Mother to Mother #4

I’ve spent the last week at 5 events where Dr. Joe Heck has also been. One of them was the Gold Star Mother’s Sunday   Memorial  Service. Our local one is held in Boulder City, Nevada. The Veteran’s Cemetery is also in Boulder City.

            I mentioned Colonel Heck because he is our representative from Nevada in Washington D.C. and an emergency physician with the Army (now reserves). He wrote a paper for Joint Forces Staff college, titled;  Minor Traumatic Brain Injury:  Rethinking the Treatment Paradigm. Which I  may refer to in my blogs.

            Basically what  I  hear Dr. Heck  saying is too many of our service members do not get adequate pre and post deployment neurocognitive assessments. This is due to a number of factors.  The military does use a screening tool called   MACE  which stands for  Military Acute Concussion Evaluation. Soldiers themselves under-report incidents.  

What it means to us as parents  and spouses of service members deployed in “hot  zones”, is that we should be cognizant  of  undiagnosed TBI and discretely look for signs of memory loss or changes in motor function. If you do notice changes seek more information or professional help in dealing with them. It would have  made a significant difference in our lives  if I  knew how much  we were injured but that information was kept from me and my son. You know your loved one,  I’m not giving any advice other than given the nature of warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan be aware of the possibility of undiagnosed  mild to moderate traumatic brain injury. 

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