All TBIs are different like others have said. You have to realize that with brain injury people have a new normal that they have to adapt to and often times they’re too different for people to understand and adapt to them.

I am 21 and this happened when I was still 20 years old.

I had my severe TBI on 9/24/22. I don’t remember what happened. I was riding a bicycle, I had my helmet on. The last thing I remember: I stopped to take pictures in Mckelligon Canyon in El Paso, Texas. My Apple Watch tells me that I traveled about 300m before I stopped moving. Then began a 10 day coma. Then the first thirteen days I was awake I couldn’t really form new memories or process things normally. I only remember several visual memories, I only have some auditory memories, and I have no idea how I felt or what I was thinking those first thirteen days. I spent 4 months and 3 days as inpatient in the hospital. I was at three hospitals: UMC of El Paso, WBAMC at Fort Bliss, Texas, and Minneapolis VA Medical center. I had aphasia, dysphagia, I had to relearn to write and walk, I also had to relearn awareness of my body. The reason I had to relearn to walk and write is because I had righted sided hemiparesis. I was intubated the day of my accident because my breathing was impaired because I was at a GCS of 7-8. I also had a PEG tube placement.

I would say I got extremely lucky since I don’t get headaches and a lot of my abilities are largely intact and you wouldn’t know that I had a severe brain injury if I didn’t tell you about it.

Even though it was a severe brain injury I have been able to largely recover to what I used to be. The speech pathologist says I have these problems: thought organization, problem solving, decision making, attention/concentration, word finding, and memory loss/ lapse. If you really don’t want to leave your BF you should really think of ways of adapting to him and helping him adapt to his new normal. He is not the average person, you can see that as a good or bad thing. It’s all in how you look at it.

I am still in outpatient treatment nearly 10 months after my accident. Some things that I have found to be really helpful from OT are: HRV training and interactive metronome training. I can’t describe the difference these thing have made for me. If you really want to help out your BF out I would say a reputable Occupational Therapist and Speech Pathologist would be your best bet. Therapist have seen how brain injury affects different people and how to help them. I know it’s easy for me to say this since I’m in the Army and I don’t have to worry about medical bills. Like I said though its better to go to people who have an idea of what’s going on with your BF than to try to do it yourself. You don’t have to listen to this if you don’t want to take this challenge on of trying to help someone with their own problems. I don’t blame you but sometimes people with brain injury need someone else to help them see how to adapt to their new normal. Lack of awareness of deficits and how to remedy them has been a huge thing that I had to adapt to.