C. Rae Johnson

DO’S & DON’TS What to do and What not to do, after a Traumatic Brain Injury & Post-Concussion Syndrome.
As a person tries to navigate their life through the many symptoms brought about by a Traumatic Brain Injury & Post-Concussion Syndrome, it can be met with very challenging and overwhelming obstacles. The search for natural and holistic ways to help can be daunting, when the medical community so freely offers pharmaceuticals instead; misdiagnosing the symptoms.
Do’s & Don’ts is a companion piece to TBI & PCS “10 Simple Steps Your Doctor May Not Know That Can Help You”, that further offers therapeutic, holistic, and “real life” solutions to benefit a recovering brain injured individual. This book also offers helpful suggestions to better cope with overwhelming stimuli and the symptoms they can produce, ultimately managing through the healing process while recovering from a brain injury and Post-Concussion Syndrome, leading to a full quality life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jul 7, 2017
• ISBN: 9781387087488

C. Rae Johnson

Writing has been in my blood my whole life, even as a nurse & personal trainer but life always got in the way to pursue it further. That was until a life changing event changed my world, but offered me the time to finally write. I was sidelined by a Traumatic Brain Injury and developed Post-Concussion Syndrome but by the grace of God I was able to complete books and am continuing to do so. My life altering event shows how good can come out of bad. I strive to educate others through empathy, compassion & experience relating to our common needs, offering real solutions and practical ways of help, inspiring hope for a future. There is so much more than meets the eye and no one should ever give up. I'm living proof of that! We all need to persevere and just keep going, even through our difficult times in life. I'm giving back through my writing, for the Grace that was given unto me. Let's all become Battle Ready!*A Donation will be made to Hopes House Kenya Orphans for every book purchase. Than you for your support!

Book preview

Traumatic Brain Injury & Post Concussion Syndrome:Do's & Dont's A Personal Journey

Traumatic Brain Injury

&

Post-Concussion Syndrome:

DO’S & DON’TS

A Personal Journey

C. RAE JOHNSON

Copyright © 2017 by C. Rae Johnson

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of author.  

All rights reserved. Use by permission. 

[e-mail]

Cover design: John Johnson

Image: Copyright: woodoo007 / 123RF Stock Photo

First printing 2017 

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are taken from the King James Version of the Holy Bible, New Living Translation and the New American Standard Bible.

"Scripture quotations taken from the New American

Standard Bible® (NASB),

Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972,

1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation 

Used by permission. www.Lockman.org"

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Information within this book is for educational purposes only.  It is not intended to replace your physician or medical care.  Please see your health-care provider before beginning suggestions in this book or any new health program; for complete well-being.

ISBN: 978-1-387-02635-7

Dedication

This book is dedicated with loving thankfulness to my Heavenly Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as well as to all of His children suffering through Traumatic Brain Injuries, TBI’s and Post-Concussion Syndrome, PCS.  With God leading us on the right path, we are better equipped and able to share hope and offer comfort to others, through what we ourselves have experienced.

I would also like to extend a loving thankfulness to my dear husband John and all of my children, for helping me in ways they are not even aware of.

Acknowledgements

I would like to present a personal thank you to Dr. Raymond Delucci of Delucci Chiropractic for offering the help I needed both in relieving certain headache pain and spinal misalignment due to the brain injury and also for his supportive help in finding me a very helpful and conscientious family doctor; which set the stage to finally move forward with the right specialty doctors, testing, diagnostic blood work and treatments needed.  It all starts with one caring person just willing to help and Dr. Delucci along with his wife Madeline and his family run practice is wonderful in their caring approach for the treatment of others.

website: http://deluccichiro.com email: [e-mail]

https://www.facebook.com/Delucci-Chiropractic190466280974755/

I would also like to extend a very warm thank you to a dear friend and brother in Christ, Steve Olejar, who so graciously shared alternative therapies that were of help for him in coping with his battle with Traumatic Brain Injury and Post-Concussion Syndrome.  Sharing helpful insights with one another is a great way to continue to increase hope; along with knowing that God ultimately has this, as well as us all.

I would like to extend an enduring thanks to my friend Eric Fiorillo at Fiorillo Barbell Company for suggesting one-sided training to me in the hopes of helping increase brain function and repair.  I always enjoy our sharing exchange of helpful information and stories that increase our inspiration for endurance of both brain and brawn on the informative podcasts hosted by Eric Fiorillo.

http://motivationandmuscle.com/   https://fiorillobarbellco.com/

I would also like to express a warm thank you to my dear friend and sister in Christ, Katy Whitton, for helping and encouraging me, along the way.

Traumatic Brain Injury

&

Post-Concussion Syndrome:

DO’S & DON’TS

A Personal Journey

A companion piece to

10 Simple Steps Your Doctor May Not Know That Can Help You

Introduction

A Personal Journey

Everyone has challenges. Everyone has trials that they think they cannot overcome, let alone endure.  They are tough.  They are scary. They can flip your whole world upside down and leave you at the bottom, with nowhere to go, but up.

When I was going through the latest challenge in my life, my brain injury, it was very difficult for me to deal with, not only the emergence of numerous symptoms affecting virtually every aspect of my life, but also the adaptation of attempting to do things differently.  I had lost the control that I had once had, and probably took it for granted when I did have it; not to mention, I really notice other people around me taking it for granted as well, within their own lives. 

The change in my abilities only served to increase my insecurities and frustrations which made it even more arduous.  I felt as though I just knew how others perceived me now, which was wrongfully negative.  I felt, all alone.

When I am symptomatic, it interrupts my flow of speech, as I become slowed both at thought and verbal communication.  It changes my gate, balance and my perception of my surroundings, coupled with head pain at various points on my skull.  The headaches over time, and through various therapies, most effectively, my Chiropractic therapy, have lessened greatly, and some are now even non-existent. 

Noises of the daily activities from others and their communications can still be quite distressing as certain frequencies of sound, particularly high pitches, only serve to disrupt me further in becoming more symptomatic.   I have searched for a way to help combat this as it is mentioned further in this book.

Visual disturbances of light can have its role to further complicate things as selective rays of light are definite culprits to add to the upheaval, particularly anything that produces a glare.  Along with these disruptions, my memory is also affected as I tend to forget what I am attempting to do periodically, at any given time, as well as experience bouts of short term memory loss. 

With the added and overloading stimuli, the brain shuts down less important functions of the body, like communication, to maintain functioning of the more important vital organs; heart rate and pressure, respiratory, digestion, et cetera .  Everything just suddenly comes to a halt within my own little world as my immediate focus now pertains to alleviating my symptoms; and to just rest. 

The overload can be so incredibly intense, that I end up being completely overwhelmed and exhausted beyond means, creating a release of tears in any given situation, at any given moment, that I just can’t always control.  This overwhelming overload is experienced time and time again by many sufferers of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI’s) and Post-Concussion Syndrome (PCS), but is all too often mistaken and wrongly diagnosed, leaving the brain injured individual at a loss.

Personally, before I learned to get a handle on my symptoms, I used to receive from almost anywhere I went, as a result of