Rehabilitation after Sunnaas

21 februar 2025
A small update, it's been about 4 weeks since I came home after my first stay at Sunnaas. I have meet and talked to quite a few people after I came home, trying to respond to there questions, no I wasn't healed at Sunnaas, they didn't give me medicine, nor did I get a new brain, nor could they tell me where the restart button is 😁, but yes my life has improved, because with the knowledge I gained during my stay at Sunnaas I have learned about my challenges and how I with that understanding and knowledge can make my life more meaningful again.
The first period after I came home I experienced a slight downturn, yes it was good to come home, but I also missed the good safe environment at Sunnaas, that and having a planned day with things that I had to do, the good social environment, someone to eat lunch and dinner with, play cards, Kahoot or just sit and chat with in the evening. Then coming home to a quiet house, no planned tasks during the day..., and again meeting people who still don't understand that even if I look ok on the outside, the inside is still a broken puzzle that has begun to be somehow puzzled together again, explains that Sunnaas didn't heal me, but that they helped me to start and find the new me, hit me pretty hard.
 
I've made a good start on putting the new me together, I'm getting in touch with some of my friends again, I've promised myself that I'll do social things a couple of times each week, been out with some colleagues from where I worked before the accident, started on the agreed treatments/tasks that I got from Sunnaas, so I have more things to do in my daily life. Am a little more confident about getting out among people again, have proven to myself that I can be out with others again in a good way, by understanding my limitations better and inform those I am going to meet about them.
I have also found the desire to work with filming again, I go out on trips filming and take photos, make YouTube films again, building my hobby back to life agin, to have something to fill the day with and can use and train my brain by edit films and photos.
 
Plan my days in a more structured way, spread tasks throughout the days, make time for and take good breaks, accept that there are days that are worse, and that I then have to choose and focus on myself, rest and recharge, knowing that recharging takes longer now than before, use the good days to do the things that need to be done, reduce the demands on myself, accepting that I need to let some things go, getting better at listening to what my body is telling me.

Im still struggling with fatigue, that and getting started with activities, forgetting things, that complex tasks make me confused and blurry in my head, but with the knowledge and understanding I got from Sunnaas I now understand that it is "normal" after a head injury, and the knowledge and tools I have brought home with me make it easier for me to accept and live with my challenges.

Understand now what brain fatigue is, that it affects most of what I have to do, but I also know how to live with it, take time and change to a new everyday life.
 
I am well on my way to learning and flying again, finding, learning, understanding the new me.

Learn, understand, change, adapt