We always correlate traumatic brain injury with war veterans, car wrecks, etc. A Neurology Community member on Google+ posted an article from the HUFF POST.
Changing A Common Belief About Brain Injury http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sandra-bond-chapman/changing-a-common-belief-_b_7588400.html
I blog about my life with epilepsy and included a time that I called “Dr Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde”. In 1997 I had surgery to remove an area called mesial temporal sclerosis. The year after that I don’t remember. I can’t tell you about Christmas. I had surgery when my daughter was one, so she couldn’t re
member it. Unfortunately I don’t remember her two year old birthday party. They said the memory loss was because of the anesthesia.
Now, eighteen years later I had a sleep study. The neurologist that talked to me afterwards asked if I had ever been told about TBI or PTSD. I said, “Nooo, whyyy”? He explained. Then everything started making sense.
I know why my attitude on life is different. I am guessing that after going through pre-surgery testing, the surgery itself, and the horrible life changing year afterwards my brain had time to recuperate. As the article said, “potential for improvement is far greater than previously believed possible.”
My husband asks me often if I am o.k. when I don’t get upset at times when other people would. My brain must have re-routed that feeling to where I am more optimistic. It took one year for me to say instead my cup is half-empty, to half-full, and now that my cup “runneth over”.
I hope one day the TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY research will include brain surgery patients.