Diane Grier

Every 9 seconds, someone in the U.S. sustains a brain injury. March is Brain Injury Awareness Month.
My brain injury story started March 4, 2023; I was hit in the back of the head by a foul baseball. Upon impact I literally felt my brain move diagonally forward hitting the inside of my skull and then hitting the back. All’s I remember thinking was – this is not good. I was diagnosed with a concussion/traumatic brain injury (TBI), for months I was nausea and felt like a zombie in a constant fog. I was out of work for 6 months. I started occupational therapy and all I kept hearing was rest, rest and more rest. You can’t rush it. These things take time. Rest was brain rest which meant lay in a quiet dark room, no tv, no radio, no cell phone just listening to my hair grow. Initially I wasn’t able to attend other therapy because I was too symptomatic. In June 2023, I started physical and speech cognitive therapy and continued occupational therapy. I could talk but I found I was choosing not to talk because it only caused more pain in my head. It was an emotional rollercoaster and I just wanted to be done with everything and go back to being normal again. I continued with all 3 therapies for 5 months.
I had to go back to work, and it has been a constant daily struggle as the pressure in my head goes up after an hour, it feels like my brain swells up and gets too big for my skull and then just wants to explode. My eyes constantly burn, and my vision gets blurry after a couple of hours on the computer. Now I have a constant headache between my eyes. I am very slow on computer and takes me longer to read as my eyes sometimes don’t stay focused on the word and it takes longer for me to process what I just read. Sometimes I have to read things 2-4 times before I can understand what I just read. I struggle with finding my words or stammer or say the wrong thing when I meant to say something else. I am not organized anymore and get easily overwhelmed. I have to limit myself with what I do, because many things trigger my symptoms like bright lights and loud noises and if I do too much, I can’t function the next day. I have days where I think I can do this and days when I feel I just can’t stand the constant pain.
The most upsetting thing is people don’t understand unless they have gone through it themselves. Traumatic brain injury is an invisible condition, and the struggle is daily. People look at me and assume I’m fine because I look the same and I’m back working. But my head hurts daily, somedays more than others and I feel like I am a shell of the person I used to be.
Every brain injury is different. The toughest part of the road is that it can be different for every survivor. I tell my story not for sympathy but to educate about TBIs as I had no idea everything that is affected and what someone actually goes through. Most importantly always protect your head.
#MoreThanMyBrainInjury