We've talked a great deal on this blog about how tragic it is that it's taken a horrible war to increase public awareness of traumatic brain injury (TBI). The Iraq War has sent hundreds of our military home with TBI's, numbers high enough that traumatic brain injury has been dubbed "the signature wound" of the war. We are, of course, glad that more and more people now know about TBI and its devastating effects on its victims, their families and caregivers. But it is profoundly sad that this knowledge has come with such a painful price. Here's another article that would not have been written if we were not at war in Iraq:

One of the increasing problems that some soldiers returning from Iraq are having to deal with are brain injuries. We’ve heard a lot in the news about their having post-traumatic stress disorder, but an increasing number of soldiers are also having problems associated with traumatic brain injury. Soldiers hurt on the battlefields are not the only people who can sustain brain injuries, but their increasing numbers are creating an increased awareness of TBIs.

A TBI also can be caused by an automobile accident, a fall, physical abuse, a sports accident, an aneurysm, carbon monoxide poisoning, a stroke, substance abuse or birth defects. An estimated 1.5 million Americans suffer a brain injury each year, and this number far exceeds the number of people who have multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, HIV/AIDS and breast cancer combined. As a matter of fact, there are approximately 5.3 million people who are living with some type of disability that has been caused by a brain injury.

When a person has a TBI, he/she can have physical, cognitive, emotional, psychological, functional, behavioral and/or social changes present - and each person has different symptoms with varying degrees of severity. Because of the complexity of the brain, and the many different aspects of an individual’s physical and behavioral wellness that are affected.

Continue reading.

From the Navy Times, Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer, Friday Feb 22, 2008:

After months of military officials and medical personnel lamenting the lack of an immediate, unequivocal, physical proof of mild traumatic brain injury, an anesthesiologist thinks he has found a solution.

And it may be as simple as two sensors and a BlackBerry.

Dr. Richard Dutton heads up trauma anesthesiology at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center at the University of Maryland and sees about 4,000 people a year who doctors believe have a brain injury. But without a CT scan or an MRI, it’s hard to immediately tell for sure — especially if, as is the case in most trauma situations, doctors are also worried about broken bones, ruptured organs or heavy bleeding. And about 3,000 of those cases are mild TBI, which doesn’t show up on a scan.

So Dutton and a team of engineers decided to see if they could use sonar to “listen” for differences in healthy brains and injured brains. They used a headband with sensors to pick up the sound transmitted through the brain with sonar and then analyzed the data fed back into a computer. The Air Force paid for the research.

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Doctors typically can’t see mild TBI, even with a scan. But they know it’s important not to send a service member back out on patrol with a mild TBI because injuries caused by mild TBI are cumulative; even a slight second head injury can cause death for someone with an already damaged brain, and no one wants to go on patrol with someone whose vision is blurry or who has short-term memory loss.

When Dutton and the engineers tried out their equipment on people they believed to have mild TBIs, they found turbulent blood flow — or irregular bandwidths — on the Brain Acoustic Monitor.

“You hit your head, your BAM becomes abnormal,” Dutton said. “We think we may have an objective marker for brain injury. This is pretty exciting stuff.”

And it’s completely portable, which could be good news for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. In Iraq, there’s one CT scan — in Balad — and no MRI machine. Medics don’t have access to the heavy, expensive equipment.

Read the entire article. This could be a huge diagnostic breakthrough for TBI's.

Labels: military, TBI, traumatic brain injury

Years ago, I remember, I read some quotation to the effect that "just because somebody's handicapped doesn't mean he can't be a jerk."

I myself am hearing-impaired, and understood exactly what the quotation meant: the handicapped, or the disabled, or the special-needs individual, or whatever polite term you want to use -- all such people are people first, and handicapped second. They have the same kinds of neuroses that other people have; the same things (plus a whole lot more) make them angry; and so on. They can be just really difficult to live with.

Ditto, those who live with them. Being a caretaker doesn't somehow magically endow you with superhuman powers of forgiveness, patience, generosity. It doesn't require you to be a saint, and it won't make you one.

