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Old 02-08-2013, 12:28 PM
acmartin acmartin is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 7
10 yr Member
acmartin acmartin is offline
Junior Member
 
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 7
10 yr Member
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Mark,

Well first of all, thank you for your reply. I'm honestly surprised to hear of somebody having these same issues, since my doctors told me it was impossible.
I apologize that this is a very lengthy story. You can cut to the end if you want -- look for where I say "To resume," in the separated paragraph.

Anyways, I am currently 18 years old male. I've lived my entire life on Prince Edward Island, a small island in Canada with a reputation for not having exceptional medical resources.
I have always taken everything to extremes, for example, physical activity, academic studies, musical talent, etc. I was one of those over-achievers.
Primarily, my greatest interest was martial arts. I was introduced to it at the age of 3 by my dad. I enrolled in karate classes at the age of 13 (I think), and went up the ranks exceptionally quickly. I've competed nationally at karate tournaments, and I've trained excessively.
Now, inevitably, during training, a few hits to the head are bound to occur. I took this for nothing as no symptoms showed, and I wanted to toughen it out.
This along with my recklessness in general leaded to a few complications; for one, after having hit my head on many occasions (not only in karate, but just general accidents, whether it's climbing trees or riding my bike), I noticed I had a tiny, almost not noticeable headache, that seemed to not want to disappear for months. I thought nothing of it. I told myself I would just take it easy, not put myself in harm's way. So I quit tournaments altogether - not in fear of a concussion, but in fear that overtime, hits to the head would reduce my intelligence and ruin my future career as a Ph. D. physicist (hence why I didn't go into boxing when I had the chance).
My second problem was that when, in karate, I switched over to forms/patterns, which require no actual fighting (no more danger), I noticed when I turned my head too fast in one direction, I felt a slight thump inside my head in the opposite direction.
Again, being still young and naive, I took it for nothing and thought I should just be a bit more careful. So I didn't turn my head fast like that anymore. Problem solved, I thought.
At the age of 16-17, things started to escalate quickly; it started with a snowboarding accident that made me fall and hit the back of my head at very high speeds. Although I was wearing a helmet, I ended up really dizzy, and my vision became blurry for about a minute. When the symptoms went away, I thought that was the end of it, so I didn't get it checked by a doctor. However, it seemed that my tiny headache was now a tiny bit worse, and when I turned my head slightly less fast than before, I still felt the thump on the opposite side.
When I was 16, I was playing baseball, and I was on the bench, waiting for my turn to swing. Talking to my friend, I wasn't paying attention to the game. Then I heard people yelling "Watch out!" So I looked over and the ball hit me flat on top of my head. The same thing happened as in the snowboarding incident, my vision went blurry, I lost my balance and fell, this time I near-fainted (everything seemed in slow motion and I thought I had two heads for some reason). Symptoms went away within a few minutes.
When I was 17, almost exactly a year ago from today, I began taking judo lessons along with my previous training of karate, which, for the short period it lasted, was the greatest and funnest few months of my life. During one class, I was put up against a 5ft 6 man who weighed 230 Lbs of pure muscle. He was a beast in my opinion. He ended up throwing me down and I landed on the side of my head. After that day, I began to have headaches that were slightly concerning, but I didn't go to the doctor.
By the way, for a long time I was afraid to ask my parents to bring me to the doctor, because they used to always argue with me that it's not worth going. I know this sounds ridiculous, but they never took me seriously. Since I was six years old, I was telling them that I had heartburn, but they kept saying "You're too young to have heartburn." So they never took me to the doctor. By the time I was 16, I FINALLY convinced them to bring me to the doctor, who confirmed that yes, this whole time I was telling the truth and that I should have been taking medication in order to avoid damaging my throat. That is one of many examples. Others include severe allergies to something in the air outdoors (possibly pollen), and asthma. My parents would actually yell at me if I told them that my head hurt. They would say "You're too young to be having all these problems." So I didn't go to the doctor for my headache. I couldn't face my parents.
So at this point it was slightly concerning, but I still was in denial that anything was wrong. I went to my friend's birthday party 11 months ago and got drunk playing beer pong. At one point, the ball fell on the floor, so I bent over to pick it up. As I got back up, I didn't realize the massive chandelier hanging above me only five feet from the floor, and I smashed it with the back of my head. Being drunk, I didn't even feel it (I only heard the sound it made), so I took it for nothing. Going home, walking into my house, drunk out of my mind (I was very new to drinking at the time), I lost my balance and face planted into a wall. The next day I woke up with a headache that I assumed was due to a hangover.
It was not until the next day that symptoms were severe. Now every time I moved too quickly (my arm, leg, head, anything), I felt the impact right away on the inside of my head. This was so bad that I had to stop taking the bus to school everyday (the buses were old and shaky). At this point I was scared, so I demanded I see a doctor about this. It took an entire month before I finally had my appointment.
At the appointment, I was still having the same symptoms. Not only that, I had incredible difficulty remembering and focusing at school (biology was especially difficult). After explaining my symptoms to the doctor, he told me straight up that I had a concussion and that I should see him again in a month if it didn't get better.
A month later, I told him that it was not getting better. He scheduled me to get a CT scan. This took another month and a half to get done.
After maybe three weeks, I was called in again to discuss the results of my CT scan. The doctor told me they found no sign of damage and that what I have is a post-concussive syndrome. He mentioned it could take up to two years to heal.
Since then, my symptoms have gotten worse; I must not travel by car, by foot, or by bike, unless absolutely necessary, because the impacts made by my feet are too much for me to handle after significant walking, and roads have bumps that I feel when I am in a vehicle. The more impacts, as small as they may be, the more vulnerable I become.
When summer arrives, high temperatures cause unbearable pressures in my head, yet, still I am vulnerable to movement; even more so in the heat. I've visited the doctor because there was increased pressure in my head and in the blood vessels in my neck. Not only did I feel like I was being choked, if I lied down, the blood would rush to my head and I felt pressure points on specific regions of the inside of my head. It almost felt like my blood vessels were about to pop.
One day in the summer, this was so severe that I was scared for my life. I went to a different doctor in outpatients. He told me I was just worrying too much because of a past injury and that if I didn't think about it, all these symptoms would go away. He said this after throwing my CT scan results in my face, presumably concluding his diagnosis before I could say anything.
This problem has happened again about a month ago in University. I called a cab to bring me to the hospital and this doctor, though much more polite and concerned, admitted he didn't know how to help me.
When the pressure in my head increases, and I lay down for too long, I tend to wake up with my eyes stuck crossed outwards (which is very strange because I can't do that normally). They eventually uncross after a few minutes.


