I posted here a few weeks ago regarding my 13 year old who had suffered a back injury and concurrent concussion.
I wondered if someone might be able to send me in the direction of any medical abstracts that might help me to better understand what is going on with my son. We have had several frustrating sessions with doctors.

I am particularly interested in medical abstracts related to:
1. Late onset of concussion symptoms. (We have been told that if the symptoms do not present within 72 hours, they are not concussion related.)
2. Concussion symptoms that may not be supported by neurological tests.

Thank you so much for any help you can give me.

Hi,

Did you try to type that into google and see what comes up? Thats probably the easiest way. One site for abstracts is pub med, google it for the exact address, however those tend to be very scientific and not necessarily written in simple language. Another thing is I would try to go to the library and look in medical books, they might be written in simpler language. You can look in a pediatrics or a neurology book, if you find one geared towards patients it would be best but you can also look in books for doctors or nurses.

If you have access to a medical library (is there a medical school or nursing school in your area) the librarian can probably help you find things, if no med library try your local library but they will have less medical books and journals and maybe they won't have the specialty (neurology) journals.

There are a lot of medical websites but I don't know what the best ones are, you can also just google for medical websites.

Best wishes

Hello,
I have been researching this and visiting with docs for the past 15 months since I had my accident and the best info I have found is online. PCS can wait a whole week to reveal itself not just 72 hours. There are many symptoms the most common and longest lasting one being a headache. Usually symptoms last only up to 6 months, but if a second concussion is sustained in while the injured person still is suffering from PCS then the symptoms could last years. Everything I have found says not to take any meds for this condition because they don't fix the problem, they just mask it. Also, pain meds actually make the headaches worse. The most promising treatment seems to be a very slow progression from no exercise to more and more physical activity. With many PCSers it is painful to do anything besides sit; any activity sparks a new extreme headache. But research shows that if the progression is taken slowly it can strengthen the body.
Now, my disclaimer is that I am just a 21 year old who has had to deal with PCS for the past year and a half. I have spoken with six docs had two CT's and an MRI both of which came back clear. The docs told me next to nothing but I wanted to know so I have done literally hours of research online to find out what the heck is up with my head.
Don't give up, most PCS patients heal within 6 months and if not then we learn to cope and life ain't that bad.
Good luck!
Margarite

Thank you, Margarite!
I am sorry for what you are going through. My son's long lasting symptoms are vertigo, vision (letters are scrambled and he cannot organize them into words), and memory loss. I have started taking him to a pool to swim laps as I have read about the benefits of excercise. Interestingly, when he is bouyant he does not have the severe vertigo. As soon as his feet touch the bottom of the pool, however, it returns.