new member, pcs.
 

Hey guys, I'm been lurking on her for a little over a month so I thought I'd register and see if I can find some advice.

So heres the skinny,

April 18th was drinking with some buddies And we're were rough housing.
I slipped and smashed my head on a ledge. Head was gushing blood. Went to the er and got 4 staples. No huge deal. Only superficial pain, perhaps I didn't notice concussion like symptoms because I had had several beers?

Anyways went home after that buddy bought me a few beers because he felt bad. After that I went home and went to sleep. Woke up the next morning feeling like absolute ****. Dizzy nauseous headache weird head feeling body ache anxious ect. It sucked. And then 10 minutes after I woke up I bashed my head into the corner of my bed frame while reaching for my phone, headache got worse blah blah blah.

Went to a doctor and he said I had a concussion, and sent me to get a ct. Ct was clear. Doc said to rest.
I rested for a couple weeks and got out of taking my finals, and everything got better except for this weird feeling in my head.

Fast forward 6 weeks

I saw a neurologist ( who is also my sister) and she prescribed me gabapentin and told me to wait it out.
The best way I can describe this feeling is like a weird pressure and a spaced out feeling. Like I feel like my head is full of cotton and I have poor time perception. The continuity of this symptom has Also made me super anxious.
Today I saw an upper back massage therapist for some neck and back pain that I thought was unrelated. After taking some
Measurements and taking my pulse at a few different locations he told me my upper cervical area is misaligned and could be causing all my issues.
So I went ahead and made an appt with a nucca

So my question is has anyone had any experience with anything like this??
I'll keep hoping for inprovements for all those on this site who have it way worse than me.

Miller

Welcome miller.5887. :Tip-Hat:

Hi Miller,

I am new to this too but I think there is real validity to the C-Spine influence on PCS.
I plan to have a MRI on mine due to the numbness in my left extremities.

I empathize with your frustration...I am just not the same girl I was before😒

Miller.5887,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sounds like you got some decent diagnostics and advice. Your head ache and such sounds like what I can a mud head ache. It feels like my head is packed full of mud and my thinking is bogged down as if it is stuck in the mud.

Other than the NUCCA, you should lay low for a while and stay away from alcohol. Alcohol is poison to a healing brain.

What was the gabapentin prescribed for ?

Mark,

The mud head is a good way of describing it. I swear it feels im stoned all the time.

Unfortunately I can't really just rest any longer. The laying around doing nothing was making me super anxious and depressed.

I'm dangerously optimistic about nucca, I'm hoping that there just isn't enough cerebralspinal fluid or blood getting to my brain, and that once adjusted the feeling will go away.

The gabapentin was prescribed to attempt to treat the head pressure as well as level out the anxiety and depression.

This feeling is really quite distressing...

Miller

I've never heard of gabapentin being used for those symptoms. I have been taking gabapentin for 14 years.

There is a difference between laying around and living a low stress life. Avoiding noisy and chaotic environments, loud music, stress inducing activities, excess screen time, and a myriad of other things that have a tendency to overload the sensory systems.

It is important to maintain good cerebral blood flow with mild physical exertion. A gentle walk or bike ride can be good.

Finding an activity that does cause stress but occupies your time will be good.

Mark,

Not really sure about the gabapentin. If I didn't know better, I'd think it's the shot gun approach. It was prescribed from my sis, so I wouldn't be shocked if she's suggesting it may be effective for off label issues.

In terms of physical exercise, I've been running a couple of miles a day as it doesn't make my
Symptoms any worse, and helps with the anxiety as I was a pretty physically
active college student.

Additionally I don't really have photo/phonofobia at all and loud crowds don't give me any problems. It's honestly just this one feeling of cotton head.

Do you think this running is a bad idea?

I suggest you get some foam ear plugs for when you run. You will hear the sound of your foot plants. Then, try to modify your gait and foot plant to minimize the impact sounds you hear. There is quite an impact to the C-1 and C-2 area from running.

The NUCCA chiro care will also need to be supported with good head and neck posture, especially while resting and sleeping.

The shot gun or try this and see if it helps approach is quite common. 10 mgs of amitriptyline is a commonly prescribed med for PCS head aches, insomnia, anxiety and depression.

yep. very common that the symptoms not resolving start to cause severe anxiety. I started taking an ssri, and the supplement MagMind which helped A LOT with that. In addition B-12, a high DHA fish oil, good multivitamin and healthy veggie/protein diet. avocados, sardines, blueberries, 2 eggs for breakfast everyday, etc.

Small frequent meals were needed.

