ANA Discussion Forum
Post-Treatment => Post-Treatment => Topic started by: OMG16 on February 27, 2008, 08:18:49 pm
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My son had a driving eval today. He has not driven since his surgery and stroke in 2005. He had only been driving 2 weeks. The last time he drove was to his pre op appt and while parking he hit one of the Drs cars. We of course tease him...... that was one expensive appt. He did really well with reaction times but not so well with vision and processing time. Have any of you had to go through driver simulation after your surgery? Can you tell me more about it if you or a family member has. Do you know what we can do to increase his processing speed of the visual info? His complex problem solving is also slow. Any ideas on therapies to improve that as well?
The good news is he is still making great progress and last summer could not have passed any of the tests. He did get all of the problems right except 2 and he corrected himself right away with the right answers. I was very proud of him. He is on his way to living an independant life.
He also had his Vocational Rehab through SSSI appointment and that went very well. They recommended that he volunteer at the local hospital for awhile to figure out his stamina and what his limitations are with his left side. We talked to the Rehab dept today and his old OT is willing to take him on and help him with this. We are thrilled. He feels like his life is no longer on hold and is very excited about all of this. 16
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16! OMG! the pride ih your words! I cannot answer your question... but boy oh boy do I hear the pride! Tell him congrats and continued wishes for wellness... it definately sounds like "hold mode" has been lifted... :)
...and btw, LOVE your sig line! :)
forehead kisses to you! (yeah, i stole it... whatcha gonna do about it?) :-*
Phyl
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Phyl our entire Family is so proud of him. Not long ago he was telling one of his friend that he chooses to be happy not angry, bitter or depressed. He told him it was not easy sometimes but it was in his control. He also said that if he did not think about all that he has lost and just focus on the short term goals he has now that it was much easier. I guess he has heard what we have been telling him for the last 3 years. We told him that sometime life can be overwhelming and in those cases to just take 1 day at a time or even one minute at a time if he had to. We also told him sometimes you need medicine to help for depression and to let us know if it was all to much for him. I'm so thankful that we have always had open communication with him and told him that nothing was off limits. This rule did make us uncomfortable sometimes but was well worth it. Little did we know that we would need the open communication so much and so soon in his life. I have learned so much from him as well as my sig line states. I am a very blessed Mother!
There can never be to many of us offering forehead kisses and they really do help. Thank you! 16
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16~
That is so GREAT (I've been praying about this!) -- I hope they find something just right that he LOVES to do!
I had to do driving simulations - we can talk about it - you know I do better on the phone and my keyboard is acting up anyway!
YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
K
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That would be great K I'll talk to you soon. 16
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Phyl our entire Family is so proud of him. Not long ago he was telling one of his friend that he chooses to be happy not angry, bitter or depressed. He told him it was not easy sometimes but it was in his control. He also said that if he did not think about all that he has lost and just focus on the short term goals he has now that it was much easier. I guess he has heard what we have been telling him for the last 3 years. We told him that sometime life can be overwhelming and in those cases to just take 1 day at a time or even one minute at a time if he had to. We also told him sometimes you need medicine to help for depression and to let us know if it was all to much for him. I'm so thankful that we have always had open communication with him and told him that nothing was off limits. This rule did make us uncomfortable sometimes but was well worth it. Little did we know that we would need the open communication so much and so soon in his life. I have learned so much from him as well as my sig line states. I am a very blessed Mother!
There can never be to many of us offering forehead kisses and they really do help. Thank you! 16
16,
Your son sounds so mature. I love his "glass half full" attitude. I couldn't help but note how lucky he is to have you as a parent! Truly, you are to be commended for keeping those lines of communication open.
All the best,
Kate
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16 dont let these people buffalo you ? The boy can drive, no problem and I get so sick of wankers at DMV's trying to diagnose you? Everyday I see large obese people behind the wheel who might stroke out but they dont grill them every time I renew my license here in this one horse town it is a drama as the first time I went in the troll at the counter noticed I use a cane and this started the ball rolling talk about discrimination? They never used to bother me when I went to the beach and tossed back a 12 pack and drove home? But now that I have one eye and one ear they want to jack me around? Dont take it, in my case I called the mayor and dropped a dime on these fools if my doctor says its okay for me to drive then give me my license last I knew the DMV aint authorized to practice medicine in my state?
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Kate thank you so much and his Father is just as great as I am at communicating with him. Which I hear is not always the case with Fathers. ;) I think he has the greatest parents in the world of course. I remind him of this often!
