FARGO — Whether they stem from a sports-related injury or a car crash that seemed minor, brain injuries can be tricky to treat and difficult to recover from. Just ask a young Fargo mother of twins who never imagined that a fender bender would result in months of recovery and treatment. "Little did I know that was the start of the journey," Becca Gaikowski said.
Gaikowski is coming up on a special anniversary, or as she calls it, her "brainiversary." Gaikowski was rear-ended in a crash near Lindenwood Park in Fargo. Her head hit the steering wheel multiple times.
While scans and X-rays did not show anything amiss, Gaikowski's brain had been damaged. "I actually thought I felt fine," Gaikowski said. "I felt just off.
" Eventually, Gaikowski began to feel fatigue and brain fog. Treating her injuries was a team approach and required more than a year of therapy with multiple experts, including at Progressive Therapy Associates in Fargo. "If you met one person with a brain injury, you met one person with a brain injury.
No two people have the same needs," said Janet Grove, a certified brain injury specialist for Progressive Therapy Associates. Now, after all the work and help from the experts, Gaikowski is back at work and a mother of new twins, a long way from a time when she thought she would recover quickly on her own. "And some days, I wasn't sure I would get here, but now three years out, it is incredible," Gaikowski said.
"I have a fiance, a set of twins, I don't know, it is.