Real Story:
Carol
Carol is an adventurous high school librarian from Pennsylvania, with a loving husband and two adult children. One day at work, she was organizing school memorabilia in the library’s vault. While moving a heavy shelf, it slipped and struck her head. That’s when it all started.
Carol remembers the injury, and that later she finished work and drove herself home. It wasn’t until the next day that Carol’s colleagues noticed that something just wasn’t right about the way she was acting and encouraged her to visit a doctor.
Carol, Patient with Traumatic Brain Injury and PBA, taking NUEDEXTA. Click here to download the video transcript.
“The crying episodes were horrible. Every medical practitioner said ‘you’ll get better, just give it time.’”
Misunderstood, frustrated
Over time, Carol was gripped by episodes of uncontrollable crying, even though she didn’t feel sad. Eventually, her unpredictable episodes began affecting her work and even the amount of time she was willing to spend with her family.
The doctors Carol saw assumed these episodes were just a part of her life after her accident. They thought her crying episodes were a symptom of depression and prescribed antidepressants. “I couldn’t even convey my symptoms to the doctors,” Carol says. “They would say, ‘It’s just emotional.’ But, I knew it was more than that. I knew something was seriously wrong.”
One diagnosis was the key
Carol continued to experience sudden, frequent, uncontrollable crying episodes for over a year. She sought answers by researching her symptoms, as any librarian would. She and her family consulted several healthcare professionals. Finally, a neurologist diagnosed her episodes as PBA (Pseudobulbar Affect) and prescribed NUEDEXTA.
"When I was diagnosed with PBA, I was so relieved there was name for it—it was a real thing that was affecting me,” Carol says.
"After the unpredictable crying episodes started, I found it hard to plan some of the activities I was used to—for fear of having an episode.”
“After treatment with NUEDEXTA, I could tell it was working because I was having fewer episodes,” says Carol. She continues to experience reduced PBA episodes by taking NUEDEXTA twice a day, as directed.
Carol is sharing her story to encourage other people to talk to their doctors. Her main advice for anyone diagnosed with PBA and prescribed NUEDEXTA is this: “When starting NUEDEXTA, I would tell others to give it time and be patient, because it’s worth it.”
Carol is a real patient and has been compensated.
