Hello everyone. First, I want to say that this is an amazing community. I've read a lot of threads on here and found a lot of valuable information. Y'all have honestly been a godsend.

Right now, I've got some specific questions and am in desperate need of help. My boyfriend (21 years old) has had around 30 concussions since he was a child. He was a semi-pro hockey player and also played football and skateboarded. He recently got another concussion at the beginning of January when a guy attempted to mug him and hit him in the head with a gun. We've been to the ER like 4 times since then because of his symptoms--first to treat the concussion, then because he was violently vomiting and couldn't eat for like a week, then because of severe head pain, and lastly because he kept losing consciousness, couldn't walk, was disoriented, and had slurred speech.

They've done CTs every time except once, and there's no sign of a brain bleed, but he's really struggling. He's on medicaid, and getting a competent doctor to see him is practically impossible. I've got an appointment for him on Feb 15 for a new PCP who said they'd refer him to a concussion clinic, but in the meantime, I don't know how to help him. On his bad days (disorientation, passing out for a few minutes at a time, no balance, slurred speech, etc), he fights sleep. He says it's because every time he closes his eyes, he sees these horrible images from trauma in his past or fears he has now (he's got some past emotional/mental health issues too.) But the longer he stays up, the worse his symptoms get, and I just really don't know how to get him to try sleeping. It's also hard for him because he's in an incredible amount of pain, both in his head and also his stomach (he has a torn abdominal muscle had has had a bunch of GI surgeries) and his back, which has protruding discs and some other problems.

(Moral of the story here: Hockey ***** up your body.)

Does anyone have any advice? I'm chronically ill myself, so I get the good and bad days and I never take it personally when he gets combative, I just know he seems better after he sleeps but I can't GET him to go to sleep.

Also, any advice about pain management would be great. The doctors won't give him any narcotics because they say he's "too young" but Excederin just isn't cutting it. :/


Thank you so much!