Am I going crazy? or can anyone relate?
 

[QUOTE=owen;87464]Im so glad i found this place. Heres my PCS story.

I was at a paintball tournament in florida. It was two days before our team was scheduled to play. We were walking through the vendor area when a freak gust of wind blew one of the vendors balloons, about 10'12 feet in diameter, tethered by rope maybe 50 feet in feet in the air, it came down directly on my head. I didnt see it coming, i had no idea what had happened untill someone told me.......



I'm in a very similar situation right now. I am an RN. At work I was elbowed to the right side of the head twice by a semi-sedated patient during a procedure. I had my jaw knocked out of place which has now been causing pain as well as constant appointments to get it put back into place. I now have a constant clicking when I chew and and achy jaw muscle. But my biggest problem has been with my head. This happened almost 4 months ago. My symptoms are decreasing but still remain. I have been off work now for about 3 months because of this which is causing extra stress on the situation. The only lucky part of this whole thing was that it happened at work so I am able to continue getting paid through workers compensation.
Initially, I saw an ER doctor who just wanted to make sure that my jaw wasn't broken, it wasn't so she said just take Ibuprofen for the pain, so I did. Then about a week later the headaches really started to get worse, so I went to a walk in clinic and saw a GP there. He was very understanding and was sympathetic because he apparently remembered me as he was recently a patient of mine. He gave me a couple of prescriptions (muscle relaxant and anti inflammatory) and told me to call in sick if I was having a bad day. He also said to get an x-ray of my jaw if the pain didn't decrease in the next 2 weeks. 2 weeks past and things just got worse. I went to the dentist and got an x-ray of my jaw. The joint was damaged causing my jaw to slide in and out of place but there is nothing I can do except to take NSAIDs. I continued on as best as I could for nearly another week. At this point I could barely make it through the day; Severe headaches, nausea, sensitivity to light, jaw pain, dizziness, light headed, neck pain, cold sweats, fatigue, etc. My husband convinced my to see a chiropractor thinking that my neck was knocked out of place and this is what is causing the headaches. So I get an appointment at my lunch break...get there in a blur, in a cold sweat, feeling almost 'drunk'...he looks at me and says, "call your employer, you're not going back." Luckily this chiropractor has worked with many people with head injuries. He says my pupils are unevenly dilated (something that I had not noticed other than people telling me "your eyes look funny")
This began my daily visits to the chiropractor - not in the way you would think of a chiropractor though. Not a lot of cracking - more visual stimulation and neurological stuff. So, I went to him 6 days a week for about 6 weeks. I was then referred to a neurologist while still seeing the chiropractor about 4 times/week. The neurologist did the usual; follow my finger, look that way, back at me, up, down, reflexes, etc. then sent me to an EENT to rule out inner ear problems. The EENT said it was ridiculous that I was sent to him, like it was a waste of his time and said he couldn't help me. The neurologist said that his assessment of me was normal but would send me for an MRI to rule out anything more serious. (Still waiting for the MRI - in 2 weeks). Still seeing the chiropractor (now only 2 - 3 times/week), still having symptoms - although I am having more good days now than I was about 2 months ago. I have been keeping a symptom journal to track my progress, it seems to help when seeing a new health care provider as the days seem to run together and I cannot remember how I was feeling "two weeks ago Wednesday" I have been keeping this journal in a microsoft word document which is now 22 pages long...but at least the info is there.
The neurologist told me to stay away from over the counter pain killers as I may be getting a rebound headache from overuse of these medications. But I was given nothing instead of these medications. The over the counter stuff didn't help a whole lot anyway, sometimes not at all, others only knocking it down 1 peg or so. I have only taken Advil or Excedrin a couple times in the past 5 weeks. Now using heat and ice packs for pain, keeping blinds closed, and noise to a minimum.
This is the most frustrating thing ever!! At least when you have a broken bone, people can see it, and you can track your progress and see the healing. With your head, it is far more difficult for others to understand as well as more difficult to explain to those who have never experienced this before. It's hard when the only treatment that has been recommended is "time" I have also been told to take magnesium which may be a coincidence but I find that it has been taking the edge off a little (after about 2 weeks of 500 mg/day)
I have been having difficulty describing my symptoms to people but my best shot is:
"In a fuzzy, lightheaded blur. Lights seem brighter, voices echo, feel "fuzzy" and vision is kind of blurred and then focuses into clarity while you hear your heartbeat in your head and each beat brings with it a stabbing pain and a wave of nausea. All the while your head is trapped in a vice. At times it is like the floor is melting under your feet as you walk or like walking on a sponge - the floor doesn't seem stable. A wave a dizziness can hit at any time literally knocking you into a wall or doorway (if you are lucky enough to catch yourself). It's like a bad drunk but worse!"
My husband has noticed irritability and personality changes as well. All of the literature suggests that about 90% of people should be back to normal within 3 months. This makes me feel like I must be going crazy because I have been feeling like this for over 4 months. Some say it can last years in a minority of people...so what do you do in the meantime? a year is a long time to feel like this! I think I might go crazy if this continues much longer.
Can anyone relate? or am I really crazy?

