Help! I am struggling! what am I doing wrong!

[leef]

Hi,

In April 2008 I was in a car crash in South Africa. I had severe internal head injuries. When I was well enough to watch TV, I only had enough stamina to watch 15/20 minutes. And then I had no choice but to sleep. Over the years my stamina got stronger and I started to work 3 days a week and a year later 4 days. My manager at work has been really understanding and just lets me have sick days when I need them. Every couple of months I need to take some sort of time off because of fatigue. This can either be 0.5 day, whole day or a whole week. When this happens I need to sleep during the day and then the fatigue gradually goes but very slowly.

I am also studying for a MSc degree and also have had some very emotional things to deal with. This has all culminated in me having to take a month off work.

I went to my UK doctor and all she wants to do is give me pills for my fatigue. But I hate taking pills. She said they would give me 'get up and go' but if my brain is really tired and these tablets make me think its not. Won't that in reality be making my brain work when it is fatigued. One of the very big lessons I have learnt is to not ignore fatigue because it just comes back 10 worse!

any advice?

[dawnmn]

Your not doing anything wrong. I had a brain injury 10 years ago and I still need to rest. I too had to take days off of work just to sleep. Even though I worked behind a desk I still used my brain a lot.

You are working and going to school which is a lot of brain power being used.

I might not take the pills either. Just like you what happens when you miss or don't take a pill. Will you crash for a long time before recovery.

[leef]

Thanks Dawn... I went back to my doctor and he again suggested these pills Fluoxetine. 20mg because I am into my 4th week off work because of fatigue. Does anyone have any experience with these pills and TBI ?
Thanks
Lee

[Earth Mother 2 Angels]

((((((Lee))))))

Welcome to Braintalk!

I have no experience with TBI's, but I wanted to share this information with you about Fluoxetine. In the U.S., this drug is called Prozac. It is an anti-depressant.

Here is the prescribing information from our Drug Info link:

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/d...s/a689006.html

Is the prescribing physician a neurologist?

Here are the results from a Google search of fatigue tbi:

http://www.google.com/search?client=...UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

Just glancing at a couple of the articles, I notice that exercise and proper diet are recommended.

Hope you find some relief.

Love & Light,

Rose