Nexus Neurorecovery Center brain injury patient success story
My story begins November 10th, 2017 when I went to work. And, uh, my job was a, a logger. I was cutting down trees along the sides of, uh, different creeks. And the creek I had to be working on was Winter Creek over in Tomball, Texas. Uh, the day was going just as any other day would, you know, hot, sweaty. When, uh, I was down to my last cut and there was three trees, and they don’t even let me take one. And I asked ’em to let me take the other one, other two, but they wouldn’t. And, uh, as it ended up, uh, the tree kicked back on me while I was still down on my hands and knees. And it, the 35-foot tree plowed into my face. Uh, it broke my jaw, destroyed my eye socket, um, and a lot of other things.
Recalling the initial weeks after his brain injury
Um, I don’t really remember. It’s, well, I remember the act, I remember the impact. I remember stepping out into the creek. But after that, I don’t remember anything for 12 days until I woke up in ICU over at Memorial Hermann, the Woodlands. Uh, they told me that I’d had, uh, five frontal craniotomy that, uh, I had seizures. There were a lot of things going on, may not be able to walk again, just a, a number of issues that I had to try to comprehend when just dealing with the reality that I was alive. Um, my mom was there my second day of being awake. I asked him to gimme a walker, and I walked maybe 75 feet, you know, distance and, and back to my bed. Uh, and from there I progressed. I got sent when I was recovered, uh, maybe three days, four days in the ICU.
I got sent to Nexus Specialty, where I stayed for a little over a month while I did a rehab there. And they taught me how to re-walk and how to do, uh, a lot of things. My memory was pretty much shot. A lot of my brain was rattled to say the least. Uh, I healed and I was transferred here the whole time. I was, I was at those other two places. Uh, my jaw was broke in three places, so I was doing a liquid diet. Frustrating. And, uh, well, at first I was getting my food to my stomach, and then they let me go to a liquid diet. And then I got here and they had just took the, uh, right before I got trans transferred to here.
Celebrating the holidays at home with family
They took my, uh, screws and the plates holding my jaw out so that I could have, uh, small amounts of food. And I started eating puree. Uh, this is done the Christmas holidays. I had asked them, the only thing I wanted was come home for Christmas, and they, they allowed me to, they transferred me here on the 22nd. Uh, so I went home for maybe three, four hours on that day. It was, uh, it was overwhelming. It was a little too much stimulus for, you know, we just had a house full of people and there was too much, uh, similar to my brain after being in basically reclusion mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, and so when I came back, uh, I just saw I want to go out for a while. I wasn’t being mean to my family. I love my family and I know they love me, but I just had made that decision that until I was ready.
Brain injury rehabilitation at Nexus Neurorecovery Center
So, uh, they started letting me eat puree. And of course, once you start getting something or something else, you know, and so I couldn’t wait so I could have whole food. And finally the day came when I could have whole food. But I was going through my treatment here, which is an individualized treatment. You come in and, and you know, they put you on a house, and then you come over here and, and, and you go and you talk to people and they assess what your needs are and what your abilities are. And they just, I design a treatment plan around that. And, um, I told the physical therapist that I wanted, you know, what my goals are. And, and I told the other people what I wanted to see improve on me. And we’re talking about a guy that, you know, I couldn’t even remember my mom’s birthday or certain things like that, you know, uh, uh.
Formal physical, occupational, and speech therapies were a large part of brain injury rehabilitation
And so I wanted my memory to improve. I wanted my physical shape to improve. I wanted my, uh, the occupational therapy. They were, they were, they were working with me on my accounting skills addition and my strong points. And so we stuck to it and I continued to push myself and, and, uh, to, to grow and, and nurture in this environment that was, was feeding me. Um, and I stayed here almost three months until it was time for me to leave. And, and before I left, I’d already, you know, I progressed. I progressed physically. I mean, I was where I could do 10 pushups. Um, I could do my, my, my memory had returned totally. I don’t have short term memory lapses anymore. Uh, and some of it was this, but some of it was just, you know, no matter of time.
Uh, but like altogether, the treatment I received here, even when I disagreed with it at times, you know, um, because sometimes you don’t understand what it’s for was, was, was it far and above anything i, I I’ve ever seen before. And when I got home and started having to deal with daily life like I do now, I have my own apartment now. I have to pay my own bills, I have to get my own groceries, I have to figure things out. Then I understood what they were instilling in me while I was here. A lot of people don’t understand why you have to sit through the class, why you have to do this test, why you have to do that now. In hindsight, you can appreciate it. And so that’s the message that I got. I wanted to get out as a touchstone, as touch my life.
It’s done. Am I gonna say it couldn’t have been done, it done elsewhere? I, I don’t think it could because I’ve been to a lot of places that don’t care and seen a lot of places that don’t care and seen a lot of cash in the cases of people that have just gone to horrible places and, and come out untreated because needed places didn’t have the ability. But here, the people care, the staff, the tech, the, the, the therapists, the technicians, everybody, they have an actual concern about the people that they take care. And that’s why I like.
