Concussion recovery takes time and effort

At a seminar in Bend on Wednesday, Dr. Jacob Plasker of Plasker Chiropractic and Functional Neurology discussed concussion symptoms, examination guidelines and the results of studies looking into recovery from brain injuries.

According to the data, Plasker said, sports-related head injuries are not the main cause of concussions. It’s far more likely that someone will get a concussion from falling or being struck by an object. Car crashes are also one of the top ways someone can get a concussion or brain injury.

Plasker said specialists should do autonomic, motor skill, balance and eye movement assessments to help target which part of the brain is suffering the most.

He said when it comes to recovery, more rest is not necessarily good, because if someone stays in a dark room for too long, the brain gets used to that level of decreased function — and it can be that much harder to do daily activities later on.

“A lot of the way the brain recovers is by being exposed to the events and the factors that give it problems,” Plasker said. “In generating an error signal that it can compare against, then (it can) make a correction in how it functions, based on the errors it knows it receives.”

Plasker also recommended that someone suffering from a concussion should seek out a care provider trained specifically in concussion medical care.

Bend resident Kristin Liabraten was in a car accident in February. She said she came out of the accident very stunned and did not hit her head, but later on, her whole body hurt. Several weeks went by, and she realized she was not getting better.

She said that writing, focusing, and scrolling through her phone to simply look at Facebook can be hard.

“I’m still finding my way back to myself and i have had people tell me, my light and my sparkle is coming back, but it was really hard to even just go through daily life for a while,” Liabraten said. “I am doing a lot better with that. I am just overwhelmed (that this) has been surprisingly emotional (and) that challenge that comes with it, the brain injury, it’s really validating to actually know that’s what is going on, but I feel like I have lost a little bit of — maybe a lot of me.”