Welcome to the NeuroTalk Support Groups.

Just wanted to let you know that there is a Traumatic Brain Injury and Post Concussion Syndrome Forum here as well. It's pretty busy and there is useful information and lots of very helpful discussions. It's helped me heaps over the years.

Just click on the link and maybe repost over there if you want.

Owen, I got my concussion one month ago and the doc in the ER sent me home that day and said go ahead and drive myself to school tomorrow, didn't give me any kind of CAT scan, even tho I need 3 staples. 3 days later my PCS set in and I had to have a CAT scan uninsured, because my insurance ran out THE DAY AFTER I got hit, AND the ER doc knew that on the day of! I was ticked and I'm fighting the bill with a request for FreeCare since it was her negligence that meant I had to get the scan uninsured anyway. But I SOOO sympathize with the trouble to form plans and the forgetfulness. It's hard to think straight when your head hurts that much, I'm no doctor but it's obvious that the symptoms are terribly distracting. I had to do my clinical skills testing for a CNA course taking care of nursing home patients while this was going on, doing heavy lifting and planning how to do safe care in a timely manner. HA HA, as you can probably imagine it was 3 days of HELL and I barely passed a course that I should have breezed through.
From all that I've gathered, there is indeed no better treatment than as much good sleep as you can manage, counseling for the emotional trauma, and I've seen references to biofeedback which I'm going to explore. I have vertigo, an anxiety disorder, and ADD anyway so I maybe should have looked into that before. I've started drawing again- just picking up a pencil and doodling images that make me feel good. Roses, chickadees, stars and planets, horses eyes, whatever. I found that I was pleased with how they turned out because I was drawing something I loved that I already knew well. And I cry a lot. Even if something makes me laugh, the laugh usually turns into crying. I know that's part of it too, so I'm learning to be alright with it for now.
AND, when you mentioned feeling promiscuous, that rang a bell because I've been longing for the past month to be held again by my ex from 5 years ago, at the same time that I'm feeling like giving in to the advances of this nice guy who I'm never been attracted to, just to be touched and held. I'm fighting it tho, because I'm pretty sure if it weren't for this I wouldn't feel that way, but I do think it's the trauma, emotional or physical, that makes one feel more in need of physical affection. I haven't heard it from anyone else but I do think it's an effect of the injury in some way.

Crazy Headaches
 

Owen, I slipped and fell hitting my head on tiled cement floor. It didn't seem like a big deal but I was unconscious for 5-10 minutes and have been having headaches, blurry vision, ringing in my ears, feeling very tired/sad/no energy or desire to do much of anything. Have been seeing a neurologist and has me on indomethacin, oxycodone, flexeril, with no help for headaches. Sent for Cat scan and MRI... all negative. Haven't been to work and generally feel very bad. Not sure where to go from here and it has only been a month.

Srry if im doing this wrong.
 

Hello, this is the first time ive posted on something like this. I wasnt sure how to create a new post , so sorry i am just adding to this.

I have been diagnosed with post concussion syndrome. I guess I want to know, will it go away? Its destroyed me, people who care for me and my life.

I live in Japan and went over to China for a couple of weeks just after the earthquake.

That was my first mistake

My second mistake was renting a scooter, which I crashed when a man walked out into the road. I pulled the brakes, went over the handle bars and landed head first.

The helmet broke. As soon as it happened I instinctively stood up to drag my scooter to the side of the rode. As I stood up and started to do that, I went dizzy and collapsed onto the floor, my vision went and my friend had to try hard to keep me awake. I kept going in and out of blackness and felt really ill.

I always downplayed the story to people , because I didn’t want those who cared about me to worry.

I was taken to a little hospital in the middle of nowhere　the doctors didn’t care about my head but more about the cuts and scrapes on me.

I took myself home on the same bike and apart from feeling achy and sore , I felt ok.

I was a little worried, so back in the bigger town that night I took myself to a real hospital where they gave me a CAT scan and told me I was concussed. The doctor said he saw no problems on the scan.

I went back to Japan

When my girlfriend opened the door to me, the first thing she said is “your different”, even before I said what happened.

Between then and now, my girlfriend of 5 years who I thought I would marry left me.
Not because of what I did after the concussion, but I guess it was how I dealt with it.
And after my mother recently visited me I realized I could not really remember what we had done while she was here. It just seems blurry and difficult to piece together. The same as the prior months after my girlfriend left to another country, I thought It was just my stress or the fact I was ignoring important decisions I had to make.

