What is brain capacity? Think of brain capacity as the battery power which determines how much you can get done, or how far you can go on a daily basis. During the brain disruption phase, CFBI patients often have reduced brain capacity, and sometimes not enough juice to complete the required daily tasks. Brain injury symptoms can be overwhelming, and often hijack most of the available energy. Whether personal, professional, or social tasks, the brain capacity is the battery power that is required to deal with and complete all those tasks. The tricky part is the lack of consistency. Meaning, brain capacity can change daily, or throughout the day, which makes this problem more difficult to tackle.
In order to understand and deal with the brain capacity issue, we first need to identify and define 3 categories of brain capacity for CFBI:
Impaired –
This category indicates that CFBI patients do not have enough brain capacity to support the required daily activities such as: regular work hours, buying groceries, preparing meals, showering, laundry, cleaning chores, etc. This group of CFBI patients needs the most help and support in order to fill in the gap and continue living in a decent manner. Further, not having enough brain power for required tasks also means not enough power for any physical or social activities, so this group is most susceptible to further health issues and social isolation, and help will be needed to maintain their activities and connection to family, friends, and society.
Marginal –
This category indicates that CFBI patients tend to have more brain power and enough capacity to support their required daily activities, including personal and possibly work, but nothing else. So, this group of CFBI will usually use their entire brain capacity to keep up with required daily tasks, but have no excess brain power to do any physical, family, or social activities. So, while this group has a better outlook than the impaired group, they will need enough help to stay physically active and connected to family, society and other people, in order to stay healthy and prevent social isolation.
Sufficient –
This category of CFBI patients has more than enough brain capacity to complete the required daily tasks and activities. This includes personal, work, family, social, etc. As CFBI patients, our hope is that everyone will eventually make enough progress to reach this category, while continuing to receive help and support. But, interestingly, sometimes CFBI patients start in this category, and if the brain injury symptoms worsen, they move toward the Marginal or even Impaired category. This is not an exact science, and depending on the severity of the brain disruption phase, symptoms, and recovery, they can move back and forth. Again, being in this category does not mean that you don’t need further help and support. The key is, as long as you remain in the brain disruptions phase, or are having brain injury symptoms, it is best to continue seeking help and support.
Note – Every brain injury is unique, and there are varying degrees within each category. Also, depending on the brain disruption level and symptoms, CFBI patients may start in one category and improve into a higher category, or temporarily digress into a lower category. That’s what happened to my daughter Sarah. After her fifth Gamma Radiation, she went from sufficient to marginal. Thankfully, that only lasted a couple of years, and now she is back at sufficient.