Hello everyone:

been lurking since July, first time posting. this place is giving me some solace when I needed it most.

I have responded to a couple of posts here but this is the first one I’ve made. I suffered my third concussion in July 2018 and I’m still dealing with PCS. I have sciatica on the right side which limits my ability to lift my right leg. Walking across my living room my right foot did not clear the floor fully and caused me to trip.

I was in vestibular therapy from September until January. The going was very slow and it turned out I needed a prism now for my left eye. turns out that was the source of a good deal of my headaches. I don’t have the glasses yet I can’t afford them.

I have not done a neuropsych evaluation as of yet. I was set to get one but my attending rehab physician refused to fill out the paperwork to continue my already established long-term disability through my employer (literally 2/3 of a one sided form). From June till December I repeatedly asked to have this filled out. As it was not done my claim was closed in October and I received my last check the beginning of November. As my employer did not have any updates from the insurance company regarding return to work date or physical therapy update via the attending physician statement, I was laid off the first week of December.

As my physician’s bills and testing for 2018 totaled over $91,000, I had no choice but to take the COBRA coverage. What I was not aware of was the 45 day time limit for you to pay your first premium. So I now have no health insurance. I called and spoke to people who told me that it’s a federal statute that limits the time you have after leaving an employer to exercise COBRA. I tried healthcare.gov but apparently you only have 60 days after your date of termination to open a policy under an exception. and my disability payments are too much for me to be eligible for Medicaid. Mind you I’m just getting by with what I’m getting paid but whatever.

I initially had neck pain because when I hit, my forehead on the hardwood table which was against the wall, my head hit over my left eye at the hairline but my head went back into the left. I was left looking at the ceiling basically. That muscle soreness in the left side of my neck disappeared within 4 to 6 weeks after the injury.

I see the neurologist in August, he recommends vestibular therapy and told me that they would work with the neck pain. By the time I got into vestibular, I told the therapist that my neck was no longer sore and it was all good. He (PT) had me start passive range of motion exercises as I had a deficit turning my head to the left. But I always have. Not a big deal to me. About four weeks after starting these exercises, I woke up one day with a completely numb left arm but my thumb was fine. The next day I woke up with both arms numb except the thumbs. My neck now hurts muscularly on the left and bone pain on the right. I have seen my orthopedist three times since this first happened and his response was “we'll look at this after we fixed your back“. Dude I have never ever in my life had numb arms. WTAF

finally an MRI of my cervical spine was ordered by the orthopedist at the behest of the neurologist. It was during that time I found out I had no health insurance. The reason for the MRI of my C-spine? it was an injury from when I was nine years old and over for 9 foot springboard into a 15 foot deep end of the pool. I landed with my head crashing into the bottom of the pool and my chin touched my sternum, I lost all my air and it turned out the next day that I had approximately 2 to 3 inch circular area of scraped scalp where my hair had been broken off at the scalp. I remember I was ill that night, but I told no one because we were on vacation.

I had initially forgotten this, but is no one seem to care about my neck, I went back and looked at the CT that was done at the time of the concussion. That CT of my head showed there was something going on with my neck (but not really stressed in the report it was an old injury). I’m having weird things happened to me like when I stand up my pulse goes down. My heart rate has jumped approximately 20 bpm at rest since this happened and my diastolic rarely is below 94 despite my cardiologist best attempts to keep it in check. Yes, I have cardiac issues but can talk about them another time. The neurologist concurs that there is a cervical/brainstem component to my concussion.

during my last appointment with the orthopedist again push the issue of my neck and the then 5 Several days I had broken up with one or both numb arms. He wasn't happy about it now as he left the room he threw a ******** skull film x-ray order at me.

The x-rays were just flat plates one straight-on one with me turning head bent forward, then bent backwards.

within four hours of doing that simple maneuver bending my head forward and backward, the tinnitus in my left ear returned to initial levels from the concussion. I also developed a purely left sided headache. My short term memory is shot. I cannot remember numbers names etc. these are not things that bothered me during the initial concussion in July. In addition my mid range vision was again blurry but only in my left eye.

Here’s the part that's scaring me: I have periods where my mind is simply goes blank. Let’s call it a "flash of amnesia", bc that is what it is. i have narrowed it down to when I am doing a visual task, focusing on that while somebody tries to tell me something or asks me a question. This did happen to me twice when he was doing initial assessment on me before vestibular therapy and had never happened again. But now since that x-ray it’s back and seems to be getting worse.

I am experiencing flooding on a daily basis. this is also new. An MRI was done of my brain two days after the concussion and I had no injuries. This was the one that showed the abnormalities in my cervical spine. The most severe damage is C3/C4, but also C4/C5 and C5/C6. Perfectly matches where my arms are going numb. Oh and my shoulders, the trapezius muscles especially.

As a medical professional for 33 years, I was well-versed in what caused quadriplegia and paraplegia. I realized that I was lucky I should’ve died that day after that dive.

My memory is so bad that I am constantly caring around a notebook using Voice Memos on the phone and transcribing them later as I am able. I have more receptive aphasia than expressive aphasia. I find it hard at times to enunciate words properly. I’ve always been a good public speaker and now I stammer during phone calls or conversations.

Does any of this sound familiar to anyone here? No one medically seems to know what I’m talking about when I say my mind goes blank. Initially when it happened it took me approximately 3-5 seconds to remember where I was why I was there etc.Now it takes one to two seconds but I’m still scared when it happens because I don’t know if I’m waking up to a dangerous situation or not. very difficult to explain.

One more thing: ready after my initial concussion in July, the skin on my head including the scalp, felt really sore almost like I had bumped it. It went away after a while, but in the last month I have woken up at least four times with a bump on my hairline. It’s something that happens during my sleep. I was concerned that it might be seizures so my bed is well padded and nothing is within reach that would cause me to have such a repeated injury. My scalp is not red it is not bruised or anything to indicate if it’s a physical injury. has anyone ever experienced a hairline fracture of the school as a result of their concussion fall/injury? I’m wondering if that could be something that was missed.

I have always been a thinker, a reader, a nerd. I know I have trouble reading because of the blurry left die and my attention span is such that I cannot follow a story whether it be in a television show or in a book. My brain has always been my constant companion and my favorite toy. If i’m going to spend another 30 years like this I’m not sure I can deal. Apologies in advance for any grammatical errors or spelling. I'm having a hard time writing because my fingers aren't listening to my brain all the time, so I’m using voice to text.

I thank you for reading and look forward to your responses.

PS: For those interested, my first concussion happened at 18 months of age when I fell onto a marble coffee table. I threw up for 2 days. The scar from the concussion is less than a centimeter away from the one I sustained in July 2018.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk