My understanding is that concussions don't necessarily show up on MRIs. My son did have an inital CAT scan following his injury and maybe a second (I'd have to look it up), but both the neuropsychologist and neuro-surgeon were in agreement that further brain scans would be inconsequential. The simple fact of the matter is that you have to treat the symptoms, and if the sypmtoms are screaming PCS what harm are you doing by following that protocol? Maybe there is a migrane med to consider and even trial, but I don't see how the possibility of PCS can be ignored. Stick with your gut. If you don't like your doctors, don't be afraid to move on. We withstood the condescending judgement of 2 ER docs and a specialist at Children's hospital in Boston before we found docs who really knew what they were talking about.

Hello everyone!! My 11 yr old daughter has been suffering from PCS for almost 7 weeks from falling off a bike without a helmet at her friends house... Horrific migraines, nasseau and vomitting for 1 week straight vomitting, now just when it gets super intense, confusion at times, blurry and at migraines peak double vision. she has been hospitalized 2 different times at the Children's Hospital in St. Pete. Each time for 5-7 days, and then again in Tampa Children's hospital for 4 days. She has done the mag sulfate iv, steroids iv, depakone iv, torodol iv, topomax, ultram, and phenrgan. mood stablizers, prozac etc...... she is finally getting some relief from th constant intense migraines!! She still gets them but just not 3-6 times everysingle day. now its about 1 maybe 2 times a day.
Well last week after 3 days of being on a whole new slew of meds including a few I wasnt thrilled with and had already put a call into our psychiatrist (she is also ADHD) to ask what he thought about them. But before I got the chance to speak to him my daughter went into a MAJOR VIOLENT RAGE AND THEN WANTED TO KILL HERSELF. it was so bad that she had to be baker acted!!!
She is home now, and the psychs all think that the benzos thy had her on must have triggerd it. Sh doesnt remember anything at all about it!! She woke up at the hosp. crying and scared, yet she was awake when w got there she even gave her statement to the dr and police then passed out. She wasnt given any medication. We are just going to be able to get her MRI tomorrow (b/c she had her braces on and was too sick to even go get it done) to rule out any possible damage etc... now this is a REALLY GOOD GIRL who is in honor classes doesnt get in trouble has tons of friends etc....so that behavior is VERY out of the norm for her....
Has anyone else had issues with any of this including the uncontrollable rage and then amnesia after it???
so worried!!!!!

Hi, I was wondering who the Dr.'s were that really understood your situation? I'm in the Boston area and have been dealing with my son's PCS symptoms and had also had condescending judgement from Children's Hospital Boston neurologists. It's been very frustrating finding people who really understand concussions and it's aftermath. Thanks for any help you could provide.

Hi, my 11yo son has been suffering from PCS and has definitely had rage episodes. I completely feel for what you are going through. It's been a very frustrating time because many Dr.'s have not been very helpful. My son has had two concussions in a two week period and the rage/violent issues began the night of the 2nd of the two concussion close to each other. He also was admitted to a psych facility after being in Children's Hospital Boston. Children's was very quick to get rid of him after an MRI and short EEG came back fine. They just said that it must be an underlying psych issue and there was nothing else they could do. At the psych hospital, he was fine, no episodes, no meds and the Dr.'s there said it had to be from the PCS. A few days after being released, the rage started again....but not as bad. It has been 4 1/2 weeks since the rage episodes started and they are definitely less frequent. A new neurologist that we are going to started him on Trileptal yesterday to see if it will help to calm the brain while it is healing. I'm hoping that this will help.

Has there been any improvement since your post?

So sorry I'm just responding. I didn't not see this with the crush of the holiday season. Anyhow, I would highly recommend Dr. Neal McGrath. He has an office in Boston/Brighton. Google his name and you will find his website. He is a neuropsychologist who had a son with a concussion. He got it right away, and offered REAL help. We also sought the help of Dr. Robert Canto who is a neurosurgeon. He practices out of Emerson Hospital in Concord, Mass. He is one of the country's leading authorities on sports concussions and works with professional athletes. You may have seen him in the news if you are looking out for sports concussion stories. We thankfully were medically cleared through him fairly quickly, but it was some time before we even got in to see him.

The number one most important piece of advice I would offer is to journal you son's symptoms daily. I found that gave me enormous credibility with the doctors. There was no denying what was written in black and white. It also helped us to see quicker than the docs what was working and what wasn't. For my son, complete brain rest (no tv, reading, video games, busy situations) for almost two weeks is what helped him turn the corner. Whether his brain was just ready to heal at that time or the rest really was the key we may never know. Good luck to you. I'm often not on here, so if I can be of any other help, feel free to e-mail me directly.
s.bosco@comcast.net

Hello all,

I posted here a while back and was able to correspond off-forum with sboscoe and her husband (thank you!). I wanted to share what has helped our daughter to get rid of the post-concussion headaches.
Our daughter's most debilitating symptom had been headaches for weeks post-concussion, but one day I looked at her and realized that she was very thin, also. For weeks she had not been eating much because of the headaches and other post-concussive symptoms. She had lost almost 10 pounds, which was way too much.
With our doctor's guidance, we decided to put the weight back on and get her back on her historic growth curve. After only 4-5 days of 3000 calories/ day, her headaches disappeared entirely. It took 7 weeks to get her back to her healthy weight. This was not always easy, as she is a teen and was getting some positive feedback from peers about how lovely she looked when she was underweight. However, she is much lovelier and energetic at a healthy weight and no headaches.
This is certainly not the answer to most post-concussion headaches, but I would encourage anyone to make sure their child stays on his/her historic growth curve during the recovery phase. It is all too easy for them to lose weight when they don't feel well. In addition to the headaches, fatigue, irritability, and mental slowness all improved when our daughter returned to her usual weight. (The headaches disappeared entirely; the other symptoms have improved).

snowdaykids,

So glad to hear about your daughter's recovery. For most of us these PCS incidents can be overcome even though it is a painful, emotional, grueling process. Unfortunately for some unlucky few it never goes away. Wish you all the best.

sandy

Hello, I am so happy to have found this forum. I feel like I am on my own in helping my daughter overcome her post concussion syndrome symptoms.
My daughter is a college student in the Boston area, a 25lb weight fell onto her head 4 months ago, it was a grade 2 concussion, she stopped all of her sport activities (she is on the crew team); had to drop one of her classes because of the horrible daily headaches. She was home for the holidays and really rested for a whole month. I took her for a 2nd opinion out here while she was home, the doctor put her on 50mg of elavil. She has been on the medication for 5 weeks. She still gets headaches everyday from concentrating, loud noises, bright lights, she is tired. Just not herself. She saw a new doctor last week who seemed to take an interest in her suffering. He wants her to get an MRI and see a doctor at the Faulkner Hospital/Graham Headache Center at Brigham Women's Hospital.
This would be her first MRI for this. I have been reading that an MRI and/or CT scan will not show anything. What do others think of getting an MRI now?
Has anyone else gone to this headache clinic and if so, whom did you see and did they help you? Any comments on the medication or anything else we can do to make our daughter whole again?