Graphic evidence of the clash of human failings -- exaggerated by a disability -- comes from Jacqueline L'Heureux's article, "Do We Have to Crash Our Marriage, Too?" from the Fall 2007 issue of The Challenge, a print publication of the Brain Injury Association of America (BIAA). BIA has graciously permitted us to post a copy of that article (599KB PDF) here on sossisson.com. The article begins:

I never saw the truck coming, stopped on a freeway under a knock-your-eye-out blue sky. My back would freeze for months from the monster grille I never felt mount our car.

I want that day back, to live repeatedly, like the characters in "Our Town" -- every part of it right until the crash. Not because it was special, but because it was so ordinary, effortless -- as no day has been since. I want to start with rising early, clear-minded and happy to make breakfast for my son, who hardly ever touches it, then joke quietly, scruff his hair and send him off to school. I want to say the same thing I have said as he leaves every day since preschool (and his three brothers before him). "Remember, no matter what happens out there, you are loved." He waves me off, smiling at the silly ritual that he is too old for on this day his mother changes forever.

After that day, I was in rehab most of the rest of his high school in another city. His father swung from being angry to coldly withdrawn in response to my traumatic brain injury (TBI), seizure disorder, and chronic pain from my injuries. Rubble continued to rise under the truck long after that Indian summer evening. The debris eventually included my clinical practice as a Ph.D. family therapist, my life's work treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) patients and their families, a center I founded and directed, my university teaching, and the necessary, but wrenching dissolution of my 33-year marriage.

Think non-TBI'd family relationships are harrowing? Wait till you read the rest of L'Heureux's story.

Note, though, that the piece is not unrelievedly grim. L'Heureux concludes with some helpful tips, among them these:

If You Have a TBI and Your Marriage Is in Trouble:

• Find a therapist -- it's okay if it takes several tries before you find a fit.
• In the first 24 months post-injury, advocating for yourself in your marriage, or even using sessions well in therapy, is difficult. You will have problems processing and retrieving information, assessing your own experience, using judgment and finding energy. If your spouse is angry, and the therapist does not monitor the stimulation in the room, you can be "cooked" easily. The most important thing is to ask for help from others. Ask for help in all tasks. Things will get better.
• Many changes happen in the first two years after the injury and sometimes after that. Don't try to judge how things will be in your marriage by how things are now. Your brain is still healing (and body, if physical injuries are present). You may not be stable on medications due to the changes. If you have PTSD symptoms, get help. It is highly treatable. Look up EMDR [certified clinicians] on the web. Ask if they work in stages, starting with grounding and stabilization.
• If you are working with a couples' therapist who has no brain injury experience and your therapy is not progressing, call your state brain injury association for mental health providers who work with brain-injured patients.
• When you call, ask the therapist to send intake forms before the visit. Write things down between sessions as you think of them. Speak up as soon as you get lost in the processing part of couples' sessions -- it's too important. If you need a short break, that's okay, too.

Labels: caregivers, symptoms, TBI, traumatic brain injury

This morning I found an interesting site, Spot-On.com, which is, according to the site's About Us page, "a web-based syndication service offering a range of independent, intelligent and insightful looks at politics and current events." One post, by admitted liberal writer Christopher Brauchli, definitely merits sharing with our readers:

In his last State of the Union message, Mr. Bush received great applause when he said: "Our military families also sacrifice for America. . . . We have a responsibility to provide for them. So I ask you to join me in expanding their access to child care. . . and allowing our troops to transfer their unused education benefits to their spouses or children. Our military families serve our nation, they inspire our nation, and tonight our nation honors them." One week later he submitted his 2009 budget and dissed the veterans. No funds were included for transferring education benefits.

In submitting his $1.3 trillion budget he forgot to include the benefit that would cost between $1 billion and $2 billion dollars. That was not the end of ignoring the needs of veterans. According to a release from the Brain Injury Association of America, for the third year in a row, Mr. Bush has proposed the complete elimination of the Federal traumatic Brain Injury Program. The program "provides grants to state agencies and [other organizations] to improve access to health and other services for individuals with traumatic brain injury and their families." Susan Connors, president and CEO of the Brain Injury Association of America described the omission as "deeply disappointing" and went on to say that "President Bush just doesn't get it." Those two examples are not the only ones in which veterans who have withstood the onslaught from the enemy in Iraq have to defend themselves from the onslaught of the wolf in the White House parading in sheep's clothing.

Visit Spot-On.com to read the complete post.

Just the kind of duplicitous doublespeak we've come to associate with this administration, but it's especially troubling when those being hurt by it are our returning military, for heaven's sake, as well as some of our most vulnerable citizens. It's a disgraceful situation that should get tons of press, but I wonder how many of the Republican Party's faithful are even aware that the country's vets are being treated this way. My guess is not many. As I've said before, "Support our Troops" takes more than a magnet slapped on the rear of your SUV.

Labels: brain injury, Iraq veterans, President Bush, traumatic brain injury, VA

St. Petersburg Times, By William R. Levesque, Times Staff Writer, February 12, 2008 --

TAMPA - The James A. Haley VA Medical Center and the University of South Florida announced on Monday that they are entering into a partnership to research traumatic brain injury.

Traumatic brain injury is considered the signature wound of soldiers serving in Iraq who are often exposed to explosions. Up to 20 percent of all returning troops exhibited symptoms of the injury.

Congress last year set aside $450-million for research on the condition, which is still poorly understood by the medical community. [This is something Jack has complained about for years. The extremely poor care he received immediately following his own injury inspired a lifelong crusade to have doctors better informed about brain injury. He believes even psychologists, although they are not medical doctors, would benefit from learning more about brain injury. And he's convinced their patients would. How can they expect therapy to be successful if part of the patient's problem is a brain injury that the therapist either doesn't recognize or knows little about?]

At a news conference outside Haley, Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Tampa, said she recently inserted language in the National Defense Authorization Act that gives the Haley-USF partnership "a leg up" in getting some of that $450-million.

How soon or how much of the money will come to Tampa is not immediately clear.

"We have unique assets here," Castor said. "So we're going to use all that leverage to draw down as much of those research dollars that we can."

She said it was unique set of circumstances having a major veterans hospital sitting side by side with a major research university like USF. And both are a short drive from MacDill Air Force Base.

Also, Haley is home to a polytrauma center, one of just four in the nation where physicians treat some of the most severely wounded veterans.

Haley doctors said the partnership contains an education component that allows researchers to "export" their knowledge on treating traumatic brain injury to hospitals around the nation.

Continue reading.

Labels: brain injury, Florida, Iraq War, TBI, traumatic brain injury

We've posted a lot about TBI injuries in the military over the past year or so, sadly because it's the sheer number of TBIs suffered in the Iraq War that has drawn so much needed attention to this once silent epidemic.

Well, it's silent no more. Congress and the military have gotten heavily involved. The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta are sponsoring studies of TBI in prisons. Others are beefing up studies of TBI in homeless populations. In fact, Jack is meeting this month with a representative from Harvard to discuss studying TBI's impact on the homeless. The NFL has completed intensive studies on TBI in professional football. For a topic that rarely saw the light of day, it would now be hard to find someone who had NOT heard about TBI in the past year.

And speaking of the past year, the Surgeon General has just praised the improvements in the way Army medicine assists and transitions its wounded and ill. If you'll remember, it was not so long ago that the Army was on the receiving end of a lot of criticism in this very area.

Coupled with those improvements,

Col. Loree Sutton, head of the Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, spoke at the [same] media roundtable about improvements in mental health and brain injury research and treatment.

"There have been numerous advancements in the last few months with respect to mild traumatic brain injuries, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression and anxiety," she said. Mental health professionals, both Army and civilian, will continue to cooperate and share information regarding mental health and brain injuries and the risks associated with them.

Sutton added that a scientific working group would convene later this month to review all areas and discuss ways to better serve affected Soldiers and their families.

"We are looking to take a holistic approach (when dealing with) injury and trauma," she said.

Read more about the roundtable here.

Labels: Army, military, TBI, traumatic brain injury, Veterans

From Injuryboard.com:

Researchers studying brain injury believe that people with unrelated social or cognitive problems may have something in common: a long-forgotten blow to the head. It is widely accepted that severe head injuries can lead to cognitive and behavioral problems. What is new, according to brain researchers Wayne A. Gordan, M.D. and Mary Hibbard, Ph.D., is the contention that there are many other cases where a past blow to the head resulting in unconsciousness or confusion is the unrecognized source of such problems. These problems include learning disabilities, alcoholism, drug abuse, and depression.
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Dr Gordon, director of Brain Injury Research Center at Mount Sinaii School of Medicine in New York, says, "[unidentified traumatic brain injury is an unrecognized major source of social and vocational failure." According to one researcher, "[when you look at children with learning disabilities or behavior problems, there's often an underlying high percentage of children with traumatic brain injury. We're looking at about 20%."

Continue reading.

Labels: concussion, TBI, traumatic brain injury

From PressRepublican.com -- published January 28, 2008 -- Vicki Chaffee, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident in 2002, has helped a young kitten that has the same kind of injury survive, but Chaffee says the kitten has given her inspiration.

PLATTSBURGH, NY -- Dale Chaffee rolled the tiny plastic ball along the kitchen floor.

The small black cat pounced on it, striking it with her paw and renewing the chase when it ricocheted against the nearby wall.

But this cat, named Rosa, moved differently from most.

She swayed on her legs, as if they didn't have the strength to hold her body, and at times she would stumble and lose her balance, only to rise quickly and continue her never-ending effort to corral the tiny ball.

Rosa is about a year old, ... [and] she suffers from traumatic brain injury, a condition her owner knows only too well.

FRAGILE KITTEN

"One day, this little black kitty came to me, no more than four weeks old," said Dale's wife, Vicki Chaffee, who is a victim of traumatic brain injury. "She was so tiny and so fragile. She had to be bottle fed."

Vicki brought the animal to the vet's office, where it was determined that the kitten had suffered the debilitating injury sometime during those first four weeks of life.

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Vicki's own story started just under six years ago, in April 2002, when a car accident changed her life in an instant.

Because of the brain injury she suffered, she doesn't remember a lot about the accident, but the year that followed -- when she sought answers for the mental and physical changes she was experiencing -- turned her life into a nightmare.

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Vicki had undergone several tests -- MRIs, CAT scans -- but doctors did not find any specific cause for her problems.

"We were told nothing was wrong," Dale said, as Vicki fought back tears from the memory of those months of not knowing.

Finally, a friend mentioned the possibility of a brain injury and suggested Vicki go to the Traumatic Brain Injury Center at Plattsburgh State. There, the brain injury that was robbing her of her past existence was verified.

"In some cases, brain injury is clear cut, but then there are others that are not as easily diagnosed," said Melissa Mose from the Traumatic Brain Injury Center. "It's a silent epidemic that often remains hidden."

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The Chaffees named their furry friend after the African-American civil-rights activist who, in 1955, refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus to a white passenger.

"Rosa (the activist) refused to give up, and this kitty has done the same thing," Vicki said.

The cat will sometimes prop herself against the wall as she walks from one area to another. Vicki noticed that technique and uses it herself when she's tired but wants to move from one room to another.

Read entire article.

Labels: cat, kitten, TBI, traumatic brain injury

Here on Jack's TBI Blog, as on just about every other site which focuses on TBI, you don't find a lot to celebrate in the traumatic-brain-injury experience. Things which make you smile, sure, even laugh out loud -- you can find them. But the smiles and laughter always overlay the crushing sobriety of the subject.

But exceptional people can find exceptional strength, wisdom, and hope in the unlikeliest corners of life. One such person, clearly, is the author of the nancynewfreedom blog:

I was injured in an automobile accident and sustained a traumatic head injury approximently four (4) years ago. Pre-accident I was best described as a real workaholic 24/7 and thought I was on top of the world. I have had some very well paid careers, facilitated workshops and training seminars and was one of few females at that level in the industry. From self assured, over confident, over-achiever, outgoing and assertive, and quite proudly referred to as a "Corporate Bitch" ....

And then a few seconds in time made that life stop... and a new one awaited me.

...I am feeling lonely as I try to understand and appreciate this new me... and I am kind of scared.

I think I liked this new me... but I still felt very vulnerable! I want to experience life without feeling afraid or self-conscious... and I want to celebrate this "new me" every chance I get.
...
The learning will never stop and but I believe now that the recovery process ends and you enter the "development process" as you rebuild you life and re-evaluate your existence.

I am a much kinder and gentler soul, and I must admit a much happier one as well, despite my cognitive difficulties and the challenges of trying to relearn the necessary skills to become more independent.

And I have begun to think of myself less as a "new me" and more like the "true me" that was never fully developed.

I myself have never suffered a TBI. But I must say that reading Nancy's blog, suffused in the spirit expressed in the above excerpt from her blog's "About" page -- well, it just reinforces what I've always believed: TBI or no TBI, the things we have in common, can have in common, are way more important than all the things we keep furiously inventing to keep us apart. Extreme experiences, sure -- they can break us. Taken from the right starting point, though, they can also propel us forward into new exciting futures.

Make it a point to stop by and visit Nancy as she explores the "true me" she's discovering. No matter how positive an experience, it's always better when shared.

Labels: Blessing, loneliness, support groups, TBI

From the ImPACT Web site:

In the United States, the annual incidence of sports-related concussion is estimated at 300,000. Estimates regarding the likelihood of an athlete in a contact sport experiencing a concussion may be as high as 19% per season. Although the majority of athletes who experience a concussion are likely to recover, an as yet unknown number of these individuals may experience chronic cognitive and neurobehavioral difficulties related to recurrent injury. Such symptoms may include chronic headaches, fatigue, sleep difficulties, personality change (e.g. increased irritability, emotionality), sensitivity to light/noise, dizziness when standing quickly, and deficits in short-term memory, problem solving and general academic functioning. This constellation of symptoms is referred to "Post-Concussion Syndrome" and can be quite disabling for an athlete. In some cases, such difficulties can be permanent and disabling. In addition to Post-Concussion Syndrome, suffering a second blow to the head while recovering from an initial concussion can have catastrophic consequences as in the case of "Second Impact Syndrome," which has led to approximately 30-40 deaths over the past decade.

In summary, athletes that are not fully recovered from an initial concussion are significantly vulnerable for recurrent, cumulative, and even catastrophic consequences of a second concussive injury. Such difficulties are prevented if the athlete is allowed time to recover from concussion and return to play decisions are carefully made. No athlete should return to sport or other at-risk participation when symptoms of concussion are present and recovery is ongoing. In summary, the best way to prevent difficulties with concussion is to manage the injury properly when it does occur.

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ImPACT 2005 is a user-friendly, Windows-based computer program that can be administered by a team coach, athletic trainer or physician with minimal training. Reaction time is reliably measured to one hundredth of a second across individual test modules (10 modules total) and allows for an assessment of processing speed as the player fatigues. The test battery consists of a near infinite number of alternate forms by randomly varying the stimulus array for each administration. This feature was built in to the program to minimize the "practice effects" that have limited the usefulness of more traditional neurocognitive tests. ImPACT takes approximately 20 minutes to complete. The program measures multiple aspects of cognitive functioning in athletes, including:

• Test Section 1: Subject Profile and Health History Questionnaire
• Test Section 2: Current Symptoms and Conditions
• Test Section 3: Neuropsychological Tests (Baseline and Post-Concussion)
• Module 1 (Word Discrimination)
• Module 2 (Design Memory)
• Module 3 (X's and O's)
• Module 4x (Visual Attention Span)
  ImPACT 1.0 only-This module has been removed for version 2.0.
• Module 4 (Symbol Matching)
• Module 5 (Color Match)
• Module 6 (Three letters)
• IV. Injury Description
• V. Graphic Display of Data

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For more information on this exciting diagnostic tool, visit ImPACT's comprehensive Web site.

Labels: concussion, ImPACT, sports injuries, TBI

Sedona, AZ - TBI, FMS, CFS… For some of us, these are only random groups of letters. For others, they represent acronyms for “mysterious” diseases, conditions or syndromes. Sometimes, the way Traumatic Brain Injury, Fibromyalgia, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome manifest in patients brings up more questions than answers; therefore, it’s not uncommon for even medical practitioners to misdiagnose them.

But these “mysterious” conditions have the power to challenge and forever change the lives of those they touch.

TBI, FMS, CFS also Lyme disease and brain cancer affect many individuals, famous and not so famous, on a daily basis. These diseases, syndromes and conditions pertain to the life-challenging and life-threatening experiences that can turn individuals into surrenders or survivors.

For Laura Bruno, an intuitive life coach, Reiki Master Teacher and writer, her TBI diagnosis—the result of a seemingly insignificant car accident—changed her life from the path of achieving her doctoral degree and a successful career to the path of recovery. Laura Bruno’s TBI diagnosis didn’t only show her what’s most important in life, but also helped her discover her own “yellow brick road” to recovery and to a relatively normal life.

Continue reading.

Laura Bruno has written and published an e-book about her TBI and recovery. You can find out more (or buy the book) here.

Labels: caregivers, TBI, traumatic brain injury

USA TODAY, January 18, 2008, WASHINGTON — An Army task force found major gaps in the care of traumatic brain injury last year, but officials say they are moving rapidly to correct the problems.

A task force study — completed last May but not made public until Thursday — found fault with several issues, including efforts to identify and treat soldiers suffering mild traumatic brain injury often resulting from exposure to roadside bomb blasts.

Although victims often show no outward sign of the injury, it can affect brain functions dealing with short-term memory, problem solving and sleep, and cause nausea, dizziness and headaches. Treatment often involves pulling a soldier out of combat temporarily or permanently, and treating the symptoms.

Screening efforts show 10% to 20% of Marines and soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq may have suffered this wound, according to the Army. The task force last May found that "major gaps" in identifying and treating the injury "were created by a lack of coordination and policy-driven approaches."

This was despite the fact that researchers at the Defense and Veterans Brain Injury Center — the Pentagon's premier clinical research office for brain injury — had developed ways of identifying the wound in 2004, the study said.

USA TODAY reported in November that at least 20,000 U.S. service members returning from combat have been diagnosed with, or shown signs of, brain injury.

"There is clearly a problem when the most common injury of the war is the least understood," said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash. "This task force is a long-overdue step forward in diagnosing and understanding the signature wound of this war."

Continue reading.

Labels: Army, Iraq War, traumatic brain injury

Every now and then, in a burst of luck, you find something on the Web which is 100% brand-spanking-new. Thus: C. Dianne Lieber's AOL Journal, TBI The Journey Back. It's a blog (AOL's terminology game notwithstanding) first begun today, 11:30 this morning Mountain Standard Time (1:30 this afternoon, here on the East coast). From her first post, titled "The Dark of the Moon":

This begins a journey into what the medical professionals called TBI (traumatic brain injury). For 54 days I (caregiver)the Mother will try write a few experiences that left me well learned on the TBI experience. I have collected many of my thoughts and written them down into my personal journal writings and plan to later put into a book called, The Dark of the Moon. It all happened one late Thursday evening on a dark unforgiving road. Only corn fields were among the view for my son that evening. It was a motorcycle crash that left with the ending of one's life and the other with massive injuries. The story I will continue to unfold is about the TBI patient (my son) who went on the journey back to recovery. It wasn't easy and at times it felt like a nightmare, but throughout the recovery there would be many miracles.

