Recovery from Brain Injury - Rancho Levels

[[pa...]]

Hi Guys,

 

A few days ago, I posted a response to another buddy's question about healing - and I explained that as a speech therapist working with brain injury patients,  I have seen patients go all the way from coma, back to normal life.  People in benzo w/d dont' think they are going to heal.  In fact, very few brain injuries DON'T heal. Those that don't are typically major open or closed head injuries that involve the brain literally turning in the skull and ripping apart the axons at the base of the brain. Our type of regeneration definitely CAN occur and based on success stories of those who have been on upwards or 5-10mg of different benzos HAVE healed.

 

Anyhow, here is a popular list of "healing" levels when someone has gone into a coma. When a person wakes up from coma, they almost always go through the exact same set of phases, sometimes several phases very quickly, or getting "stuck" in a phase for awhile before moving on. Here is where we do a lot of speech and cognitive therapy to help. 

Anyhow, I do not practice therapy anymore, but I wanted you to be able to see the recovery descriptions for differnt phases of coma.

 

This should make you feel somewhat confident because our types of injuries are hard, and some of the descriptions coincide with ones here, however, we are definitely not in a coma! And look how far these folks come!  From level 1 all the way to level 10. It goes to show that there is an expected recovery pattern.

 

I think that the same thing happens in benzo w/d and recovery.  We go through similar phases, although unique to benzos.  There is the d/p, confusion, memory loss, agitation, etc. etc.  But we will ALL recover.

 

This is just food for thought. Not sure if it belongs here or not, but several buddies have written to thank me for that post on recovering from brain injury, so I thought you miht like to read this. 

http://www.northeastcenter.com/rancho_los_amigos_revised.htm

 

:)Parker

[[...]]

Hi all. Thanks parker. Are you still taking ambien? I tapered that a while ago. I was wondering what your experience was if you tapered.

Thanks,

Bear

[[Co...]]

Hi, Thanks so much for that...it was especially meaningful to me as my mom suffered a hypoxic brain injury after going into status epilepticus after ct of xanax in the hospital...she was actually in a coma, nonresponsive and on the vent. 4 months later she is in a snf and progressing...she is still confused a bit...she is only 69 and was never disoriented or altered before so Im hopeful she will continue to improve. I think she is a level 7 now. Thanks again. I hope you are doing well.

[[Kl...]]

Thanks Parker -this was helpful and encouraging. I was in a bad bicycle/auto accident 3 years ago. Smashed my helmet on the right side and knocked me out for 45 minutes. I was diagnosed with mild traumatic brain injury a year and half later.......so I did not start therapy till almost 18 months out. Doc said my intelligence was in tact but processing speed was very slow. I did brain games on my computer for a year and then (February 2, 2011) I woke up one morning with scramming tinnitus and they put me on Ativan.....I felt like my brain recovery went back to square one. It hurt to think. Loud noises bothered me. I go nauseas just thinking about doing something new...something I was not used to. Anyway, thanks for the encouragement. I am back to doing brain games. God bless.

[[Ga...]]

Thanks Parker. There is hope.

Colleen, Im so sorry about your Mom.

[[Ti...]]

Thanks Parker.

 

Klondike how is your tinnitus now?

[[Kl...]]

Thanks Parker.

 

Klondike how is your tinnitus now?

 

Hi Tina........On a scale of 1-10 it is about at a 3. Last February and March it was in the 8-10 range.....by May it was sometimes a one or zero for a few hours.....but when I found BB in July and started a steady taper it went to the 3-5 range and stayed there until about a month ago. I have to be in a quiet room to hear a "1". And if the refrigerator is running I can not hear a "2", and at"3" I start thinking I need white noise and from "4" on I really need white noise. From "8" upward white noise does not help....need benzos? I have not been at zero or "1" since last June.

 

How are you this morning?