Doctor said after 3 months PCS symptoms will remain
 

I just had another appointment with my new doctor. He said that his training has him believing that after 3 months all of the healing had already taken place. Thereafter, patients develop methods for coping which may make them think they have healed.

Is this true? I am at the 4 month mark (3 months since re-injury -->3 mile jogging) and I have my first meeting with a neuro at the end of this month. Seems kind of pointless if my healing days are over.

Chris4329,

Nah, not at all true. Many of us here have experienced and truly know from experience that there's no hard-&-fast-rule regarding time, symptoms duration and/or healing & recovery possibilities over time.

Sounds like you also have young-age of injury on your side.
Hang in there, you'll be better provided you are at the least taking good post-TBI/Concussion selfcare, as Mark has faithfully informed on here again & again.

Chris,

This doctor obviously has very little training in concussion recovery. Recovery can continue to a year or more. In fact, many do not take the steps to help their brain recover until after 6 months to a year of life as usual. When they finally take the time for quiet rest and proper nutrition, they see improvements.

So, it is not up to the doctors to cause your recovery. It is your choices that will make the biggest improvement in your recovery.

Plus, anxiety (worry) is the worst you can do for your recovery.

My best to you.

Your doctor knows little to nothing other than some inaccurate statistics that he has been given. The brain continues to heal for a least a year. Even if it stopped healing after a year, that does not mean that your symptoms must persist forever. As was said, these things are not predictable.

I can tell you through personal experience that there was continued and significant improvement through at least six months after my accident, this confirmed by therapists reports and by formal NPAs performed by PhD level clinical neuropsychologists. While I haven’t had a recent NPA my self-assessment is that I continue to improve two years on, particularly in my emotional processing.

Hello Chris
 

Really glad you found Neuro Talk. Also the responses you got, are very true. I hope that gives you some hope that you can get better. I don't care for doctors, who write you off, and tell you, that you are not going to get better. I would not see a point in going back to him at all. Please consider a physiatrist for your next doctor. They work with the whole body at a cellular level. There is always hope of getting better, no matter what our conditions are. Take care of yourself, and let NT know how you are doing. ginnie:hug:

I am 2 1/2 years into this. I went for over a year with almost no changes. But over the past 3 months I have experienced considerable improvements.

I heard the exact same thing basically (not after 3 months) but I had a neurologist who suggested I just learn to live in the pain and hell I was in at the time. The reality is, doctors know squat still about the brain, it constantly surprises people. I would not take that advice to heart, although it is hard not to feel depressed hearing that. I'm 17, and I decided to myself that I was NOT going to live this way forever, regardless of how many doctors and how long I must drive to get help.

By the way, on Oct. 29, I crossed the one year mark, and I didnt have major inprovements when I found a really helpful doctor around the 9 month mark. In fact, I'm going skating today for the first time since my accident a year ago! So my advice, find a doctor who has seen all the people that get spit out by neurologists and doctors who are behind in the times and keep trucking! :) Everyone here can feel your pain and frustrations that come with PCS.

I would guess that the reason your doctor said this is because much of the research suggest that the majority of cases will recover within 3 months, which is probably true. He may have misunderstood this to mean that all cases will recover within 3 months?

Or maybe he just thinks that he understands the brain better than he (or anyone else) actually does.

Rest assured that the research evidence and the experiences of many of us on this board show clearly that recovery can continue well beyond three months. I'm tempted to say don't bother seeing this doctor again, however if he is thinking about helping you with ways of coping, or of referring you to someone else who will, then this potentially could be quite useful for you even his decision is based on faulty medical knowledge.

Good luck!

thanks for the encouragement. I can't understand why a doctor would say such a thing even if it were true. I could live for the rest of my life with my current symptoms as long as I know there's hope for recovery. Without hope my futures seems pretty bleak.

BTW I just replaced my family doctor with this new doctor. So I went from a doctor that misdiagnosed me as not having any problems (therefore no advice like stop boozing / running)... to a doctor on the other end of the spectrum that thinks I have so many symptoms that remain after 3 months so I must be doomed.

Your recovery will be about lifestyle changes you make to encourage your brain to heal. A good doctor could help you with this, but you can do it yourself, so don't fret too much, all the information you might need can be found on this forum.

One of the things you need to do is to get enough rest. In this respect this new doctor's pessimistic attitude could be very helpful to you, as you can use his pessimistic diagnosis to help convince friends, family, employers, school or whatever that they need to make allowances for you and to allow you to rest. This is much better than having a doctor who says there's nothing wrong with you and leaves you having to try to keep up with normal life or be accused of malingering. The main problem I found with PCS was that it wasn't taken seriously enough by almost anyone.

As long as you make sure you don't get dragged down by the pessimism, the good thing is that you at least have a doctor who takes your problems seriously.

Do you think your improvement is just time or do you think it is linked something new you are doing?

I feel as though healing is still taking place for me and I am 2yrs 8 mo out from my accident. I've been told different time frames, but don't buy into anything said. We just don't know enough about the brain to be certain that healing stops after a certain time period. Plus, as has been said, everyone's case is different.

Rest as much as possible, good nutrition and see what happens. Don't give up hope!

Concussedlawyer,

Recovery is a combination of time, the patient's change in daily habits (nutrition, quiet rest, avoiding stress, etc.) and the individual genetics of that person. The shotgun approach is most likely to aid in recovery. Do all the things you can to help recovery and stay with them for months. Change/recovery comes slowly for those who do not recover spontaneously.

Think of recovery like a long drawn out lawsuit. To get the best recovery, you need to address all of the issues.

My best to you.