Have an injury to your head? Trouble thinking straight? A concussion? Brain injuries can be serious and require advanced medical care. Fortunately, our world-class physical therapists at High Definition Physical Therapy are among the top specialists for brain rehabilitation in Denver, CO.
Without a healthy, properly functioning brain, the body cannot operate correctly. The brain’s function interprets information and tells the body how to respond. Pain, sounds, light and odors are all types of input that the brain regularly interprets. The brain also maintains blood pressure, breathing and releases hormones. Important functions, to be sure. If you suffer a brain injury, it compromises the vital functions your brain performs. Therefore, if your brain has suffered an injury of any type, you may be a candidate for brain rehabilitation.
Find out if brain rehabilitation is right for you. We can help patients evaluate and treat most brain injuries. Give us a call at High Definition Physical Therapy to schedule a free phone consultation.
What Is Brain Rehabilitation?
Brain rehabilitation is a therapy that helps you relearn tasks that you have had trouble completing since your brain injury. At High Definition Physical Therapy, we offer brain injury rehabilitation designed to help you restore your body to its previous state.
What Conditions Can Brain Rehabilitation Treat?
The most common condition that requires brain rehabilitation is a stroke. A stroke happens when the blood flow to the brain is interrupted or there is bleeding in the brain. Other common brain injuries that could benefit from therapy include the following (categorized into two sections, traumatic brain injuries and acquired brain injuries):
Traumatic Brain Injuries:
- Concussion: A concussion is often thought of as minor. However, it actually is a traumatic injury. In fact, a concussion is the most common type of traumatic brain injury. It is caused by a sudden momentum change or impact.
- Contusion: This is usually caused by a direct impact to the head. It is basically a brain bruise.
- Coup-Countrecoup: This occurs when the head is impacted, causing a contusion on one side. The impact is great enough that it moves the brain, slamming it into the opposite side of the head, causing a bruise on both sides.
- Diffuse Axonal: This occurs when the head is shaken or rotated in a rough manner. It could be the result of a car accident. This violent movement causes a tear in the nerve tissue of the brain that interrupts the brain’s normal communication.
- Penetration: This type of injury is caused by the impact of a knife, bullet or another sharp object. It happens when this object forces bones, skin and hair into the brain. The Center for Disease Control reports that around 91 percent of the traumatic brain injuries caused by bullets result in death.
Acquired Brain Injuries:
This type of brain injury includes degenerative diseases, damage due to drowning, strokes, tumors, etc. Read below to learn their classifications:
- Anoxia: This happens when the brain doesn’t get any oxygen.
- Hypoxic: This type of injury occurs when the brain doesn’t get enough oxygen. It happens there is a reduction in blood pressure or blood flow.
Common Symptoms of a Brain Injury
No two brain injuries are the same. Therefore, your symptoms might be different than another person’s. The following are a few common symptoms most people have experienced after serious brain injuries:
- memory and thinking problems
- numbness and/or pain
- problems communicating
- emotional issues
- movement complications
- hearing and sound sensitivity
- light sensitivity
- confusion
- dizziness
- headaches
- nausea
- balance problems
What Are the Levels of Brain Injury?
As you will read below, brain injury rehabilitation is worthwhile, no matter your injury. However, the level of injury you experienced determines the amount of function you need to restore. Therefore, it’s important to understand the levels of brain injury you can experience to determine where you fall in that spectrum.
Mild Traumatic Brain Injury
This occurs when the following takes place after your injury:
- you were likely only dazed and confused
- you probably didn’t lose consciousness
- if you did lose consciousness, it was only briefly
- your scans and tests might have appeared normal after your injury
Moderate Traumatic Brain Injury
Rehabilitation for your moderate traumatic brain injury will likely be successful as this level of brain injury responds well to therapy. The following happens after a moderate traumatic brain injury:
- you likely lost consciousness; it might have been just a few minutes but could’ve been hours
- your confusion lasted for days or weeks
- your have behavioral, cognitive and/or physical impairments that have lasted for months or are permanent
Severe Brain Injury
This classification of brain injury is the result of penetrating wounds or crushing blows. They often require heroic measures to treat. Unfortunately, this type of injury is the least likely to respond positively to therapy. This doesn’t mean that rehabilitation can’t help you if you have a severe brain injury. Rehabilitation can only help. You should temper your expectations, though.
How Successful Is Brain Rehabilitation?
There are two main components of brain rehabilitation according to the Brain Injury Resource Center. This includes restoring the brain’s function. It also involves helping patients learn how to do things differently if full restoration is impossible.
Even if your brain function cannot be fully restored, you will likely still benefit from brain rehabilitation. Virtually every patient can benefit in some way from therapy. However, the severity of your injury will affect the success of your therapy.
How Long Does It Take?
In most cases, you will begin some type of brain rehabilitation immediately after your injury. If you are in the hospital, this might look like a few minutes each day of mental and physical exercises. Of course, how quickly you can expect results will depend on where you start. In other words, if you are having trouble walking, talking, eating, etc, then it will take you longer to relearn these tasks then if you are only having trouble with memory lapses or communication.
At HDPT, we have had patients who benefited from rehabilitation even years after their injury occurred. Therefore, no matter when your injury occurred, you’re advised to contact us for an evaluation.
How Much Does It Cost?
The total cost of therapy depends upon the severity of your condition and the total number of treatments. Typically, therapy costs less than other medical modalities such as medicines or surgery. Most medical insurances cover brain rehabilitation. Please contact your provider for coverage details. You can also contact our front desk administrator for verification of benefits.
The Importance of Brain Rehabilitation
When you suffer a brain injury, it can seem like your life is over. Your personality can change. You might forget who your loved ones are, or not be able to walk, talk or do basic tasks. In essence, it can feel like life as you knew it is gone. Thankfully, there is hope. No matter the severity of your injury, you can benefit from rehabilitation at High Definition Physical Therapy. Our goal is to help you. We want to see your life restored. We will create a therapy plan to make this a reality.
Contact us today so we can get started. Don’t waste another minute suffering needlessly with pain and embarrassment due to your brain injury when you could be one step closer to restoration.