Gina shares about her life after treatment and what it has looked like moving forward. You can also follow Gina as she shares more of her story here.
"My name is Gina Crotts. I came to treatment a year ago, on to the date today and my accident started about a year and a half ago in January. I fell roller-skating and I hit the left front side of my head and started concussion symptoms right away, which were headaches and my vision was off, a lot of cognitive problems, noises, light bothered me - not a ton but a little bit, super tired all the time.
Before I came to treatment, I had spent a lot of time in bed. I'd been advised to just do nothing; just lay in bed, do nothing, don't want watch T.V., don't get on your phone which is really hard because I work full-time. I have three kids, so my husband was doing everything and I was just lying in bed because my head would hurt too much. It was too hard to be around the kids, really to do anything. So when we came to treatment, I was kind of at my last point. I didn't know what else to do, nothing seemed to be working. I had tried a lot of different remedies, home remedies and stuff with neurologist and all my scans would come back normal and they would just tell me to just take time. But, I was getting impatient and really depressed and it was really hard. So when we came and met Dr. Fong, I was pretty miserable. I was really hopeless and I came with my husband and I cried through most of the appointment with her, because I didn't want to keep fighting anymore; I didn't want none of these headaches anymore. It just didn't feel like me at all and it was really scary and a scary place to be.
So I came, started treatment and it was hard - really hard. First day, I felt improvements the very first night that I went home; things just felt clearer, I remember even hugging my husband which was weird and I could like feel him more than I have been able to feel before - just the emotion and the connection was different. Day two and three was where when I started to get really tired. Day one, was as bad as I thought it was going to be but they two and three – super-super tired and I was just fighting through it - this camp/treatment and just push-push-push-push-push, because I wanted to get better so bad. I knew if I worked really hard, then I would see some really good results.
So day four, I felt pretty good. It was actually my birthday that last day and I just remember thinking my life is going to be different from here on out. I know it; I can feel it and things felt better. My headache and the pain had decreased quite a bit, not as much as I had originally thought, but at least enough to be able to function and do things.
One of the reasons why first came to treatment in June last year was I was going to be traveling the following month with my work and I was nervous about the time change and the workload and everything that I was going to have to take on that I didn't think my body would be able to do. After treatment I went, and it was a great opportunity and I did well and I stuck to my brain games and my diet and taking my breaks and I made it through perfectly.
So life now after treatment has been pretty amazing. I am a lot more aware of my symptoms and my body and what I am putting into it and what and what I am doing and I think more about that and I make better choices that way because I feel better when I do. I meditate a lot more than I was before and I think that really helps. I will get a headache here and there when I get really stressed out or if my sleeping schedule is off a little bit, if I stay up too late and I will, but nothing like I had before a treatment - not even close; just an average everyday kind of headache that anybody else would get. So it's been really good.
I love Cognitive FX. They've changed my whole life. I'm so grateful for them. I'd fill just this opportunity to share with story and to educate people more on just brain injuries and concussions in general and how much they can affect your life, and that there is hope out there to make it better, and that there are things out there like Cognitive FX, number one - to just help you get started again on that right track of helping your brain recoup and restart and I want to be a voice for that and I want to reach out and say, hey I did it. It was awful and it sucks and brain injuries are the worse but there's hope and there's stuff out there that can help."
