One of the worst symptoms that brain injury patients experience while recovering from their trauma is that of fatigue. Brain injury fatigue relates to the issue of tasks — that were once very simple to complete — being very taxing to perform due to microscopic injuries to different parts of the upper brain stem and cerebral white matter.
For example, brain injury victims may experience difficulty with concentrating, reading for meaning, keeping distractions at bay, monitoring ongoing performance, completing mental calculations, planning activities and understanding conversations with background noise. This difficulty causes fatigue and an extreme sense of tiredness. Many brain injury sufferers may be completely exhausted by midday or late afternoon. This fatigue causes actions that were formerly difficult to become next-to-impossible to complete.
Often, brain injury victims feel the most fatigue when they are at their desks trying to work, while reading or while trying to complete any other kind of activity requiring concentration. In the early stages following a brain injury, physical activity could also trigger fatigue.
Because external injuries heal following an accident, a persistent brain injury may not be visible to family members and friends. As a result, a brain injury sufferer who complains of fatigue may not be completely understood by family members and friends. Friends and family might encourage the injured person to push through the difficulty, but this can result in worsened symptoms.
California residents who believe they may have suffered a brain injury in an accident should seek medical attention immediately. If the accident was caused by another party’s wrongdoing or negligence, the injured person may also wish to investigate the possibility of pursuing financial restitution through a personal injury lawsuit.