(The best resolution for this site is 1024 x 768)

Free Tell A Friend from Bravenet Free Tell A Friend from Bravenet
              

  On this site you can read,
what handicaps can do to people
with a Traumatic Brain Injury.
Read about:
epilepsy, incontinence, fatigue and speech disorder.

These are the handicaps I have to deal with, in everyday life.


Learn also about 'The occupational therapeutic centre', a facility which is very important for people with a traumatic brain injury.
                                                                                                                                                                         

                                   

    One brain haemorrhage - Multiple handicaps
Traumatic Brain Injury


Why has this site been set up?

This site has been created to explain to those who do not exactly know what TBI is, the full extent of this condition. Therefore I advise you to read this site carefully.

What is TBI?

Traumatic Brain Injury is a disorder which can hardly be explained. It rules your life. The problems which nearly always occur in such a situation, does not make life any easier.

 Some symptoms of this condition are:                               


Speech disorder, Aphasia;

Paralysis, Partial paralysis;

Epilepsy and/or similar attacks;

Balance disorders;

Difficulties with concentrating;

Fatigue;

Incontinence;

Spasticity.

  

My Story

Let me introduce myself. My name is Jurre, born in 1957, and happily married, a son, and live in the western part of Holland. I was just 22 years old, on my way to work, an administrative job for a company that dealt in plastic packaging. I crashed my scooter.
This accident had serious consequences. I lapsed into a coma,

which lasted for 19 days.

                I'm going to mention a number                                   
                of my own handicaps,
                and what I’ve done to make them tolerable
                in everyday life.

Fatigue 

If you read the story below properly, this handicap need not occur. This handicap is need not be the result of a traffic accident and/of illness – but hiding the handicap for the outside world means that a certain measure of fatigue or tiredness may arise. That was certainly the case where I was concerned. I went to extremes to hide everything, resulting in my collapse.

So I was back to square one and had to relearn nearly everything again, as well as acquiring additional handicaps. My bladder control malfunctioned and I became an epileptic, resulting in even greater fatigue.

Epilepsy

A dangerous handicap, strange things can happen, of which you are totally unaware. Nearly everything must take place under supervision.                                                          

Whatever you do, you shouldn’t underestimate this handicap, as soon as you or the people around you notice something, you should raise the alarm. It is particularly important that you tell those around you what you are experiencing, something I did not do. The fact of the matter is that I often had a dirty taste in my mouth or I smelt a dirty odour, this is known as an aura. I never told my environment that, because I thought that it was a consequence of my accident
A possible attack need not always be an epileptic seizure but it also can be a stress attack, both are taken equally seriously.
I have a mix of both kinds; it took hospitalisation in a psychiatric ward to finally determine this. People were of the opinion that the attacks were psychic. To prove them wrong, I checked myself into the revalidation department of a psychiatric hospital. Finally they diagnosed epilepsy.

The steps I then took to prove my point are not ones which you need to take. The best thing for you to do is to go straight to an epilepsy centre, all possible medication for the diagnose of epilepsy are used there and to make it more tolerable with the use of proper medication, even to cure it. They can also give advice on how to live with this handicap.

S.O.S. epilepsy

You’re having a nice walk and
you have an epileptic seizure or
you feel one coming up...You fall.

People around you panic, don’t know what to do.
Mobile phones ect. are directly calling
the emergency services.
You don’t want that at all.

Thats what S.O.S. chains
and/or bracelets are for.

In my experience nobody notices these,
which is why many bystanders come.
The emergency services are quickly called,
and they all know best.
Instade of such a bracelet and /or necklace I carry a bag with a card reading:

S.O.S., epilepsy (see reverse of the card).
On the other side of the card I put:

Do not call emergency services,
read instructions in bag
and remove bystanders.

Put in the bag any medecines that should be administered.
Such a bag is more obvious then a bracelet.


The result is:

- less people stand around
- doctor, ambulance don’t come needlessly
- depending on what you put on the instruction there are only one or two people
to help you with the necessary steps to be taken instead of an whole crowd.

Follow my example, make yourself such a bag, a lot of people find it very useful!!

 

Incontinence

Difficult to deal with. “A lot of water flowed under the bridge” before I learnt to live with it. When I became incontinent it took me a long time to find suitable diapers. Initially I used disposables but:

I often leaked - I regularly had a rash - I quarrelled with sticky strips. - Had eczema, because there are materials in the disposables my skin doesn’t tolerate. - Got backache, because I had to lean against the wall to put the diapers on.

When I was at the physiotherapist she pointed out that there are good indisposables (cotton diapers) obtainable at: My Lil' Miracle.. These diapers I can put on sitting down, so I had less pain in my back, and/or less eczema and/or diaper rash, and I didn’t leak so rapidly.

However there was one disadvantage, I also had to wear plastic pants. It took me a while before I realized that I didn’t have any choice.


 

 

Speech disability

This handicap is, in my opinion, the most irritating one in existence! Initially, no-one could make sense of what I said. Over a year passed before any improvement was noted. Due to intensive speech therapy, I managed to suppress my tendency for incomprehensibility somewhat. When I’m tired it’s still hard to make out what I say. However, this also goes for healthy people, naturally to a somewhat lesser extent.

Spasticity

- A handicap caused by oxygen deficiency at birth;

- Congenital handicap which becomes obvious at a   later age;

- A handicap which can be caused by disease or an accident   



 






 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                

 

                  

 

              

 

               

                 

                

                 
                  please sign my guestbook.
              
view my guestbook.

 

 

The occupational therapeutic centre

Due to the handicaps which may occur with TBI it is often nearly impossible to find work in society. An O.T.C. centre is a way to find
 a daily occupation. Formerly you were merely kept occupied in an O.T.C.  If you wanted to you could play games the all day
or watch TV. This bores quickly. The following is a list of what you can do at an O.T.C nowadays:

- Finding your daily rhythm;
- Meeting co-suffers;

- being understood and understanding;

- Working without deadline;

- Making social contacts, dealing with other people;

- Being assisted in coping with a different work situation (mainly volunteer work);

- Learning a new hobby;

- Acquiring more of a fighting spirit;
-  Not being alone at home. Making life at home easier;
- Taken care of, so that one can live at home longer.

An occupational therapist should be able to have the following skills at her disposal. They must for example know about TBI and how to deal with clients instead of patient in particular situations. Instead of patients or participants those how go to such a centre as know as clients. Allowing clients to (re)discover their capacities. Providing a certain measure of ambience and attention and allowing the clients to do the same to their co-patients. Also paying attention to the client’s family, partner and spouse. Nowadays more attention is paid to the client’s capabilities rather then to his incapacities

I hope that I have informed you sufficiently.
Kind regards from, Jurre

 

 

 

 

send me a mail
jurrienhelenus@hotmail.com                           



 


updated: 28-01-2010

 
Top lists

Online linken
Startje.nu - Uw Nederlandstalige startpaginaHealth Top 25 Sites
Monneke's Top
Lecktronix toplijst

Design-web.nl
start-digitaal nederland

return to top