Stay away from benzodiazepam drugs (sorry, spelling) if you can. In my experience they made everything worse, altho did help with insomnia in the beginning.

Much of my symptoms resolved after 3-4 months. Most terrifying time of my life, for sure.

Hang in there.

Small frequent meals have been found to not be good for blood sugar control. I used to follow the small meals protocol until I learned better.

sucks
 

Hey guys

rough couple of days folks. I went to the NUCCA and he took a bunch of
pictures and told me I was misaligned and such and that he thought this may very well be causing my brain fog/dreamy state. *Kyle got very excited* He then proceeded to adjust me anddddd..... nothing *Kyle got very sad* He said he though it would be around 2 weeks before i started to see improvements in my head. Any thoughts on that?

Ive decided im going to do my best to stop hoping for cures, and start having faith that someday, somehow, it will all be better.

I know im still early on in this thing (2 months) but its so debilitating and pervasive that i just wanna kick the crap outta something.

Additionally, does anyone have any good ideas for controlling stress? Im trying to stay away from the bottle but its pretty tempting

Hope you're all having a good day and im praying for all of you,

Kyle

I know how you feel, I've tried A LOT of things (acupuncture, NUCCA, HBOT, cranial-sacral therapy, vision therapy, PT, neurofeedback, etc.) and none have offered any truly noticeable/lasting improvement. Granted there have been times in my recovery that I've had stretches of making progress, so I can't rule out that none of these things helped, but there certainly haven't been anything that I can positively point to saying "That helped" (except for cranial-sacral therapy helping with some minor dizziness)

Earlier on I definitely got my hopes up that something would be a "cure", and I'd be devastated if it didn't work. I think I've gotten better at not getting my hopes up as much for treatments (which I'm still searching for), and so I don't feel quite as bad when they don't do anything to help me. I keep trying things though because they provide sort of infusions of tempered hope. And, lots of random things seem to have really helped certain people, so the way I see it, something out there might help me too. My neurologist (who himself suffered from PCS-like symptoms for a long time after a car accident) suggested this too, saying in his practice he sees people helped by random things, and that you just have to be open to trying.

It certainly isn't helpful to get too attached though, so the best route in my experience (which I don't alway get right!) is maintaining an openness and sort of detached hope.

As far as "controlling stress", I've found you can't really "control" it. Mindfullness/meditation has helped me a lot with this. I'm going to get anxious and stressed out about all this crap, but in my best moments I can just sort of acknowledge those feelings and let them pass. When I just can't do that, sometimes I just have to sit in a pit of being depressed for a while, knowing that eventually it'll pass. Or, I distract myself by doing something (listening to a lot of audiobooks/podcasts).

As you say, you are really early on in this and statistically have a great chance of recovering sooner rather than later. But as we can all attest to, it still sucks.

First, NUCCA is a process not a single treatment. There is inflammation associated with the upper cervical injury that has to settle down. Then ligaments need to strengthen. This takes time. You should be icing after each treatment. You also need to be very disciplined about head and neck posture so you don't undo the work the NUCCA did. Most important is posture during rest and sleep.

Second, you need to find a way to accept that you are currently messed up. No quick fix to that. Your struggles are real. Accept them as real and learn to work around them so that your stress levels are reduced.

Those who appear to struggle the most tend to be very driven. This drive can be used to refocus and redirect thoughts.

I honestly think you should temper the NUCCA's comment about the misalignment causing your symptoms. More likely, it is just a contributor to your symptoms. You will likely find other issues that, once addressed, will help you move forward. Resolve the neck and step forward to the next issue.

One more question,

For those of you who have recovered/mostly recovered, was your recovery pretty linear, or were your symptoms constant for a long time and then you suddenly just started getting better quickly?

The thing that worried me the most is I honestly can't tell much improvement between the day I woke up after my concussion and today.

Thanks.

There are no common timelines for recovery. There is evidence that says recovery happens best when we stop fighting our symptoms and learn to accommodate them. When we have learned to moderate our triggers so the spikes in symptoms are less, we tend to do better.

Also, it helps to accept that recovery is a marathon, not a sprint. There will be a roller coaster ride that slowly flattens out.

Mark,

The problem with my is that my symptom ( emphasis on it being singular) is that it's constant. It doesn't get better or worse with activity. It just always is. 24/7.
I'm constantly in this foggy dreamland which is unnerving for a 21 year old.

You are barely 8 weeks post injury. Stop being so impatient. What has you drinking history been like ? Did you binge as a teen ? How often did you get smashed ? Any marijuana use or other intoxicants ?

Have you read the Vitamins sticky at the top ?