I think I was in a very similar situation.

I had a continuous headache. I was prescribed tramadol and the dosage was continually being increased by my Dr. because it wasn't reducing my pain enough. I couldn't be touched because the pain from being touched, even the most gentle of touches, was too great. We had to put up black out curtains in my studio because any amount of light was too painful for me to bear. Likewise any sound was very painful. After a few weeks I couldn't move at all because the slightest movement would instigate severe pain. My Dr. knew it was going on, but she was helpless to diagnose me beyond PCS. The first neurologist I saw kept telling me I was going to get better, but I was getting worse. My PCP referred me to a better neurologist, one she knew (her partner referred me to the first guy.)

The second neurologist guessed I was suffering from something called status migrainosis - which is an ongoing severe headache so she treated me for that. The treatments either didn't work at all, or barely worked.

After more than six months from the accident I was in, the second visit to the new neurologist, she figured out that the concussion I got had caused increased intracranial pressure. She ordered a spinal tap and the sever pain inside my skull went away within five minutes. The light didn't bother me anymore and neither did sound. It felt like I had been granted a miracle. (I was then hospitalized for about 12 days after the spinal tap due to complications.)

I believe my neurologist saved my life.

Apparently, It's pretty rare to happen with a mTBI. She says some people just get it and they are given a spinal tap and it fixes them.

I'm still recovering from the damage done to my brain, which has been exacerbated by the nearly six months of bed rest, but I haven't been in pain like that for over a year.

But, be careful, once your husband needs to get off the tramadol - the withdrawals from it are awful in so many ways. (Come to think of it though, the side effects from being on it were awful too.) Nasty stuff. I refuse to take any pain meds or muscle relaxers now because of it. You might also want to talk to your Dr. about the warnings of being a tbi patient and taking that drug - I didn't realize there were any until I had already been taking it on a regular basis for more than four or five months and was withdrawing from it.