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Facing a Traumatic Brain Injury and Debt. What Do We Do?
"Dear Steve,
My husband has a traumatic brain injury and currently in therapy. He was on the job and he does get the workman's comp pay each week.
I have been told that when my husband goes back to his job they plan to fire him asap. He will not be able to do the job he had before the injury so they will have to find him something to do.
Not sure when he will be returning back to work and it has been 5 months since his injury. I'm worried sick about our bills the house payment. I'm the caregiver for my husband I wasn't working when he was injured due to taking a family medical leave for my mother who has since passed away.
We are behind on our house payment via 2 months due to extra expense and a big car repair. Mortgage company has send me paperwork to sign stating they can help and I have agreed to a payment plan with them to get caught back up.
Husband is a 20yr Navy Vet. Are there any sources that can help us get caught back up on our house note ... maybe with the military or some other resources I have seached on the internet and haven't found anything.
Full story on TBI and debt at Huffington Post
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Sex lives and traumatic brain injury
For the more than 3 million Americans living with traumatic brain injury, there is often an unspoken problem: many suffer from sexual dysfunction, something that is easily overlooked as patients struggle with overwhelming physical and emotional issues that can last for years, new research has found.
The sexual difficulties usually become most apparent about six months after the injury and, if left unaddressed, worsen with time, said study author Jhon Alexander Moreno, a researcher in neuropsychology at the University of Montreal.
The cause of the injury can also influence whether a person will struggle with sexual problems, Moreno said. "The psychological stressors that an athlete or a soldier faces are quite different, so a traumatic brain injury with the same severity can lead to different sexual difficulties."
Full story of sex and brain injuries at Health 24
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Mindfulness Therapy Reduces Depressive Symptoms in TBI
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) reduces symptoms of depression in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI), new research suggests.
A randomized controlled trial conducted by investigators at Lakehead University and St. Joseph's Care Group in Thunder Bay, Canada, showed that compared with a wait-list control group, the MBCT group experienced a significantly greater reduction in total and somatic depressive symptoms.
The findings were presented here at EPA 2013: 21st European Congress of Psychiatry.
According to study investigator Michel Bédard, PhD, TBI can be a life-changing event: Depression is common, and pharmacologic and other interventions may not relieve depressive symptoms.
Full story of therapy for TBI at Medscape Today
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Should science on brain injury inspire a ban on boxing?
When Ireland's Katie Taylor was taking hits and striking blows for boxing's Olympic debut in an east London ring last year, John Hardy did not want to look.
To this leading neuroscientist and molecular biologist, a boxing bout is little more than a session of mutual brain injury. He was horrified to see women boxing at Olympic level for the first time at the London 2012 Games.
"We shouldn't get our fun out of watching people inflict brain damage on each other," said Hardy, who is chair of Molecular Biology of Neurological Disease at University College London's Institute of Neurology. "To me as a neuroscientist it's almost surreal."
Hardy, whose research work focuses on Alzheimer's and other types of dementia, said having women in an Olympic boxing ring was "a terrible thing" - not because he thinks women should not compete alongside men in sport, but because women boxing simply meant more people inflicting more damage on more brains.
That, in turn, was highly likely to mean more people suffering the devastating, incurable symptoms of brain diseases such as Alzheimer's.
Full story of brain injuries and boxing at Yahoo Sports
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Traumatic brain injury impacts victim’s family, too
Rachel Stovall doesn’t get mad – she gets organized.
When Stovall met Josh Wells in November 2010, the damage from his time with Alpha Company, 91st Engineer Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, in Iraq from January 2004 to March 2005 had already been done, his brain forever changed by multiple IED blasts he sustained throughout his deployment. As she’s fallen in love with the wounded warrior, rather than getting upset when Wells forgets something, a symptom of his traumatic brain injury, the flight test engineer for Redstone Test Center has learned to be understanding of the challenges Wells will face his entire life.
“I know it’s something that’ll be a permanent part of our life, and it’ll be difficult on occasion, but it’s workable,” Stovall said. “You have to keep reminding yourself that it’s not the person’s fault they can’t remember things. There’s going to be issues, but if you keep remembering that there’s a cause to it, and it’s not just because he’s a guy, then it makes it a little more workable.”
It’s not just the Soldier or individual who experiences the lasting effects of a traumatic brain injury, but the family and friends that surround them as well, who have to learn to cope when their loved one is forgetful, can’t concentrate or find the right words, is anxious, depressed, irritable or prone to mood swings, all symptoms of a traumatic brain injury.
Full story of families impact of TBI at Redstone Rocket
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Concussions: Even one can change the brain, study finds
Even a single concussion appears to cause changes in the structure of the brain that may make cognitive problems and depression a higher likelihood, a new study has found.
The study, which used magnetic resonance imaging to compare healthy subjects' brains with those of patients a year after a mild traumatic brain injury, indicated that those with such injuries had shrinkage in brain regions that are key to memory, executive function and mood regulation.
The study, published online in the journal Radiology on Tuesday, is the first to show that even a single concussion can leave measurable scars on the brain. It used three-dimensional MRI scanning to measure the brain volume of 28 recent concussion victims and 22 matched controls. A year later, researchers conducted the same scans of 19 patients with mild traumatic brain injuries and 12 of a healthy control group.
Full story of concussions and the brain at the Los Angeles Times
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Can nerve endings in the tongue help us treat traumatic brain injury?
The human tongue is an extraordinary bit of flesh. It's alternately squishy and tense, at times delicate and others powerful. It helps us taste, talk and tie cherry stems, all the while avoiding two interlocking rows of sharpened enamel that know only how to gnash. Now, it seems the tongue may even serve as a gateway to the human brain, providing us with the opportunity to treat serious afflictions from multiple sclerosis to combat-induced brain injuries.
The tongue is a natural candidate for electrical stimulation, thanks in part to a high density of sensory receptors and the concentration of electrolytes found in saliva. This has allowed researchers at the Tactile Communication and Neurorehabilitation Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to develop a pattern of electrodes that can be placed on the tongue and attached to a control box. All together, the system is called a Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator (PoNS).
Full story of the tongue and TBI at Niagara Gazette
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Head injuries a rising danger for snowboarders, skiers
The dumbest ride Kevin Pearce ever took down the halfpipe wasn't the one that ended his snowboarding career. That run on Dec. 31, 2009, the one that resulted in a traumatic brain injury less than two months before the Vancouver Olympics, came less than three weeks after the run Pearce says he should have never taken.
Earlier that month, Pearce, who was 22 at the time, was pushing to qualify for the U.S. Olympic team and emerging as a challenger to Shaun White. Trying to land a cab 1080, a trick that Pearce had "on lock," he fell and hit his head. Hard.
"I was so sick and so dizzy and so gone after that," he recalled this month.
But Pearce's handling of less severe concussions and his life-changing brain injury highlight the extremes of what can go wrong when athletes hurtle themselves three stories in the air to perform tricks on a hard-packed halfpipe.
White, the two-time Olympic gold medalist, will defend his halfpipe title this weekend at the U.S. Open snowboarding championships in Vail, Colo. While the season ends in March, White and other athletes will spend the coming months working on tricks in pursuit of medals at the Sochi Olympics less than a year away.
Full story of TBI and skiers at USA Today
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Mouth Device in Clinical Trials as TBI Treatment
The tongue is an amazing organ.
Thousands of nerve fibers in it help us eat, drink and swallow. Without them, we would not taste. The tongue helps us speak. Quietly, its surface defends our bodies from germs.
Yet for everything the tongue can do, perhaps one of its most exciting roles is to serve as a direct "gateway" to the brain through thousands of nerve endings.
Now researchers at the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command in collaboration with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and NeuroHabilitation Corporation are leveraging the power of those tiny nerves. They are aiming to restore lost physical and mental function for service members and civilians who suffered traumatic brain injury or stroke, or who have Parkinson's or multiple sclerosis.
The treatment involves sending specially-patterned nerve impulses to a patient's brain through an electrode-covered oral device called a "PoNS," a battery-operated appliance placed on the tongue. The 20-30 minute stimulation therapy, called cranial nerve non-invasive neuromodulation, or CN-NiNM, is accompanied with a custom set of physical, occupational, and cognitive exercises, based on the patient's deficits. The idea is to improve the brain's organizational ability and allow the patient to regain neural control.
Full story of device for TBI treatment at Military.com
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Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Linked to Brain ‘Potholes’
A recent study has found that U.S. soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) have measurable abnormalities in the white matter of their brains — described by scientists as “potholes.”
According to psychiatrists with University of Iowa Health Care, TBI — including concussions — is one of the most common types of neurological disorder, affecting approximately 1.3 million Americans annually. It has received more attention recently because of its impact on two groups of patients: professional athletes, especially football players; and soldiers returning from war with blast-related TBI.
It is estimated that 10 to 20 percent of the more than 2 million U.S. soldiers deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan have experienced TBI.
Full story of TBI and brain potholes at PsychCentral
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