Category: Fatigue

Fatigue, Shmatigue!

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I’m beginning to feel some energy coming back, or perhaps it’s because I have worked two days from home and took a real drive in the car. Getting back to a normal life is part of recovery, but fatigue is still evident.

The Brain Aneurysm Foundation has some really good explanations as to WHY one is so easily tired after an aneurysm. They say:“After an aneurysm, many people report that their energy is diminished after relatively little activity or effort. It is natural to want to return to previous activity levels as quickly as possible and many survivors become disturbed when fatigue gets in the way. Their frustration is often rooted in the belief that inactivity equals “laziness” or poor effort.”

Even though I’ve been through this process before, just on a different level, and KNOW the fatigue would be a part of it, it IS still frustrating. The BAF also says:“You should keep in mind that fatigue is a necessary part of the recovery process. Fatigue should be considered a positive sign of progress, rather than a negative sign that indicates poor effort, or ongoing disease process, or a “plateau” in the rehabilitation process.”

The following statement is the one I found to be the most telling and the best explanation on fatigue:“After a brain aneurysm, brain function is disrupted by damage to complex networks of brain cells (neurons). These networks must be repaired for improvement in function to take place, an internal process that occurs over time. The healing process takes energy that the brain did not have to expend before there was damage to the neural network. The brain works at recovering function 24 hours a day and in many different ways, including the reorganization of functions, the re-growth of damaged brain cells, and the cleaning up of debris. Without your knowledge, the brain diverts some of its energy to the process of healing, a process that significantly subtracts from available energy levels.”

It makes perfect sense that the brain needs energy for healing, and as a result, it diverts some energy usually used elsewhere to heal the brain and nerves. I get it now!

“It is important to emphasize that fatigue cannot be overcome by an act of willpower, or by making an extra effort. The human body knows when it needs rest and that rest is a restorative process.”

Now it’s a game of balancing being lazy with getting the rest I need.

Day of Rest?

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Today was supposed to be my day of rest after working yesterday, but I’m not sure I did such a good job of it. I was tired when I woke up…or rather when my cat woke me up, over and over again, but not as bad as I was expecting to be. I’m pretty sure the good nap yesterday helped.

I wanted to try driving again and Dave needed to go in to town, so I offered to drive. This time I drove into town and back home. It was a bit of a struggle on the way back as I could feel my confidence and awareness waining. It was the perfect amount of time and distance to try this out again.

Had a pretty good headache when I got home and needed to lay down and rest. I did not rest enough though. Should have napped. Tomorrow could be interesting, but I got a full drive in today, so I’m proud of myself for getting that done. Need to do it more. One day at a time.

First Day of Work (at home)

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I’m going to try working at home this week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday to see how that goes for me. I got up early, washed my hair, fed the cats and ate breakfast at my normal “work” time then at 7 a.m. I made the short commute into my home office. I need to get used to sitting at a computer screen all day again.

I did okay until about 9 a.m. then had to step away from the computer and walk around a bit. At 10:30 I needed to close my eyes for about 15 minutes, so I set the timer on my computer and sat back in the chair. Ate lunch and walked for 10 minutes inside, then pretty much pooped out around 2 p.m. I TRIED to get a full 8 hours in, but couldn’t keep my eyes open after 7.5 hours. Then slept for an hour and a half.

Not sure how I’ll feel tomorrow, but it’s a start. I received a beautiful floral bouquet from a friend and that sure put a smile on my face and perked me up!

One Month Mark

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I am calling today the one month mark after my surgery. I’m doing well and slowly recovering. The physical, visual aspects of the surgery are healing very well and if I’m able to get my hair to do something decent to cover the incision, one would never know I had a craniotomy a month ago.

Photo comparison from two days after surgery (left) to this morning.

FATIGUE: Fatigue is still an issue. I’m reading that the 3-month mark seems to be the time when most people start to feel they have a lot of their energy back. I need to walk more though to continue to build my energy. Also still need to rest more during the day, but it’s getting better.

By Dr. Glen Johnson, Clinical Neuropsychologist
Sleep is very important to the healing process. If you don’t sleep, you’re going to be tired throughout the day. If you’re tired throughout the day, your memory will get worse and you’ll be more cranky and irritable. Lack of sleep makes the other head injury symptoms much worse. Sleep also has an important role in physical healing.

Now I appear to be having some problems getting to sleep at night. Goody! I’m so tired I can’t keep my eyes open, but when I close my eyes, it’s more like a heavy “rest”, not a deep sleep. My brain seems to want to continue to “work” when I lay down at night.

PAIN:
Headaches still occur, but not with the frequency and intensity as they have previously. Usually mild pain meds take care of it…or, resting! The areas where the pins and screws are can send out mild shooting pains occasionally and if I touch the skull area it can wake up all of those nerves. I’m reading I should be able to feel the screws and pins and I think that’s what I’m feeling in one area. Not sure since the Dr. didn’t have my scans ready to show me at my 4-week follow up so I’m not sure where the pins and screws are located on my head/skull just yet.

NUMBNESS:
Oh, that’s still there and it still feels weird. The nerves are starting to heal so there’s a lot of “activity” there, especially if I touch my skull. I hear that could get more active. Those little buggers are highly sensitive. It’s not overly painful, just annoying.

STITCHES/INCISION:
The stitches are all gone and the incision is healing very well. It’s still tender and can be painful if I lay on it or accidentally scrape it with my hair brush or fingers. Umm…so, I’m trying not to do that! My hair is growing back nicely, although the hair at the top of my forehead it growing straight up. The hair along the side of my face is laying down flat. Wish I had more hair there, but I have no complaints! I love they did the incision right along my hair line. Thank you!

BRAIN FUNCTION:
Concentrating on one or more things at the same time can take a lot out of me. I DID drive briefly this week and am VERY aware that I need to concentrate and make sure I stay alert. I’ve been through this before and I know that will take time, but it always makes me nervous…and this is without after working a full day so I need to work up to feeling confident behind the wheel again.

I haven’t done a ton of reading for any great length of time, but when I do, I find it hard to focus and often times have to read the same sentence a few times to “understand” it. That only seems to happen when there is a lot of text on a page. Reading Twitter on my iPad seems to be okay. They are short snippets of text that I can read, process and move on.

Dave had me make a few minor graphic fixes to our brain aneurysm website and Facebook page. I was able to work on those on the computer, but did have a brain fade on where a certain tool was located that I needed to use in Photoshop. Again…I know that will get better with more frequency.

As I stated under the Fatigue bullet, when I get tired during recovery, concentrating and staying focused are more difficult. Been there….done that.

The physical healing is a good visual confirmation that I’m getting better, it’s the internal, brain healing that takes time. I need to be more patient with myself – as do others.

We had a rare, warm February day out today. Sunny, light winds and just beautiful. I had to get some fresh air. Being cooped up in the house in the winter is brutal…too much risk of falling down and hitting my head in icy conditions. The back deck was cleared of snow, so I sat on the back step and let the warmth of the sun wash over my face. I listened to the chickadees and gold finches flutter around me to the feeders and watch the ducks on the now-open water on the stream. I’m reminded of how fragile life is and how lucky I am to even be here. I might complain, I might get frustrated with the slow recovery process, but life is good.