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Acquired/ Traumatic Brain Injury:
Are you having trouble focusing when you are reading or using the computer?
Have you become sensitive to light, to movement, or to noise?
AND
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Were you involved in what you thought was a minor motor vehicle accident—even weeks or months ago? (you were dazed for only a moment)
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Did you have a slip and (almost) fall accident? - but did not hit your head?
An Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) refers to any damage to the brain that occurs after birth that is not related to a congenital or a degenerative disease.
The damage occurs because of movement of the brain within the vault of the skull, which causes shearing of some of the underling brain fibres.
You do NOT have to hit your head to sustain a brain injury. That is why many people do not attend with their health professionals after this type of injury until they are aware of ‘new’ symptoms that do not ‘go away’, in a short period of time.
These usually invisible injuries can be caused by:
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Motor vehicle accident (bus, pedestrian, motorcycle, scooter)
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A slip and fall (or an ‘almost’ fall)
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Sports and recreational activities
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Battery and abuse (assault, domestic abuse, or IPV [intimate partner violence], shaken baby syndrome).
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Gunshot wounds
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Explosive blasts, combat injuries
A concussion is a descriptor used to refer to a mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI).
Although no brain damage can be seen on imaging techniques (CT scan, MRI), the effects of sustaining a mTBI or TBI can be the same.
Because a TBI /mTBI is invisible and can cause STRANGE and NEW sensations that you have never experienced before, try and separate the PHYSICAL FEELINGS of an injury with OTHER types of feelings you may be experiencing- and discuss these
findings with your health practitioners.
Physical sensations like aching, stabbing, shooting, burning, knife-like, cramping, are usually caused by injury to the body.
But other sensations, including blurred vision, feeling clumsy, off balance, nauseous, can suggest that a concussion needs to be further investigated. If you are feeling stressed, anxious, or worried, also ask yourself whether these ‘newer’ 🔴 can be related to an injury that you thought was minor and would just resolve in time, on its own.
Health practitioners too must be aware that appropriate treatment involves management of any bodily injuries in addition to the effects of a concussion.
There is extensive and new research about TBI today, but applying that research into clinical practice needs both the skill of the health practitioner and your own awareness of changes to your body and brain.
Check out the Resources about Brain Injury posted on: