Concussion Is Brain Injury: Treating the Neurons and Me

In the year 2000, Shireen Jeejeebhoy was in a car crash. She emerged still walking and talking, but the person she had been was forever gone. Although no one knew it at the time, she had sustained a concussion. The repercussions of that injury have shaped her life ever since.
Many believe a concussion is a mild injury, when in truth it is a traumatic brain injury in which the brain bangs about inside the skull. If not identified or treated within the first 48 hours, the injury can lead to secondary symptoms (euphemistically named post-concussive syndrome) that require years of rehabilitation.

Traditional rehabilitation, involving cognitive therapy and rest, were ineffective. In addition to lost neurons, Jeejeebhoy was quickly losing her social connections and relationships. The concussion was threatening to cut her off from the world.
She wanted this hidden injury healed; she wanted the plethora of problems from it, especially the cognitive ones, treated. She wanted to return to society. And so began her long quest to find better treatment and to blog on the things she learned.

In 2012, she put together her blog posts in the original edition of Concussion Is Brain Injury. But the learning and journey didn't end then. And so in this Revised Edition,  Concussion Is Brain Injury: Treating the Neurons and Me, Jeejeebhoy shares her personal story and updates her discoveries to give hope to those who have suffered from concussions and the people who care for them.

Shireen Jeejeebhoy is a Toronto-based author, blogger, and photographer and holds a BSc in psychology from the University of Toronto. After sustaining a brain injury, Ms. Jeejeebhoy finds her writing keeps her grounded and her photography lifts her into realms of colour and light. Ms. Jeejeebhoy's work is an eclectic mix of fiction, biography, nonfiction, and poetry, with the city of Toronto often in a starring role. She is the author of the award-winning biography Lifeliner: The Judy Taylor Story and the novel She, which was a finalist for the 2012 Word Guild Awards. You can visit her website at https: //jeejeebhoy.ca.