My concussion situation
 

Im sure everyone on this forum understands the anger, depression, and other negative feels cause by a pcs. Ill try my best to not talk about those factors. My current and prolonged symptoms since my initial accident are: Headaches, Migraines, Dizziness, Extreme Sensitivity to head movements, Inability to do any physical activity that cause an increased heart rate, Sensitivity and symptom inducing from electronic screens, Sensitivity and Symptom inducing from lifting heavier objects, and finally Minor Cognitive impairment. CT scan and MRI show no abnormalities.

I received my concussion early April of 2014. I was teaching my friend how to snowboard and when i wasn't paying attention, I caught an edge and was thrown in the air and landed on my butt. As soon as I landed hard on my butt I also felt an intense whiplash and literally felt my brain bounce back and forth in my skull. Ive had a concussion that has lasted me for 3 months with a full recovery a year prior. With that being said I know exactly what a concussion feels like and I knew I had a concussion instantly after the snowboard fall.

I went home and tried to dislodge the fact I had just gotten a concussion and drank a beer. After that beer my head was hurting so much I laid in bed for the next 4 days. Still feeling awful, I returned to work. My at the time was a Snowcat operator (ski hill groomer) and just took 2 extra strength tylenols everyday for two more weeks until the ski hill closed for the season. The last day of grooming my snowcat had a mechanical fault and the emergency break turned on out of nowhere and I slammed my face head into the windshield... Surprisingly enough I only felt a bit more concussed from that.

As the skill hill closed and i went into my summer job I did not take any time off of work. I took it easy, but my job was still physically demanding. I was still trying to ignore my concussion because it seemed to be getting better and all of the symptoms I described above were not very bad.

As I continued working from April - September, I did a number of unintelligent things to stunt my recovery. I went skateboarding a few times, drank alcohol twice, did a number of hikes, and smoked marijuana. When September came, my symptoms were out of control and I had to quit my job. I have not worked since Sept2014 to the present. I have felt that I have improved since September, but at the same time I feel like I have not. I haven't done anything to worsen my symptoms since September, but in the months of December and January I had several panic attacks and numbness to parts of my brain and certain body parts. I went to the hospital each time and stroke was fortunately dismissed from the doctors.

So here I am going into march now, getting closer to the one year mark. I feel like i have improved and again not at all. I believe I start neurophysiotherapy in a month. Well see what happens. Im merely writing this as a way from dying of boredom. Since I am an extremely physically active person this pcs/tbi has been very hard on me. If anyone has any opinions or help feel free...

acsiky,

*admin edit*

What are you doing to help with your recovery ? besides hopefully stopping all intoxicants ?

Have you changed your living environment and activities so you can avoid triggering symptoms ?

Neurophysiotherapy will not be much help if you have not made these changes to facilitate healing. Most of concussion healing comes from how we take care of ourselves. Others can only do a limited amount. Some therapy is too intense, especially while symptoms are raging.

Mark, he was just taking my advice to start his own thread.

Mark, if you can see that this is the same post, and you know exactly when i first posted it. Then I myself am confused as to how you did not read for the second time, that i have not done anything to worsen my symptoms since september, which would clearly include restricting all intoxicants... If the repost of my story is "confusing" to you mark, then i will delete it. I am simply looking for aid or opinions, not put downs.

Acsiky,
*admine edit*
you say is "If anyone has any opinions or help feel free..."

My opinion is that what you have experienced is quite common to PCS.

You said "I haven't done anything to worsen my symptoms since September,"

That can mean you stopped drinking and such. There are lots of other things that can worsen concussion symptoms. Caffeine, MSG, artificial sweeteners, loud music, bright lights, arguing with family and/or friends, screen time, physical exertion, etc. I am not saying you are doing these things. Just asking what you have done to help your brain settle down.

You sound like an intense person. That is find for normal life but can be problematic with PCS. Slowing life down for a while can be helpful for recovery.

We get people here frequently that just want to tell us about their struggles but are not very interested in changing their behavior even temporarily to help with recovery. Rather than say, "You have got to do this and that," it is often easier to just ask a few questions. Then, we can suggest things you have not already been doing.

You don't explain what Minor Cognitive impairment is in your case. Mild Cognitive Impairment is usually a term used for chronic (continuous) struggles. Most with PCS ride a roller coaster of cognitive struggles. We have good and bad days. Some call if foggy brain.

So, we are here to offer help with a bit more understanding of your struggles.

My best to you.

Sorry to hear of your struggles...

What are your biggest struggles? medium struggles? You might more specific suggestions when you list your symptoms.

Also you might want to let the viewers know your location. It helps us to know if we have a good suggestion for a clinic or doctor.

There is help out there,

Sorry I didn't see that you were in Calgary, Canada. We are way over in CAL.

I'm sorry to hear of all your struggles and you are not alone in attempting to ignore and push through symptoms at first especially if you weren't diagnosed correctly at first or diagnosed at all .

I had an incorrect diagnosis to begin with and was under the advice to do things anyway to let my body "adjust" to the new condition although I hear this is not the thing to do for pcs!

It's also hard to know what to do if you have less than helpful doctors! What are your doctors suggestions and advice like? Also don't feel ashamed of ignoring and doing things like having a drink anyway at first. I believe that we all go through a sort of grieving process with this for our past abilities and therefore will go through a "denial" phase. The important thing is how to get to acceptance- something I'm still working on.

Anyway, stay strong and rest up!

Just an FYI that it is not only OK, but recommended that members repost their stories to their own threads when they have initially come in on another thread, so as to get more direct attention to their specific condition and questions.

Welcome to NeuroTalk and thanks for starting your own thread as suggested Acsiky. I hope you will find the support and information you are seeking here.

reply to hopeful mom
 

my mental health seems to be fine. no memory loss or any trouble speaking, thinking, and etc... But everything is physical. I cannot do anything thats strenuous to my body. I can't lift heavy things, shake my head, go for a run, bike ride, jump, raise my blood pressure to high, and much more. There has been no improvement with this since I have gotten the concussion, which was a year ago.