Tests and Treatments

From blinking lights to beeping machines, you may or may not remember much about the early hours and days in the hospital — except that everything hurt.

I vaguely remember watching the monitor screen with fascination and wondering — during my in-and-out-of-consciousness state — what it was showing. I also recall pleading for water for my parched throat and the nurse only placing a few tiny ice chips on my tongue. Now I know the purpose was to restrict my fluids to reduce brain swelling — but then I was feeling victimized by their stinginess with water.

Recovery/Rewiring Questions

Can my brain ever recover its functions? How does it repair?

Yes! Some improvement can occur even years after injury. While we know that the most rapid recovery from head trauma occurs in the first six months, steady and gradual improvement from severe injuries is often observed for two years or so after injury, and progress may continue at a slower rate for several more years.

According to Stein, Brailowsky, & Will, (Brain Repair, 1995), our emotional and motivational states play a large role in how much and how fast we recover. Some motivated people even acquire new skills many years post-injury! I learned to board- and kayak-surf 25 years later.

Brain repair is remarkable and simple: this dynamic organ started with 100 billion neurons and even more interconnection, and can reorganize and reprogram itself. This occurs because of neuroplasticity — the brain’s neurons can be remolded. The cells find new and better patterns. According to Stephen Stahl (Essential Psychopharmacology, 2000) and others, the neurons form new connections and remove old ones, branching and pruning — think of how a tree’s branches change as the tree grows.

Recent research shows that new neurons do grow to replace the ones that died. Unfortunately the process takes a long time, but it may help to explain why people can keep on improving even years after their injury — and why maintaining a healthy lifestyle that leads to maximum growth is important.