Lying under a 3/4 full moon on a dark cold night, my son laid in a corn field for 6 1/2 hours before a farmer found him. He had a pulse and was barely alive, but one thing I have told him over and over is that 'you were spared for a reason. You, my dear boy have a lifetime to yet live, make this second chance a good one.
Hope you enjoy the writing...

Quite intense in spots, heartbreaking in others, ebullient in a few: probably a familiar range of emotions among those of you in similar situations, hmm?

Highly recommended reading, for the next 54 days or however long it takes.

The Buffalo News, by Lou Michel, Wednesday, December 19, 2007 --

You can see the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan in their empty shirt sleeves, the scars on their heads, in their eyes so weary from sleepless nights.

They return to their homes, trying to fit in again. Most will. Too many will not.

At least 25 local soldiers, four Marines and one sailor have been killed overseas since the war on terror began. Less known are the local veterans returning home with broken bodies or troubled souls.

Some 30,434 men and women in uniform have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, but the Pentagon does not say where they are from, so it’s unclear exactly how many of the wounded hail from Western New York.

Almost 1,700 of those veterans have sought medical treatment at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Buffalo since 2003, with a majority seeking help for war-related injuries.

There are probably many more local veterans seeking medical treatment who are not counted in VA enrollment figures because of their status as citizen soldiers. Reservists and National Guard members often have access to private health insurance provided by from their civilian employers, according to VA officials in Washington, D.C.

But for the veterans who are trying to adjust while under the care of the local VA, the navigation of a sometimes unresponsive bureaucracy adds to the pain of life beyond the combat zone.

More than 600 of the 1,659 veterans treated here sought assistance for posttraumatic stress and other psychological readjustment troubles, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“It is a full-time job working on getting whole, getting medical treatment and benefits,” said Bill Biondolillo, who served two combat tours in Iraq for a total of 14 months.

“We go and do the dirty work and we have to carry that, while the rest of the country goes on with life,” said Biondolillo, a major in the Reserves.

The list of injuries local veterans seek treatment for is frightening:

• Exposure to Russian-made bullets with depleted uranium in the shell casings. This can cause tumors, skin ailments and respiratory problems.

• Traumatic brain injuries and concussions from blasts, as well as shrapnel from explosive devices.

• Damage to the neck, back and hips from carrying as much as 100 extra pounds of body armor, ammo and other equipment.

• Irritable bowel syndrome and gastric illnesses caused by stress and living in unsanitary conditions.

Continue reading the article.

Labels: brain injury, Iraq veterans, TBI, traumatic brain injury, Veterans

Nurse.com, by Kurt Butzbach,RN, Monday December 17, 2007 -- I am a nurse on the brain injury unit at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC). This job means a lot to me because at one time I was the patient.

More than 22 years ago, I had an accident while working in a steel fabrication shop. I fell more than 15 feet from a ladder to the floor. While one coworker called 911, another coworker held my unresponsive body. I started to turn blue, so while he waited for help, he put me in a bear hug and squeezed me, "the way they do on TV," he said. I started breathing again, but to his surprise blood started gushing out through my left ear. He didn't know if he had saved me or helped kill me.

He had ruptured my ear drum, which allowed the blood and cerebral fluid that was building pressure in my head to escape, quite possibly saving my life. I had suffered a traumatic brain injury, caused by a basal skull fracture, in addition to a separated shoulder.

My short-term memory and speech were affected, and I suffered some left-sided paralysis. So, following my hospital stay, I started rehabilitation through outpatient therapy. I participated in cognitive therapy and physical and occupational therapies and admired the therapists and nurses who helped me find my way back.

After I was released from the hospital and went through ongoing rehabilitation, I was able to fine-tune some of the more creative skills I hadn't been using for a while, such as carving, woodworking, and music.

I started a small wood shop in my garage, and I started playing my guitar more, which was an escape from the daily challenges of recovering from a brain injury.

Continue reading the article.

Labels: brain injury, TBI, traumatic brain injury