Dear fellow coma victims, how to recover? By my research there is no clear path but at least everyone thinks I’m recovering well. But can we become the person that we were before coma? I think not. By my experience it takes so long for the brain to communicate with body parts, to develop the new pathways. Also non physical defects like memory can be difficult, I have been religiously trying to remember what happened yesterday. Thankfully my memory is back to normal perhaps through use, it wasn’t for a long time. I know that I’ve been to Japan before but I still can’t remember. I knew my way around Bangkok quite well from being there before, Khao San road and the likes. But I still have trouble with body parts on the right like toes, the hand etc and get cramps. Certainly my walking dramatically deteriorated 2 years after coma, perhaps the new pathway became primary at that point. But the new pathway still needed to relate to the subtleties, feelings and balance. So can we become the person we were before coma? I suspect not but we are always the same person to others, maybe a little less capable to ourselves. The photo is about 1.5 years after coma, I’m out of the wheel chair now and past the walking frame but still need a stick. There was no damage to my leg, just coma. So I am recovering awkwardly. I sometimes feel embarrassed by my defects because I suspect people don’t believe I’m trying. Coma is not like a typical injury where we see regular improvement. My only advice to other coma victims is to encourage the brain to relearn the subtleties by using the limb in strange ways, the human body is a very complex thing. Regularly I try to balance on my bad leg and use my bad arm to hold onto something as I lifted the good leg, when I started doing this I would fall. After 2 years it’s much improved, not perfect. We must always push our bodies, perhaps the same can be done with the non physical defects. As I’ve said I always try to remember yesterday, even now that it’s improved just to keep using that part of the brain. So just focus on stimulating your defects.
