I'm 28 year old female roller derby skater who took a bad hit to the face in the second to last week of June this year (so much for splurging on the good hockey helmet). The hit knocked me on my butt, and I went out of the game for a few minutes, but I was evaluated by our EMT and released back into play during the second half. I didn't lose consciousness, throw up, or lose any time before or after the hit. For all intents and purposes I thought that I didn't have a concussion.

1-2 weeks later I started noticing some memory problems. On a Tuesday I was speaking to a friend about how busy I'd been that weekend, but I couldn't remember what I'd done. It took a good 10 minutes for it to all come back to me.

I also started experiencing other neurological symptoms: fuzzy headedness, slowed reading comprehension, and what others on he describe as dizziness (though for me it feels more like being drunk - my brain is a step or two behind my eyes when I turn my head.) I'm an attorney, so my work involves lots of reading off screens and lots of critical thinking. I also work below an atrium so my cubicle is inordinately bright. By the end of the day in that environment the front of my head starts to feel heavy and I feel an overwhelming urge to look down instead of in front of me. I've also been getting these sensations that I can only describe as goosebumps on my brain.

I described my symptoms to a friend in the medical field who insisted that I see a doctor. Due to my lousy insurance all I could do was go to urgent care. The doctor I saw was concerned about the duration of my symptoms. He did a physical, neurological exam on me (reflex stimulation, eye tracking, and coordination) that I passed, but he prescribed an MRI because he was worried I might have a brain bleed.

MRI came back unremarkable but included this line in the description: "There is a small foci of CSF signal along the inferior right basal ganglion region likely related to slightly prominent perivascular spaces. [sic]" Since I don't have a doctor to interpret this for me, I did some research that indicated prominent perivascular spaces are related to MS.

Now I have begun to wonder if I had a concussion in the first place, since I didn't exhibit any of the standard concussion symptoms after my hit. MS and PSC share a fairly analogous symptom list. I've been trying to get in to see a neurologist so that someone can review my scans and actually explain to me what's going on, but the earliest I can get in is mid-September.

This waiting is killing me. My symptoms also aren't improving that much either. I was on vacation last week and did notice some abatement there, but I also made some foolish choices while out of town, including riding a roller coaster and drinking fairly regularly.

I just want to start to feel better, but I'm also really holding out hope that these symptoms aren't indicative of something worse.