Don you crack me up. Wankers is my newest fav word. His Dr was the one that though it would be a good idea and we bypassed the DMV and are having all of his evals at the hospital in the OT dept. He was and is quite disabled. He lost 2/3 of the right side of his brain and has recovered more than any of us ever thought he would. His brain was so swollen for about 6 weeks that he was on massive amounts of steroids and could not walk or ambulate in anyway on his own for about 7 weeks. It has taken almost 3 years to get to where he is now. He also only had 2 weeks of driving experience before all of this happened so we all just want to make sure he is safe himself and for all the other drivers out on the road. It does not help with the Seattle traffic which is similar to LA. I just really hope this is something that he will be able to do. He really wants to be more independant. As a Mother it is my job to help him acheive this goal and I will do whatever I need to. However I think his Dad will have to practice with him as I just get to nervous and that makes him very nervous. We need all the prayer the forum has to offer. 16
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16,
First, what great news, I am glad to hear that he is taking the tests - who cares if he is passing them yet! If you compare your description of his disabilities in your reply to Don, with the description of his driving evaluation in your first post, you realize how remarkable it really is. I'm also glad to hear about the rehab appointment.
I am curious if he has any interest in computers. Some would even claim that playing Nintendo is good for the visual system and for developing quicker problem solving. ;)
Computers is a good skill to develop for many kinds of jobs. It is often not necessary to be particularly fast or clever; taking your time and doing things right is also very valuable. I tend to have my best ideas about 12 hours after hearing about a new problem - too late for some kinds of jobs, but just fine for a computer programmer.
Forehead kisses all around. :-*
Steve
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16 if its any consolation my brain was completely scrambled when I had my bleed they even had a tube coming out of my head with black and yellow blood in it for weeks and to this day i still have a VP shunt installed I reckon I had at least 30 years of drunk driving experience when I went down in 3 countries so even though they say the human brain is the same consistency as cottage cheese somehow mine has rebuilt its self and as soon as I could crawl back out to my truck I started driving again wouldnt recommend this in Seattle take him to a golf course and rent a cart so he can practice on the cart paths and terrorize golfers? Wankers is sumthing I picked up in Australia just be careful if your around Aussies.
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Do you know what 'wankers' means here in the UK? Suffice to say I was shocked when I saw it here. :(
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Yeah I suppose its the same as Oz but we Yanks dont know any better and besides the Aussies call us Septics? As if you know cockney slang Septic Tank rhymes with Yank, one mans language is another's profanity
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Yes your'e right, over here we still can't believe there was a kids film called 'Free Willy" !!! ;)
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Do you know what 'wankers' means here in the UK? Suffice to say I was shocked when I saw it here. :(
Are you gobsmacked to know that I know a wanker when I see one? :)
Let's keep this thread on track for original post.......thanks folks! :)
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Its good to here your son is doing better. Here in Germany there is a law that doesn't allow anyone to drive for at least 3 months after brain surgerry or until you have had a phsyciatric evaluation. I had a Phsy. eval. in the rehab center, it involved alot of questions about how I feel now after surgery and a 20 min long reaction test. The test was hooked up to a computer with blinking lights, colored squares, and different tones. I thought I did terrible but the phsyciater said I was average and that I could drve again. I guess that here it is a law because there are still streches of Autobahn where there is no speed limit. I don't know of any thing special exercise or training you can do but if you ask a physical theripiest they could probably help.
Dan in Germany
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Dan mine was a little more basic and the doctor had me set on the edge of the examination table and push her hands with my feet and held my hands in the steering wheel position to move them? I felt like a toddler playing at driving a car she started laughing when I started going BRRRRR! I suppose its a good idea as there are those who would try if not able but I felt I could drive and do so nobody here to tell me different due to vision and hearing loss I will never drive anywhere here but my island as the top speed is one stretch of straight road is 45 mph, I did not have to do this till I renewed my license? The brain is a tricky thing and my one friend who also survived a brain aneurysm will never drive again as he suffers seizures, me I was blessed and have had none my other Australian friend who also survived a bleed drives no problem She still works in fact we are all different and to lump us into one catagory is criminal
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LOL jeWell41, yeah I bet Free Willy is the last person you want to met on the tube at night? This is why I used to love traveling so much and talking with people all over not only language but accents are fun for example my wife is from the Philippines and many of her countrymen say SBC for its busy? One of my Filipino friends and I were in the ocean fishing in a boat and he kept muttering about the "Wheel"? I was trying to visualize a wheel on a boat and it turned out he was worried about one of the Humpback "Whales" that our in our coastal waters every winter to calve, its fun to laugh at ourselves and if I was PC or a victim I wouldnt have had so much fun the 6 years I lived in Japan where one can make a dogs breakfast out of a language in a hurry lucky thing they are not PC yet?
