Wednesday, April 5, 2017
TBI
Instead of reflecting on today's topic and what was learned, my mind is geared toward my personal experience with the topic and questions I have now that I didn't once have. When I was in second grade my dad had an ATV accident which caused swelling on his brain and required emergency surgery. Because I was so young and my dad has a hard time recalling all of the information the only thing I know for sure is that he now has a metal plate inside of his skull. I don't think he was "diagnosed" with a TBI but now knowing what I know, he often shows signs and symptoms of one. (And he could have easily had one and I just don't know about it because I was so young). From my perspective the symptoms have worsened but I thought this may just be because of stress from recent family misfortunes. These symptoms may have always been present and I am just now noticing them because of my medical experience and knowledge. He is slow to comprehend things, has difficulties expressing his words, and experiences confusion a lot. My question(s) for you would be can this be something that waits 15+ years to set in? And is this something I should address with him to seek a doctor for? Thanks for listening!
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Hi Makayla, That sounds like a very challenging situation. It also sounds like your dad very likely did sustain a TBI that continues to impact him this many years later. Stress can definitely play a huge roll on executive functioning, a set of higher-level cognitive processes that we are going to talk about in OT 537. With that said, a change in neurological functioning (cognitive or otherwise) is something that should be reported to a physician who may opt to refer the person for testing just to make sure there isn't something going on that needs to be addressed medically, psychologically, etc. Please let me know if you want to talk further about this (or anything else) at any point.
ReplyDeleteWow, thanks for sharing this. I'm sure it can be hard to learn more details about TBI especially when you have personal experience with. I think this is going to make you an INCREDIBLE ot who can empathize with and understand the challenges.
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