Lockdown happened 11 months into recovery from a car crash in April 2019 in which I sustained multiple injuries, including head injuries. Recovery is a difficult time that lockdown initially made more difficult.
Lockdown was a barrier to recover and caused significant delays to surgeries for injuries I sustained in the crash. The operation on my eyes as a result of optic nerve damage was cancelled the day before it was scheduled - I just wanted to go to bed, switch my eyes off and stay there until it happened. I couldn’t judge height very well at all, which was very troublesome when trying to recover from a knee reconstruction, as I’d inadvertently stamp or scrape my foot on what appeared to be level paths. It would be 5 long months before surgery eventually happened, and even then, I was clearly prioritised as an urgent case. The talking magazine service was cancelled, which doesn’t seem important, but it was one of my few pleasures in life since my head injuries had effectively ruined my vision.
Appointments were also cancelled, moved online or done over the phone. Everyone in the NHS was doing their best; people were dying, families were suffering and it’s important to consider many other people were having a truly awful time. Somehow or other, despite lockdowns, I had 3 of my 5 operations during the pandemic, which must put me into a rare category and for which I’m very thankful!
Brain injury recovery sessions were cancelled and I found this particularly worrying as the brain recovers best for 2 years after the trauma. I was fretting and losing sleep as I was a year on from the crash and time was ticking. The news was grim, there were new important messages to remember - which could have life and death implications, but my short-term memory issue, as a result of the brain injury, made me more worried and anxious that I was more vulnerable. For example, I was constantly asking ‘have I washed my hands?’ - I couldn’t remember.
Being out of routine led to greater brain fatigue, which caused me to become more confused with all the different information in the news about what was/wasn't allowed. It was extremely stressful having to adapt from the life I had...again!! I’d done it once after the car crash, but now had to accept change all over again and find a new routine. This added to the stress that I really didn’t need!
I have volunteered at a school since January, trying to achieve 16 hours across the week and base myself in an office. The restrictions have actually been helpful because the advice was to be based at home, when possible, in the first instance, which helped make the whole thing a staged process. Even now I spread the hours across the week, based at home and at school, rather than trying to achieve 16 hours over 2 days in school - which I now recognise would be very fatiguing.
Another advantage of the restrictions has been in dealing with my struggle to single things out. As a result; there were few people on the train, passenger numbers have increased in a gradual way, there’s limited numbers of people allowed in the school offices, school has staggered its break and lunchtimes so there’s fewer students around school at any one time, and some year groups have needed to self-isolate at times. All this means I’ve had a very enforced gradual reintegration into society, rather than just forcing myself - as I would have almost certainly had done without restrictions. I would have, in effect, being punishing myself in a desperate attempt to appear ‘normal’ again too quickly. So, the difficulty of singling things out has not been challenged to a point of failure, as it might have been without restrictions. I hope that things in society continue to resume to normality very steadily over time and I believe this will allow me to keep pace without feeling overwhelmed.
I believe that lockdown initially resulted in the very worst of consequences for my recovery. But restrictions have undoubtedly been beneficial in the latest part of my recovery”.
The team at SJP Law continue to support clients living with acquired brain injury, we provide both legal help and our rehabilitation team provide therapeutic support and advice. For more information please call and speak to our team on 01482 324591.
