MTBI - What's in a name?
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury is called, "The silent epidemic." A study found that 1 in 2 Americans are unfamiliar with this medical terminology. Yet according to the National Institute for Health and Medicine, a traumatic brain injury occurs every 15 seconds in America..and this figure does not include our men and women in the military.
So, I ask....What is in a name? I think traumatic brain injury is rather self explanatory. Mild, on the other hand, is where I take objection.
What comes to mind when you think of mild? Personally, my twisted brain goes straight to salsa, of which I'm a huge fan. No need to burn those sensitive taste buds, mild is my preference. Or weather...when you picture a mild day what do you see, feel? I see a sunny day with fluffy white clouds in a brilliant blue sky and I feel the gentle breeze of a temperate day. Its not cold or hot (like the 100° heat wave going on now!)...its just right. Its comfortable.
I am now standing on my soap box asking for a name change plus a new system of classification. In the meantime a nationwide ad campaign to explain that Mild is a deceptive term would benefit every American. The difference in understanding the complexities of experiencing MTBI first hand and the misconception of the effects being Mild...is like calling a tornado mild. Do meteorologist's call a tornado mild? No, that is ridiculous.
Since we are dealing with a medical term lets look at it from that angle. When diagnosing cancer do they use mild? No. It is described by cell type, cancer type, stage, number of lymph nodes involved, if its metastesized or traveled to another organ/system, etc.. This is what I ask the medical community to do for brain injury.
As it stands, the nomenclature for brain injury is based on a rather simplistic chart. The basic chart contains three columns. The first column lists the severity based on column 2 containing the Glasgow coma scale and column 3 containing the length of amnesia. Of course, other assessments come into play, but this is the basics for diagnosis. This is unacceptable to me.
In my case it took other people to piece together what happened to me. I am missing over three hours of my life. There were no EMT's or police at the accident scene. My car was pushed to the side of a dark road where I woke up dazed and confused. In fact I didn't even realize I had been in a car accident.
Believing myself uninjured aside from bruises on my knees and head I refused my family's urging to go to the ER. I do remember thinking, "I have a concussion and some bruises. I feel stupid going to the ER taking up their time with such minor injuries."
I am one of those uncounted in the statistics. Not until five days later when my world turned black, overwhelming dizziness and nausea had me groping for something to stabilize my world. In the middle of a store I fell to the ground praying for my vision to return and the world to stop spinning. My daughter, 16 then, got me to my feet and into my mom's car. Before driving me home she waited until my vision returned. I had no concept of time to know how long it took to go from black to blurry Technicolor. When I tried to tell my daughter the words that came out did not match what I wanted to say. My poor daughter stayed rather calm headed for a teenager as I cried in utter fear. At that point I decided to seek medical care. Which is a whole other topic that needs addressing.
So here I am, one person, hoping to make a difference. Mine is not the only voice. I call on the medical community, brain injury survivors, caretakers and anyone touched by traumatic brain injury to help create a new classification and naming system for brain injuries.
My experience has been anything but a mild one. Life as I knew it changed in an instant. Attempting to educate my boss, colleagues, friends, family and school (easiest by far) was and remains a problem because mild does not describe what happened when my brain was re-wired. Please share your thoughts on how to make this change.
Kristy ReWired
So, I ask....What is in a name? I think traumatic brain injury is rather self explanatory. Mild, on the other hand, is where I take objection.
Mild: far from extreme in effect or force.
What comes to mind when you think of mild? Personally, my twisted brain goes straight to salsa, of which I'm a huge fan. No need to burn those sensitive taste buds, mild is my preference. Or weather...when you picture a mild day what do you see, feel? I see a sunny day with fluffy white clouds in a brilliant blue sky and I feel the gentle breeze of a temperate day. Its not cold or hot (like the 100° heat wave going on now!)...its just right. Its comfortable.
I am now standing on my soap box asking for a name change plus a new system of classification. In the meantime a nationwide ad campaign to explain that Mild is a deceptive term would benefit every American. The difference in understanding the complexities of experiencing MTBI first hand and the misconception of the effects being Mild...is like calling a tornado mild. Do meteorologist's call a tornado mild? No, that is ridiculous.
Since we are dealing with a medical term lets look at it from that angle. When diagnosing cancer do they use mild? No. It is described by cell type, cancer type, stage, number of lymph nodes involved, if its metastesized or traveled to another organ/system, etc.. This is what I ask the medical community to do for brain injury.
As it stands, the nomenclature for brain injury is based on a rather simplistic chart. The basic chart contains three columns. The first column lists the severity based on column 2 containing the Glasgow coma scale and column 3 containing the length of amnesia. Of course, other assessments come into play, but this is the basics for diagnosis. This is unacceptable to me.
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| Drove this home unaware of damage |
Believing myself uninjured aside from bruises on my knees and head I refused my family's urging to go to the ER. I do remember thinking, "I have a concussion and some bruises. I feel stupid going to the ER taking up their time with such minor injuries."
I am one of those uncounted in the statistics. Not until five days later when my world turned black, overwhelming dizziness and nausea had me groping for something to stabilize my world. In the middle of a store I fell to the ground praying for my vision to return and the world to stop spinning. My daughter, 16 then, got me to my feet and into my mom's car. Before driving me home she waited until my vision returned. I had no concept of time to know how long it took to go from black to blurry Technicolor. When I tried to tell my daughter the words that came out did not match what I wanted to say. My poor daughter stayed rather calm headed for a teenager as I cried in utter fear. At that point I decided to seek medical care. Which is a whole other topic that needs addressing.
So here I am, one person, hoping to make a difference. Mine is not the only voice. I call on the medical community, brain injury survivors, caretakers and anyone touched by traumatic brain injury to help create a new classification and naming system for brain injuries.
My experience has been anything but a mild one. Life as I knew it changed in an instant. Attempting to educate my boss, colleagues, friends, family and school (easiest by far) was and remains a problem because mild does not describe what happened when my brain was re-wired. Please share your thoughts on how to make this change.
Kristy ReWired
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