Response to someone whose doctor said everyone got over it within a
year.


Virtually nobody I have ever spoken with "got over it" (the tbi)
within a year. That idea is simply ridiculous (as you know and
the "doctor" didn't, or didn't want to.)

I have spoken with thousands of survivors or their loved ones on the
braininjurynetwork help line. I've been running the hotline in Santa
Rosa, Ca. for over ten years, and about nobody ever called in to say
it was a year and they were totally recovered.

Also, I'd say that if someone had a really, really mild tbi (a little
concussion or something) they might have "recovered" in a few days,
weeks or months, but they aren't us. The people I know were hurt one,
two, five, ten, twenty, thirty or forty or even fifty years ago, and
they still have issues, or they wouldn't be in the forum or at the
brain injury network peer support meetings.

(As an aside: This doctor might have meant that people with a mild
tbi are recovered within one year (in some medical peoples'
judgement). That in part defines what a mild tbi might be. It might
be, in part, classified as a tbi from which one recovers within one
year. However, if the recovery isn't within one year that might just
be showing the person didn't have a mild tbi, they had a more severe,
say classification moderate or severe tbi.)

There is a difference between saying that all people are recovered
from a tbi within one year and saying all recovery occurs within the
first year. In the old days the doctors said that the recovery, to
the extent there would be recovery, was complete within one year.
However, that has proven to be wrong, as quite a few studies show. In
other words, aspects of recovery do extend beyond one year.

This sounds good on the face of it, and it is good from the vantage
point of "getting well", but there is another result from seeing it
that way. Lawyers for the insurance companies, etc., can now argue
that a person isn't permanently disabled if he hasn't recovered
within one year. They can argue that people should still be denied
permanent benefits because there will likely be more recovery in the
future. They can argue that the person with the tbi is not
permanently disabled. This affects the calculation of damages,
benefits, etc. So, all of these issues can be used both for and
against us. rightysabi1985 (my tbi in 1985).

rightysabi1985