But anyway, gradually I pieced together all these clues and read an article on the bbc abou concussion and it lead me to finding out about PCS..so I ended up in a doctors room, and now, ive been diagnosed with it.

I find it hard to grasp time and my memory of weeks and months seems to blur together into one big mess. I find myself switching between being emotionless or too emotional for no reason. I have sharp headaches often. I cant think in a rational way or connect with anyone in speech. My mother told m when she visited that I seem detached　and really irritable.

I recently suffered from vertigo a few times which the doctor originally told me was an ear infection side effect, but another doctor said I have no ear infection. So I guess that was a result of PCS

The list of things goes on.

I guess, I just want to know if it will go.

I really think if I didn’t have this, my life would be different right now. It happened at a time when I needed to be myself. Its almost as if im looking at myself compared to how I was, I see those differences and understand why they are there. But I still cant pull myself together.

Does anyone have advice, knowledge?

As im in Japan its hard to get an easy honest answer in English.

We have a forum here for Post Concussion Syndrome where others may be able to provide more information to help you
here is the link to it
http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/forum92.html

Afraid
 

I'm 15, and sustained a signifigant concussion from cheerleading. I have PCS, and it sucks. The headaches are unspeakable, its hard to sleep, my emotions are all screwed up, I have random laughing/crying fits, I'm depressed and irritable, I have no interest in doing anything. I used to be an ambitious kid who loved life and other people, I was down to earth and had my emotions in check. I was well balanced and had a good outlook on things. Now I don't. I'm anxious over little things, and not very social. Its been a month today since the accident, and I'm still having issues and missing school. This year is so important (sophmore year) and I don't want to fall behind. Teachers don't understand because I can talk and walk and function. Nobody understands, and people think I'm overeacting or faking it because I can hold a conversation. I'm so afraid things are not going to be ok. So afraid. I used to be an honors class kid, I'm afraid I won't be. I don't know what to do.

To everyone out there suffering from PCS:
I know. It sucks. I've had 2 major concussions during a college and pro hockey career. When I was in college was the worst. Everyone was going to class and hanging out and gonig to parites and playing sports but I could bearly make it to the dining hall because my head was ringing and even the slightest light was annoying. I was up for deans list at a top 10 college and my grades fell off becasue I couldn't study. I spent hours reading blogs just like this, hoping for some ray of light, looking for someone that had been through this and resumed some normal style of life. That was 5 years ago.

After each concussion I basically disappeared from life. I slept pretty much non-stop. I went from 4% bodyfat to 25lbs overweight. Felt depresssed. Couldn't get a date and wouldn't have wanted it if I had one. Didn't care about anything and had a reactive mood when I did. I lost friends (people that have never experienced PCS will not get what you're going through) and my famliy was totally freaked out.

But, with time, it passed. Everyone is different. One kid on my team was back to normal after a week. IT TOOK ME A YEAR to recover from my last concussion. It may take shorter or longer. I've spoken with many athleates and this is the general consensus. Unless you have a cracked skull or internal bleeding, the docs can't really tell you anything difinitive except the more you "rush" your return to normal life, the more likely you'll be to perminant damage. DO NOT DRINK ALCOHOL. You just gotta know the next few months are going to suck and you need to rest.

Eventually you learn to manage it and ease back into life. Cognative therapy helps. Consistant healthy diet, very light activity, exposure to outdoors, and structured sched will also help. Rest, drink H20. Literally, if you're not peeing clear, you need to drink more H20.

I have some perminant damage (floaters in vision and more prone to "ADD") but I healed and now I work an extrememly high stress job and I run and work out a lot (back down to 8% bodyfat). Whatever your symptoms are, you will learn to deal with it. Once you accept your current need for healing and stop feeling frustrated about missing out on life, you'll be on the road to recovery.

This too shall pass.

:)

got my first concussion at 5, knocked out cold for 4 hours. I have had at least ten other concussions in my lifetime. some were while playing sports, but most were while working construction. I suffer from Migraines, and at 45 my wife kids have told me I am showing signs of dimensia...don't know how it's related but after all those lumps I guess anything is possible. I recently had cervical surgery which is most likely connected with my multiple head injuries.

Hi Gunwolf,

Did you go throug thr neuro testing? I had MVA this summer and continued to work for 2 months - before I ended back in ER - My doc and Neurologist DX PCS - dealing with daily headaches - they were very severe but with med they are duller but tend to get more problematic as day goes on or if I have a high stressor or agitation induced outburst. My headaches tend to be duller - I know alot of people and neuro asked if they pulse - wondered if you could describe your head pain. I never had headaches hardly ever so I cannot relate tot the migraine type headache