Hi All,

I'm new here. I'm a 33 year old lady living in Los Angeles. I'm glad I finally found this forum because I think I will be able to talk to people to whom I can relate to about this stuff and that's going to be valuable for me right now.

I got a concussion at the end of July in a bad car accident and was diagnosed with PCS midway through August.

The MRI and CT Scans came back negative.

I had a slew of symptoms, including vertigo, slurred speech, and feeling like a heavy fog filled my brain - like I was trying to push my neurons through jell-o one at a time for months.

But the worst was that I had severely debilitating headaches that put me on bed rest for about five months with intense sensitivity to light and sound. It caused me to degrade slowly over those months until I was living in a dark studio, not able to speak or hear a voice at a normal volume, even whispering would incite an increase in the horrible pain, I was not able to be touched or walk without assistance until my second neurologist figured out I had increased intracranial pressure caused from the head injury which was relieved in mid January via spinal tap. Complications from the procedure hospitalized me for almost two weeks, but since I've been released my symptoms have improved greatly.

Once the pressure was relieved, I became aware that my body was in some pretty horrible pain too. They discovered I have bulging disks and pinched nerves in my neck from the whiplash I suffered in the accident. I've been going to Physical Therapy and that's reduced the pain in my body a great deal.

The dizziness and headaches have pretty much gone away at this point, but I'm still thinking, reacting, speaking and listening to others very slowly compared to my normal. My brain processes information so slowly that it's not safe for me to drive yet and I haven't worked since the accident as well. (I am a manager in a fast paced, multi-tasking environment.) I still have trouble accessing information I should know and finding words.

Also, I've lived in Southern CA most of my life and I should't have an accent whatsoever, but I have had an accent since shortly after the accident. I even had a speech therapist not believe that English wasn't my first language -when it's my only language! The newly acquired accent used to sound very Slavic, and has transformed over time, just yesterday I was told it sounded like I was from Scandinavia.

The bed rest made me lose a lot of physical strength and stamina and I am fatigued much of the time to the point I need to take many rest breaks. I've always been high energy before, so learning how to pace myself has been an ongoing lesson. I'm getting better at it and the fatigue has been diminishing, but I'm still not able to be doing a minimal activity for even an hour without getting exhausted.

My PCP thinks the increased pressure that was in my skull pressed on my brain and caused further damage and a psychiatrist that my neurologist wanted me to see is recommending some neuropsychological testing to see what areas of my brain were affected so I can get some specific treatment to help it heal faster.

I get the impression from speaking to the occasional befuddled doctor that iicp rarely accompanies mTBI but, I've read online that it occurs in about 3% of cases. My general impression is that many doctors are just befuddled by a head injury.

The six months of being in very severe pain was very traumatic and I would really like to talk to someone else who knows what I'm talking about in regards to it. Does anyone else have experience with iicp and mTBI? Or can anyone just add some insight to my case?

I've read a lot about this stuff online over the months, but I'm open to learning more and hopeful that you can shed some more light on these subjects for me.


Thanks,

~Kim