A Brazilian attorney’s journey to healing from a concussion

I am an attorney from Brazil and this was a long journey until I found a cure for my concussion. My life played out like a movie-- The kind of movie that once it is finished you thank god it was just a movie and you are safe and sound on your couch. I saw many doctors and most of them just didn't understand my symptoms. My family thought my symptoms were psychological and I needed therapy. So I did it for years. Of course, doing therapy never tackled my real issues. But after seeing Donalee my life started to change in the blink of an eye. One week after seeing Donalee and the other professionals she recommended, I flew back to Brazil. And my mom said: "You are so much better, you are more like the son I know, you don't need psychotherapy, you just need to keep doing this treatment!" Of course I was better, I was more present, attentive, more balanced. I used to drift to the left when walking and had to consciously correct my self. Well, that went away. It's been 5 weeks since I first saw Donalee. I am not 100% back to what I used to be but I am getting there, and fast! Unfortunately, the concussion and the symptoms I had to live with were not in a movie but in my life. But the good news is that I've found a way to solve something that apparently looked unsolvable.

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A computer scientist describes how DSM Exercises changed his brain after he was hit by a car

For reference, you may remember when I was playing the paper version of Mind Mazes I wasn't satisfied because of how much of a logical conversation I had to have with myself. I had to very consciously think through what the options were for matching each time. I had to think very methodically about each shape in an order to see if I could connect with a line. I felt like I often got into a repetitive and on-constructive pattern. I'd continue to ask myself the same questions for two patterns, not quite remembering the other options I had already gone through, which ones I already determined matched, if it for sure wasn't a match. I generally would force myself to give up after a while, just look at another set of patterns for matches, but not really certain I'd ruled out the option of the two I'd been focused on.

Great news is that at least for this game I've broken that behavior. I played the app periodically while in Chicago on Saturday after our Friday appointment and got to level 50 before getting home Saturday night. I continued to play for 10-15 minutes a few times a day and had gotten to level 125 by by about the end of the week, so playing the app in total for about a week or less. I continue to play level 125 once a few times a day and am averaging about 1 minute or less to finish. It just feels right now.

It all seemed to "click" around levels 30-50 the Saturday after our appointment. At that point I started to better understand what I expected of myself, why I was frustrated by what I described above, even though you felt like I was doing fine, having a conversation with myself, going through logical steps, etc. When it "clicked" it’s almost like my subconscious took over the processing. I didn't really need to go through a conscious logical process. I would just look at two shapes and "know" if they shared two characteristics. If I stopped to think I could quickly describe (to myself in my head) what two characteristics matched.

Sometimes I'd get caught up with one or two of them and spend a minute fixated, but for the most part just move from pattern to pattern. Also great is that I can count on one hand the number of times I made a mistake caught during submission.

This is the first time doing your puzzles I've gone at the speed I expect of myself. Where I don't feel like l need to logically think through what process to follow to get the right answer. I don't know if t'm saying this right but it sounds like my subconscious almost just takes care of it. It's kind of crazy that my brain still expects this level of processing, that I get frustrated not having it, after 8 years of being level-set backwards after the accident. I guess that's just how the brain works though.

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A college student refuses to accept her “new normal” diagnosis post concussion

Dear Donalee & Margit,

There is a beautiful Japanese phrase “otsukaresama” which is used to express gratitude. I love this word because it directly translates to “you are tired”, acknowledging the effort that kindness and good deeds take.

I want to say otsukaresama to you both. I can see how hard and passionately you work and the effects your work has on people is revolutionary. I have already mades so much progress since my week in Chicago and could not be more grateful for that. Thank you also for being so welcoming, kind, and fun - and for all the tea.

You both work in a field that isn’t widely understood but that is so important. I will work hard to spread the word of neuroplasticity and how it has helped me and so many others. I hope you never get discourage from opening up your “yes you can” clinic no matter how challenging it may seem, because it is so necessary and will make big changes to the work. I’m looking forward to see you in August!

Sincerely, your fan, S.R.

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An artist’s interpretation of her cognitive recovery from a car accident

Janette Gerber - Textile Artist / Designer "Open to Brain Plasticity"

Brain Plasticity refers to the ability of the brain to change itself, to rewire.

This work is an expression of my gratitude for the professionals of the many healing paths I have taken to get my “Self” back, post injury and concussion. The umbrella, made of constructed cloth, is a loose representation of the synapses made by our magnificent brains. From the head spring many of the symptoms which occur simultaneously. Think of the inside of a telephone cable, with multiple colored wires, bare in spot and shorting out as they touch.

Each of the eight sections of the umbrella is devoted to a phase of healing with dangling visual representations of some of the healing steps, a process that is ongoing.

This is a very brief summary of a long and difficult internal invisible injury and journey. Integrating Traditional Medicine and Alternative Therapies, I build a dancelike interweaving of complimentary approaches, each working toward the common goal of brain plasticity.

Dr. Deborah Zelinsky O.D. referred me to Cognitive Therapist Donalee Markus Ph. D. who said that her exercises would result in the return of the “pictures in my head.” It is a frightful loss for an artist to the pictures. Mine had gone, along with my creativity, in the moment of the crash nearly three years ago. Cognitive exercises brought the pictures back.

Janette Gerber

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DSM heals father of eight when traditional medicine offered no treatment for his Traumatic Brain Injury

Don K.
I was on the job for SBC one Saturday morning four years ago, parked in my truck, when I was hit head-on by a reckless driver. I recovered quickly from a concussion, but was subsequently plagued with post-concussion syndrome: I was hypersensitive to noise, my field of vision was broken down to pixels rather than a whole integrated picture – in fact, all my systems were hyperactive.

Doctors wrongly told me I'd be good as new in a year; what did make all the difference was working with Donalee, who said, "Life's going to be different from now on, so let's make good use of it." It took me less than four years to retrain my brain with Donalee Markus, and I'm back with SBC, splicing cable – thanks to Donalee, I'm able to lead a normal life.

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A parents nightmare: their 16 year old is in a catastrophic car accident

Kathy A. - Parent
A catastrophic car accident at age 16 left my daughter Krysty with a traumatic frontal-lobe brain injury and a broken neck. Her physical wounds healed, but her brain did not – until we took her to Donalee Markus. Krysty arrived at Donalee's office with her higher functions, including executive function and critical thinking, gone – along with 20 points from her IQ. She was almost emotionless and operating at an 11 year old's social level.

After working with Donalee, Krysty regained her higher brain functions, emotions and IQ, got back on the honor roll, and is now on the honor roll in college and an officer in her sorority. I simply cannot thank Donalee enough for what she's done.

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After a cerebral hemorrhage, high-level function is recovered through neuro-cognitive restructuring

Moira M.
In October 2006, I was interviewing a new client of the publicist who employed me as a writer of press materials, when I suddenly experienced what felt like a sledgehammer blow to the back of my head. I lost consciousness, and upon awakening – on the floor – found I was hallucinating. Day-glo colors of pink, green and yellow were swirling all over the faces of the people clustered around me trying to help. I knew something was direly wrong with me, and I was right: a giant brain aneurysm (that I didn’t know I had) had ruptured, causing a cerebral hemorrhage and the first of three hemorrhagic micro-strokes.

I remember the paramedics arriving and lifting me onto a stretcher – and my next coherent memory was fully three weeks later. I was in Northwestern Memorial Hospital’s neuro intensive care unit, and just beginning to discover – to my horror -- the extent of the brain damage.

While my verbal skills seemed intact, I found I could no longer read an analog clock (the kind with hands.) I couldn’t identify black-and-white line drawings of familiar objects: a hammer, a bed, a horse. I had trouble sequencing. I couldn’t do simple math problems like long division – even subtraction, as long as it involved borrowing. My head felt like a Cuisinart, with disjointed thoughts whirling around so fast I couldn’t get a fix on them. As for multitasking, I figured those days were gone forever.

In addition to the publicity job, I’d been a longtime freelance journalist, and my main outlet was at that time (and still is) the Chicago Tribune, Once the full import of my brain injury registered with me, I was terrified I wouldn’t be able to write an article again. I had all the words, but did not know if I could sequence them, or link them with the ideas that would make them into a feature article.

Leaving intensive care a week or so later, I entered in-patient rehabilitation. After two weeks, I could identify line drawings once again, and seemed to have improved in other cognitive areas as well. But I was far from being recovered – and it was at that point I began to see Dr. Donalee Markus.

With Donalee, my high-level recovery began. After a few weeks, I was able to hold more than one idea in my head simultaneously. I began to regain my ability to multitask. And two months after the ruptured aneurysm had felled me, I had my first post-trauma article published in the Tribune. As part of the writing process I used an invaluable organizational tool I’d learned from Donalee: mind mapping. I’ve continued to use mind mapping with each subsequent Tribune article I’ve written – a general process that has gotten less and less difficult, thanks to Donalee.

One very important skill that Donalee’s neurocognitive therapy restored was my ability to navigate. My visuospatial center had been hard-hit by one or more of the strokes – and I’d found, to my considerable distress, that I could no longer visualize the street grid of Chicago in my head, in order to get from one place (or set of coordinates) to another. I couldn’t picture north, south, east, and west in relation to where I was at a given time, which made getting around the city where I live much more challenging than it had ever been – if not, in fact, utterly daunting.

But the visual puzzles Donalee had me do – ramping up their complexity bit by bit – brought back my ability to see the grid in my mind. Once again I could stay oriented, figure out where I was going, know which major Chicago street would be coming up next in the direction I was walking.
I even began trekking to New York City in the fall of ’07 to visit my daughter (a freshman in college there), and my work with Donalee had so improved my visuospatial skills that I was able to navigate around Manhattan and even Brooklyn with few mistakes.

I loved doing those puzzles – especially the wonderful dots that are Donalee’s trademark. I swear I could feel the damaged connections in my brain knitting back together, or rerouting themselves. I found the puzzles simultaneously relaxing and stimulating, and I looked forward to doing them daily the same way you might anticipate getting a massage. Donalee’s visual puzzles – as well as Sudoku, which she taught me and which I still do almost daily -- also helped me with my scanning, which had been severely impacted.
Another issue that had given me much grief, even half a year after the rupture – was that I had focusing problems. I would forget to retrieve my ATM card from cash machines; I’d forget to close the lid of the coffee maker when setting up my husband’s morning coffee the night before. After working several months with Donalee, my attention to those details (and others) noticeably improved. I continued to feel more and more like myself as time went on, thanks to Donalee Markus and her remarkable, cutting-edge neurocognitive therapy. I am so fortunate to have been able to work with her: it’s no exaggeration to say she gave me my life back.

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