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Steve he loves computer and since he was in a Pediatric Hospital the first thing the ST and PT had him doing was playing computer games. The video games are harder since you really need both right and left side and he has very minimal left hand movement. We have had computers since they were first available to the public. When my son was in 3rd grade the subsitutes would go to him for help. My little computer guru. He would like to do some sort of graphic design, but since that requires higher education thats pretty much out for now. I know if someone took him under their wing and was patient with him he would acheive greatness. I see it with what I teach him. So we just need the right connections and I am hoping DVR can help. However we were told last week that he falls between the cracks in the system. The counselor explained that with a teenager with no work experience and disabilities as severe as his that all we can do it try. She really wants to help him but they haven't got a clue how. So I guess in my spare time I will try to figure this out. I know with my help he can live a tremendous life and support himself with our special needs trust we are setting up for him. It is my goal to make sure he can take care of himself when we are gone. He has made such progress and just needs a bit of a break. His stamina is not that great but I think with the right job he can work up to full time. He certainly can't live on SSDI at $424 dollars a month. I was also thinking back and when the Dr referred us in November for this appt neither one of us thought he would do this well. He is gaining abilities everyday again and we are thrilled.
My son really need some sort of social life which we have not found. He is very high functioning as far as most of the social groups go and we can not find a group of young adults with his abilities. I was told that they continue on with their lives in isolation. Well that will not happen here. I've told him that we will continue to figure this out together. While he was in the hospital we were told by the counselors and his Dr that most parents do not give a 100% and that their children suffer and do not progress as well. We took all the information they had and asked for more. We had to relearn how to parent a child with severe disabilities and it has been very hard but is paying off ten fold. However I think my husband and I need to take a trip to Palm Springs alone and recharge our batteries. I can not wait for sunshine and warm weather.
Don we were thinking the same thing. We have property that we take our 5th wheel to in the spring and were going to get a golf cart and start practicing. I'm afraid for the squirels though.
Jewel I am so sorry I did not know. I will remove that from my fav words list. ??? 16
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To anyone recovering from a brain injury (as opposed to a "simple" AN surgery):
Some of you who have read previous posts know that I have a disabled daughter. Due to a metabolic defect, she is disabled both mentally and physically. We do a program with her designed by the National Association of Child Development. Don't let the name fool you - they work with any level of cognitive or physical brain injury at any level on anyone. I have a specific program of activities that I do with her to get her sensory systems better integrated. I do believe that it would be helpful to look into for anyone with brain or vestibular problems. My daughter took her first steps at age 3 - something I do not think she would otherwise have achieved.
Just my 2 cents' worth - check out www.nacd.org if you think this might be useful to you. PM me if you would like to chat more about it or have questions.
Tamara
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Tamara your 2 cents are worth a million. Thank you for posting this info. This could be the ticket for my son. :) 16
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OMG16,
I saw in another post that you said that your son is not sure what he is going to do with his life. I just want to point out that neither does my 19 year old nephew, who finished high school last year. He has since moved to California where his older sister is going to college, and found a job wiping tables at a coffee shop. As far as I can tell, he spends the rest of his time riding a bike, shooting hoops, playing an electric piano, and playing John Madden Football or Tiger Woods Golf on Play Station. I suspect he does some instant messaging as well.
In fact most of us take quite a while to settle into an adult life. I don't think I really figured out what I was I going to do until about the age of 35. These days, being 19 and unsure about your future is par for the course, and nothing to worry about.
I wonder if there is a class at a YMCA, or a community college, or a park district, where he could get out and about a little. It doesn't need to be academic or job training, just something to do where he could interact with new people a little. I'm sure that is not easy for him, but in the right environment, it might go pretty well, and it would liven things up a little. Some kind of art class, for instance, or yoga, or something like that.
