My Experience After a Traumatic Brain Injury - Back to Work After TBI

BACK TO WORK AFTER A TBI

I went back to work about 30 days after my hospitalization.  I complained to my primary care physician that I was unusually tired all the time and he suggested I start back to work for four (4) hours a day initially and move up to the regular eight (8) hour day over a few weeks.  For a long time, I thought the reason I was having difficulties with my memory, concentration, emotions, etc., was lack of sleep.  I have since learned that fatigue is a major issue for people who've had a brain injury.

One of the first things my supervisor noticed was my inability to keep my desk organized.  She asked me one day: “What happened to your desk?”  Pre-injury, I was fastidious about cleaning my desk daily in preparation for the next day's work.

I was abnormally forgetful when I returned to work.  I couldn't remember names of people I knew and I often forgot what I was supposed to be doing.   There were occasions when I would walk across the large building where I worked and then forget why I went there.  I forgot the retirement party for my internship mentor and that stressed me greatly; I know I never would have missed that pre-injury.

My director asked if he could talk to my doctors because he was concerned about me.  He told me I appeared to have many of the problems his wife had when she was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.  I let him talk to my psychologist and she wrote in my medical records:  “Colonel ‘W’ said Ms.  Palmer hasn't been the same since she hit her head.”  Shortly after that I was diagnosed with major depression.

Many of the people I worked with noted changes in my personality.  I was told by my employer that I had to go on two weeks leave "to find the sweet, smiling Debi we used to know."

I really haven't found her, but since I started cycling with the Ride 2 Recovery Program, I have found joy in life again.  Cycling has been my antidepressant.