Traumatic Brain Injury (Tbi)

Many disabilities can affect people of all ages. Some can be genetic, some can happen to you through accidents, but at the same time, all of them require an understanding of the basic reason behind the problem in order to help those affected by it. As a student I want to share my experiences by doing an experiment, on having Traumatic brain injury (TBI), due to a loss of balance during walking. The experiment will discuss the impact of my simulated disability in my home, school, work and other areas of society or community participation, the development of therapeutic relationships, and the impact on meaningful occupations.

Loss of memory and poor concentration reduce the ability to live a normal life. Cognitive deficits after a traumatic brain injury can result in significant functional limitations in all areas of daily living. An individual’s ability to simplify learning may be limited, thus making it harder to live independently in the community. There are many different cognitive and physiological disabilities that can affect an individual life and their performance. One of the disabilities that I want to talk about is Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). “Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a complex injury with a broad spectrum of symptoms and disabilities. The impact on a person and his or her family can be devastating”. Head injuries are a serious problem. Whenever you are dealing with the brain, you want to take everything about the injury very seriously. Since our brain identifies who we are, the consequences of a brain injury can affect all aspects of our lives, or even including our personality. An injury in these areas limits the use of a specific part of your body, but your personality and mental abilities remain unaffected.

Injuring the brain has different effects on people because it depends on the brain part that was injured. This determines the form of recovery treatment that is necessary for the brain to return to its normal operating condition. A traumatic brain injury is a disability that comes from an injury to the brain. This includes the brain stem that will result in impaired cognitive, physical, or emotional functioning. If there is mild loss of consciousness or disorientation that lasts less than 30 minutes, the injury to the brain s considered mild. Memory or consciousness loss for more than 30 minutes makes a similar injury severe. The same word is used to define an injury where there has been skull penetration and memory loss of 24 hours. Individuals can be left in long-term unresponsive states, and even a small change in brain function can affect a person and their family, job, and social and community interactions. In this case, I want to discus the impact from falling on the floor and hitting my head, which was due to loosing balance while walking.

Let me take you back to the day my life changed by a small accident. As I was getting up in the morning, I was tiered and could not open my eyes. As I was getting up from bed I didn’t pay any attention to where I was going and tripped on an object on the floor. As I feel, I bang my head against a wooden filing cabinet and my husband found me on the floor five minutes later on the floor. I was confused, lightheaded, dizzy, with blurred vision, ringing in my ears, and bad taste in my mouth. I did not know where I was, and what was going on.

My husband help me get up and help me to made my way through the living room, which was hard because it is so narrow that there is very little space between the couch on one side of the room and the chair on the other. I bumped into the chair, and it was no big deal. I sat in the chair in the kitchen, and I looked confused. Nothing made any sense, my head was pounding and I did not understand what was going on. I was able to recognize the people around me but I forgot how to use certain objects such as a spoon, fork, cup, and knife in order to feed my self.

My husband was trying to help me but the look on his face was as if he was frustrated, he wasn’t use to this type of behavior because all his life he was use to me being able to do things for my self and the constant assistance was something new to him. As I was getting ready for school I couldn’t remember how to start the car, everything seemed fragmented and I had to ask a friend or family member to help take me to school. At that time the constant absence of information was starting to become annoying, things that I have been doing all of my life just came to a blank.

When getting into school I had difficulty finding my class but was able to ask someone there. During study, it was difficult to focus on different tasks such as reading, listening to lecture or writing something down. According to WebAIM (1999), “Some individuals have difficulties understanding text. These difficulties may be mild or severe, ranging from minor challenges to a complete inability to read any text. It would be unreasonable to expect web developers to accommodate the entire range of reading abilities”.

When going to work I had trouble working certain items such as programs on the computer or changing calls on the phone. As I was aiding the doctor I forgot what routines I had to do in order to prepare the patient and equipment. The Trilogy Integrate Resources Inc (2011) website point out that, “Individuals with a Traumatic Brain Injury most typically experience problems in basic cognitive skills: sustaining attention, concentrating on tasks at hand, and remembering newly learned material. They may think slowly, speak slowly, and solve problems slowly.

They may become confused easily when normal routines are changed or when the stimulation level from the environment exceeds their threshold”. Working environment can be effected in many levels, which can create unpleasant situations and uncomfortable dilemma for me. As a result, after injury, I with TBI may be unable to function well in their social roles because of difficulty in planning ahead, in keeping track of time, in coordinating complex events, in making decisions based on broad input, in adapting to changes in life, and in otherwise being the executive in one’s own life.

After all, even though I was pretend to have disability of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) for three hours it is very hard to deal with this kind of disabilities. Having people around you to care for you and help it is very challenging, and at the same time heart braking because if there is no one out there to help you, you are gone for good.