OMG, Pono! I never heard anyone describe so well what my 15 year old daughter had gone through, the whole "rag doll" experience, where it appeared that she had passed out, but she was well aware of everything going on around her, just not able to respond. Eventually she was able to move a finger, then squeeze someone's hand and then mumble/grunt. And then as time went on she could often tell that one of these episodes was going to happen within a few minutes, so she could get herself to a safe place. This was happening one to three times a week. We even had her hospitalized under 24/7 video and EEG monitoring and induced one of these episodes to see if they were seizures. (They're not.) She also had a complete cardiac workup to rule out a heart problem. (None.) Normal MRI's and CT scans, of course. (Well, the MRI showed some compression of her cervical spine.) This, in addition to other symptoms such as vertigo, headaches, pains in her chest and extremeties, light and sound sensitivity, sleep problems (my husband just told me the other day that he read a medical article stating that the circadian rhythm of people who have suffered brain trauma often gets thrown out of whack), and difficulty concentrating and focusing. You are living a nightmare, I know, and it can feel most discouraging. And it doesn't help that this is a condition that is not well known or understood. Several doctors felt that it was a completely psychiatric issue. Bogus. Surely, this resulted from their frustration that they didn't know how to treat it. Finding this web site has been a big eye-opener and source of emotional support for me. Every doctor who has dealt with TBI should study it.

By the way, as a point of information, my daughter's injury resulted from a fall during a basketball game where she was going for a rebound and someone swept her legs from under her, her head hit the floor and then the other girl fell on top of her head. Then, three weeks later a fellow student was retrieving a 30 pound backpack from on top of the lockers at school and bopped her in the head. She felt nauseous and unfocused for the rest of the day, but her migraine-like symptoms didn't start until two weeks later.

Anyway, despite several wrong turns, as I stated in other fora (Headache and TBI/PCS) she had a major turnaround in the last few weeks when she started on a course of therapy involving Effexor and acupuncture with neurostimulation. The former helps reestablish nerve pathways and the latter opened up blockages in her neck and upper back to allow proper blood flow. She is also taking Melatonin at night to help her get to sleep.

Listen, I know this may sound whacky, and most likely time was a factor in her recovery, but the fact is that she is almost all better (at least 90%) after having suffered for 16 months. Her headaches are almost gone, she can concentrate for longer periods of time, is no longer as sensitive to light and prolonged loud noise, doesn't have the body pains and hasn't had a rag-doll episode in about 5 weeks. (She had a minor experience last week and two weeks before that where she felt a little weak and unfocused, but after lying down and resting for five minutes she was fine.)

So, anyone who is reading this, there CAN BE HOPE. I didn't feel this way 6 weeks ago, believe me, but now I see that it's very likely she'll live a normal life. Our lives have completely turned around.

I'm sorry if it sounds like I'm trying to sell something, and you may feel that these treatments may not help you, but don't knock it until you try it.

God bless and don't lose hope.