Tales from THE VOID: Clueless

(see THE VOID)

I originally posted this comment on Facebook on February 9th, 2012, a day within a span of about three months from the end of December through the beginning of March for which I have almost no recollection. I averaged 20 hours of sleep per day during those months, and even the time I was "awake," no meaningful work was accomplished, and I have almost no memories from that period of time. Those months seemed like a span of a week or two. I purposely did not attempt to answer mail during that period because I knew I was not capable, and because I had a distorted impression of the amount of time going by. I never considered that I could be missing important deadlines. When the period was over, I became overwhelmed with bills that had not been paid, and official Government deadlines that had not been met. I also flunked the capstone course in a Master's Degree program in which I had been maintaining a high "A" average. My projected final GPA at the time was 3.95. (10-13-2012)

In the midst of that terrible period, I wrote this comment (which did NOT prove helpful*):

Today I made a discovery about my symptoms that make me hopeful I will be able to proceed with my school work (and other endeavors) at a stronger pace. I took a strong dose of ibuprofen around 2:00 pm because of extreme neck pain, and within a half-hour, the neck pain was bearable, and I was feeling alert and able to work. I have long suspected that my head injury had caused swelling that was the cause for my extreme sleepiness, but it never occurred to me that something as simple as ibuprofen could fix the problem. I'll be taking another stiff dose of ibuprofen tomorrow morning, and hopefully I'll have a productive day tomorrow! (and, of course, I'll be discussing this discovery with my doctors, if tomorrow goes as well as this afternoon)

 * (written 6/19/2013) I struck out the comment "which did NOT prove helpful" because I may have been premature in that assessment. I thought I had ruled out Ibuprofen's possible benefit for memory because continued use did not provide continued benefits, but in hindsight I realize the problem may have been with the amount of Ibuprofen I was taking. Recent studies have shown a previously unsuspected link between brain inflammation and diffused axonal damage, which is the most common cause of continued decline in "mild" TBI cases. Ibuprofen is probably not going to prove to be a preferred choice for TBI patients, because the dose required to bring about improvement is too high for most people to tolerate, but some other anti-inflammatory drug, one that can pass the blood-brain barrier like ibuprofen can, may be useful.