To resume, in case you chose not to read my life story,

I am an 18 year old male who lives in PEI, Canada.
I was physically active in martial arts my entire life.
My condition built up over time but hit the critical stage 11 months ago.
Currently, my symptoms are the very high vulnerability to movement which increases when exposed to: high temperatures, additional impacts, applied pressure to my scalp, or laying horizontally and letting the blood rush to my head. Headaches are not present unless any of the above incidents take place; if I sit down and do absolutely nothing all day, I have no headache.
Alcohol consumption tends to work as a painkiller, although it does not actually protect my insides from further being damaged. Ibuprofen does not have any effect on my injury whatsoever.
If a remotely significant impact occurs, even indirectly (example: somebody punches my arm, I stomp my foot by accident, etc.), regular mental symptoms of a concussion appear for two weeks to a month (constant headache, pressure, lack of focus, mood swings, forgetfulness).
Pouring cold water on my head for about two minutes seems to cure headaches, but does nothing about the vulnerability factor.
Laying on the back of my head results in a sharp pain in that area.
Applying pressure to my scalp results in a taste of metal inside my mouth.
Applying pressure to regions directly adjacent to the tops of my ears (hard to explain...) results in a tingly numbing feeling that eventually hurts if I lay down on it for too long.
Getting up from sitting down sometimes results in temporary dizziness.

And that's all that I can think of. So if you've made it this far, thank you very much for your time and concern. I look forward to your reply, and I wish you luck with your situation also. If I can be of any assistance to you (which I doubt I can), feel free to ask me for advice, considering we are somewhat on the same boat.

Best of regards,
Andrew from PEI
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