TBI - Traumatic Brain Injury.

As anyone heard of any drastic, maybe even unconventional, ways they may be trying to treat it?

Quite drastic and certainly unconventional, imo

I'm so terribly sorry.

So this is an injury suffered in the war?

Is this person insured and able to seek medical help outside of the military system? The most advanced work on TBI is being done at universities and places like the Mayo--they are aware of the injuries come back from the war and may be able to help pro bono just because the need is so vital.

Is this a concussion type injury? Do you know which part of the brain specifically has been injured?

The brain is often able to repair itself with therapy and time, as other portions of the brain take over for the injured portions, but it does require time, and it also depends on the extent of the injury.

And sadly, like combat related mental illnesses, the military is trying to avoid paying benefits by claiming they were "pre-existing conditions".


http://menshealth.about.com/od/conditions/a/TBI_Comat_Troop.htm

http://www.birf.info/home/library/vet/vet-tbi-iraq.html

http://neurophilosophy.wordpress.com/2007/05/14/traumatic-brain-injury-on-the-front-line/

It's time to take some of these cases to court. How can the military sit there and admit they hired brain-damaged people then sent them into one of the most chaotic war zones we have ever seen--then they come home with brain injuries and the military washes its hands.

Sickening bastards.

Anything to avoid paying those veteran's benefits. :eyes:

He fell of a ladder and suffered a concussion. It took three weeks for anyone to realize his mental state was deteriorating. Eventually, he got into see a neurologist who had trouble finding anything wrong with him, even though his memory, coordination, ability to speak were all not functioning properly. He was sent to psychiatrists for evaluation, who thought it might be psychological (ha!). He got the runaround for almost a year before he had a psychotic break from reality, and then he got some better help. They put him on all sorts of drugs, which he doesn't like to take--including anti-convulsants and anti-psychotics.

Our experience was not very positive, but what we ran into time and again was doctors trying to pass him around like a hot potato because PET and MRI scans simply couldn't turn up anything. His symptoms are those of someone with damage to portions of the frontal cortex as well as temporal lobe. Our saga continues.

My best advice is to find a good neurologist and try to coordinate everything through him, and have him be the person's primary doctor. Run PET scans but have him evaluated by a neuropsychiatrist if possible, because the tests can narrow down where the damage is.

Good luck.

Mike

on night on the University of Washington campus, didn't think much of it, but later realized things just "weren't right". She, too, made the rounds and was essentially dismissed because the MRI's and CAT Scans showed no abnormalities.

She was able to complete her Masters and I don't know how she did it.

She became a member of a national Brain Injury Association (which wasn't in existence when her problems first began) and has found the best results from naturopathic treatments, body work, etc. She still isn't "back to normal" but she feels like she's improved a GREAT deal.

I believe the medical community at large has recognized that brain injury is a valid condition and problem, and steps are being made to address it.

Help can't come soon enough.

Going the naturopathic route makes great sense to me, especially with respect to a brain injury and if alopathic medicine fails to locate anything.

The brain can and does compensate for its injuries. That is so wonderful that your friend went on to achieve so many of her goals. That is awesomely inspiring.

And I do agree that medicine is terribly concerned with this issue. I know they do their best. The brain is just so vastly complex and relatively speaking not that fully well understood. In some ways, I think the human brain is the Final Frontier, even moreso than deep space.

This is from memory, and I don't endorse it or know much about it and have not researched it at all.

It regards the use of large amounts of the amino acid (?) Creatine shortly after the injury is sustained. That's all I know about this. I don't know how it is administered or how much.

I would never suggest this be done without the oversight of a doctor who knows more about this. I also don't know how many studies this research was based on, or why creatine would have this effect.

This is a very important topic.

Think about it; even if you don't directly know someone who has suffered brain injury as a result of war, they are coming home some day, and they will need our help, support and financial assistance. The Government is doing NOTHING.