Steve
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Steve you make perfect sense and I did not know at 19 either. He and all of his friends have known what they wanted to do very early in high school and have all worked towards that goal. They all went to college and high school at the same time and all are right on schedule with their plans. So with this being the case he is a little to hard on himself as he tries to figure out what he wants to do now...... That he is capable of. Those darn over achieving high school students anyways. LOL The worst thing about all of this is he knows what he could do before and just can not acheive at that level now. I have told him that it may take him longer to get it to stick so to speak, but he is doing better everyday. I really believe that he can do great things with time. Now we need to get his self esteem up. He is so afraid to fail. He went back to school to soon after his stroke and could not keep up no matter how hard he tried. It was heart breaking for us as parents to watch. He was singled out 2 days into his return and some of the kids were making fun of him and calling him retarded and then they asked him what his problem was and he told them he has a brain tumor and a stroke and just what was their excuse. It hurt him deeply and I'm sure that is where his fears are coming from.
We have tried all sorts of activities and he has now taught himself how to bowl. So he is getting out and doing that now. He has informed us that thinking of the spring, summer and fall keeps him going in the winter. We camp and travel during those seasons and he is very excited to start hiking and he wants to learn to wake board this year. So we will take him out in the boat and hopefully we can make it happen for him. We have taken him rafting down the Yakima river each Labor day since his stroke it is very slow moving and only about 3-5 feet deep so he has fun doing that. He is very good at ping pong now and has tournaments when his friends are home from college. He is just stuck at home when the weather is bad in the winter and it has been quite a winter this year. Last winter he fell and broke his left hand and ended up with a twisted intestinal thing that was very painful. So his Dr suggested that he not go out when the weather could cause him to fall or be blown over. The Y does have some classes that we are checking into and he is also going to start his volunteer work in the rehab recreational dept soon. That will be good for him and the stroke and brain injury folks he will be helping since one thing he does have is a positive attitude with a great smile everyday. He will be an inspiration to all who meet him since he should have not made it through his ordeal let alone walk. He has worked so darned hard. I admire him for that. I can honestly say I may have given up if I had been in that position.
Thank you for all of your help and comments. We listen to all advice and are so grateful for you info. 16
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Steve you make perfect sense and I did not know at 19 either. He and all of his friends have known what they wanted to do very early in high school and have all worked towards that goal. They all went to college and high school at the same time and all are right on schedule with their plans. 16
even the best laid plans can change .. I can think of serval people including my wife.. that graduated from school but are not doing what they went to school for ! :o and me .. jeezz.. at 19 I should of been at AA .. but I did have a interest in computers, (just not school!) .. lived at home till my late 20's .. (and I paid a small rent thu most of that time, and when I did leave .. my mother saved all that money and gave it back to me, as they were just tring to give me some resonsibly not take my money) in those early (and fun years) .. I was never sure of what to do, but I always was working hard (at one time I had 3 jobs going) ... In the long run that hard work did pay off...
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16 - you should get your son one of those Wii video games. They are starting to use them a lot in rehabs now because they actually make you use your whole body to play it - you don't just sit there on the couch. You have to coordinate your eyes, hands, legs, brain.. all at once.
I've never liked seeing a kid (or adult) being a couch potato for hours at a time playing video games, but this one is actually like exercise. I have a PT friend who just got one and she says it's the best exercise she's gotten in a while - and she's very physically fit to begin with. She works at a rehab facility and wants to try to get the PT department to buy one so she can use it with her neuro patients. Actually, I think she just wants to be able to play it while she's at work... ;)
Some of the stores in our area have one set up that you can try out - you should see if you can go check one out for him and see if you think it might help.
Lori
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Joef thank you I will share your post with him. I to am not doing what I trained for I switched careers at about 34 and wouldn't change anything. I just have to get through to him about all of this. You know actually thinking about it he is showing normal teenage behavior! That is something to celebrate since this has not been the case since his stroke. Thanks guys as Oprah would say I just had an Ah Ha moment. All of you are so good for me so keep telling me the way it is and I will finally get it. It just sometime may be slow going.
Lori when he had his driving eval the OT said that they are recommending it to their stroke and brain injury patients. Kaybo also recommended it while I was down after my surgery. So we just started trying to track one down in our area on Wed. of this week. No one has any in stock until next week and then they said they couldn't say for sure they would actually come in. So if you know of anywhere we can get one online maybe we would be very grateful. You should tell your friend to go to work at a childrens hospital as they are already using those sorts of things. I must say that I am excited to get it to. You are never to old to play!
I just Love you guys......Thanks you from the bottom of my heart. :-* 16
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OMG~
We got ours from GameStop (online) as my SIL had already gotten theirs and I knew I could trust them! We actually got a "bundle" and it was so easy! We play all the time. In fact, my mom (69) and my uncle who is in town from NY (68) is coming over tonight b/c my kids want to play with them!! My MIL got my FIL (73) one for Christmas!! ;D Never to old...
K