Subscribe to my FREE newsletter
Be the first to know about new articles!

Brain injury blog by survivor

Brain injury blog by survivor

Michelle

Michelle

Subscribe to my FREE newsletter
Be the first to know about new articles!

Brain injury blog by survivor

Brain injury blog by survivor

Michelle

Michelle

How I overlooked other problems & wrongly blamed my brain injury

Follow me:

I have had limited support with my psychical symptoms following my brain injury. So I have started to try to just accept my reality, and push ahead.  Previously I wrote in Is my brain injury making me paranoid? about how I wondered if I was looking for problems too much. Getting the balance between identifying issues to deal with, and obsessing about it is harder than you think. I chose the wrong problem to overlook this time.

Being knackered has become my base level.

Fatigue is part and parcel of most brain injuries, so my constant tiredness is something I have come to expect. And as I was in a car accident I expect things to ache forever now. The nerve in my left leg was damaged so I have limited feeling, but it continues to improve. When I was 21 I fell off a ladder and landed with my left leg twisted under me. Initially I thought I was OK, but then the years of pain followed. But the nerve damage meant that old injury stopped being reported to my brain. It was great. So when I started to notice it again along with lower back pain I thought I would just have to overlook it. I assumed that as the nerve healed, I had to accept my old injury would raise its ugly head.

Has my lack of strength affected my pain threshold?

The pain was worse than I remembered it. Just walking up the stairs suddenly became exhausting and severely painful. But life goes on, so I thought I had to grin and bear it. Perhaps it was my fault for not exercising enough. Anyway, as I was tired of feeling like there was nothing Doctors could do for me, I did nothing about it.

That is until my partner James insisted I make an appointment. He argued that as I’m always a bit anaemic maybe I should have a blood test. So I did and my doctor decided to test a few different things at the same time. She told me to call in about a week to check the results were OK. Then I received a note in the post before the week was up to make an appointment regarding my results. I knew then that they had found something. But I had already decided I would just be told to take more iron tablets.

This time it wasn’t just iron I was deficient in.

I was surprised when she told me I was SEVERELY LOW in vitamin D. As the UK is so far north, it’s common for Brits to become a bit low on vitamin D during the winter. As our skin creates it from the energy of mid day sun on our skin, its not strong enough that time of year. Plus we are indoors much more, and when we do venture out we tend to be bundled up in numerous layers. But it’s unusual to be severely low. As vitamin D it known for helping bones grow and repair, perhaps I had used more than usual for my injuries. A common symptom of the condition is pain in the hips, pelvis and lower back –the pain I had written off as my old injury. Plus tiredness as vitamin D is used to aid the absorption of other nutrients, including iron.

If I had continued the ignore these symptoms it could have resulted in osteoporosis, a condition which causes fragile bones. I’m now taking a high dose of vitamin D and trying to get out more. It will probably take about 2 months to restore my levels and I’m hoping the tiredness and pain will ease. There shouldn’t be any long term damage, but that’s only because James pushed me and my doctor was vigilant. The moral to this story is don’t assume you know everything and heard it all before.

My blog on living with brain injury: I should have seen a doctor sooner, but I thought it was my brain injury which I don't get any help for.

Do you sometimes overlook your issues because of your brain injury?

Facebook
Pinterest
Twitter
LinkedIn
WhatsApp
Email

4 replies on “How I overlooked other problems & wrongly blamed my brain injury”

Vitamin D is also essential for the creation of DNA and genes, so it’s important to stay in normal range. I was dangerously low, myself, for years, till I started actively supplementing. I’m now in normal range, and my mind feels so much clearer than before. It’s amazing what a difference it makes.

I always knew it was important, but never appreciated all the amazing things it’s responsible for. I’m so glad it’s being dealt with ?

I bought Vitamin D to give me a boost from feeling lethargic, but fell by the wayside. It wasn’t till reading this article of yours that I’ve realised I’ve slipped back to feeling that way.
So I feel prompted to taking it again thanks to you ?

Especially this time of year me all could do with a little top up, but even more so for us. Hope it gives you a little boost soon.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Blog newsletter

Get an email which gives you an introduction into the topic of the latest post so you never miss one again. If you ever change your mind and decide you no longer want to receive these emails there will be an unsubscribe link included at the bottom of every one, so you have nothing to lose!