Surviving Traumatic Brain Injury

Survivors SPEAK OUT! Gage Mabry

presented by

Donna O’Donnell Figurski

Gage Mabry – survivor of brain injury

1. What is your name? (last name optional)

Gage Mabry

2. Where do you live? (city and/or state and/or country) Email (optional)

Missouri, USA

3. On what date did you have your brain injury? At what age?

October 24, 2015  I was 20 years old.

4. How did your brain injury occur?

I was working, and a fifteen-pound scanner fell from a twelve-foot ladder overhead. It landed on top of my head.

5. When did you (or someone) first realize you had a problem?

Immediately. I knew that I took a good hit to the head. It was like being a cartoon character in a slow-moving cartoon.

6. What kind of emergency treatment, if any, did you have?

There was no emergency-care immediately after the accident. I continued to work the rest of my shift. I was disoriented, my vision was blurry, and I developed a massive headache. It wasn’t until my mom tried to wake me up that we realized there was a problem.

7. Were you in a coma? If so, how long?

No

8. Did you do rehab? What kind of rehab (i.e., inpatient or outpatient and occupational and/or physical and/or speech and/or other)? How long were you in rehab?

I was sent to a company doctor, who at first diagnosed my injury as a concussion. When my symptoms continued to persist and worsen over the next few weeks, the company sent me to have a CT (“cat”; computerized tomography) scan, which showed no abnormalities. Over the next three months of “rest,” my symptoms continued, and new ones developed. So now, my brain injury was diagnosed as Post-Concussion Syndrome. I was sent for neurological testing, which showed deficiencies in brain function. I was then referred for further treatments to involve pain management, balance therapy, and counseling. But, due to the situation, I never received any treatment other than what my family could try and provide. Now after two years and an independent medical exam, I’ve been diagnosed as having “Diffuse TBI” (traumatic brain injury).

9. What problems or disabilities, if any, resulted from your brain injury
(e.g., balance, perception, personality, etc.)?

I have severe migraines that last for days, photophobia, sensitivities to loud sounds and to certain smells, and balance issues. I also have issues with depression, anxiety, anger, and fatigue that are so bad that I can’t even function some days.

10. How has your life changed? Is it better? Is it worse?

This is a hard one. My old life is gone, but my new one is filled with good and bad … it’s a work in progress!

11. What do you miss the most from your pre-brain-injury life?

Activities I used to do; my friends.

12. What do you enjoy most in your post-brain-injury life?

All the possibilities

Gage Mabry – Brain Injury Survivor

13. What do you like least about your brain injury?

The headaches

14. Has anything helped you to accept your brain injury?

My mom!

15. Has your injury affected your home life and relationships and, if so, how?

This has been a roller-coaster ride. It has devastated my family financially, but it has brought us together – with more love and support for each other that we had before. My friends and girlfriend have their lives to live, and I just wasn’t part of their plans anymore.

16. Has your social life been altered or changed and, if so, how?

This difference has been the hardest for me to accept. I went from being a popular, outgoing, and athletic person to a withdrawn, angry, and depressed person overnight. Social anxiety has been the hardest things to try and overcome, but I’m doing it day by day. Finding humor in that anxious setting has been the best medicine ever! I explain it to people as an “EMP” … electrical magnetic pulse … when I can’t remember my left from my right or forget how to speak. It eases the tension.

Darlene Watson Mabry – Caregiver

17. Who is your main caregiver? Do you understand what it takes to be a caregiver?

My MOM! And, yes, it has been so hard for her. I don’t know how she does it. She’s a

superhero to me!

18. What are your plans? What do you expect/hope to be doing ten years from now?

I still have my dreams that I will fulfill. They have just been altered. Instead of a “Game Designer” … it’s a “Game Broadcaster”; my physical-fitness regimens have been modified to walking instead of running. “Compromise” is what my mom calls it!

19. Are you able to provide a helpful hint that may have taken you a long time to learn, but which you wished you had known earlier? If so, please state what it is to potentially help other survivors with your specific kind of brain injury.

You may have setbacks, but that doesn’t mean the game is over!

20. What advice would you offer to other brain-injury survivors? Do you have any other comments that you would like to add?

Never give up – regardless of how bad it gets – because you belong to a special group now … you are a Survivor!

Gage’s mother wrote a moving “Faces of Brain Injury”  Click to read

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