Post Concussion
 

Hi.. I am new the the site and have a deep concern. My wife feel about a year ago and hit her head hard on a tile covered concrete floor. She was diagnosed with a concussion (along with neck and back injuries). It has now been a year and she is still experiencing dizziness, headaches, and confusion. She has also developed a problem of knowing her left from her right. She will give directions to someone, saying turn right while pointing to her left or vice-versa. She also has become very moody, angry, and depressed.

She is treating with a pain specialist for her back pain. She has already had a fusion of the SI joint due to injuries from the fall and is apparently going to have to have a fusion of her L4-L5 as well.

She (and I) have began to wonder if this is a permanent change to our lives. She has become increasingly depressed and sometimes discusses suicide. We are trying to find someone in the Orlando Fl region who can help her. Any ideas or suggestions???

We really need some help and some hope.

So so sorry for this challenge that has come to your wife and you. Tell us about the treatments she has undergone. Also list the medications she is taking. You are not alone and this is a wonderful community for support and advice. PCS can be a beast to deal with. There are some very long term people here who have dealt successfully with this condition.

Know that your wife's injury will be unique to her. Take any doctors advice with a grain of salt. I am 7 months post injury and feel I have my symptoms in hand. I may possibly never regain my health as it was pre-injury but I still have a full life.

I found it helpful to identify the various symptoms and there causes. I did not quietly accept the nueros opinion that if I just rested more I would be OK. Presently I am doing PT, counseling with a psychologist and following up back issues with a GP. BTW the best advice I have received did not come from any physician. It came from here, from people who have experienced PCS and met those challenges head on

Welcome, feel free to ask any questions and vent if you need to.

bigjim,

Welcome to NeuroTalk. Sorry to hear about your wife's injury.

First, there is an excellent group in your area. Check out www.givebackorlando.com

You will also benefit from downloading and printing the TBI Survivors Guide at www.tbiguide.com It is 84 pages and full of valuable information.

With you wife's other spine injuries, I doubt they have given a very close look at C-1 and C-2. They can get knocked out of place with torn ligaments that make it hard for proper healing. This can magnify the other concussion symptoms by causing inflammation that can decrease blood flow and impinge nerves. She should be icing her upper neck regularly, especially when she has a head ache or other raging symptoms.

Early on, I had a problem with left and right. I would say the wrong one than the one I meant to say. I do very little driving so my wife learned to wait until I heard myself say the wrong direction and corrected myself. Her biggest problem will be when she is in a hurry or under other stressors. This can cause the brain to short circuit and say the wrong thing. It can be much more problematic when it involve motor functions such as needing to push on the brake.

Has she been prescribe quiet rest or is she trying to live a normal life considering her injuries?

Regarding permanence, you are still early. There are lots of work-arounds and coping systems that can allow you to live a better life than what you are experiencing right now.

Once you both learn the difference between her injury acting up and her personality, it becomes easier to endure the ups and downs. She should get her hormones assessed by a bio-identical hormone specialist. Head injuries can wreak havoc with hormones causing a myriad of symptoms. A good starting point for a hormone referral is https://www.womensinternational.com/..._referral.html

There are tow other good resources, You Tube has "You Look Great" at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x9Xso...ature=youtu.be It is 6 segments that take about an hour.

http://www.brainline.org/content/201...u-to-know.html is another list worth printing out.

Please feel free to unload and tell us anything. We have heard it all. There are plenty of good people who can offer good support and ideas.

My best to you both.

More information about the situation
 

Thank you for your advise. I will look at the sources you indicate. Regarding her C-1 & C-2, I know that they were injured in the fall. Immediately after the fall, she had two CAT scans which showed that she had 3 bulging discs in her neck, including c-1, c-2 and c-3. The severe pain from these has mostly resolved through PT and accupunture. However, she is taking Hydrocodone and acetaminophen tabs 3x to 4x per day, so "minor" pain is masked by severe back pain and meds. She was also taking muscle relaxants but had reactions to several different ones and finally now is refusing to take them.

My wife is trying to work (she works part-time at Walt Disney World in merchandising) and standing and walking on concrete and blacktop all day has been a struggle. She was released to go back to work after the SI fusion surgery in September and being on her feet made the back injury more pronounced. She was completely off work from Nov. 2011 until Sept. 2012. The stress from the back pain and trying to keep working, and the financial burden from being injured has led to more pronounced neuro issues. Seems like we are on a downward spiral. Disney will not allow her any additional time off until March 2013 - so she has had to postpone the additional surgery on her back until then - if she wants a job to come back to. If she takes leave before March - she will be fired.

I too am getting very depressed and not coping well. We have not slept in the same bed - or anything else - for most of the last year. (me moving in the bed causes her pain). So life is so different. The loss of her income has left us behind in everything... but I make just enough for us not to qualify for any help from anywhere. Neither of us know where to turn.

Bigjimc in our first post you said she fell. What was the circumstance of her accident?

How she got hurt
 

My wife's injuries came from a slip & fall. We had taken our daughter to an emergency room late last november with severe abdominal pain. They had taken her down the hall from the ER for some test in a wheelchair and then taken her back to the ER. A few minutes later, the doctor decided he wanted another tests dome and so our daughter was put back into a wheelchair and an attendent was pushing the wheel chair while my wife and I were walking behind them.

While going down the same long hallway that we had come through 15 or so minutes earlier - in a area where two sections of building connect- there is a downhill ramp in the hallway, the attendent, who was walking in the center of the hall suddenly verved to the left. As she moved ahead of us - it was then that I saw a wet floor sign at the bottom of the ramp. As I turned to tell my wife to be careful, I saw both of her feet slip out from under her and go up into the air at the top of the ramp area. She fell flat on her back hard - hitting her head on the tiled covered concrete floor. I will never forget the sound of her head hitting that floor. After she hit, she slid down to the bottom of the ramp. She was badly stunned - but did not appear to lose consciousness. The information we were told was that someone had thrown up in the hall and it had been mopped. There was standing water in the floor in little puddles in the uneven tile to the extent that her clothing was wet. She was eventually put in a neck brace and on a back board and moved to the ER. That was over a year ago. Her injuries included 3 bulging discs in her neck, one in her lower back, a severe concussion, a spained wrist, and a pulled right shoulder. She was treated at that hospital that night - but was not told she had a concussion or any serious injuries. The next day, when she continued to have a severe headache and continued to vomit, I took her to another hospital in Orlando, where we were informed more fully about her injuries.