Post by Dawn on Nov 16, 2008 20:53:19 GMT -5
Perhaps it was a phone call that changed your life so dramatically. Although you didn't know it then, many strangers would soon enter your life; most of them would be speaking "medicalese" and offering confusing and conflicting messages. One of the first things these strangers might have told you was that a person very close to you had sustained a head injury, was in a coma, and might never awaken.
Raised with the belief that medical skill and technology could repair damaged bodies, you assume that the injured individual will recover and resume life with few, if any impairments. Maybe there will be a limp or some scars, but the person will be the same person you always knew. After all, doctors cure people, don't they?
While the injured person appears to sleep, untroubled by the social, emotional and financial problems which the head injury has caused, you make decisions, meet obligations, and survive the acute crisis. Ready or not, willing or not, able or not, you assume new roles and responsibilities. Nothing can prepare you for any of this, but you know it's only temporary. Soon things will be back to normal.
Unfortunately, head injury is unlike other illnesses and injuries. You discover that little is known about recovery and that the few available treatment programs are incredibly expensive and located hundreds of miles away. Physicians providing treatment may simultaneously relay prognoses which range from total recovery to little hope. Or may relay information you neither understand or accept. You don't even know what questions to ask so you don't get answers. You know that the person who existed before the injury has changed but you're not sure how or for how long. ..........................................
www.brain-train.com/articles/head.htm#HEAD%20INJURIES%20HAPPEN%20TO%20FAMILIES
Raised with the belief that medical skill and technology could repair damaged bodies, you assume that the injured individual will recover and resume life with few, if any impairments. Maybe there will be a limp or some scars, but the person will be the same person you always knew. After all, doctors cure people, don't they?
While the injured person appears to sleep, untroubled by the social, emotional and financial problems which the head injury has caused, you make decisions, meet obligations, and survive the acute crisis. Ready or not, willing or not, able or not, you assume new roles and responsibilities. Nothing can prepare you for any of this, but you know it's only temporary. Soon things will be back to normal.
Unfortunately, head injury is unlike other illnesses and injuries. You discover that little is known about recovery and that the few available treatment programs are incredibly expensive and located hundreds of miles away. Physicians providing treatment may simultaneously relay prognoses which range from total recovery to little hope. Or may relay information you neither understand or accept. You don't even know what questions to ask so you don't get answers. You know that the person who existed before the injury has changed but you're not sure how or for how long. ..........................................
www.brain-train.com/articles/head.htm#HEAD%20INJURIES%20HAPPEN%20TO%20FAMILIES
