will this ever go away
 

16 year old boy - first known concussion - strong and healthy
hit hockey may 9/14 constant headache ever since - gets worse with reading, exercise
no loss of consciousness, no rest in the beginning but did not go back to play
worked out through headaches all summer
resting for the last 3 weeks and still has constant headache - taking only two out of four classes in grade 11
only walks with friends, no tv, no video games no gym no sports
takes no medication

it has me as his mom really down as i see it getting to him. his mood is somehow good.

gone to many doctors but no real answers. some say complete rest, some add some exercise.

chiro, physio provides to relief so we stopped going.

no neck pain

will this ever go away? this is really bringing me down as a parent.

The neck injuries that are common to PCS often do not exhibit any pain, maybe just some tenderness behind the ears.

Has he tried icing the back of his head and upper part of his neck ? It usually helps my head aches.

Who told him it was ok to work out through the summer? If he can walk a little every day that would be good, and increase it slowly as long as he feels comfortable. He should be under the supervision of a neurologist who understands concussion, He needs complete rest to recover from the injury and he Doesn't need to be working out. He will recover it's just going to take longer now since he didn't rest over the summer.

He has a dr appointment next week. i will have him check his neck again.

he does not ice the back of his head. headaches are on the top of his head and they are low grade. as long as he doesn't push anything he just lives with the headache. after 4 months it is as though he is just used to the constant pressure on the top of his head.

The position of the head ache has nothing to do with the value of icing. His doctor will not likely find an upper neck injury. They are very subtle. It is a 'try this and see if things improve' concept. Have him try the icing. I have a recipe for crushable ice packs in the Vitamins sticky at the top.

If his head aches are just mental exertion caused, he needs to rest. A very slow return to activity once they have subsided is recommended.

we had differing opinions in the summer. dr said rest, chiro / physio said workout exercise is good. looking back we should have listened to his pediatrician. the concussion clinic never told him to stop they just kept giving him scat tests and applying heat to back. complete waste of time and money. should have listened to the medical doctor. a mistake we are paying the price for now. at the time we heard what we wanted to hear. i feel very guilty about it now.

i will have him try the ice.

he is resting as much as he can while having to live his life too. anytime he feels himself getting worse he comes home from school and lies down. he does go walking at night. says it makes him feel better the fresh fall air. he also walks to and from school (about 15mins) because i work

If you knew the mistakes I made post injury, what your son did would pale in comparison :) The important thing is you realize how important rest is now. Mark in Idaho gives the best suggestions (he is a wealth of knowledge) and I just put In my two cents.
It is worthwhile to pick his brain. Welcome to the board and good luck.

we finally realize rest is best. he stills has the chronic headache but the horrible ones have not been happening for the past two weeks ( i hope i didn't just jinx that). he says he is at a constant one or two on the headache scale. he also says he is never at zero. not even for a moment. he is able to sleep all night every night without meds thankfully. we just wish we knew when if ever a zero headache would happen.

Sleeping all night every night is huge. And a GREAT healer. Many on this board would pay a lot of money for that, including myself :)

I could be wrong, but a constant 1 of 2 out of ten, sounds like a pretty darn good spot to be at, considering what he did all summer.

He needs to take control of his activity level. It is not a 'be active until a head ache' manifests or increases. It is 'moderate the activity level so there is no increase in head aches. It is the peaks in activity level that need to be avoided. Resting after a peak activity level is not the solution. Lowering the peak activity level is.

The chiro and physio should be avoided. They are clueless.

The Buffalo Protocol says moderate activity level to 10 to 20% below the symptoms threshold. If 30 minutes of reading cause symptoms/head ache, limit reading to 25 minutes.

He should notice symptoms of overdoing it. Feeling lost, difficulty focusing or staying on task, rereading a line of text, having difficulty understanding what is being said, are all signs that he has pushed his limits. Time to stop and rest.

I like to think this is good too... however it will not go away and with any added stress or exercise it still easily blows up to a 5 or 6

I agree with you about the sleep. somehow even in the summer with the working out sleeping has not been an issue.

He is basically taking everything slow. He is not spiking his activity levels at all now. I agree the chiro and physio were clueless. I am kicking myself for listening to them but at the moment they told us what we wanted to hear. exercise is good... does not seem concussed... postural only will work its way out etc etc..

Having researched everything myself now he is obviously concussed. His pediatrician told us the right thing back mid summer but we did not listen to him. I am so stressed that this is something he will have now forever because of me not following his advice.

My son would have rested if he knew this. Thankfully he is resting now but is it too little too late

He has not made things worse. He just delayed his recovery. My concern is that he not return to at risk sports.

Yes that is a concern.

Other than rest is there anything else he should be doing? Doctors he should be seeing. He is very tired of appointments that don't change anything. Should he just rest til he gets to a point where he may be cleared for more activity. I am certainly not going back to chiro or physio he was seeing in the past.

I suggest trying to find a simple activity to keep his mind and body mildly stimulated to keep him from stressing out from frustration. Is there a pond nearby where he can spend time fishing ? Any low stress activity to keep him mind and body mildly engaged will be good.

Good brain nutrition is important.

Get him a deck of cards and a book on card tricks..... The manual stimulation is fine.

you say you share mark in Idaho's concern about playing at risk sports but you don't rule it out. Life with chronic pcs symptoms is a really lousy way to go through life. He dodged a bullet this time and you are very lucky. Playing contact sports again could be asking for trouble for a lifetime. That's a risk you guys can decide on once he's better from this one

no, no pond near by to fish. He does go out walking and just chatting with friends. They are very understanding of his situation.

He has not been watching any tv or movies. He just listens to sitcoms for some entertainment. if watching a movie doesn't aggravate his headaches is it ok or is it better to just stay away from screens.

i am concerned that too little activity may be bad for him as well. not enough stimulation to keep his mind working and even to build up a tolerance.

this is a very frustrating injury to say the least.

He will have plenty of time to rebuild tolerance after the head aches are gone. TV / movies should be OK as long as they are not over-stimulating. No fast action or loud sound tracks. Again, he needs to learn to recognize if he is just starting to over do it. I use head phones to help me with the audio. Surround sound will be too much audio data to process.

As I have said, he needs to learn to gauge how his activities are impacting him. His recovery is in his hands. Chatting with friends can be fine or it can be a problem if there are too many voices.